Silent/Quiet Heat-sink/Fan Solution?

[Byatt]

I'm looking to keep a 2500+ Barton cool enough (the lower the better, but I'd be satisfied with 55ish degrees under load) on a heatsink/fan system that doesn't generate more than 20-25dB of noise...

Is this possible?

I've found plenty of fans that stay well under that noise level, but - having a well ventilated system that runs at 48-53 degrees (according to nf7-s v1.2 sensors, may be inaccurate) under load, and I've got a globalwin cak4-88t beast on top of it that goes up to about 4200 rpm/35+ dB to keep it there.

This makes me somewhat sceptical that a quieter fan could keep the same processor as cool/nearly as cool.

The one thing I grasp (from the reviews I've read, anyway) is that the aero 7+ still handles heat pretty well in "quiet" mode...anyone got any experience of this?

Or is this just a bit of a holy grail for athlons without watercooling, and I should've gone for P4 if I didn't want to worry about temperature?

All help appreciated muchly, ty.

[Jonny M]

The Aero 7+ has been well reveived, offering the same temps as a Tt Volcano 9 but at a much lower volume. The quietest setup would be something like a Zalman flower, or an SLK900 with a 92mm, low RPM fan on, but both options will cost more than an Aero 7+.

Also the faster P4s don't put out a lot less heat than the fast Athlons, so you haven't made a mistake buying an AMD setup.

[Agent]

I have a volc7/9 and you can buy the aero fan from ebuyer for a fiver, so i might aswell get one

[Austin]

I second the Volcanos too, esp the 9 and 11. Very good and cost effective solutions. The CM Xdream's are pretty popular too although IMHO minorly inferior. Unfort I don't think it's possible to keep a modern PC quiet enough, such is progress!

[Jonny M]

Thermaltake make coolers with bases like spoons though. Not impressed at all, and the clips are crap.

[Dave2986]

it all depens on how much you want to spend.

If you have the cash water cool your whole system, if not buy then buy a Thermalright SK- 7 and a fan and run it a 7V (either by running it from the 5V and 12V line or get a reobus) as a heatsink that size dosent need a very powerfull fan

But your cpu fan might not be producing that much noise, its probley your PSU fans

[directhex]

zalman cooler with a 120mm papst mounted on a bracket above it...

--jo

[Agent]

Welcome back Austin

[Zathras]

The Zalman is an option, but if you can afford it go for one of the really meaty 80mm coolers like the Alpha Pal (if it's still around) or SLK900 and then put a papst fan on top, preferably on a baybus so you can switch between 7v and 12v - have it on 7v for everyday use, web-browsing etc and whap it up to 12v for crunching/games/processor intensive stuff. Does anyone remember the URL for the cheap fan retailer (was on ebay but had her own shop somewhere)?

[Dave2986]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dorothy...ry/panaflo.htm

[joshwa]

if i had the money i think i'd get an slk-800, but as i don't i think i'm going to try an Aero 7+ , or maybe a zalman flower... (but i'm not sure how well it would cope with a 2ghz amd cpu)

there was a good review of some of these, i'll see if i can find it.
here it is :

http://www.digital-daily.com/cooling...et_a-roundup6/

it was mentioned on the hexus main page

[Zathras]

That's the one, cheers Dave

[Byatt]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, think it's probably a toss-up between the zalman flower and the SLK beasts...get the feeling my wallet will win and the Zalman will be heading my way soonish

[LoopyJuice]

Alpha PAL 8045? roughly £30 now? should do a barton 2500+ fine, couple that with a decent fan and you have a decent setup

[spikegifted]

How about a Swiftech MCX462?

[IceWebb]

I have an Aero 7+ cooling my XP 2500+ and I am very satisfied with the noise level at low speeds. I recommend it!!