Cooling: Hanging a Kilo off your Motherboard?

[Thad E Ginathom]

My PC build of a couple of months back is reasonably quiet, in fact it can hardly be heard at all over, eg, one room fan.

Most of the time, my AMD Phenom II*4 is idling. It's like driving a big Merc to the corner shop . However, when it does crank up, the cpu cooling fan, of course, cranks up with it. The AMD stock cooler does not feature a quiet fan (previous Intel was much better: it was the case fan that made the noise on that system) and it produces an unpleasant wine as it approaches 4,000RPM.

I'd like to go the extra and replace that stock cooler with something larger, with a larger fan, moving at slower speeds. I've been thinking about Scythe: Yasya, Mugen2b, Ninja3. If it was a horizontal motherboard, I wouldn't hesitate, but this is vertical in a tower case.

These things weigh over 800gr. The Ninja3 actually crosses the kilo boundary. Hanging this off my motherboard makes me feel nervous!

They (and other similar coolers) are made by reputable companies and sold ...and bought; they are reviewed by sites such as silentpcreview. I guess I'm just being a baby.

Somebody tell me --- I'm just being a baby!

 

[gobble]

Check the position of the bottom cooling fins also - will the hot air move up unobstructed or be blocked by the fins on top? Weight should not be a concern since it will be clamped firmly with a bracket on the other side of the mobo.

My vote: You are being a baby

Edit: just found out

Horizontal Mounted Coolers == Blowing air onto motherboard
Vertical Mounted Coolers == Blowing air out of the back of the case (side blowing fan? )

So buy accordingly .

HTH

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

My vote: You are being a baby

Thank you, Gobble. You have been very helpful on my PC issues in the past, and here you are again!

Out of the models that I mentioned, some come with back plates, and some attach directly to the existing motherboard bracket. There seems some preference for the bracket, as decreasing the strain on the board.

My case is a P183. It has a top fan. It depends on the space and how it is possible to align the unit, but I am hoping to be able to go for an airflow bottom to top:

outside
..^..
case fan
||| |||
..fins..
||| |||
..^..
cpu fan​

Obviously, that will depend on whether the fan is recommended to suck or blow

No idea when this will actually happen, although probably before this summer. Will post a pic when installed.

 

[gobble]

outside
..^..
case fan
||| |||
..fins..
||| |||
..^..
cpu fan​

Obviously, that will depend on whether the fan is recommended to suck or blow

Another option is a side blowing fan, not bottom to top

Does your "tower" have vents in the side or only in the rear?

Edit: the top sucking type will be suitable for a case with vents on the side panel. The side sucking one can be used with the fan facing the rear connectors.

Cheers

 

[yugaaa]

The ATX motherboards need horizontal fans because the chipset and the power supply components ,memory need to be cooled as well . If you carefully look you will notice that the processor fan blows air to almost all the components near the CPU .

To reduce the heat 2 methods can be taken .
1 Have bigger heatsinks , lower RPM fans
2. Have pipe cooled heatsinks with lower RPM fans

If you could post the details of the case that you have , then suitable suggestions can be given .

My heatsink is a DIY one . I have taken off the heat pipes with fins from a server CPU cooler and soldered it to the heatsink .

The best alternative is to buy a dell desktop or a fujitsu desktop because they have BTX form factor which helps in cooling the CPU much better . The fans are 120MM minimum and they run at very slow speeds .

 

[reignofchaos]

I have a Thermalright Ultra 120 and a fairly heavy panaflo fan hanging on my motherboard for the last 3-4 years. No trouble whatsoever. All the talk of the board breaking because of the cooler is a myth. Go ahead and get the Ninja. Aftermarket coolers are totally worth it.

 

[venkatcr]

Thad, I have a brand new and unused cooler made for AMD processors. You can use that if you want.

Cheers

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Venkat, that is generous: what type is it?

reignofchaos, that sounds good: it was the ninja I was thinking of settling for.

yugaaa... I have an AMD Phenom II*4, GA-890GPA-UD3 board, Antec P183 case.

Gobble: my diagram took account of the heatsink being mounted on a vertical board in a tower machine. Depending on space allowed by other components, I would have the option of directing the air up to the top fan, or backwards to the rear fan.

Backwards would mean enhancing airflow over memory and/or power components, up would enhance flow over the 890X chip



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[buxx]

^^ if this is your case, then damn ; its clean !

 

[gobble]

^^ if this is your case, then damn ; its clean !

Something wrong ... wheres the mess and tangle of wires ?!!

 

[venkatcr]

Thad, what I have lying unused is the CoolerMaster Hyer TX3. Specs are here.

Cheers

 

[yrk1969]

If you are adventurous you can also try a ready-made water cooler like CoolerMaster Aquagate Mini R120.

I used this a few years back in vertical position without any issues.

 

[theironhorse]

tangles of wires can be hidden in the rear panel that we do not open.. behind the mobo.. its easy.. i have done the same.. but bad luck.. my cpu pulls a load of dust..

ehhh its not the cpu.. its the place.. .. i am also getting an urge to put a custom cooler for my cpu.. but unable to do so .. always been delaying it.. now lets see.. i will try to get it done..

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

^^ if this is your case, then damn ; its clean !

These pics were before the build was even complete. Not even turned on for the first time! It is not that clean now.

However, the P183 has a filter meshes on the air intake (which is much of the front of the case). This catches a lot of the cat fur and dust before it gets inside. They need washing about once a month or so. Just done the other day, or I'd be able to show a different kind of photo.

Virgin electronics, all bright and shiny... like a new car... very drool-inducing!

Something wrong ... wheres the mess and tangle of wires ?!!

Yep, they are tucked away, in the bottom compartment that holds the power supply, and behind the baseboard. I might even be able to get that main board power to come from behind, now: originally I put the PSU in upside down, and have now corrected it. That would give me a few more inches on that cable.

Thad, what I have lying unused is the CoolerMaster Hyer TX3. Specs are here.

Thanks, I'll go and look now

Gobble, you want wires? I'll give you wires! hyeah:


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And these are some of the ones that never even made it inside the case



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

If only that front-panel audio cable had been long enough to reach around the back, like these:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(And how could I not have noticed that that PSU was upside down?

 

[jayad08]

not an expert on this really just adding my exp..
I suppose the first choice for you is the fan noise..
but in the long run u would also like to get more performance out of the phenom by OC it or for that matter the RAM/FSB etc..
The second most imp criteria after fan noise should be the cooling capacity.. for which you should check the reviews..
i have the CM hyper 212Plus (which is also a side cooler) and i m able to OC the FSB by 15% (restricted by the limited mobo).
Previously with the stock cooler i had to run my CPU under clocked as it got overheated.. now no issues.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

jayad, thanks for that, but if I ever experiment with clocking, it is likely to be underclocking!. Most of the time my system is running at small percentage.

I did do some playing with linux video editing software last night: that really bumped the cpu usage and temperature... and the noise, up.

 

[asliarun]

..I'd like to go the extra and replace that stock cooler with something larger, with a larger fan, moving at slower speeds. I've been thinking about Scythe: Yasya, Mugen2b, Ninja3.

Thad, since silent cooling is your primary purpose and not overclocking, why don't you go for a completely silent solution like a fanless design? I'm really not sure what sells nowadays, but IIRC, there used to be a famous model earlier called Thermalright 120.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I have been looking at the Scythe range just recently, so can't be sure of the model, but pretty sure the cooler you mention (or equivalent) is still around.

Ambient temperature 28C to 30C. Dare I even try a fanless cooler?

At lower revs the AMD-stock cooler comes under the sound of the case fans. My idea was that if the small AMD unit can be quiet enough at 3,000 rpm, then I could expect a 120mm fan on one of the bigger heat sinks to be very satisfactory at a few hundred rpm

Thad, what I have lying unused is the CoolerMaster Hyer TX3. Specs are here.

Cheers

Checked it out. It's bigger than what I have, but with a 92mm fan I think it might not give the results I seek, so, with many thanks for the offer, I think I will stick with the idea of buying one of the monsters!

If you are adventurous you can also try a ready-made water cooler like CoolerMaster Aquagate Mini R120.

I used this a few years back in vertical position without any issues.

I thought about something like that a while back. There are even some very fancy passive water cooling devices. Pretty much, though, I decided to stick with air.

Whilst checking out this entire subject, I came across some very exotic stuff. Anybody fancy freezing their CPU? Don't laugh: it's all very real and available! Of course, this is all kit for the serious overclocker, not for the silent media-machine folk, or for the people like me who just want to cut down on the noise. It also comes with the major problem of controlling the condensation

 

[yugaaa]

Thad , I have a few 120MM server cooling fans . I also happen to have some nice 6 pipe /8 pipe coolers off some old servers . If you need them , you are welcome to have them .

only if you had some intel based processor , i could have helped with a straight fit cooler . I have an impressive list of pipe coolers .

just get an old cooler like the one below and desolder the base and solder the pipes to the original heatsink . Get a 120 -180 mm fan .

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thank you! I wonder where about in Chennai you are?

I'm not going to take on any soldering though . Oddly, although I used to be able to solder gold and silver (jewellery hobby), which is at red heat, I've never been much good at the lower-temperature lead stuff. My electrical soldering is horrible!