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Roundup of Eight Horizontal CPU Coolers
ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech has done a roundup of eight sideways-gusting CPU coolers under fifty bucks to see if they can keep an overclocked Athlon FX-60 from welding itself to the motherboard. In addition to temperature testing, much emphasis was placed on noise reduction, which with some coolers can be improved by adjusting fan speed or even removing the fan from the cooler."
There's really a lot of variables going on with computer noise. You can have noisy fans and noisy components (like hard drives). Also, both of these two things can rub up against the other parts (usually the case) causing vibration noise.
I think a good way to start is to try and isolate the noisiest part, or the perhaps the part that drives you nuts the most. Then, you can replace or adjust that part. But be careful: it's important to watch out for heat. If you clock down your fans, they will move less air and things can overheat.
As for vibration, there's stuff like Dynamat that you can stick onto the inside of your case that "dampens" vibration. From what I've heard, dampening material can also cause heat to rise, so be careful here as well. I know I could use some, as just pressing my hand on the various sides of my case causes the noise to go down a bit. Also, things not being screwed together correctly can cause vibration.
In TFA they say: the Sonic Tower shouldn't block access to anything on your motherboard. It's not always true, on a Tyan Tomcat mobo it will push against the VGA card, I had to bend it a bit so that it does not touch any contacts.
the AMD stock coolers are really respectable. about the only drawback is the fact that the grills are made out of aluminum, not copper, like the heatpipes. too bad that most of the uber high end coolers are overweight by like 300 grams or more (the cpu bracket thing has a weight limit for each socket type).
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" - Luke 22:36
How can they have real review of CPU coolers without a Zalman?
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http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/view.asp?idx=
I haven't used this exact model, but I put their "CNPS7000" CPU cooler and their "VF700" Gfx card cooler in my PC. Combined with an Antec Phantom power supply and AcoustiPack case dampening material, acoustically it went from "this is really annoying" to "is this thing turned on?" (and is running a lot cooler, too)
The Zalman vf700 and vf900 series I believe will both fit your card and are GREAT coolers. I've got a 700 on my 7600GT at the moment, works great (over 10C drop in load temp) and its so quiet I don't even know its in there.
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud. Soon, you realize the pig is dirty, and he likes it.
I was looking for a good heatsink/fan for my dad's Intel P4 560 (he does some gaming) and I settled on the Scythe Ninja and a Nexus 120mm fan. The fan itself is extremely quiet (you can hardly hear it at all) and it keeps the CPU very cool; if I remember correctly, it was hovering around 50C during the stress tests.
A great site to check out, which I based my purchase on the reviews from, is SilentPC Review. It has a lot of in depth reviews and what not on cooling devices.
I know that some GeForce cards have hidden driver settings that let you adjust the speed of the fan if your hardware supports it. RivaTuner is such a tool that, among other things, will let you set the speed of your card's fan when apps are using 3D features and not. My "fancy" eVGA GeForce 6600GT can't set its own fan speed apparently, which is disappointing since it's the noisiest thing in my case.
I'm a regular visitor to Silent PC Review (SPCR) where they talk about CPU heatsinks at great length. Only one of the ones in this article (Thermaltake Sonic Tower) do I ever recall seeing mention of at SPCR. The noise levels they're talking about (~45 dBA) are just way over the top from my point of view - I'd be reluctant to consider anything over about 25 dBA, which is about 50-100 times quieter.
If you're a mad overclocker who plays FPS games with sound through your stereo system with volume on 11, this is a useful review. If you want quiet, go to SPCR.
I use a Scythe Ninja passive (fanless) heatsink. Until about 10 days ago, I had a nearly inaudible, single fan system. (I upgraded my video card to be able to play Oblivion, and I'm waiting a few months for it to fail before I void warantee by replacing the active heatsink it came with.)
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