Adam Luchjenbroers wrote: >>Pentiums are no longer cooler than Athlons. Athlons used to be hot, but >>the new Athlon XP's are just as cool as Pentium 4's. You can go to each >>of Intel and AMD's web-site's and read the CPU specifications -- Athlon >>XP's and P4's are within a few degrees of each other. > > Athlons dissipate more heat than Pentiums, but they usually have better > heatsinks to compensate for it.
No, no, no! Did you check the specifications I talked about? Athlons do *not* dissipate more heat than Pentiums. http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/24309.pdf http://www.intel.com/design/pentium4/datashts/24988703.pdf According to these specs, my athlon XP 1600+ has a typical power consumption of 56.3W. A 1.6G pentium 4 has a spec of 60.8W. Everybody thinks that athlons are hotter than pentiums, but they're not! Check it out for yourself! > Toms Hardware Guide did some testing regarding CPU fans and did look at noise > > A Comparison of 46 CPU Coolers and Fans > http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q2/010521/cooler-01.html > noise results: http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q2/010521/cooler-30.html One should be wary of any fan noise-level review based entirely on decibel comparisons. The problem with bad fans is more in the focused high-pitch frequencies that they emit than it is in the amplitude of low-frequency static. You can get a squeeler of a fan that is "quieter" than another one decibel-wise, but far more annoying. Graphs like the one on that Tom's Hardware link don't reflect that fact. Also, Dan's Data (http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm) has a great CPU cooler comparison, which covers additional options in slightly more detail. > Of course, I'd check that mobo fan first. Could well be the problem. Lastly, I take back the comment I made about the chipset fan. I just tried detaching mine, and it was a royal pain in the butt that didn't amount to any significant change in noise level. The chipset fan was inaudible in comparison to the CPU and power supply fan (both of which are fairly quiet on my machine). If you want to make your box quieter, my experience says that you've got to swap the CPU fan, swap the power supply fan, get a more insulated case (my girlfriend's aluminium case *amplifies* fan noise a lot), or switch to a convection-cooled Apple G4 cube. Michael
