P4 fan, quiet but cools well????

[froggy1 0]

Had my p4 2.8 HT working great, last few days fan been getting louder. Checked my PCU temp, its 50C in bios, so must be alot higher underload. Can some one suggest a quiet yet effective fan? Or should i just replace with another intel fan?. No ever clocking here, but would like it as quiet and as cool as possible

 

THanks in advance

[jmmijo 1]

HERE's the one I'd recommend

 

All copper and uses a nice big 120mm cooling fan...

 

Remember, you get what you pay for, the stock coolers are only copper core, hence the reason the fan speeds up to cool the CPU down, it's thermally controlled. Well basically all the CPU fans are this way, so it also can help over all system cooling by checking out your chassis, if it has any extra case fan mounts, then use them as well. You can pick up thermally controlled 80, 92 and 120mm chassis fans too

[froggy1 0]

thanks. I have no chasis fans, simply because i thought they would add more noise. I was hoping a nice single processor fan could keep everything in check.

[jmmijo 1]

Originally posted by froggy1:

Quote:

thanks. I have no chasis fans, simply because i thought they would add more noise. I was hoping a nice single processor fan could keep everything in check.

 

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. You really can't know until you run the machine under some heavy loads before answering this.

 

Remember, heat is not your friend, and if puttung up with some extra noise keeps the machine cooler then so be it, however, an all Copper CPU/Heatsink Fan will help to keep that space heater a bit more cooler then with a stock heatsink fan

 

 

[Wicked101 0]

If noise is really a problem and you dont want any chassis fan the I would suggest to get water-cooling

[jmmijo 1]

Originally posted by Wicked101:

Quote:

If noise is really a problem and you dont want any chassis fan the I would suggest to get water-cooling

 

Yeah, that's another quiet option, just more expensive then even the Zalman copper cooler is all

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Tried one of those, actually this one (the site claims it can cool a 3+GHz Pentium4:

 

http://www.pccooler.com.cn/english/cpzx.htm

 

It was certainly quiet, but my Pentium4 3GHz Prescott CPU was running hotter (up to 65C even when idle and even with the room airconditioner running) than with the stock heat sink (max 55C at heavy load). How's everyone else with similar looking heat sinks?

[jmmijo 1]

PC Cooler is an OEM version of the Zalman coolers. Not sure if Zalman is the OEM/ODM or what on this one however

 

Now to why it's running hotter then the stock heatsink/fan, well most likely because you're using the smart fan inline speed controller. If you ran the fan at full speed instead, I bet it would run cooler, but of course you sacrifice the noise level by doing this.

 

Also note that it appears you purchased the Al-Cu version, basically like the stock cooler, is a copper core-aluminum heatsink.

 

The better ones, and more costly of course are the all copper coolers, much better at displacing heat then even the copper core coolers.

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Hmm, how do you make the fan always run at full speed?

 

The manual said something about a speed control knob, but I couldn't find any.

 

Also, the BIOS section on power control for my motherboard (ASUS P4P800-X) as well as a utility (ASUS Probe) both told me the fan was only running at 2800RPM and not at 3500 which was the fan's full speed in the manual.

[jmmijo 1]

Just bypass the inline speed control module and connect the 3-pin fan connector to the CPU power connector on the motherboard.

 

If the fan still runs at only 2800RPM then perhaps a BIOS update may fix this or for some reason that fan only runs up to 2800RPM

[Intoxicator 0]

Well if you want a great cooler for a 478 p4 check this one out http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?LT...SB-V73+Aero%204

 

I have had mine for about a year and it has been great, I have a 3.0 p4 ht and at idle i run 33-35c and under load about 45-50c its a pure copper heatsink and a really cool blower fan with a dial you put on the front of the pc to control the speed. not to mention i got mine for 28 bucks, but my temps are helped by the fact i have 5 case fans

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Um, there is no "inline speed control module" or at least anything between the fan and the power connector (so I plugged the fan directly).

[Intoxicator 0]

also if you want serious cooling options try www.xoxide.com they have more advanced cpu coolers then anywhere i have seen, thats where i got my cooler, but the last time i checked they dont offer the aero 4 anymore but they have alot of others that should work just as well

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Hmm, that Aero 4 looks more promising. The same store I bought the CUAL heat sink also has that one (but I'll check if it's the one for Socket-478)

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Found that cooler/heatsink that looks like the Aero-4, except that it's a fixed-speed fan (runs constantly at 3200RPM regardless of temperature) and Cu-Al heatsink (like the Aero-4 Lite). While it still doesn't keep the CPU as cool as the stock Intel Fan/Heatsink, at least it does a better job than the one from pccooler - idle temp averages 46C-49C, while high load temp is 60C - and it's certainly quiet as a mouse (not to mention it's much easier to install/remove, and it looks really sleek ).

[Edited by Phalanx-Imawano on 2005-04-12 19:07:06]

 

[Wicked101 0]

You can try this as well, it works very well and its pretty quiet too.

 

Or, for watercooling go to http://www.watercooling.com/

[HyperBlade 0]

More simple than all this : clean your fan and cooler ... I had this prob with my P4 3.0Ghz temp was at 55 - 60. Not that I cleaned it I never go over 45. Check if there's enough "thermal glue" (sorry I dont know the name of it) between your processor and the cooler

[jmmijo 1]

Good tip there HyperBlade and you almost got the name correct too, it's called Thermal Paste

 

FYI on stock P4 coolers, well actually any stock and boxed CPU from Intel, there is a spec on how many times they suggest reusing the same thermal pad/paste that comes with their stock Boxed CPU's, I think it's like 20 times removing and reseating the heatsink.

 

I however believe it to be prudent and just clean up the old paste with a rag/paper towel and clean any excess with Denatured Alcohol, not rubbing alcohol, and apply a thin layer of thermal paste. This stuff is pretty darn cheap from most places, even Radio Shack

[Intoxicator 0]

well again i will have to put in my 2 cents worth, yes keeping the fan clean, and using a good quality thermal grease helps hell i use artic silver, but from everything i have read using a blower style fan is the best way to keep a cpu cool besides from water cooling. standard blade fans create a dead zone in the middle of the air flow, which is where cooling is needed the most.

[Wicked101 0]

Originally posted by Phalanx-Imawano:

Quote:

Um, there is no "inline speed control module" or at least anything between the fan and the power connector (so I plugged the fan directly).

I know the fan control on the P4C Asus mobo is called "Q-Fan" in the BIOS, maybe its called the same on the P4P mobo's, I hope that helps.

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Well, my mobo doesn't have that (P4P800-X). Anyway on a whim I changed my CPU fan to the highly revered Thermaltake Volcano 7+ after noticing some programs (notably Half-Life2) behave strangely when my 3.0GHz Pentium4 gets hot (the Aero-4 lite apparently can't handle it). Noisy, but gets the job done (HL2 doesn't have errors anymore so far), guess I'll have to live with that whining noise if I want my PC to work fine in this local tropical weather.

[Intoxicator 0]

This is why i sent you the like to the aero 4, not the aero 4 lite, the true aero 4 has a pure copper heatsink and that makes all the difference. i run a 3.0 p4, and my aero 4 works like a dream, right now my cpu is at 33c/91f thats about 10 degrees F higher then room temp. also in a previous post you said you found a cool LIKE the aero 4. if this is the case you should have gotten the real thing

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Yeah, unfortunately the Aero-4 (nor its equivalents) was not available, only the lite version could be found here (the one I mentioned that was like the Aero-4 actually had a mixed Copper-Aluminum heatsink, and actually performed worse than the Aero-4 lite). One of the nasty quirks about living here in the Philippines - not everything you want is available (it was hard enough looking for a good NVIDIA card - they're so rare here nowadays). I was lucky the Volcano 7+ itself was available here at all. Would you believe when I went to one store and asked a clerk for a good heatsink/fan for the P4 3.0GHz he tried to sell me the STOCK P4 FAN/HEATSINK!?

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Well I just did something crazy that actually had some improvements in my PC's cooling. Some time ago I got the Globalwin CAK4-88T, which has a similar copper heatsink to the Thermaltake Volcano 7+ but sports a bigger yet quieter fan (it's as big as a conventional chassis fan, but spins much faster). Its performance was just as good if not better than the Volcano, but definitely less noisy. Then one time out of curiosity I took the CAK4-88T apart (removed the fan, then the special funnel that not only adapts the fan to the smaller sized assembly but also funnels air to the heatsink) and looked at the assembly carefully, and discovered that the screw holes where the funnel goes into can actually accomodate the top half of the Aero-4 (i.e. the blower fan and its shroud). So I did an experiment and installed the Aero-4's blower onto the Globalwin assembly in place of the original Fan and Funnel, then put the GW's original fan on the fan mount of my PC case's side panel (the side panel that you remove to access the inside of the PC has a mounting point for a chassis fan, which blows air almost directly onto the CPU from the outside). The result? Even better cooling! The Prescott's idle temp dips as low as 43C (previously it was around 48C with the original Globalwin), whereas the highest temperature reached so far on high load was just 52C (from a max load temp of 60C)! And the whole setup runs pretty quiet.

 

Guess it pays to experiment sometimes.

[jmmijo 1]

Yes it does

 

It also shows just how much cooling you can give to a Prescott CPU if you have a chassis with an Air Guide/Duct on the side panel.

 

All the latest Aopen chassis have this and the guide/duct is adjustable to varying hieghts of heatsink/fans being used. My only complaint was not providing a standard 80mm/8cm mounting hole alignment to augment the guide/duct with more forced air onto the hetsink