Air cooling the silent way

Any computer user who has a knack for fitting their computers with high performance parts will know that fans, though effective coolants for a hot PC, have one major drawback – they can be too damn noisy!When I upgraded my computer almost two years ago, I decided to spring for a copper heatsink for my AMD Athlon 2500+ Barton Core. I knew that AMD processors had a reputation for running hot (hotter than Intel processors, so they say). I wanted to protect my PC from any catastrophic overheating problems because I use it for work so even if it was not in my budget I got a Thermaltake Volcano 7. The heatsink was enormous and on top of it was also a huge fan designed to wick away the heat absorbed by the copper fins. The whole contraption even had a variable fan speed control, which I found quite nifty. I installed the heatsink with excitement but that excitement was replaced by surprise. The fan of the heatsink is so noisy! Even when I toggled the fan speed from hi to normal, the noise levels only improved a little. I was stuck with a PC that sounded like a miniature plane is about to take off. It can be quite distracting sometimes.

I know that many PC users also get the same level of frustrate if their computers are quite noisy because of outside elements. It is a good thing that a website like OCForums.com has decided to put a sticky thread regarding air cooling that is powerful but also quiet. This is a great resource especially for people who are just beginning to discover the innards of their systems. It will also be a great read for computer users wanting to dabble in PC cooling.