phenom: cheapie fan or new cooler

M

Mac29

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Jan 10, 2015
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So was given an old system w/phenom II X4 965 BE and can't stand the fan. If I want to just replace the fan I've found these:
CM sleeve bearing 80mm silent mdl R4-SPS-20AK-GP, Noctua NF-B9 Redux PWM (92mm), Nexus 80mm basic SP802512L-03 and I vy much like the Apollish Advance fan from an (Enermax-ETS-N30-HE). Model is 'black UCHE9P'. (Also on back of fan says ED922512H-PA.) I don't know anywhere you can buy these. I think an 80mm or 92mm would work but figure most 120mm won't.

I'm thinking w/ the small purchase of a fan I can regain my sanity as well as maybe get a small OC. Prefer to spend as little as possible but hope to still get quiet fan under all but near-pegged conditions. I like the fan facing down blowing on everything.

If I have to spend $15+ I figure might as well consider another cooler and I've found: a) a CM Vortex plus for $22 (including gas) and slap another fan on that if necessary, b) Wraith cooler, the Max w/o the LED stuff for $26. But again, probably will want to replace that fan.

I see some other deals on new coolers but prefer not to have to mess w/backplates or a brick hanging off the mobo. But I could since the case is huge. Quiet is what I need, cheap is what I want. Haven't started looking in forums yet but I'm sure lots of used stuff is available.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. I'll deal w/the software end of things later, undervolting, etc.



Thanks,

Mac
 
The stock Phenom II AM3 coolers have a 70mm fan and all of them are loud in my opinion. I think just replacing the fan will be a waste of time and money. Yes, you can find a quieter fan, but it won't cool well.

The Silent Wraith you talked about is a good choice. They used to be under $20 on ebay, but now I can't find any that cheap. Like you found, they seem to be around $26. They have a 92mm fan so they are quiet and they also do a good job cooling. I have one on a Ryzen 1700X at the moment and it does fine. This is what I would go with if you want something new. You may even find one on craigslist or offerup used for a good price. Near the end of FX production AMD started putting them on a lot of AM3 FX cpus and even some FM2 cpus and APUs so there are a lot of them floating around.
 
Yeah I'd like to get the Wraith and another fan on it. I've read the early FX ones were later improved. Forget what to look for. The Vortex would work for now if I lived closer to it. Think I'll skip the AC 64 but the 64 plus looks interesting and cheap enough. I'll look into stats re: noise.

I'm just looking at solutions. Thinking about trying to oc and glad older tech is dirt cheap. I'm not throwing $ at this thing. Have to research what era I can game on this thing if I try to oc but that's another post. I may spend up to $30 but even w/a modern card I think I'd be wasting dough.


Thanks.
 
Deepcool Gammaxx 200 through the 400 are overall quite "excellent" provided you have the default motherboard "clip" that is used to attached the cooler.

I myself am using a hyper 212 plus in push pull (two of the stock fans) on my 955 (overclocked to beyond 980 speeds)
keeps it very cool especially when you "tune" the voltages and use a decent thermal paste (such as MX4 which is very easy to apply and clean up)

the stock coolers for AMD as well as Intel for a number of years have been crud, only good thing about them is they "come in the box" tower style coolers are 9/10 superior to "top down" style cooler though of course not all cases can fit them (make sure it will work by all means) but there are many quite good "top down" coolers out there, like anything else, the better to best ones will cost quite a bit to a butt load.

Gammaxx 400 is at least as good as example coolermaster hyper 212 plus (Evo and X) and can usually be found for a bit less than them, to each their own, but if it can handle an FX 8370 or a Ryzen 2700x it sure as hell can handle Phenom II (pretty much all of them) just fine (considering the price)

the benefit of the hyper 212 or the deepcool Gammaxx ones I listed, they allow "proper" east to west cooler orientation which helps air to flow better IMO in most cases which helps keep everything (not just cpu) cool enough.
 
Yeah these don't look bad but I'd like more quiet. But prices look good. I found the stats on Zalman CNPS7X LED and like that install seems easy. If I end up selling off pieces. Not interfere w/ram. I found a few more I may like: Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile, be quiet Pure Rock and Gelid SnowStorm. Different styles, like the stats, but don't know prices or if easily found. But I may buy used anyhow. Save since it's just a HSF. As long as all the hardware is in shape.

But I appreciate the input. I'm reading how some OC and actually still game on a phenom. Up to a point. Really don't want to put much into this system vs. something newer but I've got a 650W PSU so I'm good.
 
When I had a X3 445 Rana ( would not unlock either ). I got some decent overclock with an FX8120 cooler which fit right on. I used a lot of full speed fans back then, a Bissle vac was quieter but I don't think it related to the CPU cooler
 
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