Hi,
I just upgraded my computer. This is what I had in my PC up until yesterday:
ATI Radeon 9600 (the basic model without a fan), ABit NF7-S rev.2, XP2400+, Alpha PAL8045+Papst NGML fan for the CPU and another Papst-fan for the chassis. I had replaced the MB-hsf+fan with a Zalman heatsink (with no fan).
Yesterday however, I bought a new MB, CPU and GFX-card: ABit KV8 Pro, Athlon64 3200+ and Nvidia 6800.
My "Silent-PC" days seem to be over, sigh.. The new fan on the heatsink for the Socket 754 CPU and the new graphics card are noisy as hell.. What can I do. Can I mount my old Alpha PAL8045 hsf on this Socket 754 Athlon64? I can't even find the mobo holes for this..
And what about the Nvidia 6800? Can I remove, replace och slow down this fan?
thanks for any ideas!
Help, are my Silent PC days over?
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But I already have a Alpha PAL8045. Doesn't it fit on Socket754? (I have no idea myself..)
My temps are:
Idle: 22-37-42 (CPU-SYS-PWM)
Load: 30-38-52 (CPU-SYS-PWM)
I don't know what PWM is, but i think that 30 degrees under stress sounds a bit weird, shouldn't it be considerably higher? I think there's something wrong here, the second time I measured the temps I got: Idle: 45-34-40.
My temps are:
Idle: 22-37-42 (CPU-SYS-PWM)
Load: 30-38-52 (CPU-SYS-PWM)
I don't know what PWM is, but i think that 30 degrees under stress sounds a bit weird, shouldn't it be considerably higher? I think there's something wrong here, the second time I measured the temps I got: Idle: 45-34-40.
Well, I can't claim to know much - but those temperatures do seem absurdly low.
The second set of numbers sounds much closer to reality. I am running an athlon 3400, and have found it not to difficult to cool with an undervolted zalman 7000, with an idle in the mid/high 30's and a full load in the mid/high 40's. I have however, put in a ducted intake for the CPU through the side panel, which helps a great deal and keeps the CPU well under case temps.
See if your mobo lets you undervolt the vcore, it probably does. Mine runs stable at 1.350 volts, games and everything. That decrease from the stock 1.5 is worth a few celsius alone.
I would say the biggest problem is the 6800. I'm running a radeon 9800 pro, witch probably has comparable heat levels. I have the sapphire ultimate edition, so it uses the zalman heatpipe, along with an undervolted fan.
The heatpipe raises the case temperatures significantly, but I have not noticed much of a change in CPU or HD temps, so it seems fine. If you can get the heatpipe for the 6800, I'd go for it. I don't know if it can support the 6800 though, that gfx card is a monster. The suggestion from the prior post is worth a shot, the bracket zalman fan works well (in my friends case at least). A card like the 6800 needs a heavy duty heatsink though.
Of course you can enable cool n quiet, which should keep your cpu cool, but as you have a 6800, I assume you'll be gaming in which it won't make a difference.
You should be able to get to the point where the 6800 is the only sticking point, and something that I'm not sure how to get around.
EDIT: As for the alpha, I doubt it fits socket 754. Socket 754 uses two metal mounting "nipples" and a backplate for attaching heatsinks, and unless you have a sink specifically made for the socket, you'd have to do some serious wrangling. If it is made for 754, cancel all that. If your looking for insane heatsinks, that massive thermaltake one with footlong heatpipes might fit the bill. I don't know anything about it myself, the zalman has been fine.
The second set of numbers sounds much closer to reality. I am running an athlon 3400, and have found it not to difficult to cool with an undervolted zalman 7000, with an idle in the mid/high 30's and a full load in the mid/high 40's. I have however, put in a ducted intake for the CPU through the side panel, which helps a great deal and keeps the CPU well under case temps.
See if your mobo lets you undervolt the vcore, it probably does. Mine runs stable at 1.350 volts, games and everything. That decrease from the stock 1.5 is worth a few celsius alone.
I would say the biggest problem is the 6800. I'm running a radeon 9800 pro, witch probably has comparable heat levels. I have the sapphire ultimate edition, so it uses the zalman heatpipe, along with an undervolted fan.
The heatpipe raises the case temperatures significantly, but I have not noticed much of a change in CPU or HD temps, so it seems fine. If you can get the heatpipe for the 6800, I'd go for it. I don't know if it can support the 6800 though, that gfx card is a monster. The suggestion from the prior post is worth a shot, the bracket zalman fan works well (in my friends case at least). A card like the 6800 needs a heavy duty heatsink though.
Of course you can enable cool n quiet, which should keep your cpu cool, but as you have a 6800, I assume you'll be gaming in which it won't make a difference.
You should be able to get to the point where the 6800 is the only sticking point, and something that I'm not sure how to get around.
EDIT: As for the alpha, I doubt it fits socket 754. Socket 754 uses two metal mounting "nipples" and a backplate for attaching heatsinks, and unless you have a sink specifically made for the socket, you'd have to do some serious wrangling. If it is made for 754, cancel all that. If your looking for insane heatsinks, that massive thermaltake one with footlong heatpipes might fit the bill. I don't know anything about it myself, the zalman has been fine.
Hi,
I've taken care of the CPU cooling, thanks for all the tips! Btw, I think I'll have to sell my Alpha PAL8045 as it doesn't seem to fit any other socket than A/462.
Still thinking about the 6800 though..
That Arctic Cooling VGA-silencer is made for the ATI9800 afaik. Don't know about a NV-version (?).
PS. Out of curiosity: Is there such a thing as a *silent* 70mm fan (like my Papst NGML-fan?) that one could use to replace the stock 70mm AMD-fan?
I've taken care of the CPU cooling, thanks for all the tips! Btw, I think I'll have to sell my Alpha PAL8045 as it doesn't seem to fit any other socket than A/462.
Still thinking about the 6800 though..
That Arctic Cooling VGA-silencer is made for the ATI9800 afaik. Don't know about a NV-version (?).
PS. Out of curiosity: Is there such a thing as a *silent* 70mm fan (like my Papst NGML-fan?) that one could use to replace the stock 70mm AMD-fan?
First, about your temps:
Are those Sandra temps? It sure looks like it. Sandra mixes up the temp feeds. I'd say those are not CPU-SYS-PWM but SYS-PWM-CPU. So your CPU temp under load is 52. Acceptable by me.
Now to get the noise down.
Let's do the cheap things first.
(1) UNDERVOLT as suggested by sammermpc.
(2) Use Arctic Silver instead of the thermal pad junk that the cooler comes with. If you don't have AS get one, it's as essential as a screwdriver
I understand you don't want to buy another HSF. If you do end up buying anything, I'd suggest the Zalman. Now let's try to do this without buying a new HSF.
Take out the 70mm fan. And what do you know? A delta fan. Delta surprizes one now and then. It's as quiet a 70mm fan as you'll probably find. (Aside: considering that the Athlon achieves 52C under load with a slim 70mm fan at low rpms, an all-aluminium heatsink and some thermal pad junk, is by itself, pretty impressive. Hats off to AMD). Take off the metallic shroud that held the fan there. Find as thick a nylon string as will pass through those tiny shroud screwholes and secure your favorite 80mm fan there. I haven't tried it yet, the mobo will arrive tomorrow Very ghetto but it should work - unless the nylon string melts 
If this doesn't work, go buy a Zalman
Are those Sandra temps? It sure looks like it. Sandra mixes up the temp feeds. I'd say those are not CPU-SYS-PWM but SYS-PWM-CPU. So your CPU temp under load is 52. Acceptable by me.
Now to get the noise down.
Let's do the cheap things first.
(1) UNDERVOLT as suggested by sammermpc.
(2) Use Arctic Silver instead of the thermal pad junk that the cooler comes with. If you don't have AS get one, it's as essential as a screwdriver
I understand you don't want to buy another HSF. If you do end up buying anything, I'd suggest the Zalman. Now let's try to do this without buying a new HSF.
Take out the 70mm fan. And what do you know? A delta fan. Delta surprizes one now and then. It's as quiet a 70mm fan as you'll probably find. (Aside: considering that the Athlon achieves 52C under load with a slim 70mm fan at low rpms, an all-aluminium heatsink and some thermal pad junk, is by itself, pretty impressive. Hats off to AMD). Take off the metallic shroud that held the fan there. Find as thick a nylon string as will pass through those tiny shroud screwholes and secure your favorite 80mm fan there. I haven't tried it yet, the mobo will arrive tomorrow
Very ghetto but it should work - unless the nylon string melts If this doesn't work, go buy a Zalman
Hi, thanks for the info. I tried connecting my Papst 80mm instead of the stock AMD 70mm, however, the computer wouldn't boot correctly. After 4 seconds, the computer shuts down again.
The 80mm Papst is connected with a molex-connector and the AMD with a smaller standard cpufan-connector. Apparently, if there isn't anything connected to the cpufan-connector on the mobo, the computer won't boot properly(?!). How do I get around this?
The 80mm Papst is connected with a molex-connector and the AMD with a smaller standard cpufan-connector. Apparently, if there isn't anything connected to the cpufan-connector on the mobo, the computer won't boot properly(?!). How do I get around this?
it might not like not being able to sense rpm at all, boot with the 70mm fan and see if there's anything about fan warnings and such in the bios options?
other than that, if that 80mm fan has no rpm wire, you might need to get one that does... then you can either use a 3 pin mb connector, or 2 wire molex (if you want 7v or 5v or a fanmate or whatever) and solder the third wire to a 3 pin connector to plug into the mb.
other than that, if that 80mm fan has no rpm wire, you might need to get one that does... then you can either use a 3 pin mb connector, or 2 wire molex (if you want 7v or 5v or a fanmate or whatever) and solder the third wire to a 3 pin connector to plug into the mb.
Many MB BIOs have a setting to prevent the machine from booting if there is no rpm signal for the CPU fan. So check the BIOs as you may be able to turn this off.
There are Arctic Cooling VGA-silencer versions for the NV 6800 that have just been announced. There are a number of folks that post on this board with current models and they are reporting good results and these coolers are not too costly either. $25 to $30 if my memory is correct.
Also the Zalman 7000 is less than $40. So it does not seem unreasonable to spend another $65 to $70 to quitely cool your high end hardware.
There are Arctic Cooling VGA-silencer versions for the NV 6800 that have just been announced. There are a number of folks that post on this board with current models and they are reporting good results and these coolers are not too costly either. $25 to $30 if my memory is correct.
Also the Zalman 7000 is less than $40. So it does not seem unreasonable to spend another $65 to $70 to quitely cool your high end hardware.
Hi hvengel,
do you have a website with the info? I can't find anything on the http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/
page. They don't seem to have a news-page on the site..
do you have a website with the info? I can't find anything on the http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/
page. They don't seem to have a news-page on the site..
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Check www.scythe-usa.com , the US distributor.Rhomha wrote:Hi hvengel,
do you have a website with the info? I can't find anything on the http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/
page. They don't seem to have a news-page on the site..