quieter Pentium III?

[littleberry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

My Pentium III is 1ghz, and came boxed with its own
dual fan heatsink already on the CPU. It runs cool
enough, but I would like to make it run quieter.

It is a desktop, so the CPU stands vertical, and there
is plenty of room for a larger heat sink and fan.

I have run it with floppy only (no hard drives connected)
just to help locate the loudest noise, and it is definitely
the fans on the CPU. They are probably not defective or
anything, just louder as a normal design. I would like to
make it as quiet as my PII 550 mhz, which also has a dual fan
but is really much much quieter.

Since eveything seems to be focused on P4 these days, can
someone point me to where I might purchase a really good
super quiet cooling fan/heatsink ready to go for the PIII
1ghz? If there is something else I can do, I would. I
replaced the power supply only to discover that the old
one was not the problem after all -
it is the cpu fan for sure.

Thanks,

Littleberry

 

[Stacey]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Littleberry wrote:

> My Pentium III is 1ghz, and came boxed with its own
> dual fan heatsink already on the CPU. It runs cool
> enough, but I would like to make it run quieter.
>
> It is a desktop, so the CPU stands vertical, and there
> is plenty of room for a larger heat sink and fan.
>
> I have run it with floppy only (no hard drives connected)
> just to help locate the loudest noise, and it is definitely
> the fans on the CPU. They are probably not defective or
> anything, just louder as a normal design. I would like to
> make it as quiet as my PII 550 mhz, which also has a dual fan
> but is really much much quieter.
>


Try running the fans on 7 volts (or a reostat), plenty of info on doing that
on the web. I did that on my P3 800 and it made a world of difference and
never saw any difference in temps. Just watch the temps and slow down the
fans until you like the sound level.

--

Stacey

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

davsf@neto.com (Littleberry) wrote in message news:<bd00fe19.0404092241.64cb24ce@posting.google.com>...
> My Pentium III is 1ghz, and came boxed with its own
> dual fan heatsink already on the CPU. It runs cool
> enough, but I would like to make it run quieter.

> It is a desktop, so the CPU stands vertical, and there
> is plenty of room for a larger heat sink and fan.

I take it this is a slot 1 processor, right? You may
be able to cool it fanlessly the way I did with my
PIII 550--using a Zalman ZM80A VGA cooler. Even though
it was designed to cool VGA cards, it does a fantastic
job cooling slot1 processors.

It's best to make sure it will fit on your motherboard
first, of course. I have posted pictures outlining the
potential problem points here:

http://www.geocities.com/mechdan/zm80a.html

My PIII system is nice and quiet--the only noises are
from the slow turning PSU fan and the hard drive.

Isaac Kuo

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Littleberry wrote:
> Since eveything seems to be focused on P4 these days, can
> someone point me to where I might purchase a really good
> super quiet cooling fan/heatsink ready to go for the PIII
> 1ghz? If there is something else I can do, I would. I
> replaced the power supply only to discover that the old
> one was not the problem after all -
> it is the cpu fan for sure.

Newegg has the Spire, Speeze and TR2TT lines of heat sinks. Any one of
which, with a properly chosen 80mm fan, will provide quiet, effective
cooling.

 

[littleberry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Isaac,

The idea of a fanless cooler really appeals to me!

I see Newegg has two models:

a) ZM80A-HP, all aluminum,
(400g, 1300 sq.cm, $25), and

b) ZM80C-HP, aluminum w/gold-plated copper heat pipes,
(325g, 1200 sq.cm, $30)

I assume you are using the all aluminum one - right?

I think my mboard layout is the same as yours, except,
the pictures from your website seem to have the PSU
taken away - is that right? I see your memory sticks,
and your CPU, as well as your ports, but, it looks like
your PSU is missing - did you just remove it so you
could take better pictures?

Are you using the zalman ZM300A-APF power supply?

I am very curious as to how you get this fanless
heat sink to make solid thorough contact with the
CPU so as to truly dissapate the heat. Did you
use some kind of sealant? Or is it just firmly
and tightly held mechanically via screws or something?

On my desktop, from behind, facing the ports and open
expansion slots, I see the power supply on the left,
the expansion slots on the right, and the ports in
the center and leftways a bit, with the CPU right
behind the ports longways from left to right.
There appears to be a bit less than one inch
from the power supply to the left most edge
of the CPU, and a bit more than one inch from
the rightmost edge of the CPU to the VGA card
(no fan, just the nvidia geforce2). Do you
think that is enough room? I am really tempted
to just go ahead and order this device because
the dream of fanless CPU operation is very
appealing. Mine is 1ghz - do you think that
might be too much? It has to sometimes run
for hours (converting avi to mpeg) and with
really heavy duty processing and only moderate
hd access. I wonder if it would overheat - ???

Please reply as to the model number of your PSU -
it sounds like you got your pc to be quiet - any
pointers about attaching the h/s to the cpu will
be greatly apprectiated - I think I am going to
go ahead and order it. Do I need any kind of
sealants? screws?

Thanks,

Littleberry

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

davsf@neto.com (Littleberry) wrote in message news:<bd00fe19.0404101256.16bf0917@posting.google.com>...

> The idea of a fanless cooler really appeals to me!

> I see Newegg has two models:

> a) ZM80A-HP, all aluminum,
> (400g, 1300 sq.cm, $25), and

I got this one (from NewEgg), because it was a bit
cheaper and looked better--more surface area. I've
since figured out that the extra surface area comes
from an extra bit of height. If you examine the
pictures at NewEgg, you can see the ZM80A has small
"fingers" at the top that the ZM80C doesn't have.

This difference in height may be important for
getting a comfortable fit. The ZM80A rises up from
the motherboard almost as much as a full height
PCI card. My scratchbuilt case has a low ceiling
with the lid simply resting on top of the PCI/AGP
card "lips". The ZM80A heatsink goes almost as
high as this--but there's still a comfortable
amount of clearance.

> b) ZM80C-HP, aluminum w/gold-plated copper heat pipes,
> (325g, 1200 sq.cm, $30)

This one has also been used by someone in Finland;
but his page was in Finnish. I couldn't read it,
so I couldn't read any warnings (if any) about
issues with orientation or fitting.

> I assume you are using the all aluminum one - right?

Actually, I think the construction of these two
models is identical, except for some details of
the shape (most importantly, the extra fingers
at the top of the ZM80A heatsinks).

> I think my mboard layout is the same as yours, except,
> the pictures from your website seem to have the PSU
> taken away - is that right?

It's not that the PSU was taken away, the PSU wasn't
there at all. The pictures were of the motherboard
by itself, along with the CPU/Heatsink, of course.
The RAM is there only because I didn't bother
removing it. You can see the motherboard plug for
the ATX power connector in the pictures next to the
CPU slot--nothing's plugged in.

> Are you using the zalman ZM300A-APF power supply?

No, but this doesn't matter. Standard form factor
ATX power supplies all have the same external
dimensions.

> I am very curious as to how you get this fanless
> heat sink to make solid thorough contact with the
> CPU so as to truly dissapate the heat. Did you
> use some kind of sealant? Or is it just firmly
> and tightly held mechanically via screws or something?

The Zalman VGA heatsink comes with all of the parts
needed, including thermal paste. The installation
is actually rather involved, because it is designed
to accomidate a wide variety of VGA cards--there's
no standard location for the GPU of a VGA card.
There are a lot of little adjustable fiddly bits
to ensure a tight fit. The main requirement is the
existence of at least two mounting holes diagonally
located around the processor chip--slot 1 CPUs have
the necessary mounting holes.

> On my desktop, from behind, facing the ports and open
> expansion slots, I see the power supply on the left,
> the expansion slots on the right, and the ports in
> the center and leftways a bit, with the CPU right
> behind the ports longways from left to right.
> There appears to be a bit less than one inch
> from the power supply to the left most edge
> of the CPU, and a bit more than one inch from
> the rightmost edge of the CPU to the VGA card
> (no fan, just the nvidia geforce2). Do you
> think that is enough room?

Yes, definitely. HOWEVER, watch out for tall
capacitors or other obstructions next to the CPU
slot.

The ZM80A fits so well to a slot 1 processor it
almost seems like it was designed for it. Mounted
tight, the way I have it, it extendes only a
fraction of an inch beyond the card on either side.

Height can be a concern for cases where the PSU is
directly above the CPU, or for slim cases where the
expansion slots are turned sideways. However, if
a full height card can fit and there's nothing
above the CPU, there's no problem--UNLESS there are
tall capacitors or other tall components adjacent
to the CPU slot.

The pictures I posted show where the problem with
tall capacitors can be. Look at your motherboard
to make sure. Note that you only have to look at
the "back" side. The "front" side is where bulky
standard CPU heatsinks are expected to go, so
there won't be any tall components in the way on
that side.

Also, note that you'll have to remove the existing
slot 1 brackets.

> I am really tempted
> to just go ahead and order this device because
> the dream of fanless CPU operation is very
> appealing. Mine is 1ghz - do you think that
> might be too much? It has to sometimes run
> for hours (converting avi to mpeg) and with
> really heavy duty processing and only moderate
> hd access. I wonder if it would overheat - ???

I don't think you're in any danger of overheating.
The surface area is huge, and the relatively
nearby PSU will provide enough airflow. If you
are concerned, you could kill two birds with one
stone and order a Fortron PSU from NewEgg; either
a Fortron 300 or 350 with 120mm fan. Make sure
you get one of the Fortrons with a 120mm fan.
This fan is on the inside, and will pull air
straight from the CPU area. These Fortrons are
pretty quiet--not the absolute quietest but they
provide plenty of airflow compared quieter PSUs.
I have two computers which rely entirely on the
modest amount of Fortron airflow to cool
everything, including the CPU. One of those is
a P4Celeron 2.5Ghz, which I guarantee generates
a LOT more heat than any 1Ghz PIII ever will.

> Please reply as to the model number of your PSU -
> it sounds like you got your pc to be quiet - any
> pointers about attaching the h/s to the cpu will
> be greatly apprectiated - I think I am going to
> go ahead and order it. Do I need any kind of
> sealants? screws?

The instructions that come with the Zalman ZM80A
are very thorough. I had never installed any
heat sink of any type before, and the instructions
got me through (even though this is a very complex
install, compared to most heat sink installs).

If you have further questions, I highly recommend:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Go to the forums, and look in the CPU section.
There are a couple threads on this topic, which I
had participated in.

Isaac Kuo

 

[littleberry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Isaac,

I am trying to install the fanless heatsink, and
what has stumped me is how to get the existing
heatsink separated from my PentuimIII. I was
able to separate the fan assembly by just snapping
out while squeezing the clips. Now I have the
PIII out with the silver-colored heatsink and
the four clip-like plastic prongs going from the
heatsink all the way through to the black
plastic cover. I am stumped as to how to separate
this heatsink so I can install the zalman fanless
heatpipe heatsink. Do you remember how you got
the factory supplied heatsink (with your Pentium III)
separated from the CPU itself?

I see that my capacitors on the board are low, so I
am pretty sure this zalman fanless heatsink will fit
ok, and I am looking forward to solving my noise
problem. If you have any advice on getting this
dang factory heatsink off, please advise.

Thanks,

Littleberry


mechdan@yahoo.com (Isaac Kuo) wrote in message
>
> I got this one (from NewEgg), because it was a bit
> cheaper and looked better--more surface area. I've
> since figured out that the extra surface area comes
> from an extra bit of height. If you examine the
> pictures at NewEgg, you can see the ZM80A has small
> "fingers" at the top that the ZM80C doesn't have.
>
> This difference in height may be important for
> getting a comfortable fit. The ZM80A rises up from
> the motherboard almost as much as a full height
> PCI card. My scratchbuilt case has a low ceiling
> with the lid simply resting on top of the PCI/AGP
> card "lips". The ZM80A heatsink goes almost as
> high as this--but there's still a comfortable
> amount of clearance.
>
> > b) ZM80C-HP, aluminum w/gold-plated copper heat pipes,
> > (325g, 1200 sq.cm, $30)
>
> This one has also been used by someone in Finland;
> but his page was in Finnish. I couldn't read it,
> so I couldn't read any warnings (if any) about
> issues with orientation or fitting.
>
> > I assume you are using the all aluminum one - right?
>
> Actually, I think the construction of these two
> models is identical, except for some details of
> the shape (most importantly, the extra fingers
> at the top of the ZM80A heatsinks).
>
> > I think my mboard layout is the same as yours, except,
> > the pictures from your website seem to have the PSU
> > taken away - is that right?
>
> It's not that the PSU was taken away, the PSU wasn't
> there at all. The pictures were of the motherboard
> by itself, along with the CPU/Heatsink, of course.
> The RAM is there only because I didn't bother
> removing it. You can see the motherboard plug for
> the ATX power connector in the pictures next to the
> CPU slot--nothing's plugged in.
>
> > Are you using the zalman ZM300A-APF power supply?
>
> No, but this doesn't matter. Standard form factor
> ATX power supplies all have the same external
> dimensions.
>
> > I am very curious as to how you get this fanless
> > heat sink to make solid thorough contact with the
> > CPU so as to truly dissapate the heat. Did you
> > use some kind of sealant? Or is it just firmly
> > and tightly held mechanically via screws or something?
>
> The Zalman VGA heatsink comes with all of the parts
> needed, including thermal paste. The installation
> is actually rather involved, because it is designed
> to accomidate a wide variety of VGA cards--there's
> no standard location for the GPU of a VGA card.
> There are a lot of little adjustable fiddly bits
> to ensure a tight fit. The main requirement is the
> existence of at least two mounting holes diagonally
> located around the processor chip--slot 1 CPUs have
> the necessary mounting holes.
>
> > On my desktop, from behind, facing the ports and open
> > expansion slots, I see the power supply on the left,
> > the expansion slots on the right, and the ports in
> > the center and leftways a bit, with the CPU right
> > behind the ports longways from left to right.
> > There appears to be a bit less than one inch
> > from the power supply to the left most edge
> > of the CPU, and a bit more than one inch from
> > the rightmost edge of the CPU to the VGA card
> > (no fan, just the nvidia geforce2). Do you
> > think that is enough room?
>
> Yes, definitely. HOWEVER, watch out for tall
> capacitors or other obstructions next to the CPU
> slot.
>
> The ZM80A fits so well to a slot 1 processor it
> almost seems like it was designed for it. Mounted
> tight, the way I have it, it extendes only a
> fraction of an inch beyond the card on either side.
>
> Height can be a concern for cases where the PSU is
> directly above the CPU, or for slim cases where the
> expansion slots are turned sideways. However, if
> a full height card can fit and there's nothing
> above the CPU, there's no problem--UNLESS there are
> tall capacitors or other tall components adjacent
> to the CPU slot.
>
> The pictures I posted show where the problem with
> tall capacitors can be. Look at your motherboard
> to make sure. Note that you only have to look at
> the "back" side. The "front" side is where bulky
> standard CPU heatsinks are expected to go, so
> there won't be any tall components in the way on
> that side.
>
> Also, note that you'll have to remove the existing
> slot 1 brackets.
>
> > I am really tempted
> > to just go ahead and order this device because
> > the dream of fanless CPU operation is very
> > appealing. Mine is 1ghz - do you think that
> > might be too much? It has to sometimes run
> > for hours (converting avi to mpeg) and with
> > really heavy duty processing and only moderate
> > hd access. I wonder if it would overheat - ???
>
> I don't think you're in any danger of overheating.
> The surface area is huge, and the relatively
> nearby PSU will provide enough airflow. If you
> are concerned, you could kill two birds with one
> stone and order a Fortron PSU from NewEgg; either
> a Fortron 300 or 350 with 120mm fan. Make sure
> you get one of the Fortrons with a 120mm fan.
> This fan is on the inside, and will pull air
> straight from the CPU area. These Fortrons are
> pretty quiet--not the absolute quietest but they
> provide plenty of airflow compared quieter PSUs.
> I have two computers which rely entirely on the
> modest amount of Fortron airflow to cool
> everything, including the CPU. One of those is
> a P4Celeron 2.5Ghz, which I guarantee generates
> a LOT more heat than any 1Ghz PIII ever will.
>
> > Please reply as to the model number of your PSU -
> > it sounds like you got your pc to be quiet - any
> > pointers about attaching the h/s to the cpu will
> > be greatly apprectiated - I think I am going to
> > go ahead and order it. Do I need any kind of
> > sealants? screws?
>
> The instructions that come with the Zalman ZM80A
> are very thorough. I had never installed any
> heat sink of any type before, and the instructions
> got me through (even though this is a very complex
> install, compared to most heat sink installs).
>
> If you have further questions, I highly recommend:
>
> http://www.silentpcreview.com/
>
> Go to the forums, and look in the CPU section.
> There are a couple threads on this topic, which I
> had participated in.
>
> Isaac Kuo

 

[littleberry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Isaac,

I got the heatsink and backplate off using the push-screw
method, and I am ready to apply the new heatpipe heatsink
back, but, I see my CPU has a crusted film of something
(probably hardened thermal gel), and it looks like it
will require scraping and chiping it away with an
xacto knife or something fearful like that. Did
you scrap away your existing thermal grease?
Or can I just leave it there and go on as
per the instructions?

Littleberry

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Sorry for the late response--I didn't check me e-mail and
when I did, I looked for the thread at silentpcreview
rather than here on Usenet...

davsf@neto.com (Littleberry) wrote in message news:<bd00fe19.0404252046.30c21f07@posting.google.com>...
> I got the heatsink and backplate off using the push-screw
> method, and I am ready to apply the new heatpipe heatsink
> back, but, I see my CPU has a crusted film of something
> (probably hardened thermal gel), and it looks like it
> will require scraping and chiping it away with an
> xacto knife or something fearful like that. Did
> you scrap away your existing thermal grease?

I used an exacto knife to gently scrape away pretty
much everything that was caked on. I just repeatedly
went over it with the blade flat against the chip
surface, changing the "angle of attack" every once in
a while. The caked on thermal paste on my processor
was relatively easy to chip off. OTOH, I have an old
Pentium 120 where the heatsink is solidly GLUED on.
I can't even remove the heatsink, much less go at
any caked on thermal paste. Thus, I would think that
some thermal pastes are much easier to chip off than
others.

I'm no expert on this; I just went with what I learned
from this newsgroup and silentpcreview. In particular,
the thread on "too much thermal paste" had a lot of
relevant advise. A lot of that advice was conflicting,
but I did gather that a lot of people have success with
just scraping gently. There were some suggestions for
what to use as for a cleaning fluid, but being a novice
I was wary of it.

> Or can I just leave it there and go on as
> per the instructions?

One thing everyone agreed on was that it was extremely
important to start off with a flat surface. Thus, you
want to at least scrape off what you can to leave a flat
surface. It should be okay to leave some buildup around
the edges where it doesn't "stick up" to interfere with
the flat surface.

However, in the "too much thermal paste" thread, it seems
that maybe some thermal pastes are electrically conductive,
or at least inductive, meaning they MIGHT cause problems
if they're in contact with the wires.

Anyway, use google groups to search for "too much thermal
paste". It's a long thread, but it should be informative.
Be sure to read any replies before accepting any advice
at face value!

Isaac Kuo

 

[littleberry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

mechdan@yahoo.com (Isaac Kuo) wrote in message news:<acc26c07.0404260637.50a18208@posting.google.com>...
> Sorry for the late response--I didn't check me e-mail and
> when I did, I looked for the thread at silentpcreview
> rather than here on Usenet...
>
.....
> Isaac Kuo

Thanks, Issac,

I went ahead and used a q-tip with some rubbing alcohol
(standard walmart stuff) and to my suprise the caked-on
film just melted away, leaving a shiny blueish surface.

So, I am now ready to install the new heatpipe heatsink.
Wow. What with all the handling of this powerful but
delicate PIII, I will probably be suprised if it still
works when I put it in. Getting the backplate/heat xchanger
separated was a teeny but violent (a sharp whack with a hammer,
blunted with a thich towel) and the more I get into it I
realized I was committed and couldn't go back. Oh well,
I can always get a new PC if I ruined my PIII. It is very
instructional, at least. While I have this PIII out exposed,
I took a magnifying glass to it for close inspection. It
is a marvelous and daunting device. I just can't envision
the immensity of the design team that put this all together -
and it is already obsolete by today's standards.

I intent to follow this up with a "results" post later today
(or tomorrow) when I have finished. I live with high hopes.

Littleberry

 

[littleberry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Success.

I installed it this morning and it has been running
for about an hour. The temperature hangs around 40C,
which I thought would be higher. I did some mpeg
conversions which are supposed to heat up the CPU,
but it still stays around 40C. Both heat sinks feel
about the same, hardly above room temperature (80F).

I now notice the sound of those little fans in my
removable harddrive enclosures.

Question: Has anyone ever tried to use removable
hard-drive enclosures that have the larger fan
on the bottom - are they quiter? When I disconnect
those fans, it is really a quiet pc.

Thanks,

Littleberry