Stock fan on P4 is too loud - which is the best quiet replacement

[tannersarms]

The stock fan that came with my Intel Pentium 4 3e has always been really loud and I've finally had enough of it after hearing (or not hearing) how quiet the GFs Dell Dimension 3000 is. Can anyone suggest a good replacement for this CPU?

Also, while I'm asking, when I installed this CPU and Heatsink I was never directed to (nor did I) use thermal paste. Is that a relatively new thing or am I misunderstanding how and when thermal should be used?

Cheers

Mark

[Phayze]

Get a Zalman flower - very quiet and a much better heatsink all round than the stock one you get.

[Joffy]

Zalman coolers are good quality.

[tannersarms]

Get a Zalman flower - very quiet and a much better heatsink all round than the stock one you get.

Thanks for the advice, petal. Oh, hang on, I think I misunderstood your reply.

So the consensus is Zalman's are the way to go - what about the Thermal paste -should I get some of that to put on the Heatsink as well?


Thanks for the replies

Mark

[Joffy]

You get paste with the Zalman coolers.

[ASH]

This is the place for you

http://www.quietpc.com/

[tannersarms]

Is there something a little less expensive? I'm not ruling out the flower by Zalman, although I'm not entirely sure I've got room for a contraption like that in my case - although I've been meaning to switch to round cables for a while so this might speed that up.

[Captain Proton]

I found a Zalman 120 fan/heatsink a headache to install, i have a socket 939 and i would have had to remove my motherboard and install a back plate underneath it, refit the motherboard, then do all the connections again and then screw that moma of a heatsink onto the backplate. Oh and its very heavy!! Be careful.

[Faythur]

My son put one of these in his system the other day http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/intelcooling/ninjaplus

Not cheap, but it does work well. His CPU is AMD64 3000+ and even ran OK without the included fan. However he installed the fan as well and have to say it is very quiet. The stock fan turned out to be even quieter than one of my Noiseblocker 120mm case fans! :eek:

Did have to remove the mobo to fit, but I thank a lot of these heatpipe tower jobs are all the same. Bit of a chore, but not difficult :)

[M@rtin]

I went from watercooling to a Thermalright Sl-120 (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2613.html) which is a beast of a heatsink! It has heatpipes that raise it above the mobo so there's no clearance issues with anything, and you choose which 120mm fan to install, so you get the best compromise of noise/performance. I've got a Papst v.silent fan that doesn't really push much air, but is totally silent - my idle temps are around 29 degrees, 36 at full load.

BTW, I can highly recommend the company I linked to above (Kustom PCs) - they are one of the best around, with service that is 2nd to none. Prices aren't always cheapest but they are competitive on cooling stuff, and certainly cheaper than the ripoff prices at QuietPC.

[yellafella]

Zalman Superflower for me, works wonderfully well

I do have the Stacker ST1 case mind so have plenty of room to fit the beast

[infestedsicness]

I use a Zalman flower in my Antec Sonata case, fits just about and was a bit of a bugger to install, but well worth it. As for the thermal paste, as far as I know you should always use thermal paste between the heatsink and the processor.