i just got a new computer. specs are: asus a8n-sli single xfx 6600gt athlon 3500 2*seagate 120gb sata all stock heatsink+fans enermax noisetaker 420w psu evga tv tuner it's running in the case for an old pentium 1 with the side panel off, with no case fans, and it is horribly loud. i would really like to quieten it down. i have 2 panaflo 92mm low speed fans, and an 80mm coolermaster fan on order. i'd like to put the 80 mm as a front intake, one of the 92s as an exhaust, and the other 92 beside the pci slots blowing air out the side, exhausting my cards. do you think i could put a passive heatsink on my northbridge(the little fan spins at about 9000 rpm right now an makes lots of noise), and a passive heatsink on my gpu, and line the inside of the case with a cut up yoga mat to soak up some noise, without having heat issues? also, the 70mm fan on the stock amd heatsink spins at about 3000rpms and seems really noisy. what would be a cheap heatsink for my proc that would be quieter than the stock one? this is the passive heatsink i want to get http://www.zalman.co.kr/upload/product/zm_nb47j_c_p.jpg
If that's an Athlon64, you can use Cool 'n' Quiet, besides, my AMD stock cooler runs at 3000 rpm without being noisier than my radeon 9550 stock cooler. For a vga cooler use the Arctic VGA silencers, they're active and supposedly very quiet. I know I'm getting one for my Radeon 9800 pro (b-day gift). If the northbridge fan is spinning that fast you prolly need a big heatsink to make up for it. And using those 92mm fans on the back and side should work fine. Make sure you don't skimp on the fans though, cheap fans = noise.
definatly get the zalman northbrige, i have one, keeps my northbridge nice and cool and makes about 0db of noise . maby a fan controller would be of help with all those fans. slow the ones that make the noise down a bit, with minimal effect on case temps.
