What fan to get? :D

[Repulse]

Ok, so it seems my CPU fan is getting a little worse for ware.

It just makes this pathetic noise, nothing blocking it, when you disable it the sound stops, when you apply pressure to it the sound stops, seems its just worn down.

So im going to get a new one! ... BUT WHAT ONE?

I don't want a wind turbine so no dodgy replies, thanks! .

I was looking at two/three in particular;

1. Asus Silent Knight AL CPU Cooler

1.5 Asus Silent Knight II CPU Cooler

2. ZALMAN CNPS 9500 AM2

Anyone know of any other decent fans?

Thanks .

[=98=]

I can pretty much assure you that the Asus fans will be crap.

Tight budget: Arctic Freezer
Mid budget: Tuniq Tower
High budget: Titan Amanda (tec cooling!)

[peeth]

For the price, you can't go wrong with an Arctic Cooling Freezer.

Basically, listen to Alex.

[Repulse]

Thanks :).

Spent the passed few hours searching for a decent fan that will fit the motherboard without getting in the way of the memory slots and and wasn't too big.

Found the Zalman CNPS9500, yesh or noe? :)

[Sniper1432]

Zalman FTW!

[Minicoop503]

I've got that zalman fan, but for the lga 775 socket.
Works great, got my e6300 o/c'd to 2.8 ghz and it runs around 25-30 C idle.

It looks cool too, which is always a plus. :)

[Eagle101]

get ZALMAN its ftw as sniper said! i am using it on my laptop currently durng heavy battles and it OWNs i am currently thinking of buying the 9500 though wi blue leds for my desky i would say get the zalman or the artic freezer pro!

[=98=]

Tuniq tower is much better than a Zalman, but i'm not quite sure of the cost difference.

[megawhompertoo]

if you're going to spend a lot of money on a cooler, it pretty much needs to say "thermalright" on the label, imho. scythe and tuniq know how to mill a chunk of al/cu also, but--again, this is just my opinion--their fit and finish leaves something to be desired.

si-128, a very, very nice cooler for 24.99 blighted squid. it's the one i use on my oc'd e6600 along with the fan i linked to:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HS-030-TR
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=FG-013-AR

benefits:

a. it's not a "my giant copper tower is bigger than your giant copper tower" style, so you're not as worried about torsion/cantilever forces when you move your pc around,

b. you're not as worried about it being to deep for your current (or future) case,

c. it's interchangeable for the foreseeable future with all planned amd/intel platforms (even after that, thermalright usually provides adapter kits at a very low cost because they appreciate their customers paying a bit more upfront),

and most of all, particularly considering your current situation

d. you can switch out the fan if it happens to die--not that you should worry about it, check out that fan, there's a better picture, description of it here:

http://www.svc.com/acf12.html

see how it's mounted on individual "rivets", with polymer bushings? excellent fan, and it's downright silent in my system even at full speed.

but on a budget, you can't be an arctic cooling freezer 7 pro. that's what i had before getting a higher-end model, and it was acceptably quiet at anything other than full speed, and it kept my old pd 915 chilly enough at 3.6-3.8ghz.

edit: for the si-128, it takes a little bit of patience to install this one, unless you're willing to remove the mobo. it took me about 40-50 minutes start-to-finish working inside a cramped p180. angled or flexible screwdrivers help with standard LGA775 pushpin mountings.

[Repulse]

Thanks for all the responses guys .

I looked at the Thermalright SI-128, from what I understand the way its designed it would interfere with one of my memory slots, the M2n-SLi Deluxe in a pain in the as* (silly filter imo ) when trying to find a decent cpu cooler.

The Tuniq Tower looked pretty interesting, but it was huge, although it was high enough to not bother any of the memory slots, something that large hanging vertically cant do the motherboard much good.

[Minicoop503]

I still recommend the zalman fan, its worked perfectly for me.

[=98=]

something that large hanging vertically cant do the motherboard much good.

It uses backplates and is the hardware and overclocking enthusiasts HSf of choice. There have been no major complaints about cracking PCB, so it can't be that bad. It's as big as my Big Typhoon, and that's fine.

Just don't go about throwing your computer around.

[TheDesert_Fox]

Take any current fans off your heatsink and place this facing towards it.

But seriously, I am a proud Zalman owner. It works beautifully. Very cool on hot days, and quite quiet if you're not running it in an oven.

[Repulse]

Got the Zalman CNPS9500 in the end, installed it earlier, so much better now not as loud . Down about 10degrees, the new grease said that you have to wait for a bout 7days for it to kick in also.

Thanks for the input .

[Minicoop503]

Zalman FTW!