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Is it possible to replace CPU fan with large heatsink?

  • Thread starter Ricky Spartacus
  • Start date
R

Ricky Spartacus

Jan 1, 1970
0
My AMD 330 MHz CPU fan made more noises after using motor oil. When I
threw out the fan, the computer freezes too frequently. So, I'm going
to use a large piece of heatsink, the kind used on stereo receivers
and bond it to the CPU heatsink. This will cut the noise down even
further and want to know if this is a good idea?

Thanks
Ric
 
J

Jamie

Jan 1, 1970
0
For the lousy 10-20 $, why not go and get a proper heatsink and fan for it
instead of trying to cook the chip?
 
J

John Popelish

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ricky said:
My AMD 330 MHz CPU fan made more noises after using motor oil. When I
threw out the fan, the computer freezes too frequently. So, I'm going
to use a large piece of heatsink, the kind used on stereo receivers
and bond it to the CPU heatsink. This will cut the noise down even
further and want to know if this is a good idea?
It is certainly a better idea than operating the small heat sink with
no fan. The problem with large heat sinks is usually clearance over
the rest of the board. And on some motherboards, the exhaust air flow
from the processor fan also cools some voltage regulator power tab
transistors sitting nearby. Don't neglect those.
 
C

cpemma

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ricky said:
My AMD 330 MHz CPU fan made more noises after using motor oil. When I
threw out the fan, the computer freezes too frequently. So, I'm going
to use a large piece of heatsink, the kind used on stereo receivers
and bond it to the CPU heatsink. This will cut the noise down even
further and want to know if this is a good idea?

Thanks
Ric
The short answer is no, unless you need a reason to upgrade. Get another
socket 7 HSF, and if you want negligible noise, run the fan at 7v
 
N

N. Thornton

Jan 1, 1970
0
To run fanless you'd need a heatsink several times the size of whats
there already. You'd probably cook your CPU. Having said that, I had
one PC that ran with no CPU fan, some will.

Regards, NT
 
R

Ricky Spartacus

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thought about the practical idea of cooling fan cooling other
components. So I went ahead and got the $10-20 fan. Tried to run it on
5vdc, no go. So 12vdc on this PanaFlo is pretty quiet - can't here a
thing. I felt kinda stupid not realising that a quality fan can be so
quiet. Now, no more freezes or slow down and it's running 4X faster it
seems. Thanks for the advices, folks.
Spart
 
D

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum

Jan 1, 1970
0
N. Thornton said:
To run fanless you'd need a heatsink several times the size of whats
there already. You'd probably cook your CPU. Having said that, I had
one PC that ran with no CPU fan, some will.

There are options that do not produce noise, you have to transfer the
heat to a large heatsink mounted onto the case.

One possibility would be a heat pipe, which uses an easily evaporating
liquid to cool the CPU. The steam condenses at the heatsink and dribbles
back to the CPU, where the cycle starts again. A hog to design, probably
out of reach to hobbyist. Some notebooks use that sort of device.

The second way is to use water cooling. The CPU, chip set and graphic
card processor heatsinks are replaced by small devices, through which
water flows. The hot water then is cooled at the case-mounted heat sink.
The stuff is commercially available in kit form (about 200 euro). Since
water has a much higher heat capacity than air, the loud, fast blowing
fans can be replaced by a almost inaudible aquarium pump. There are
special power supply units available for use in such systems, so you can
make do without the fan in there as well (another 150 euro or so).

Whether that's worth if for a comuter that, judging by specification,
must be about 4-5 years old, you have to decide yourself.

If you do not want to spend that amount of money, you can buy large,
hence slow-turning, high quality fans with special bearings (e.g.
Papst).
 
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