Quiet CPU fan

[xortam]

My buddy needs to upgrade his PIII/450 CPU on his ASUS P2B-LS (doesn't know rev). He doesn't want to overclock his system for various reasons. This system is used as a HTPC so he wants a quiet fan to mount on his soon to be purchased PIII/600 Slot I Katmai. What would you all recommend?

[Sir Hitech]

Try Slot 1 Golden Orb - Low Profile cooler for the Pentium III. Will work very well with the Slot1 Coppermine. The fan is small and spins slower than most but it will cool the cpu. I would not overclock with this cpu fan definitly.

<a href="http://www.plycon.com/slot1a.htm">Plycon</a> has it for $19.99.

[xortam]

That was the first one that came to mind and I already mentioned that to my friend. I always heard the MURCers mention it didn't cool much better than the stock fan but I didn't know how quiet it was. Hopefully there isn't a clearance problem. Any other suggestions?

[Bohrn]

I just upgraded to a P3 800. I was gonna get a slower Katmai but the price isn't low enough to make it worth it. For only a few more dollars you can get a Coppermine Slot1. It is a _way_ better processor and mine came with a heat sink and fan. It works fine at 896. So if you got a 650 it would at least do 700. Just an option for ya. Better in the long run too.

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AsusP3B-F,P3 840 Slot1, 256mgsPC133,G40032megSH, Diamond MX300,13.5gigs of HD's,52X CDrom,WinME, PD 5.41 w/ 6.10ICD,Altec Lansing ATP3Subwoofer,
Envision 17",Terrayon Cable modem w/D-Link nic,1 grey cat,1 black cat & 1 calico

[ayoub_ibrahim]

xortam, tennmax p3stf is nice & quiet.its predecessor is even quieter if you can still get it! http://www.tennmax.com/P3STF_cooler.htm

[paulcs]

If he's not overclocking, maybe the stock fan/heatsink will suit his purposes.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[xortam]

So far, he's found an OEM version available but not a retail boxed version ... thus the inquiries about a cooler. I've sent him the above info (and thread URL) and I'll get his feedback. I suggested he may still consider a faster Cu chip (whatever his P2B can handle, non o/c'ed) w/ a TennMax cooler. He only needs to get up to 550 MHz so the 600 is a safe bet (spec'ed by ASUS).

[Greebe]

The P2B (regardless of what Asus specs) can run a cpu much fast than that, as many here have testified by OCing their rigs to the nTH degree.

[xortam]

Yeah, I know Greebe, and I intend on doing that with my P2B-S v1.02, but my friend won't be o/c'ing and he needs a quiet fan.

[Greebe]

xortam, I intended to mean that a faster cpu than mentioned could be used, not an OC'd one.

[xortam]

We're in agreement Mike. As I said above, I recommended he consider a faster Cu chip since there's a minimal price difference but again he doesn't need anything above 550 MHz for this HTPC box. The problem he ran into is some audio stuttering/flanging when recording to disk and playing back OTA HDTV (brand new card on the market): the card works fine w/ CPUs 550 MHz and above. BTW, the SW actually requires DX8 on Win9x.

[Scytale]

Here's food for thought.

Yesterday I molested the CPU fan of my faithful old P3 450@600, and since the shops were closed I just removed the fan from the cartridge, leaving only the stock heatsink in place.
The only cooling in order is now a 3.3" power supply fan mounted in the side of the (tower) case. It is blowing lots of air from outside th case straight onto the P3's heatsink, and funny enough it works extremely well. In fact, I found that it provides for a much better cooling than with the stock fan in place, and I have come to doubt if any CPU fan will improve on this.

Go figure.

[This message has been edited by Scytale (edited 26 December 2000).]

[xortam]

Well that's nice but it doesn't work for this application. A case fan is going to be noisier than most CPU fans.

[Scytale]

True, but it doesn't make sense to install a high capacity CPU fan like an Orb or Alpha if you don't want to improve the air intake for the case too. You'd be just moving hot air around... in larger volumes

[xortam]

There's no need for a high capacity fan for his application. We're just looking for something that is quiet and adequate to cool a PIII/600 Slot Katmai or a faster Cu chip (which would be running at above spec voltage). I didn't say what the current cooling configuration is of his case but I don't think its much of an issue here.