Silent Intel 775 CPU Cooler

OK, as subject, has anyone a recommendation for a quite cooler for an
intel 775 CPU?

I'm building a(nother) media centre PC and whilst the case fan, PSU and
hard drive are all nice and quiet the CPU fan is loud enough to be
irritating.

 

The movies you are watching aren't loud enough then.

Zalman is a good start. Try here for an idea on products
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/intelcooling
Ebuyer is a good place to see reviews and any bargains on 'em.

You might want to try
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/108402 and
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98869

 

Whoops that ones gone. It would be the following but thats gone too. Looks
like they are fresh out. Quietpc is probably a better stop after all, just
check the reviews on ebuyer.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/103639

 

Do they have the liquid cooling thingys like the Cray used?

 

Liquid cooled is for poncy show offs with open cases or glass sided desktop
pcs, but perhaps not suited to the role of a media centre PC. Coolant leak
is less forgiving in a pc as well.

Mind you having a media centre pc that was a talking point (goldfish etc or
go one up with piranha) could be an interesting direction.

 

Yes, but water cooling is too much of a pain. I just want something
quieter. I suppose I should wait until I've got the cases back on 'cos
it might be good enough.

 

Sorry, I just have to...

A quite *what*?

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/intelcooling

That should sort you out.

If you want a 3.5" hard drive enclosure, I have one of those going spare.

 

"life's too short to proof read usenet"TM

Well, I'm looking for people's personal recommendations on what they've
used 'cos it all looks fine and dandy but they're flogging the stuff
after all.

Not sure about the noise ratings 'cos most of them have a considerable
range and, in any case, I don't know how loud the standard Intel cooler
is.

Not for me thanks, I think the case is plenty cool enough without
additional cooling for HD.

 

Right, well I have an AMD CPU, but the last cooler I brought from them was
silent until run at full power[1], when it was merely "bloody quiet".
Regular blasting with a compressed air can is a good idea whichever fan you
get.

It's not a cooling enclosure, it's an 5 1/4" acoustic enclosure that you fit
a 3.5" drive into to reduce the noise. Two aluminium plates draw out the
heat to the side of the case.


[1] It came with 3 resistive power cables, so you could up the speed if you
got a faster processor.

 

If your motherboard has CPU fan speed control, check out the
Arctic Alpine 7. Not terribly loud at full speed and both good
cooling and low noise at lower speed. And cheap, no frills like
heavy copper, fashionable heatpipes or cheesy LEDs.

 

I concur with the one with the spiccy sounding name. I've got one in
the media centre PC, I built.

 

I've helped build two PCs with water cooling for friends and installed
Asetek kits in both. They've never leaked in over two years.

Apart from having to mount the radiator outside the box due to limited
space inside, I don't see why it's not suited. Running the fans on a
slower setting[1] would make for a very quiet PC.

However, for a silent PC the OP might look to see if there's a media
centre version of http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/tnn/tnn500af


[1] there's 7v and 12v settings on the Asetek kits

 

If you can get access to the foam eggbox shaped packing that computer
bits sometimes come packed in, putting some opposite the fan on the
case side may help.

I tried this with mine and it worked a bit, but this isn't a media pc
case so I don't know if it's possible for yours.

 

Six hundred quid... FFS.

It's just the CPU fan that's a bit loud. The rest is quiet enough; hard
drives, case fans and PSU.

 

I'm using one of these:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc17.htm

So there's ample room. I think I'll replace the CPU fan though since if
I run it disconnected (briefly) things are much quieter.

 

Looks quite nice that.

On that quietpc site they sell noise reduction foam for quite high
prices. Hence I tried the packing foam.

 

Well, I've gone for something from that crowd. And replacement case
fans as well.

 

I can recommend these as very effective and quiet, though it is tall. I
bought from these people aswell.

http://www.shinyhardware.co.uk/products/product.asp/pid=172

Chri$