Quick question about an idea for cheap fix to CPU fan noise

[Ken90630]

Yeah, I know: A "quick question" from Ken90630? You'll believe it when you see it, right?

Here goes:

Say you have an Athlon XP (Barton) system and you'd like your CPU fan to be a bit quieter, but you don't want to just replace the stock fan with a slower-rpm fan because then your CPU won't be cooled as effectively. You also don't want to go to the extra expense of getting a nice Copperzilla heatsink (even though they are very appealing).

Is there any reason why you couldn't just get one of these and pair it with a Panaflo L1A in place of the stock fan and use the setup to cool the stock heatsink? This is all assuming you're not doing any overclocking.

Any reason to not do this if the only goal is to quiet the CPU cooling down a bit?

 

[Gerbil333]

I know two people who have done that. It works great. The only negative effect is that the hsf becomes super-tall

Hsf height doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned, so go ahead and buy the funnel + a larger & quieter fan.

 

[maluckey]

One thing to look for in an adapter is the height. The taller it is, the less the ratio mm height/mm diameter of funnel reduction, which improves airflow. Additionally, to a point, the farther away from the HS/Fan the quieter the new setup will be. After a point, it turns into a resonator though.


I've used adapters on a couple of setups, and a tunnel/tower feed on one. The noise reduction was noticeable.

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks, guys. I wonder why everyone doesn't do this. My only thought was that maybe the high-rpm 60mm stock fan cools better than a Panaflo or something, but I have no idea if that would or would not be the case. Any of you guys by any chance know what the CFM spec is for a stock AMD CPU fan (like the ones that come with a Barton 2500 or 2600, for example)?

Maluckey, what did you mean by a "tunnel/tower feed"? Just curious. Can you describe briefly?