quiet Heatsink fan for PENTIUM4?

[eliteorange]

whats the quietest heatsink fan for p4? i have the fan that came w/ the retail box CPU, its a bit too loud...
any recommendations?

TIA

 

[bluesky]

Zalman's upcoming CNPS7000CU , or ALCU.
It's rated up to 3.06G with silent mode, which is about 20 dba.
The normal mode is around 26-8 dba, which is not too loud.
It's going to be expensive, but if you really want a quiet hsf, it should be it.

 

[zer0burn]

mcx 4000 with a 80mm low panaflo

 

[aldente]

zer0burn nailed it. The Swiftech MCX4000B with a panaflo FBA08A12L1A fan is the quietest P4 HSF combo. It'll cost you though. A value purchase, but with still decent cooling and low noise would be a Thermalright AX478 hooked up with a panaflo fan. Look here for details.

 

[eliteorange]

any recommendations on where to acquire these parts?

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: EliteOrange
any recommendations on where to acquire these parts?

I really like The Heatsink Factory. They tend to be a bit more expensive than SVC and Coolerguys and such, but they have an excellent reseller rating, and I've had great experiences with them.

 

[eliteorange]

question about the Air cooled HS... how effective are they, and does the P4 require a signal from the HSF? if so how does the Air cooled HS work?

 

[bluesky]

Here is link to the Zalman review.

I think AX-478 is a good choice also, since you can use a quiet 80mm fan on it.

 

[silentFreak]

I would recommend the Verax P16. It´s a german product and it´s really astonishing how quiet it is. The manufacturers homepage www.verax.de is only in german so you can look on the site of a store which sells the product. It´s www.pcsilent.com. The product-link is Verax P16

 

[Maki]

Looking at reviews I'm seeing good things about the Thermaltake Spark 7. From what I'm reading if the fan is going full speed it is plenty loud but if you run it slower it is still good.

I think I'm going to load up the temperature monitoring program that came with my mobo, set it to alarm if it goes too high and slap one of these things on it and see how quiet I can get it.

I should also point out that the other HSF I'm looking at is the Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4 TC which is supposed to be VERY quiet. If it is anything like the version I had for my AMD it would be an ideal choice. My only problem with it was that they were clearly willing to run the cpu at max temp. It would keep it there but that just makes me uncomfortable.

 

[Maki]

Dag. I've got to figure out how to change the "My System" link again.

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: Maki
Looking at reviews I'm seeing good things about the Thermaltake Spark 7. From what I'm reading if the fan is going full speed it is plenty loud but if you run it slower it is still good.

The high speed fan is the best thing about Thermaltake heatsinks. Without high airflow, they aren't that great.
I made the misatke of buying a Volcano 9.

 

[Maki]

Originally posted by: godmare
The high speed fan is the best thing about Thermaltake heatsinks. Without high airflow, they aren't that great.
I made the misatke of buying a Volcano 9.

But is it good enough if all I want to do is run a P4 at its rated speed?

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: Maki

Originally posted by: godmare
The high speed fan is the best thing about Thermaltake heatsinks. Without high airflow, they aren't that great.
I made the misatke of buying a Volcano 9.

But is it good enough if all I want to do is run a P4 at its rated speed?

The v9 is geared towards amd cooling- it doesn't completely cover the heatspreader on P4s and isn't recommended for them. I was just making a general statement about Thermaltake products: I like the Smart Case Fan 2, but only because it pushes more air than any other fan sold with a rheostat/potentiometer. If, say, Y.S. Tech sold a version of their 80mm adjustable fan [that is so popular] that had a greater overhead airflow, I'd recommend that one religiously to those seeking a high performing adjustable fan.

In short, the Spark 7 may be 'good enough', but Thermaltake heatsinks respond better to loud high output fans, so you may want to look at another company for silence.

For example, I've heard some really good things about this, in both the sound and performance 'categories'
Plus there are companies like Thermalright, Alpha and Swiftech that produce unsurpassed craftsmanship and performance, even married to very quiet fans. Of course, they're slightly more expensive than other available cpu coolers.

 

[Maki]

That arctic cooling hsf is the other one I've been looking at. I had the amd version on the machine I just replaced. It was fine and VERY quiet but my amd ran a bit (20C) warmer than I was used to seeing with my previous hsf.

The one review I read of the arctic cooling hsf mentioned that the fan would actually turn off every now and again for a second or two. I suspect that was a broken unit as I can't imagine the motherboard that wouldn't just turn off as soon as it saw the cpu fan shut off.

The problem with the other coolers is that I would like to keep the whole thing under $40.

Well, for $15 I can give it a try. Just wish someone had the spark 7 so I could get a good comparison.

 

[godmare]

I suspect you'll have to disable the cpu rpm monitoring in your BIOS with the Arctic Cooling unit. With my Volcano 9, even, the BIOS or motherboard, one of the two, didn't like the fan under like 3500 rpm- said it was 'off' and wouldn't boot. I had to turn the fan up until I got to Windows, then I had to turn it down. It got irritating after not very long, so I just disabled the detection in BIOS.

 

[Maki]

Actually, now that I think about it, I remember having to attach a case fan to the CPU fan spot so I could boot and disable the fan detect option on my last motherboard.

Very irritating. In fact that setting got reset everytime I updated a bios.

Anywho, I just ordered the arctic cooling super silent. (Had to install a printer driver to print my darned receipt. I hate reinstalling windows.)

Thank you for your help.

Edit: tidied some words.

 

[kp1126]

So how did the arctic cooling hsf work out?

 

[Maki]

It is great. It actually stops at times so you need to turn off the fan warning on the CPU. (As frightfull as that is.) Works fine, very quiet.

My ati 9700 is now the loud fan. Might replace that with a zalman.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

I have an Alpha 8942 w/one of these.

I am not sure of the db's the retail cooler puts out. But this setup is quiet and keeps the CPU temps down .
25db rated noise... I can barely hear it in a silent room. Soon as I play music or anything on my computer I can not them it at all (I have 7 installed).