Heat pipe boiling noise?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:28 am

I had earlier reported that my fanless system started exhibiting a low rattling noise like something rattling in an air conditioning duct. I had initially thought that is was something in the PSU but I couldn't think of what it could be.

Well, I'm now pretty sure that it's actually the CPU heatsink. I have a Zalman ZM80A VGA cooler on it; it has one heat pipe to transfer heat from the front panel to the back panel.

Is boiling noise a common problem with heat pipes? It isn't a constant noise, but rather occurs when the CPU has high activity. It's literally like turning up or down the heat on a pot of boiling water.

The noise goes away entirely when I actively cool the heatsink with enough airflow...but that seems to defeat the purpose of having a back panel.

nbac · Post by **nbac** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:03 am

You mean GPU, right?

I'm not trying to say that it isn't the sound of boiling water,
but I would have a hard time hearing it over the DC/DC
converters on my last 2 generations of Video cards.

Can you hear if the noise is louder in games?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:07 am

It's a slot 1 550mhz Pentium III. A slot 1 processor is on a little card--enough like a VGA card so a VGA cooler can fit (if nearby capacitors don't get in the way).

tay · Post by **tay** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:49 am

WTF! How far away can you hear it? I have never heard it on my zalman or other heat pipe sinks i've played with. It could be the wick inside vibrating especially if you hear it even after you have been running full tilt for a while.