Quiet heatsink/fan for Phenom II x4 945?

[rking12345678]

I have a stock AMD heatsink/fan currently and it's the loudest fan in my computer, and very distracting while watching movies or gaming. For a budget of $30-$40 what would be the quietest thing I can find for my CPU?

 

[ZipSpeed]

My personal favorite budget HSF is the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...103065&cm_re=hyper_212-_-35-103-065-_-Product

 

[rking12345678]

Might there be something smaller? I'm not sure that'll fit on my motherboard, an MSI-K9N6PGM2-V2, it looks like a line of capacitors would get in the way.

 

[ZipSpeed]

I took a look at a pic of your mobo and I'm pretty certain the Hyper 212+ will fit with no problems. The 212+ is one of the smaller tower coolers. I have the Hyper 212+ attached to my 1055T on an Asus M4A785TD-V EVO and have capacitors in the same place.

EDIT: After looking at your mobo, even though the HSF will fit, it may block your memory slots.

 

[rking12345678]

I only have two RAM slots so that wouldn't work. I can't afford to buy the heatsink/fan and find out it doesn't fit so I'm not sure I'd want to try that one.

 

[DrMrLordX]

If all you want to do is reduce noise, there are a lot of coolers out there that fall under the 60+ dBA noise level produced by the stock AM2/AM2+/AM3 cooler (AVC Z7U7414001). Not all of them will perform as well as the stock HSF mind you, but here's a decent list:

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2544&page=3

Depending on how much you're willing to pay, I think one of your best options is to buy an HSF that ships fanless and put your own fan(s) on it, like the Thermolabs BARAM or the CoGage TRUE Spirit (actually, I stand corrected: the TRUE Spirit ships with one fan that is supposedly silent). You will, of course, have to take some precautions to make sure you don't buy anything that will block RAM slots.

 

[rking12345678]

As best as I can tell the Hyper 212+ will fit on my motherboard and the fan on it should just barely clear my RAM. Will the one fan be fine or will I need to pick up a second one? I have an Antec 300 case with a top exhaust directly over the CPU and one directly to the right of it and I'm not overclocking should any of that be relevant.

 

[ther00kie16]

Well, there are 2 things I want to say first.
1. That mb clearly is labeled "up to 95w" on newegg so u r walking a thin line with a 125w cpu.

2. What are your temps? If they are fine, you can just lower the fan speed via software.

As for a new fan, most important thing to check would be height, but I'd assume that a 300 would be able to handle a 120mm hsf. Interestingly, the 212+ doesn't list the hsf dimensions.

If you want to save yourself a few bucks, either of these hsf should be good enough unless you are pushing close to 4ghz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835119091
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233001

 

[rking12345678]

1) I have the 95w version of that CPU, not the 125w one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-809-_-Product

2) My temps are just fine but the sound of the stock AMD fan is rather annoying so that's why I'm replacing it.

I've been looking at the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 as well, $20 on amazon.com, and it looks like it'd be an easier fit. Any thoughts on that one?

 

[jaydee]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185129
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185097

Designed for HTPC's, so they are very quiet and decent performers (definitely better than stock).

 

[jvroig]

@OP:

Perhaps you don't even have to replace it? When I was still using my stock HSF (Phenom II X4 965), I just used the Gigabyte utility (EasyTune) provided for my board to control the fan speed. When I switched to a Hyper 212+ (for overclocking reasons), I transferred the stock HSF to a second computer (running an Athlon X2 7750 overclocked to 3.24GHz), and I controlled the fan speed through the BIOS setting of the MSI board.

In my experience, the HSF is barely noticeable if the fan is kept @3,750-4,000RPM or below (I hope I got that right, it's been several months. I believe the max RPM is 6,750).

 

[rking12345678]

My Hyper 212+ came today, it took an hour of work trying to install it without the instructions since they made little sense to me. I'm impressed with how quiet it is. My Antec 300 case has an exhaust fan directly to the left of my heatsink so the fan on the heatsink is blowing straight toward it and there's also an exhaust fan directly above the heatsink. Would that top fan be messing with proper airflow or should I keep it in place?

 

[fluffmonster]

re: top fan...unplug it and see if you notice any difference.

 

[Rifter]

EDIT saw you bought already.

I also have a Antec 300 and have my heatsink(noctura NH-D14) mounted facing with its 2 fans blowing upwards, so the heat is blown up and directly out the top exhaust fan. It works great and is more than good enough for my overclocked i7(4.2Ghz). I also have the rear 120mm fan on full speed, it does a good job if pulling hot air coming up from the GPU out of the case. Bottom line i think you will be fine, and better off with both fans on.