Quieter replacement fan for my SK-6?

[LintMan]

I currently have a Thermalright SK-6 that came with a Delta 7K fan that cools well but is noisy as hell. My system unfortunately won't overclock for beans anyway, so I'm thinking about sacrificing some of that unnecessary cooling and finding a quiter fan to put on there.

Can anyone suggest a fairly quiet fan to put on my SK-6 that will still do a decent cooling job?

Thanks!

 

[Sean203]

The fan off the Volcano II. VERY quiet, and has a high CFM level.

I think $10 at KDC.

 

[Uclagamer_99]

try a panaflo

 

[Shooters]

You can use an 80mm fan with the SK6; you just have to rotate the fan 45 degrees so the fan clips will attach. I was also getting sick of my Delta screamer, so I replaced it with an 80mm Sunon fan and my temps pretty much stayed the same but with much less noise. Just be careful of any DIMMs or resistors that might prevent you from installing the 80mm fan. Check out the pics to see how to do it.

Pic 1
Pic 2

 

[NathanD]

Anyone ever tried making some kind of ducting arrangement like this to put some larger quieter fan to work? Wouldn't be too hard to draw air from outside the case either.

 

[Maggotry]

Here's the panaflo 80mm H1A specs: 80x80x25.5, 2.1 Watts, 39.6 CFM, 32 dB-A, .24A. The only thing i don't like about this fan is that it has a 4-pin molex plug. It does not plug into the mobo so it is not monitored by the BIOS. However, if you have a fairly recent mobo, the BIOS probably can be set to shut off the computer if the temp gets too high (like if your fan fails). So this way, the fan is indirectly monitored by the temp of the CPU and can be shut down to prevent a meltdown.

 

[maap]

I'm using a slower 60mm Delta on my SK6. Available at 2cooltek.


Delta 60mm fan.
Specs:
- Model AFB0612VH
- 30.5 cfm
- 39.5 decibels
- 5500 rpm
- .30 amp
- 2.4 watts

Keeps my tbird cool and the noise is pretty low.

 

[LintMan]

I wouldn't have guessed that an 80mm would cool well without some sort of 60->80mm adapter thingy, but it seems like it's worth giving it a shot, especially since I've already got a few 80mm sunons lying around. The mounting pics are very helpful - thanks, Shooters.

Sean203, those are some impressive specs listed on that Volcano II 60mm fan: 4500RPM, 36CFM @ 31.5dB - if they're true, it beats the Delta hands-down. It almost seems too good to be true (compared to my current delta 7K, rated 38CFM @ 42dB), but the fan plus throw-away heat sink is only $8 at newegg so it's low-risk and I'll be all over this if the sunon 80mm doesn't work out.

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone!