<< After reading through the thread, I'm convinced that I've been putting up with that noise cpu fan for too long!
I have a CoolerMaster HHC-001 cpu cooler (yes, the one with a heat pipe), which does a very good job at keeping my Athalon XP 1800+ at a steady 29oC, and even when I overclocked it to 1.7GHz, it still manages to keep the cpu @ ~34oC. However, this thing is LOUD!
My question is, can I remove and replace the fan easily from the heatsink? The current fan is rated at 6800 rpm/36.11cfm, if I go with one of the quiet fans, will I get enough cooling from lower airflow (e.g., 18 cfm vs. 36 cfm)? >>
If you were to replace the fan on that heatsink, you would need to replace it with a standard 60mm fan. However, I wouldn't recommend it, unless you were to replace it with an even higher RPM fan. Copper conducts heat much better than aluminum, which is why it is used in high-end heatsinks such as the Coolermaster with the heat pipe. However, since copper conducts heat better, it needs more airflow to get the heat away. If you have a copper heatsink that you have a low RPM fan on, you won't get very good cooling, because the heatsink will become very hot and could potentially transfer some of that heat back to the CPU's core. Since aluminum doesn't conduct heat as well as copper, a low RPM fan on an aluminum heatsink will work perfectly. You can try going to a low RPM on your Coolermaster, but don't expect very good results.
J3