Hi people,

I know this is not exactly an OSX86 driver related hardware problem but I hope I can get some hints from the Hackintosh fellas anyway.
The thing is, now that summer is basically here for a few weeks already - at least temperature wise and generally there's no air conditioning to be found in European houses - my main box gets a bit hot when I push it with Cubase and a few VST plugins running (see specs in my sig).
The noise of this Intel standard fan is driving me bonkers. When it revs up it sounds like an aircraft jet. I bet the fan alone brings the noise level in my room to 70db or so Those Intel fans are really foul.

Another weird thing, when I'm on certain websites with lots of flash animations (the green demon is the undisputed champ here) my CPU fan seems to want to lift off out the box like a chopper, at least that's what it sounds like.

I've still got one of those huge Zalman Cu fans floating about - which is 'somewhat ok' in terms of noise - but it won't fit. What I would need is something small but powerful BUT silent at the same time. I wouldn't want to fiddle with water cooling though.

Any recommendations?
Much appreciated
cheers

hi,

thats why I put a huge Thermaltake BigType with 12cm fan (16dba ONLY) in my PC...
do you have speedstep working in OSX, under Win it's OK, OSX don't think...

Click to view attachment

I had a jet turbine at home myself until I decided to build an almost completely silent PC.
I used a Thermaltake "Sonic Tower" for the CPU. I was pretty skeptical before buying it but it was completely worth it. My PC has been quiet as a mouse since then.
You can even attach an extra 12cm fan if you need it (see picture).

For HDD silencing I used fabric shielded rubber cables to hang my drives into. I based the idea on this great diy project I found on the net: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article11-page1.html
and this one, called "HDD Sandwich": http://www.applefritter.com/node/4667

The only difference is that I simply passed the rubber cables through the screw holes of the 5,1/4" section (where usually the CD-ROM goes in) of my PC tower, building a sort of hammock to strap the hard drive in. Now the drives just hang there and none of the vibration is transmitted to the PC tower. It is almost absolutely silent and I, therefor, very happy


Cheers,

hecker

Cheers mates! Some valuable inspiration there.

Man hecker, that heat sink looks like an architectural model for a high rise building complex...
I was sort of expecting that I need a new case which can fit those massive bits. I'll take a closer look into the Thermaltake stuff. Nice one.

To be honest, I don't have the slightest clue if speedstep is running in OSX. I can hear very clearly though that it must be getting really toasty in the box when I push the CPU.

cheers
sol

It's actually only 150mm tall. See the specs here: http://www.thermaltake.com/product/cooler/...71/cl-p0071.asp

hecker

Nice one. Cheers mate.

The problem I have is not so much the headroom but actually the total footprint of the heat sink.
I've got one of those mini towers that I bought 'just for looks' (silly me). The Intel mobo is one of those smaller ATX type where the 775 socket is really close to the edge and the edge is almost touching the PSU. There's maybe 30mm margin from the left edge of the socket to the PSU. It's really crowded in there - most likely one of the reasons I'm getting thermal problems.

Anyway, silence is more important for me than looks so I'm going for the whole nine yards, get the Sonic Tower and also look into better alternatives for a case, fanless PSU etc.

If you can't fit the Sonic Tower (Which is a VERY good fanless cooler) - Had it myself some years ago.

- Go for the Arctic Cooling "Freezer 7". It's small, and cools really well. And it's REALLY silent!

// Per.

Cheers again mates!

I've just treated myself to a Sonic Tower, a Yesico fanless PSU and a Silentmaxx case. That should do to shut it all up. Some sonic upgrades were due for a while anyway.

Let the beats flow...

Zahlman fans are pretty good. I'm using one right now.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/eng_index.asp