AMD PhenommII x4 955 retail fan is horrible, any recormendations?

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Hi,

I've got an AMD PhenomII X4 955 BE running in my Antec 300 case, with an XFX 5850 graphics card ...

And the stock CPU fan that came packaged with the retail CPU seems to make a lot more noise than the other fans combined... I'm not sure if its "more" noise or its just the fact it's of a noticibly higher pich that the rest of the fans which makes them sound noisy in unison.

Any good Socket 3 heatsinks, or even just fans I can attack to the stock heatsink, that are a lot less noisy ?

Cheers
 
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Depends on how much you are willing to spend to get it quiet. I have a baram with a 120mm apache fan which is really nice and quiet even on full load.

Any small pwm fan is going to be loud because they have to spin at very high rpm to get even vaguely comparable CFM.

I previously had a coolermaster tx3 which was enough for light overclocking on a quad core. It has a 92mm fan so should be quieter than the stock one. It was still pretty loud on full blast but depending on what you are doing it should not need to be on all the time.

I have not heard of anyone replacing the fan on the stock cooler but it may be done. I am not convinced you would be able to get it all that much quieter though.
 
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Soldato
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Hi,

I've got an AMD PhenomII X4 955 BE running in my Antec 300 case, with an XFX 5850 graphics card ...

And the stock CPU fan that came packaged with the retail CPU seems to make a lot more noise than the other fans combined... I'm not sure if its "more" noise or its just the fact it's of a noticibly higher pich that the rest of the fans which makes them sound noisy in unison.

Any good Socket 3 heatsinks, or even just fans I can attack to the stock heatsink, that are a lot less noisy ?

Cheers

Hi mate i have the same CPU and i no what your saying the stock heatsink fan sounds like a hover craft dont it!! i stuck a megahalems with 2 apache fans on it and mine idles at 28c no overclock tho
 
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Thanks guys the quality coolers seem to be up in the £40 region... and thats £20 shy or water cooling :( .... Is there anything good and quieter in the £20-£30 range?

Also what do i need to look for with regards ease of installation?
My CPU socket / cooler mounting looks like this:
vyb4a0.jpg


I'd rather pay a few more £££ than have to disassemble the whole pc to fit a new cooler.
So ideally sub £35 and will fit on that mounting bracket (pictured above).

I'm not sure if its the performance of the fan or the quality of the chip but my current temps are 26 - 28 idle and 32 - 33 under load. Not sure if that helps you recommend a solution?

Cheers,
 
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Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2) [CNPS9500-AM2]

On low speed very silent, price you wanted, does a good job but a notch below the top end coolers. It actually idled about the same as my lapped true with an apache on, but cant handle the loads as well. Also clip on, easy enough to mount, but I promise you will cut yourself. Its a fact.
 
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I'm finding that the 955 stock fan is annoyingly loud too and with temps around 59c with one core at 95% I'm not too impressed.

I see el Kuarlos fitted an AM2 zalman, so I should be ok to fit a Scythe Ninja Plus Rev. B which is also AM2, right? Any special considerations?
 
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I'm finding that the 955 stock fan is annoyingly loud too and with temps around 59c with one core at 95% I'm not too impressed.

I see el Kuarlos fitted an AM2 zalman, so I should be ok to fit a Scythe Ninja Plus Rev. B which is also AM2, right? Any special considerations?

The am2 and am3 heatsink retention is the same so it ll go on just fine.

having said that I can only guarantee the zalman as I took it from am2 and put it in am3
 
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second the Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 CPU Cooler
cheap, quiet and very effective. i have 1 on my overclocked quad athlon running at 3.45ghz and reaches about 50c running prime or seti@home all night long with the fan at approx 3/4speed. you can actually turn the fan off altogether if your just webbrowsing or other light duties.

cost about £25 inc p&p

you got to get rid of the stock heatsink and fan!

forgot to mention, easy to fit. well i managed and i aint no guru
 
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I have my 955 running as quite as a mouse, overclocked at 3700 MHz idling at 31 OC and 41 OC at load. In my experience, you do not need to spend more than £30 on a cooler to keep this chip quiet, any more than that is just eye candy, which is no bad thing.
My previous cooler, is one of the quietest fans out there regardless of price is the OCZ Gladiator Max, available under £25 including P&P. I am currently using Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V, which looks very smart with its nickel plate, and white LED, I picked it up last week for £27 including P&P. Either one of these will give you the peace you have been looking for.


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Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-UD5P, AMD 955BE, Geil Value Dual Channel 4GB DDR3-1600,
ATI 5850 1GB, Cooler Master CM90 II Advanced, 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black,
Jeantech Storm 700w, Asus Xonar Essence STX, Pinnacle PCTV 3010iX Dual Analogue + DVB-T.
 
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My ninja+ did come with a small packet of thermal grease, although I never tried it. I don't know about the 300, but the ninja is huge and tall so you better make sure there is plenty of space around the cpu on the motherboard. It was too big for my wife's Antec Sonata II Piano Black case.
 
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Thanks guys I went with the Zalman as it was in nice and cheap (price wise).
My PhenomIIx4 955BE @ stock with a Antec 300 case is running at 43-44C while running Prime95 x64 .. with the Zalman on its lowest speed, the top case fan on lowest and the back fan on medium. It idles with all fans on lowest at 26-27C

Is that about right?

Cheers.
 
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