just bought a new quiet fan for my DAW

haha wow...

so, sunuvab!tch, i get my zalmann and install it only to find out that it wasn't the cpu cooler that was causing so much noise like i thought - instead, just like others here, it was the VIDEO CARD FAN...that tiny little thing!!!

i'm not bitter about buying the zalmann though, it's a good product and if i ever upgrade to windows 7 and need to overclock this thing i'll definitely need the cooler.

however, now i need to buy another zalmann cooler: ZALMAN VF700-CU gpu cooler for my nvidia fx 5500
oh well

Im pretty sure you dont do any intesne gaming on that, I'd take out the fan completely and let heatsink cool it off by itself....or buy bigger heastink without the fan

unfortunately my fx5500 doesn't have any onboard temp gauge...how much risk is involved w/ just leaving the heatsink on there? i do zero gaming, and while i don't really know how GPU-intensive DAW stuff is, it is a dual head card with some pgms spanning both monitors. do you think the heatsink is enough?

Coz wrote:

crossings wrote:i wish there was something like this for laptops....

There is... it's called Apple.

Mac's still sound like a mustang if your burning a disc or copying one.

Nym wrote:unfortunately my fx5500 doesn't have any onboard temp gauge...how much risk is involved w/ just leaving the heatsink on there? i do zero gaming, and while i don't really know how GPU-intensive DAW stuff is, it is a dual head card with some pgms spanning both monitors. do you think the heatsink is enough?

you should be able to monitor gpu temps from within your video card options in control panel, if not you can download application such as this http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php...

when my fan died on my 7300gs I took it off and it worked no problem but it would get hot...usually when video card overheats you will start getting blue screens and display related...

also what you could do is take out the original video card fan and put a regular size fan like 60mm on top of the heatsink and secure it with a hair tie.

however if the video card fan is not completely dead just makes weird noise maybe you could try cleaning it of all the dust and put a drop of oil on the center screen holding the fan if there is one, usually it's located under the sticker.

séance wrote:

Coz wrote:

crossings wrote:i wish there was something like this for laptops....

There is... it's called Apple.

Mac's still sound like a mustang if your burning a disc or copying one.

all computers do haha.... (when burning at high speeds)



yeah those companies often put garbage gpu fans unless it was a high end gaming video card.

Yeah I wouldn't replace it with a heat sync nym... simply because it wasn't designed that way.

séance wrote:Mac's still sound like a mustang if your burning a disc or copying one.

Discs are dead/dying, but I hear what you're saying.

or if you have spare pci slot below your gpu, you could get one of those pci coolers and mount it right below your gpu...not sure what the noise ratio on that is but, reviews say it's quiet...and it got a switch in the back to turn it off completely if you needed to

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119097&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=m7awfalk676d

How do you guys clean your fans including video card and power supply?

TYPO wrote:How do you guys clean your fans including video card and power supply?

blow out with air in can spray, make sure it's unplugged from ac and evaporate good before hooking back up if you get any of the solution on the components

i like the idea of securing a different fan in there with zip ties or something. i can definitely salvage a fan out of some bum computer at work. i took the fan completely apart and soaked the components in rubbing alcohol, and also noticed that some of the plastic was breaking so i dabbed a drop of superglue in there to try to hold it better in case the vibration is what was causing the noise...haven't fired it up since, but will when i get home.

the fan is a piece of crap though clearly. would like to replace it with something a tad more robust.

konc3pt wrote:

TYPO wrote:How do you guys clean your fans including video card and power supply?

blow out with air in can spray, make sure it's unplugged from ac and evaporate good before hooking back up if you get any of the solution on the components

another tip I will suggest is... if you have a paint brush you never used lying around... one that has 2 or 3 inch long bristles at least... well keep that one for dusting. You can get under the fan parts and in between the blades etc... and what you shake loose that doesn't fall out will get blown out by your compressed air can. The paint brush also works for dusking off your mpc or other stuff that has grooves etc.

I just wanna add though, try not to touch the PCBs too much with the brush as it's plastic most likely and even though I have yet to see it happen... you may get some static from it. I doubt it, but you never know. If you have the option, remove the fan first to give it a better cleaning anyways.

**** a fan, if your worried about heat, get liquid nitrogen:



Just a memory block, but you get the idea. I know a hardcore gaming dude who had his whole chassis filled with some kind of cooling gel, no fans etc. There was a circulating pump, but it was submerged and made no noise. The only downside is once its in, your computer is what it is, no more upgrading, lol. This would be a dope solution for someone who builds a PC just for music and runs a ton of plug ins and tracks.....

I watercooled my pc back in the day, watercooling setup alone ran me 600...it included 170watt peltier, black ice radiator, dangerden waterblock. I built my on water reservoir it was quiet as hell but the risk involved in having leak and potential condensation are there and those big ass cpu heatsinks like v8 do as good job as as water setup

haha crazy....and expensive!!! but damn would that do the job...
i mucked around last night with a couple different fans...ran the computer w/out the video card just to see how quiet it'd be, and it's awesome...quiet as my laptop almost...all the fans i tried for my vid card were almost as loud as the OG fan so i ended up just buying the zalmann gpu cooler. it was cheap, and it's already paid for by CD sales so hell, call it a cost of business!

look at me, buyin stuff i probably don't need...i've gone from thrifty pete to extravagant patrick