I'm on a quest to make my htpc as silent as possible and I've come up with another idea but I'm not sure if it will work. Right now due to lack of space I have a ThermalTake silent boost straped onto an athlon xp 1800+. Although even with the fan undervolted, its still to loud for me. So my idea was to take the 80mm fan off and put a very quite 120mm above it, bringing in outside air. Thing is though I'm not sure if the heatsink would be able to handle the fan that dosnt fit right on. Untill I get my computer back from my friends place and get some real pictures I drew up something in paint to show how its all fits. The current fan is the light box slightly in the middle and the 120 is the dotted white line. There is also a fan sucking out in the psu that I drew in. My current system temps are not to high, reaching the 40's when I put it to work, but normaly it idle's around 25 according to the sensors. This is a Micro ATX case so i don't have much room to work with and the harddrive can get pretty toasty with lack of much airflow, but the 120 would help that out a little to. So would it work to have the fan sitting as it is on the drawing, above just the heat sink about 1 inch?
i think they make some kind of adapter that can fit on smaller things from what i have heard or make ur own little adapter if you cant find one??? heres my computer http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=78818 on dude
I was thinking of making some sort of cone to direct the airflow but then I lose the benefit of it circulating the rest of the air in the case a bit too. But if it comes down to that its definately an option worth considering.
My local Microcenter sells 80mm to 120mm fan adapters. I think PCToys makes them, but they're cheap. Coolerguys sells a UV reactive blue one, and they're on sale right now for about $4. Here's the link.
Buying one is unfortunately not an option sence my case lacks space, look how the 120 fits over the 80. There are alot of things in the way of a duct sitting directly on top.
Hrmm, yeah that does look tight. Have you perhaps thought about one of the Zalman coolers? I'm not sure if that would still be too high (although it won't be as high as a fan and adapter), but you could look into one. FWIW, I just bought one of the aluminum-copper versions (the 92mm one, not that honkin' huge new one), and I love it. It's so much quieter than my old HSF, and I love it to death. When it's on the lowest setting, I can't really even hear it unless I put my ear right up to the side of my case (and even then, it's pretty quiet.) And come to think of it, as I hold my old heatsink/fan up to the Zalman, the Zalman is about the same height. You might want to check the spec's on Zalman's website and see if the height will work in your box (or you could post the height from the top of the processor socket to the wall of the case, and I'll measure my Zalman properly to see if it'll fit.) If you wanted a bit more cooling action, you could get the all-copper version (but it's noticeably heavier.) I think one of the Zalman's would be perfect for an HTPC, actually, because of their low noise and good cooling properties (assuming you haven't severely overclocked the CPU.) They're a little pricey, but not too bad. I pad about $35 for mine (CNPS7000B-AlCu is my model.) It replaced a CoolerMaster Aero 4 Lite, which was pretty loud (and sounded like a damn jet engine when I turned the fan all the way up.) Even though the Zalman is quieter, it's dropped my CPU temps by several degrees (no doubt due to a bigger fan and the fact that it's got copper in it. The all-copper version would've given me even better temps, but I don't overclock and it was more expensive. Plus it weighed a ton.) The Aero Lite was okay (the fan looked cool), but didn't cool my P4 any better than the stock Intel heatsink. I had another thought: You could mount a 120mm fan directly to the side of the case, sucking air in. You could then maneuver some ducting from the fan directly to the heatsink. I'm not sure how well this would work (you'd have to make sure the ducting fit just right), and I'm not sure if you've got enough space in the case for that type of ducting (I'm thinking of flexible clothesdryer vent ducting). But it might be an idea.
hey feline its not Pctoys noe more its Pctoyland just thought id give u the heads up my neighbor owns them www.pctoyland.com
Anyone else got an oppinion on wether it will work or not. I'd rather not go buy a whole bunch of new parts if what I have will work fine. I just don't want to cut a huge hole in the side of my case to find out that it won't work and that I have to go back to how it was.
Erm..pctoys.com and pctoyland.com are two completely different companies. Oh, and How on earth did that have anything to do with cooling his HTPC, since you 1) Don't have any fan adapters, and 2) Don't focus at all on a quiet PC? ...... /OT Anyway, I think your best option would be to mount fans vertically rather than horizontally, blowing across the hsf rather than down on it. How tall is your case, and how tall is the current heatsink? With 2 extremely slow-moving fans blowing across the hsf, you may be able to achieve both silence and cooling. My only other idea would be to see if you cant find an extremely good heatsink, and try to cool the cpu passively, but you said you didn't want to spend any more money. Pics of the space your working with would help, so when you get it back from your friend
zephry i havea mouse pad from pctoys.com and my neighbor that gave it to me owns pctoyland.com im saying to him its pctoyland and me and the other owners of pctoys got greedy and cut him out thats all
Dude, I don't care what it is, give it up, as I said I don't want to buy anything and if I do I'll buy it from my friend. I guess I'll go ahead with cutting the hole. No one said it wouldn't work so I will assume it will. Unfortunately I dont think a 120 would fit blowing horizontaly onto the heatsink.
Lmfao...are you trying to tell me that you are one of the owners of www.pctoys.com? You can't even write a fully comprehendable sentance, nor do you have an inkling of computer hardware of today. So.... Anyway, I'm sure that your original idea will work, but I don't know how hot things get inside an X-Box. I would just try it out, and if it doesn't get too hot, go with it.
^ sounds like a good idea. a heatpipe tower type heatsink might work quite well but i don't know if you have the space Pics would be useful + what your current airflow situation is like in the case.
Friggin IE crashing, alright time to type it up again. I finally got some pictures to work with. I put a measuring tape in there to show how much space I'm working with. As you can see there just isn't much. The case measured from the motherboard up to the very top of the case measures in at a little under 12cm, so I wouldn't be able to stand a fan on it's side to blow directly into the heatsink. Even a smaller fan would have trouble fitting with the other heatsink sitting right there. Where exactly would you guys think would be the best place to position a fan above it. I was thinking where ever I get the most blade coverage, but I'm not sure which part of the blade pushes the most air and all that stuff.
Before trying to fix the tt silentboost, are you sure that the rear 60mm + psu fans are not the main noise makers?
Ok what about making a few little standoffs for the top/side of the case. Then mount the fan to the standoffs so that the fan is still directly above the HS but supported by the top/side panel.
The 60mm isn't plugged in, I originaly had it on a potentiometer and switch so I could turn it on when on the rare occasion I played games at a friends place, but I started redoing the wiring and its not even hooked up and hasn't been for a couple months now. I don't quite get what your sayin about the stand offs and such. I was planning on mounthing it to the panel right above the open space over the cpu and under the psu and such, because it is about the only place it will fit. The whole cd encloser deal is less then a cm from the panel when its shut so theres no way I could mount it more directly over the cpu. I've got a 120mm thunderblade my freind ordered that I'm gonna use. Odd's are after I undervolt it its still gonna be to loud for me and I'm gonna end up spending another 40$ on a REALLY quite one but for now its a good working model.
If all else fails, consider swapping the TT fan to the 80mm Nexus Real Silent. For its airflow, its the quietest fan around and, unlike ThermalTake, doesn't fiddle the noise spec.
14 dbA = number made up by silenx marketing department If you've already got the 120mm then why not test your original idea with some cardboard for the case side.
