Zalman fan

[MNaut]

A Zalman fan has been recommended by some users of this newsgroup as a
quieter alternative for my AMD system with a Speeze CPU fan. I emailed the
builder of the system and asked about a Zalman fan. He said it was do-able
with my Socket 7 mother board and Thunderbird 1 gig system. His company
could provide a heat sink and fan combo for about $50, but it required a
"very involved installation process that called for removal of the mother
board". I have no desire to do this. Does anyone have an idea on an easy
swap-out of the cpu fan/heat sink to a quieter brand?

 

[kony]

A Zalman fan has been recommended by some users of this newsgroup as a
quieter alternative for my AMD system with a Speeze CPU fan. I emailed the
builder of the system and asked about a Zalman fan. He said it was do-able
with my Socket 7 mother board and Thunderbird 1 gig system. His company
could provide a heat sink and fan combo for about $50, but it required a
"very involved installation process that called for removal of the mother
board". I have no desire to do this. Does anyone have an idea on an easy
swap-out of the cpu fan/heat sink to a quieter brand?

A 1GHz T'Bird certainly doesn't need $50 worth of heatsink to be quiet.
It should be sufficient to use any cheap heatsinks that has mounting for
an 80 x 25mm fan on top.

Your CPU doesn't generate enough heat to need premium, higher-cost
heatsinks unless your system is in some kind of extreme environement (like
room temps exceeding 90F) you should be fine with something like one of
the following, though if the fan is louder than you like you might swap in
a lower RPM fan or use a fan controller or one of various
voltage-reduction modifications found on the 'net. Typically the target
speed for a "low noise" fan should be between 1000-2600 RPM, though "low
noise" is subjective, if the rest of the system is already very quiet a
2600RPM fan could be audible, though not nearly so loud as the smaller,
higher RPM fans. When all else fails a Panaflo "L1A" 80x25mm fan,
undervolted, is as quiet as it possibly gets. There is NO cooling
solution that uses any type of fan that is quieter than that, except one
with similar strategy and much more expensive sleeve-bearing Papst fan
(different between the Papst and Panaflo is not significant except for the
price).

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-150-023&depa=0

http://www.svcompucycle.com/svcgc69.html
Pretty much same thing as first link, but out of stock due to being
cheaper.

http://www.svcompucycle.com/cmxdream2-19.html

http://www.svcompucycle.com/thal.html
(fan sold separately)

If you're spending more than $20 _delivered_ to cool a 1GHz T'Bird, you're
spending too much, unless you're looking to spend more with the idea that
it would be reusable, better for cooling a faster Socket A CPU in the
future.

http://www.svcompucycle.com/thervol7.html
Fan likely needs 3rd party voltage control for lowest noise

 

[MNaut]

I already have the inexpensive heat sink/fan, so according to your
suggestions a fan controller or one of various
voltage-reduction modifications seem worth pursuing. Can you elaborate on
that?

 

[kony]

I already have the inexpensive heat sink/fan, so according to your
suggestions a fan controller or one of various
voltage-reduction modifications seem worth pursuing. Can you elaborate on
that?

But does it use an 80mm fan?
When the heatsink is very large (large surface area) and likewise the fan
large too, it can run at lower RPM than a smaller fan or on a medium-sized
heatsink.

It is possible your heatsink fan's speed could be reduced, but I cannot
predict the resulting temp... maybe cool enough, maybe not.

Since I can't predict how well it'll work for the 'sink you already have,
I'll suggest the cheapest solution then if it's not good enough you're
only out a couple bucks.

Here is a 3 pin to 4 pin adapter, so you can connect fan to it, then it to
a power supply plug.
http://www.svcompucycle.com/3pinto4pinad.html
For a single item it may be cheap to use their USPS "first class"
shipping, which should be under $1. First class shipping might take up to
a couple weeks though, at least that was my experience last time I ordered
something small from them.

On that adapter you'd want to do the "7 volt mod" which involves swapping
the plug position of the black wire connecting to the fan plug, with the
red wire. You'd want to use a paper clip, jeweler's screwdriver or
whatever's handy (unless you have a molex pin extractor) to remove that
black wire and red wire, swapping the two at BOTH large plugs, not at the
fan plug. Result is that fan uses 12V as positive, 5V as negative,
potential difference is 7V so fan spins @ roughly 65% of it's former speed
but potentially less than half as loud, maybe even inaudible but that can
vary per fan.

If my desciption of the modification isn't clear, a Google search for "fan
7V mod" should turn up some guides.

Other alternatives might be soldering a resistor in series on the fan
cable's lead, or a bunch of diodes, or buying a fan controller (available
from most larger online merchants) for about $10, though the whole
replacement heatsink is about the same cost.

Keep in mind that your current fan, since it seems to be spinning at high
RPM, is wearing fast than it would at low RPM. Typically a ball-bearing
fan will start out at a given noise level, get a bit louder during the
first few months, then stay at about same noise level for several years,
until it begins failing. If yours has been at a constant noise level but
now is louder, might be time to replace it.

 

[MNaut]

Thanks for taking the time to relay the inforamtion!