Dual CPU Air Cooling (Quiet)

[theForumCity]

Hello,

I am going to Uni this Sept and am taking my PC with me, but its going to be a stupid tornado in the corner of my room during the right - no I can't turn it off.

I have the following:
Lian Li PC60
MSI K7D Master Mobo
SLK 800 x 2
Papst Fans x 2
AMD Athlon MP 2200+ x 2

Now with the current setup, the dual CPU fans are actually touching, because the CPUs are so close together on the mobo, so there goes my plans of getting 92mm fans.

I have lowered the fan speeds to their minimum and they are still very loud and my CPU temps are this during normal use (not stress):

CPU 1 - 52
CPU 2 - 58

Now can anyone suggest some other type of heatsink and fan combo that will keep the CPUs cool but help with the noise?

I have been looking at a certain quiet pc site (which I am not allowed to put a link to etc) which has various quiet AMD CPU cooling options, but I am not sure if they would be affective?

I also want to get 92mm case fans, but my case only takes 80mm - so is there a way to fit 92mm in it?

I am also thinking of getting insulation material to make it quieter!

[Barakka]

I am not familiar with AMD chips so don't know how much help it will be, but on my Dual PIII I went for 2 x Zalman Flower's with a single 92mm Vantec Stealth fan... the fan is connected up to a Vantec Nexus fan controller which can set the fan speed right down to Zero RPM - dangerous but allows it to go as slow as possible before stopping. Damn quiet !

I am thinking about swapping the 92mm fan for a 120mm as it will give a better coverage of the two heatsinks, but I will need to lose the 120mm exhuast fan (or mount it on the outside of the case instead) which should bring the noise down even more...

Insulation may help with vibrational noise, but it will also increase the heat which will mean you need to turn the fan speeds up

[theForumCity]

Hmmm, two zalman copper coolers with 120mm fan on top!

That still leaves the case fans - what case fans have you got, coz my case only takes 80mm fans, so I will need 2 at the front and 2 at the back!

Does the sound damping material heat the case up alot?

[Barakka]

Hmmm, two zalman copper coolers with 120mm fan on top!

That still leaves the case fans - what case fans have you got, coz my case only takes 80mm fans, so I will need 2 at the front and 2 at the back!

Does the sound damping material heat the case up alot?

My case is the Antec P160 so I have 2x120mm - one front, one back... nice case, but loud due to the open-ness of the design. The case came with an Antec 120mm fan at the rear, but I swapped it for a Vantec Stealth and the noise difference was noticable...

Another thing you could do is to get a fan controller that allows you to switch a fan (or bank of fans) off. That way during the day you could have the extra cooling, but at night, you can switch say two extra fans off, and switch the remaining fans down in speed to reduce the noise
*Only Really Good If The PC Isn't Used During The Night - Otherwise It May OverHeat*

As for the insulation material, never used it on a PC - just guessing based on experiences in cars: extra soundproofing = extra weight + extra heat

[unrealrocks]

Soundproofing doesn't make your PC hotter in my experience (and I have 3 PCs with it in) one it actually went down by 3degrees (coincedence I think).

Have you ever slept in a room with PCs on before? If not I'd get practicing as it takes quite a while to be able to ignore them, now I sleep in the same room as 4 SETI crunchers and my main PC - there not too loud but there still 5 PCs I would maybe seek watercooling? Like those Zalman tower things, that'd be good, then you've just gotta deal with the HDD (hope its a quiet one, lol).

[Rave]

You could replace the Papst fans with a couple of Panaflo L1As and then run a duct to the case fan(s) at the front of the case? If you're not overclocking the processors should be perfectly happy running up to 70C or more so you you've got some room for manouvre left.

Rich :¬)