benyto
Premium
join:2000-07-09
Chico, CA
| reply to cypherstream
Re: Trying to silence my spare media center PC
I'm a little late to this topic, but I hope this is still of some use to you.
I've found that the Nexus CPU coolers provide better cooling with less noise than the Zalman units. For example:
»www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std···200.html
Note that the noise rating for this is 19dB, which is lower than the "silent" setting for the Zalman HSF you mentioned. I have the Socket 939 version of the Nexus HSF for my home desktop. Even when under full load (3D Games, video transcoding, etc.) the temperature does not exceed 47C.
Another benefit of these Nexus HSFs (if quiet, efficient cooling isn't enough for you) is that they are roughly the same dimensions as a stock Intel or AMD HSF. Due to this, I find that installing them is much simpler than an HSF with odd dimensions.
A few other things to note: Western Digital hard drives have been notoriously loud and "whiny". Also, if your video card isn't passively cooled you may notice an irritating noise from its fan once you start replacing other loud components. |
