System cooling advice.

BeatFreak

Right, I'm in need of some advice.

I finally got my hands on one of these and one of these Which when join forces create a very schmall very silent server/always-on interweb gateway/firewall. Which is nice.

Problem is the fan that comes on the processor is a teeny 40mm fan which boots out ~7000 RPM Which is a TAD whiney to say the least and I expect total silence or else :mad: . Now this leaves me with a few options to reduce the noise level.

1. Reduce the speed of the fan via reduced voltage i.e rheostat or attaching the fan to the 5v line instead of the 12v. Question is can I get a cheap rheostat and what spec would have to be (are the Zalman rheostats expensive?), or would attaching the fan to the 5v line be a good idea?

2. Remove the fan on the CPU heatsink and create a decent airflow throughout the case. Problem with this idea is the lack of space in the case, when I say small I mean only 203mm x 105mm x 216mm which when you include a 3.5" HDD and the mobo doesn't really leave much space to play around with. So I think I would require 2 x 60mm x 60mm x 10mm fans. Something like what AMD XP's come with on the stock heatsink. Would anyone know somewhere that stocks such a fan? And would this be advisable?

These chips tend not to run too hot and it wont be doing much more than file transfers and general internet browsing. But I will be sleeping beside it so silence is very important and with the current setup I won't get a wink. Tis a pity cause I've got loadsa pictures that I took last night that would illustrate my problem perfectly but I'm in work atm :dunno: , maybe I'll post some when I get home.

So what do you guys think is the best option? Or is there any options I haven't considered?

BeatFreak

Well holy god ! Gone off the page already... Come on someone must have an opinion here, god forbid I'll have to make my own mind up

Caliden

why not try using a program called Speedfan which basically aloows you to ...............control the speed of your fans. ( duh! )
silences it but wouldn't really help with cooling.

joePC

You could always cut a hole in the case & attach a 120mm fan, nice & quite........

Thanks joePC

bizmark

Is their a kit or something you can get to do that

Or else you will have a horrible open badly cut hole in your case

joePC

Masking tape & Dremel works perfectly...... or a jig saw with fine blade.

Thanks joePC.....

BeatFreak

Not on this case I'm afraid Its not even 120mm high even if I were to go for a smaller fan (90, 80) I doubt its possible to fit one in, except if it were 80x80x10 which would be perfect but I can't seem to find any. Cutting holes is also impossible as the side of the case is re-inforced along all the sides.

I've tried speedfan, and I didn't spend too long with it but I couldn't get it to recognise the fans. Dispite the fact that they show up perfectly in the bois... Maybe I should have tried harder?

I think I'll just get my hands on some rheostats and mod the fans... Look like my best option at this stage.

RicardoSmith

You can buy ITX 1G boxes that are passively cooled. You've just bought the wrong one. Why don't you just return it and buy a passively cooled one?

Big Chief

http://www.ocia.net/reviews/aero/aero.shtml

is the heatsink i use along with antec silver and i can fully recommend it, dont know how much it would help you with space though, but it keeps my cpu nice and cool all the time basically between 30-40c depending on the load and time its been on

silence is also golden when using it due to the very low rpm speeds it uses because it is a copper heatsink (max 3500 rpm i think it was if you put the fan speeds upto max, otherwise around 1800 which makes it VERY silent which was great. I noticed my chip went upto about 40-45 degrees though when turning it down that low

BeatFreak

Ricardo, It's not the case that's the problem. That is passive if I want it to be, it's the fan on the CPU that's whining and that's what I want to silence.

Bigchief, that HS and fan are for a standard ATX format board. What I'm talking about here is MINI - ITX form factor which is a totally different ball game...

I did hear that Zalman are producing a Flower cooler type passive HS for MINI - ITX boards which would be fantastic except I doubt that would fit either Unless I do some severe hacking

Big Chief

Originally posted by Beat Freak


Bigchief, that HS and fan are for a standard ATX format board. What I'm talking about here is MINI - ITX form factor which is a totally different ball game...

maybe i should have read more precisely just its to early in the morning for that and im still waking up, apologies

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Beat Freak
Ricardo, It's not the case that's the problem. That is passive if I want it to be, it's the fan on the CPU that's whining and that's what I want to silence.

Bigchief, that HS and fan are for a standard ATX format board. What I'm talking about here is MINI - ITX form factor which is a totally different ball game...

I did hear that Zalman are producing a Flower cooler type passive HS for MINI - ITX boards which would be fantastic except I doubt that would fit either Unless I do some severe hacking

I meant you can buy a ITX board+case that are passive combined. You find that the cases for the passively cooled CPUs especially the 1Ghz ones are custom designed. That site you listed has some for sale.

BeatFreak

Bah, that would be too easy... And besides I had specific specs that I couldn't find in a prebuild system, not that I looked too hard. What I have now is perfect and exactly what I need I just have one small problem left and that's the CPU fan, I should also note that when I say it's noisey it's really not that bad quieter than my Vapochill anyway but still enough to keep me awake.

I was hoping someone would have a quick fix solution that I hadn't thought of but obviously there isn't one. So I'm gonna try get into Maplins and get my hands on a few rheostats and reduce the fan speed that way.

Thanks for the help anyway.

RicardoSmith

The 60mm fan I had on my old coolmaster heatsing was very quiet. Can't remember the model no though.

CombatCow

Beatfreak the yellow cable in the pic can be bought in maplins for about E4 (iirc) it lowers the voltage by 3V the other one to the right does the same( it came with an 80mm zalman fan )

CombatCow