Two blademasters fans or one?

[Hi-Fi Man]

I'm running a hyper 212+ on a Phenom II X4 C3 @ 4GHz 1.404v (IMC @ 2.8GHz). Under a lot of load the blademaster fan that comes with the 212+ gets pretty loud so I was wondering if adding another blademaster (they're pretty decent fans) would make things quieter? Not cooler just quieter.

On a side note I've been looking at the Phanteks PH-TC12DX and I couldn't find anything comparing this heatsink to a 212+ as far as noise is concerned. How much better is this compared to a 212+?

 

[blastingcap]

Won't be quieter. May in fact be louder. I run 2 on my Hyper 212 EVO for cooling purposes, not because I want lower decibels.

(The fan on the 212 EVO is even worse tradeoff for cooling to noise ratio, so I took the Blademaster 120mm fans off two older Hyper 212+ products.)

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Well that sucks...

So what would be a better heatsink that will be quiet with this CPU for around $50-$60?

 

[dma0991]

Adding another fan just makes it worse but adding two fans and limiting its speed (with software or speed limiting adapters) can give you almost similar performance at a lower noise level. Another alternative is to get a pair of fans that are at 1.3-1.5kRPM like the Arctic Cooling F12. Blademasters are loud as they run typically 2kRPM or higher.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

You will have to make a significant heatsink upgrade if you want cooler temps at lower noise. Changing the fan configuration on the 212+ just isn't going to have a major impact. A significant better air cooler would be something like the Noctua NH-D14 or NH-D15 or another dual-tower cooler. There are some large 140mm single tower coolers that are also significantly better than the 212.

However, you might want to consider putting that money away toward a platform upgrade. It seems a bit wasteful to spend $70-$100 to cool a CPU that isn't even worth that much to begin with. In the mean time, back off to 3.8GHz and see if you can lower the voltages.