Silent CPU cooling without the "overhead"

krautmick

I am about to upgrade my Athlon II X3 to a Phenom X6, but I heard that the stock cooler is about as loud as a 747 on take-off.

Therefore, and considering I am a silent-computing fan, I think I will need to look into an after-market cooler right away.

Now, the thing is, that most quiet coolers become quiet by using large fans on even bigger radiator blades. Considering my tower stands vertical (like most) and my Mobo is therefore sideways, I really don't like the idea off all that weight hanging sideways off the board. That just cannot be good for it.

I've considered this thing:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-memory-hydro-series-h70-high-performance-cpu-cooler--socket-lga775-lga1156-lga1366-am3-am2--73WB.html?refs=4294946930
Which seems a cheap enough step into water cooling. Although I have two concerns about it:
1) With 2 fans outside the chassis to cool the radiator, there is no guarantee that the windnoise isn't louder that the stock cooler.
2) Stepping into water cooler, what if I need to upgrade the GPU coolers as well going forward. This system isn't modular, so it won't be any use for the GPU

As always, there is the problem that a large number of reviews are written by people who are predominantly interested in performance and don't care about noise that much. For them, a fan running at 30dB is quiet.

Any suggestions on what I could use? Reminder: AMD Socket is AM3.

Deano12345

Ive had as near as make no difference to 1.5KG hanging off my board (IFX-14 and 2x140mm fans) for just over 2 years now, and I can confirm that its fine, no harm will be done at all, even with a lot of weight. Something like the HR02 from Thermalright is designed to cool passively so theres no noise at all.

Oh and on the H70, the thicker rad has a denser fin structure which will often create turbulence, the H50 is significantly less dense (in its fin structure) and is the quiet one (also only uses one fan unlike the H70's pair), and why would you be running it externally.

For reference, my computer is sitting right beside me with 2 Noctua P14's, 3 Yates all on a fan controller, its quieter than me whispering.

Serephucus

Just get a HR-02, slap some S-Flex fans in place of whatever your case has now, and you're good to go.

marco_polo

If it were a (rather unspectacular admittedly) scene in 'Life after people' or something like that it would probably show your Tower air cooler falling off the motherboard after 50 years or so , so i really wouldn't worry about it too much TBH .

krautmick

All very well if you never move you case.

However even an a simple accidental jolt could create enough stresses to the motherboard to shorten it, with all that weight hanging of it.

As for the water cooled rad: I would very much assume that the radiator is outside the case and thus this is where the fans would be too.

Where can I buy that HR-02 in Ireland btw?

Serephucus

krautmick wrote: »

All very well if you never move you case.

However even an a simple accidental jolt could create enough stresses to the motherboard to shorten it, with all that weight hanging of it.

Wrong. You've never used these coolers, people here have. I've carried my computer down the stairs and to the other side of what is a not-so-small house, plonked the machine on the floor, and it booted up fine. This is with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler on it.

krautmick wrote: »

As for the water cooled rad: I would very much assume that the radiator is outside the case and thus this is where the fans would be too.

Also incorrect. In fact you have to mount the radiator internally, unless you want to pull the thing apart and pass the tubing through holes in your case. You could mount a single fan on the outside however, though I don't see why you would.

krautmick wrote: »

Where can I buy that HR-02 in Ireland btw?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermalright-Passive-Heatsink-Heatpipe-Technology/dp/B003XRAKNE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=computers&qid=1305022218&sr=8-1

krautmick

Serephucus wrote: »

Wrong. You've never used these coolers, people here have. I've carried my computer down the stairs and to the other side of what is a not-so-small house, plonked the machine on the floor, and it booted up fine. This is with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler on it.

Actually, I have been building PCs for over 20 years, going all the way back to 80286 CPUs, so you can bet I have used them I still don't like them. While I have no doubt that the mounting is secure and the bracket applies (depending on model) a significant amount of pressure on the socket, it still all hangs off the motherboard. The latter is secured at best with 9 screws to the chassis, so the stresses mentioned above, will be strongest on the board between the screw points. With all that weight hanging off it, you can end up with hairline cracks, that are not visible to the naked eye.

I accept that you personally haven't had any issues with it, but that doesn't mean there are none. Have a Google, and you will find I am not alone in my concern about the top heavy coolers.

Serephucus wrote: »

Also incorrect. In fact you have to mount the radiator internally, unless you want to pull the thing apart and pass the tubing through holes in your case. You could mount a single fan on the outside however, though I don't see why you would.

Interesting. Yes, I have never used water coolers or directly seen them unless on photos. I was always under the understanding that the idea is to move the hot water outside the chassis, rather than to add more environmental heat by having the radiator inside it.

So this thing (http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-memory-hydro-series-h70-high-performance-cpu-cooler--socket-lga775-lga1156-lga1366-am3-am2--73WB.html?q=h70) is mounted on one of the chassis fans in the case?

Serephucus

krautmick wrote: »

I accept that you personally haven't had any issues with it, but that doesn't mean there are none. Have a Google, and you will find I am not alone in my concern about the top heavy coolers.

I'm sure there have been instances of cracked/broken motherboards, but If I can walk down the stairs none-too-lightly, more than a few times, and still have the PC work, I think it can survive sitting still. Maybe I got lucky, I don't know.

krautmick wrote: »

Interesting. Yes, I have never used water coolers or directly seen them unless on photos. I was always under the understanding that the idea is to move the hot water outside the chassis, rather than to add more environmental heat by having the radiator inside it.

So this thing (http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-memory-hydro-series-h70-high-performance-cpu-cooler--socket-lga775-lga1156-lga1366-am3-am2--73WB.html?q=h70) is mounted on one of the chassis fans in the case?

Essentially, yes. You get four longer-than-normal screws that will go through a fan, and screw into the radiator monuting holes.

It depends how you set it up. I had my H50 exhausting air. Something like:

Case | Fan | Radiator | <=== Direction of airflow.

Deano12345

Serephucus wrote: »

I'm sure there have been instances of cracked/broken motherboards, but If I can walk down the stairs none-too-lightly, more than a few times, and still have the PC work, I think it can survive sitting still. Maybe I got lucky, I don't know.




Essentially, yes. You get four longer-than-normal screws that will go through a fan, and screw into the radiator monuting holes.

It depends how you set it up. I had my H50 exhausting air. Something like:

Case | Fan | Radiator | <=== Direction of airflow.

Same, Ive often leant on the towers (my cooler is roughly twice the size of the TRUE, its just silly TBH ) while changing fans and it doesnt cause any damage, hell if I didnt have my hard drives in the case, id knock it over and it'd be fine. Really, unless you were to throw the computer down on the ground, its not going anywhere at all.

As for the H70/H50, like Serephucus said, its designed to be all self contained in the tower, he hit the nail right on the head

krautmick

Now, did I pick up there before, that you said the M50 was better (quieter) than the M70?

Serephucus

H50/H70.

The H50 is quieter, but the H70 will perform better past a certain point. AFAIK, Phenoms run cooler than their Intel counterparts, so you should be fine with a H50.

Deano12345

H50 is better for quiet users (like yourself) as it doesn't need a lot of static pressure to push air through (static pressure being how forcefully a fan moves air through an object, it mainly increases linearly with fan speed)

so you can get away with using a single low speed fan and still get good performance. Speaking of fans, the bundled Corsair fans aren't designed for LN. If you have a few quid to spare, a Noctua P12/P14 (20/25 euro) are excellent, Enermax Magma's for around 12 quid are good performers too, and for around 8-10 euro you could get a Yate Loon low speed or something like PWM Nexus real silents.

Hope this helps you

Serephucus

On that note, I'll add a couple of choices that I've used:

1000-1400RPM:
Noctua NF-P12
Gentle Typhoon AP-14
Akasa Apache

600-800RPM:
Gentle Typhoon AP-12
Noctua NF-P12
Yate Loon (something, forget the model number)

The above would also be suited to radiators*

*NB - Fans need very different characteristics when being used in conjunction with a radiator, a good fan everywhere else might not be when used in this fashion.