Athlon X2 3800 "Cool 'n' silent" Project

[jmak124]

Hello everyone, my name is jason and this is my first post on this board.

I've got a couple questions that i'll like to keep to one post. This coming saturday I'll be building 2 AMD X2 3800 systems (one's mine, one for a friend).

Although both systems will have a Gigabyte K8U-939 motherboard with the mentioned X2 3800 cpu, that's where the similarities end.

The case I'll be using is a Antec P180, while he'll be using his generic case due to budget constraints. His case will be modded to use a 120 mm fan in the front and possibly one in the back.

The problem we have is trying to decide on a CPU cooler. As of right now, the Scythe Ninja coupled to a quiet 120mm fan is on the top of the decision list. We prefer a cool running cpu, with noise close behind in the list of priorities. Although we're unsure about fitting since this motherboard has the CPU in the middle of the board instead of upper rear. According to the recommended list of heatsinks, the CNPS 9500 will be our second choice. Does anyone have experience with this board and cooler choices that work well with it?

His video card is a passive cooled ATi 9550 so that's solved, but I have a 6800GT with its stock cooler right now. I purchased a Zalman VF700-cu for it, which in 5 volt mode is quiet enough for me although I'm still open to to other suggestions for a GPU cooler.

Finally, i'll be building a linux machine that I would like to be quiet also.
The specs are:
PIII 550 Katmai
Asus P2B motherboard
768 mb PC100 memory
30 gb samsung HD.

As of right now the CPU fan seems rather loud. What are some user experiences in cooling a slot 1 cpu silently?

Any help will be appreciated, and I've already enjoyed this great site for many helpful silencing ideas.

[NeilBlanchard]

Greetings & welcome to SPCR,

In your P180 system, the Ninja is probably excellent, and it might even work "passively" using the exhaust fans to cool it. In your friend's system, it is likely to need an active fan, but unless you are doing a fan-transplant on the Zalman, I would go with a Thermalright SI-120 or if you can fit the Ninja, go with that and a Nexus or Yate Loon fan.

What case is on the Pentium !!! system? If the case has an exhaust fan, then cut out/bend the grill and use a quiet fan. If it doesn't have an exhaust fan, then I would consider transplanting the system into an Evercase 4252 or an Antec 3000B.

I would buy a quiet 80mm fan and use two screws to hold it on the stock HS, and use a 120mm fanned PS, like a SeaSonic or Fortron Source.

[jmak124]

Thanks for the advice! The P!!! will probably be relocated to my vacant Antec SLK2600. It only has a 80 mm exhaust fan and 80 mm intake fan.

The reason why I wondered if passive cooling is enough with the Gigabyte board is because the cpu isn't in the upper corner like most.


Its somewhat centered.

[stupid]

Finally, i'll be building a linux machine that I would like to be quiet also.
The specs are:
PIII 550 Katmai
Asus P2B motherboard
768 mb PC100 memory
30 gb samsung HD.

As of right now the CPU fan seems rather loud. What are some user experiences in cooling a slot 1 cpu silently?

Any help will be appreciated, and I've already enjoyed this great site for many helpful silencing ideas.

If I remember correctly, the fan may be "permanently" attached to the slot 1 housing. I remember people posting about drilling out the screws so that they can attach a 3rd party heatsink.

You may have to live the loud slot 1 CPU unless you are willing to do some heavy modification to it and be able to find a HSF that will fit a slot 1 CPU.

[jmak124]

If I remember correctly, the fan may be "permanently" attached to the slot 1 housing. I remember people posting about drilling out the screws so that they can attach a 3rd party heatsink.

You may have to live the loud slot 1 CPU unless you are willing to do some heavy modification to it and be able to find a HSF that will fit a slot 1 CPU.

This is not true. They're friction "screws" that hold the heatsink in place and with a case screw you can pop it out. I've submitted a picture of the heatsink separated and compared to a FX 5700LE.

[shades_of_blue]

If I remember correctly, the fan may be "permanently" attached to the slot 1 housing. I remember people posting about drilling out the screws so that they can attach a 3rd party heatsink.

You may have to live the loud slot 1 CPU unless you are willing to do some heavy modification to it and be able to find a HSF that will fit a slot 1 CPU.

This is not true. They're friction "screws" that hold the heatsink in place and with a case screw you can pop it out. I've submitted a picture of the heatsink separated and compared to a FX 5700LE.

OEM models tended to come with heatsinks pop riveted in place. I've seen many Dell PII and PIII slot 1 systems like that.

[flarkit]

but I have a 6800GT with its stock cooler right now. I purchased a Zalman VF700-cu for it, which in 5 volt mode is quiet enough for me although I'm still open to to other suggestions for a GPU cooler.

I did the same recently (Asus N6800GT PCI-e, along with a VF700-AlCu for silence). Then I discovered a great alternative: underclock the gfx in 2D mode and lower the fan speed!

1) Use a recent Forceware version, such as the 81.95 or thereabouts
2) Grab Coolbits to enable the driver feature for setting the clock speed. I dropped my card to 250MHz core/750 mem in 2D mode, and o/c'd to 420/1100 in 3D mode
3) I used RivaTuner to drop the fan by 50% in 2D mode (and return to full speed in 3D mode, for gaming).

Rivatuner also detects a stable overclock value.

So, when I'm not gaming, I can't hear the gfx fan and the temp stays at 60degC. In gaming, things run at full speed.

Now I'm not so inclined to remove the factory-fitted cooler, to fiddle with the VF700 and attach RAM heatsinks!