QUIET CPU and PSU Fans...recommendations please

[tom5640]

...Sorry, I hope you can hear me....

Happy New Year to everyone!

Just hoped someone could help me. I've a couple of computers in my main computer room (and an iMac too, but let's not go there). One is Dell and one I built myself. I find the one I have built myself to be excellent, but recently I've only been logging onto the Dell because the old workhorse (2002: p4 3.2, 2048, 250) makes too much noise.

Do any of you know of a good, affordable PSU and P4 3.2Ghz Prescott processor fan which could whisper as quietly as my Dell during normal use?

Thanks a lot, I want a quieter new year!

[Noni]

Go for the seasonic S12 series, they are whisper quiet!

As for CPU fan, whats your budget?

Thanks.

[tom5640]

Well I mean, I really do not want to spend much on this, because if it runs over about £60 I would be better getting a new computer!

Tom

[s29feb]

A zalman cooler or if you want something a bnit cheaper I have bought the Astek Vapochill Micro and put on a Akasa Amber 92mm very cool and very quiet

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=285023

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=268277

Thats where I got mine as well and if you register for the Hexus Trust you can get free shipping

[Noni]

Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower- £40

Artic Cooling Freezer 64 PRO- £17

Get them, from www.overclockers.co.uk

.

[s29feb]

I've just sold a freezer 64 as it was noisey in a wooshey way, hard to describe - but it was like the noise (the little it made) was concentrated as if coming down a tube!

That's why I got the Vapochill as you can pick any 92mm fan wheras the fan on the Freezer is not replaceable

[zulander]

Silence comes at a price it seems. Well you cant beat seasonic for quiet. Tagan and Hiper are both decent, Antec maybe worth a mention. Scan have some FSP PSUs on offer would they be any use?? Im must confess i dont know too much about em
HSF I have a huge thing made by Gigabyte can never remeber the name of it its on the scan site anyway got it for about £21 not loud as such but there is a definate sound of air flow from it still not too bad by any means. Zalman probs a bit expensive, Arctic cooling usually comes at a reasonable price and normally gets decent reviews. Akasa evo???. For a decent PSU and HSF think ud have to spend more than £60 unfortunatley.

[FrontSideBus]

Thermalright XP90 + any 92mm fan + fan controller or 7v mod.

[Koolpc]

Seasonic every time for a quiet, stable PSU.

Thermalright XP-120 or SI-120 Heatsink with a good / quiet 120mm fan on it.

Problem solved!!

[DonLennon]

check out this site, although pretty expensive:

www.quietpc.com

[davidstone28]

I used the Silverstone 30NF. Alternatively an Antec Phantom will be fine.

Problem with Prescotts is that they suck power like its going out of fashion and accordingly run very hot. Maybe a Scythe Ninja with a Nexus 120mm running at 7v will do the trick.

[csl]

Yeah you normally have to pay for silence, but it's usually worth it.

As mentioned, Seasonic are probably the leaders as far as quiet high quality PSUs are concerned, but also consider FSP, Nexus, Zalman (although Zalmans are rebadged FSP, they're wide distribution makes them a good choice still).

For CPU, the Arctic Cooling coolers seems to be fairly quiet and cheap, but I haven't used them. The Zalman coolers are fairy inexpensive, and are quiet, though their performance can be bettered a little. A good choice overall. Combining a decent Thermalright cooler with a quiet 92mm or 120mm Nexus fan would give a good balance of performance and low noise, with the option to further reduce the fan voltage with a suitable controller eg. Zalman fanmate. Lastly, and this is what I use on my latest dual core X2 build, is a Scythe Ninja. It's a beast of a heatsink, and very expensive, but you can stick a low speed Nexus fan on the side of it to blow out the PC case. You could even run it fanless, using only the case exhaust fan to remove hot air.

For graphics cards, the Zalman kits are apparently great, with the Arctic Cooling coolers also recommended. Thermalright have also just released a GPU cooler I think, which might be worth a look.

For more info on quiet PCs, check out www.silentpcreview.com

[DeludedGuy]

Hiperpower TypeR 580W

Zalman CNPS9500

And both are very quite.

[ajones]

Always found Tagan to be nice and quiet (although mine does get nice'n'toasty as the tradeoff), and any Zalman HSF. If you don't want the all singing all dancing CNPS9500, the 7000 and 7700 are available from Overclockers. Just make sure you check out the www.zalmanusa.com website to make sure your motherbaord is compatible with them (the 7000 series are rather .... expansive! )

[tom5640]

OK, thanks a lot matees.

Will do some considering and buying over the weekend

Tom

[MSIC]

In my experience, and echoing this website, it's alot harder to 'quiet' a loud PC than it is to get a quiet one from the start.
You tend to find that making one component quiet suddenly reveals that something else is also actually quite noisy (hard drives, case fans, motherboard fans, graphics card fans being common culprits).
Quiet computing is a fascinating area and doesnt necessrily need to be expensive per se, but you can find the art & science of it quite a challenge. But hey, we don't want an easy life do we, or we'd all be buying Dell's all the time!