Retail HSF on AMD MP sounds like a vacuum cleaner

[Sir Fredrick]

I purchased a pair of retail Athlon MP 1800+ processors, mostly because several people reccomended that I do that when I said I wanted a relatively quiet HSF. I don't know what those people were thinking, because these fans are incredibly loud!
My other computer has 3 heatsink fans (two slot I PIII450s, one with one fan on it and the other with 2 fans on it), and 4 80mm case fans, and it is quieter than the fans on my MPs. According to my motherboard monitor, the fans are spinning at nearly 7k RPM...no wonder they're so loud!

I'd rather not have to take the heatsinks off, and I'd rather not have to buy another pair of heatsinks. So what I'd like to do it take the fans off and replace them with some quieter fans that hopefully can move about the same volume of air. Any reccomendations? Thanks.

 

[Shooters]

7k RPM.....must be Deltas. You can swap the fans out fairly easily without having to replace the heatsinks. Try a pair of fans from Sunon or even Panaflos if you're really concerned about noise. Expect your temps to be higher though. Quiter fans = lower RPM, which means less CFM of air movement. Don't worry about it if you're not overclocking.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

I don't think these are deltas...they're blue and really thin, actual RPM is 6617-6750. It seems that if the fan were deeper at a lower RPM it could move about the same volume of air with a lot less noise. Idle CPU temps reach about 45C

edit: Oh yeah, where can I get those fans? Also, what size fans do I need to fit on here? These are definitely smaller than my 80mm case fans.

 

[skriefal]

Is this the heatsink that came with your MP 1800+? I got one of these with a retail MP 1600+, although I didn't use it.

I just grabbed it out of my closet and removed the fan. It's a Top Motor DF1206BH. The only information that I could find about the fan was on an Italian web site, which stated that the fan produces 25cfm @ 38dBA @ 5300rpm. Dynatron's web site states the noise level of the heatsink+fan is 40dBA, which seems accurate based upon the 38dBA rating of the fan.

I'm glad that I decided to use SVC GC68 heatsinks instead of this loud Dynatron!

 

[Sir Fredrick]

That looks about right. Just so there's no confusion, this is exactly what mine looks like: pic (I just took this)

40dba...that's about as loud as they get. Damn! and I've got two of them.

 

[skriefal]

<< this is exactly what mine looks like: pic >>



Yep, that's definitely the same HSF that came with my MP 1600+...

40dBA isn't as bad as the "hair dryer" 38cfm Delta monsters, but is still much too loud IMHO. My GC68s with Panaflo L1A fans produce a total of 24dBA, whereas your two retail fans produce 43dBA. That's a huge difference -- 43dBA "sounds" about 4X as loud as 24dBA to an average human ear.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Are those panaflos 60mm? If so, where did you get them?

Alternatively I could pick up a couple 80MM to 60MM adapters and get a couple of the super quiet vantec fans. That would be a $38 (+shipping) solution to the problem...not sure if that's the most economical solution.

 

[skriefal]

No, the GC68 uses 80mm fans so I have an 80mm Panaflo L1A on each. A 60mm L1A would probably not provide sufficient airflow to cool an MP 1800+.

It'd be cheaper to simply buy a couple GC68 heatsinks from www.svcompucycle.com or www.nexfan.com. Nexfan calls them the "Galaxy Monster Cooler", and sells them for $5.99 with a 31cfm 28dBA fan. SVC calls them the GC68 and sells them for $7.99 with the same fan. And you can try any 80mm fan in the future (such as an L1A) if you want to make things even quieter...

 

[Sir Fredrick]

That is definitely an excellent price, but I must confess, I'm deathly afraid of removing my current heatsinks, I'm almost sure I'll break something.
Also, since this is a dual processor board, space is very limited, mostly because the row of capacitors between the sockets. With these retail ~60mm heatsinks it was a tight squeeze.

I did a little experiment last night: I hooked up one of my fairly quiet 80mm fans, unplugged one of the heatsink fans, and rested the 80MM fan on top (blowing down), then I went into the BIOS and monitored the temps. The CPU stayed a couple degrees C cooler than previously, which I verified by plugging the heatsink fan back in and removing the 80mm, at which point the temps went back up.
Would it be unwise to take the fans off and just ziptie a 80mm fans on each heatsink?

 

[skriefal]

<< Would it be unwise to take the fans off and just ziptie a 80mm fans on each heatsink? >>



I've never tried, but your experiment seems to suggest that it should work fine.

Oh... The GC68s fit fine on my Tyan S2466N.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

In that case I think I'll pick up a couple of these fans, 25dBA, 30CFM, $2
As long as shipping is reasonable.