Do P4's need case fans?

If your power supply has a nice dual fan setup (like Enermax), you may not need additional case fans to keep the case temp down.

Ritesh

First few P4 systems I built I had salespeople tell me an extra case fan is a good idea for heat. They're lying.

If you're not overclocking or overclocking little you simply don't need it. My system runs ice cold (40C idle, 48C heavy load), overclocked to 2591 from 1800, with one case fan. P4 simply doesn't generate much heat compared to other CPUs like AXP. If you're overclocking only a little or not at all, you don't need the extra fan.

The one exception to this is if you were to get an older Willamette core P4. This doesn't apply to you, as 2.53 is solidly into Northwood territory :smile:

-Col.Kiwi

Well, you have options. Generally speaking a typical 80mm medium speed case fan should do. But typical 80mm fans are noisy. You would be better off with 2 or more slower, quieter fans, if you really want the system quiet.

Also, brand does matter to some extent, especially at higher speeds. Better fans have better bearings and more optimized blade shapes that help reduce noise. I recommend Panaflow fans. For good cooling and low noise, a couple low speed Panaflows would be a good choice, but one might be enough.

Now, the power supply also exaust heat. If you have one with an exhaust fan on the bottom, it will pull heat from the processor. Enermax makes some quite power supplies in this configuration. You might get by with just that, or better yet, one of those and one low speed Panaflow.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

I figured they wouldn't need much case cooling. Another question... In terms of hard drives, which brand would you say is the quietest? I used to have a Western Digital 20gb drive and it was very quiet. My next drive will probably be around 60-80gb I think.

Right not a lot of case cooling, but some. I believe the quietest hard drives are the 5400RPM Seagate drives with the rubber noise isolator cover.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

yeh.... ide always like to know how loud hard drives are. my new one wil be a maxtor 80gig. will this be a bit noisy?

Atleast Jesus loves you.......

The maxtor D740x has quiet enough idle noises, especially if youget the drive with fluid bearings, but i find the seek noises 'scratchy'.

P.S. I believe that all modern (fast) PC's should have at least one low speed casefan.
You cant really depend on the PSU cooling your system as the fans in the PSU essentially just cool itself.

One low speed rear casefan should be sufficient, provided air can get in somewhere at the front.


<b>Plaid will NEVER go out of style! :cool: </b>

from the hundreds of systems ive built.....used.....and etc.....Seagate Baracudda IV HDD's r the QUIETEST and coolest running yet amazing performing drives out there....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>