Recommendations for Cooling a Socket 462 Athlon (Passively?)

[cycleback]

Hi, I have the following system which I am attempting to make quieter so it can be running in my bedroom while I sleep.

AMD T-Bird 1.33 GHz (Socket 462)
Basic Heat Sink on CPU with Cooler Master Fan
Iwill KA266-Plus
512 Mb DDR PC2100
Antec Truepower 2.0 430W PSU
5*PATA IDE Hard Drives
ANTEC SLK3000B Case

Currently I think the loudest component is the Cooler Master Fan on the CPU heatsink. I have looked at the recommended components list but was not sure if socket A is the same a socket 462. The fan is 50 mm by 50 mm and about 18 mm thick and the heat sink is 80 mm by 60 mm. Is there some preferably passive heatsink that I can replace the current heatsink and fan with? Something like the Scythe Ninja but for a socket 462.

My apartment is not air conditioned and can get up into the high 80s to low 90s in the summer so I am not sure a passive solution would work. The other option I am looking at is replacing the Cooler Master fan with something quieter. I am wondering if there is another quieter fan of the same size which would fit the mounting holes in the heatsink.

[JazzJackRabbit]

You won't be able to cool 1.33 Thudnerbird passively, not even if you duct it to exhaust fan, it puts out too much heat, second only to 1.4 Tbird. It also will be hard to find a 50mm replacement fan. What I would recommend you is to buy Scythe Katana, it's only $30 but it provides very decent cooling at low RPM.

[qviri]

five hard drives plus sleeping does not compute

And yes, Socket A and Socket 462 are the same thing.

[cycleback]

Thanks for the recommendation. Is there a specific fan controller you would recommend using with it?

How does the Scythe Katana compare to the Thermalright SP-97 or Zalman 7700/A?

[JazzJackRabbit]

Thanks for the recommendation. Is there a specific fan controller you would recommend using with it?

Any. If you want to dynamically change your fan speed you can get an external 5.25/3.5 bay knob controller. If you want your speeds adjusted automatically you can get t-balancer (that would probably be an overkill though). Some motherboards allow dynamically changing the fan speed, I think SpeedFan supports that. Or you could simply get zalman fanmate or put a small resistor inline to slow your fan. Pick your choice.

How does the Scythe Katana compare to the Thermalright SP-97 or Zalman 7700/A?

I assume you meant Zalman 7000 because afaik 7700 does not support socket A. All three are worthy competitors. I don't remember particularly well how they perform relative to each other, go to SPCR cooling review section and read it up. I'd say all three are going to be close, and your choice should be dictated by the CPU bracket orientation (I wouldn't want Katana blowing into the PSU), and by how quiet you want your cooler to be (katana and Thermalright make it much much easier to do a fan swap). However if you say you run five hard drives, they are going to be much louder than any of these heatsinks with the fan speed set to low/medium speed. I still say if your CPU bracket orientation allows for horizontal orientation, get Scythe Katana. Included fan when slowed down will be quieter than your harddrives but you can always replace it for something quiter if you want to. If you have a vertical CPU bracket orientation, get either Zalman 7000 or thermalright 97. Keep in mind that in order to use Zalman on Socket A your motherboard should have mounting holes.

[geekbanter]

I assume you meant Zalman 7000 because afaik 7700 does not support socket A. All three are worthy competitors. I don't remember particularly well how they perform relative to each other, go to SPCR cooling review section and read it up.

According to the 7700 review (better 7000 info) and comparing it to the scythe katana SPCR shows that 1) the 7000 has better heat dissipation (5V, .34 vs .38 C/W MP) while 2) the katana has lower noise level at 5V (19 vs 22 dBA). When controlling for noise level (22dBA, 5V 7000, 7V katana) both heatsinks are dead even (dBA, CFM, C/W MP), so I suppose it depends on price, orientation, and which heatsink you would generally prefer.

You won't be able to cool 1.33 Thudnerbird passively, not even if you duct it to exhaust fan, it puts out too much heat, second only to 1.4 Tbird.

Actually found out last week you can cool a 1.4 Tbird using ducting. I threw together a bunch of my old unused parts into an old crappy ($14) mATX case to see how well some cheapo silencing techniques would work on an old screaming 747 of a computer. The PSU sits directly on top of the HSF and the case has NO EXHAUST. So I put on an old Thermaltake Silent Boost K8, took off the noisy fan, cut a hole in the PSU cover and made a cardboard duct right into the power supply. A quick change to a YL 80mm fan, removal of the exhaust cover, and about 4 vinyl floor tiles to absorb the excessive vibration and I'm now left with a somewhat quiet computer . It is no where near as quiet as my other machines, but the processor runs cooler than before (idle 54C, load 64C) and the noise is tolerable, rather than driving us out of the room, and wincing when the machine is turned on .

Overall I think its a toss-up between the Katana and 7000, I think you'll be happy with either of them in your system. One thing to note is that the 7000 will come with a fan mate to control the fan speed, the Katana doesn't look like it comes with one. Good Luck!

[cycleback]

I'd say all three are going to be close, and your choice should be dictated by the CPU bracket orientation (I wouldn't want Katana blowing into the PSU), and by how quiet you want your cooler to be (katana and Thermalright make it much much easier to do a fan swap). However if you say you run five hard drives, they are going to be much louder than any of these heatsinks with the fan speed set to low/medium speed. I still say if your CPU bracket orientation allows for horizontal orientation, get Scythe Katana. Included fan when slowed down will be quieter than your harddrives but you can always replace it for something quiter if you want to. If you have a vertical CPU bracket orientation, get either Zalman 7000 or thermalright 97. Keep in mind that in order to use Zalman on Socket A your motherboard should have mounting holes.

I believe that my CPU bracket has a vertical orientation in other words the clip holding the heatsink on is vertical. Why would it be bad for the katana to be blowing towards the PSU? Would the fan controller in the PSU ramp up?

[merlyn]

that's the theory.

for a quick test why don't you try mounting an 80mm fan on your existing heatsink, doesn't cost anything and the noise reduction will bring it down below the sound threshold of your other components.

I've had a lot of success with this technique. I'm assuming from your specs that you have the stock cooler that came with the t-bird. there are at least two different types that i've seen. one has a black plastic mounting plate for the fan, if you have one of these you can just cable tie to the plastic frame. if not, the best way i've found is to drill 4 small holes, one in each corner, and use cable ties to attach the fan. hard wire the fan to 5 or 7 volts.

i've recently been toying with the idea of mounting the fan offset so the deadzone isn't in the center of the HS and the fan can blow onto the VRM mosfets. been too busy with my main system so haven't had time to finish the t-birds yet.

you haven't mentioned your northbridge or gpu. systems of this age tend to have active coolers on them.

if you absolutely must have a new HSF then i'd reccommend an Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2 TC if you can source them. they offer significantly better value for money over the hsf's that have been suggested so far.

as you haven't mentioned your location, but you quoted your room temp in fahrenheit, i'm gonna assume you're in north america and not bother posting any links

[dvasco]

You need to lower the heat being generated and use a bigger fan to have equal or less temp with less noise.

Try an Athlon M. Only 25 Watts. Also Thermalright SI-97 with a Nexus 92mm fan undervolted. Replace 5 HDDs with 2 higher capacity HDD.

I keep my house at about 76F year round and the computer is inside a cubby hole in the desk. Being in the desk makes it even a hotter environment, almost comparable to your 90F environment. My computer was running noisily and at 47C with a Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2 TM running at high speed ~3000 RPM. I have 2 HDDs which were reporting around 45C. Just yesterday I decided to try and use an Athlon 4 M 1GHz I had laying around. They are rated at 25W as opposed to the 49W of my Athlon XP +1700. I know different bus, it actually runs at 830 MHz now. But since I knew it would be a lower heat output I set the HS fan to lowspeed ~1450 RPM. Now there is a lot less noise. I am sure if I had a Thermalright SI-97 with a Nexus 92mm fan and a fan resistor. I would have less noise and more cooling which would be able to withstand a 90 summer.

BTW, Frys has external HDDs for sale and a Netgear Storage Central. That way you can move the HDD heat out of the PC case.

[mattthemuppet]

if you can undervolt the CPU, you may be able to get away with a SI-97 ducted to the side of the case - my Sempron 2400 undervolted to 1.375V idles around 55C (RT of 22-24C) in this situation. However, with a D12SL-90 at ~800rpm on top, idle drops ~10C and I still can't hear the computer.

This compares with the AC Copper Silent 2, which idled at 48-49C at 1400rpm (lowest start up) and was just audible with the case closed. I bought the SI-97 for increased headroom for the summer and possible overclocking, but the AC cooler at~ 1/5th of the price does almost as good a job.