I do a lot of music production with my box, so I need quiet.
I have a dual athlon computer that has had heating problems in the past. I bought better fans,

2x Cooler Master CPU Cooler HSC-V62

but they are LOUD. They were rated best on Tom's Hardware for quiet fans. HAHAHAH. They are SOOO loud. I don't have dB measurement device, otherwise I would tell you.

What fans are good for a VERY QUIET (near silent) computer and can still really attack heat?

I hear the new stock AMD fans are really good, but you can't buy them unless you buy a chip, and I don't need new chips. I got the old version with the normal silver heatsink and green fan, now they are black and curved and sound quiet.

Anyway, I have had heating problems, and it is in a rackmounted enclosed case, and that causes more heat. Any suggestions?

;-) just teasing.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=har...=20&fl=0&x=wrt

the one i thougth would come in handy was this site cuz there's quite a few amd approve fans there. Hope that helps

http://www.cablesnmor.com/cpufan.html

I've seen a fanless DIY water cooling system before in some mag - it used a small central heating circulation pump and standard 15mm copper tube. He'd modded the heatsinks on the processors, GPU, hard disks and inside the PSU by fitting loops of 8mm copper tube to them with thermal epoxy, then connected them with extraflex hose to some DIY manifolds inside the case, on top of his case is the pump and a large coil of copper tube, this is good enough for convection cooling alone so there are NO fans anywhere in his system and the pump is silent (no, really - and decent ones, e.g. Grundfoss, last for years)

It didn't cose too much either, just plumbing parts and the pump, which he salvaged from an old boiler...

By chance remember what mag that was? That's a really brilliant idea

Sorry, No idea, it might have been an emag - a quick search on google should spit out a bunch of water cooling-related stuff.

I thought it was uberleet too, and now that my new box has so many fans it sounds like a train I'm going for it too - I've got the pump, heat exchangers and I'm collecting the last few parts I need now - I'll put it all on line when I get my website up...

Hmm, I personally wouldn't go for that water-thing. It can do more damage than good for ya... A friend of mine tried; there came a small leak, and it destroyed allmost everything that was connected into the motherboard..

But If ya want to go for it, just do a triple, no a qadriple-check for the system before installing it...

the bigger the fan, the less noise for the amount of air.
also, more fins on the fan is quieter. i have a normal, wide
heatsink that came with a 60mm fan. i bent the fins out
a little, and attached a galaxy 80mm fan that has 9 fins.
it cools well, and makes little noise, even with the
case open.

Hmm, I know, but the thing is that many water cooling kits are a bit, um, crap.

I reccomend anyone who wants water cooling to use proper plumbing parts and get a little plumbing practice before you actually go filling your expensive computer with cooling water, and it's only worth it if you need it (or if you're a geek like me with a window in the side of yer case)

You could try putting dynamat (heavy matting used in cars for sound deadening (sp?)) in and around your case. It will make your case very heavy but it should kill almost all the sound and it's easy to use, just peal and stick.

some things people forget is to keep the towers off the carpet where the carpet can block the input air from your front lower fan. A cut piece of pine wood from your local Menards hardware will adequately keep the tower away from carpet and give the little bit of space your front fan(s) need. Then of course is air conditioning in your computer room or if you have a finished basement like I do thats an ideal spot for it.

The computer is rack mounted. It is a 4U high case. Carpet sure isn't the issue. I have looked at water cooling, but I am pretty much out of space in the case, and I am scared to try it cause knowing my luck, it would leak.

I am still looking for some good ideas.....

Peltier heefect heat pumps placed between the processors and heatsinks will keep them cool. They can be pricey but they rule.

They're large P-N junctions that move heat from one side to the other or visa-versa depending on which way you pass the current through them. You can get 12V models that'll work from a PC power supply...

what temperatures are your CPUs actually running at while idling and while flat out??

are there any other components that are causing a lot of heat? hard disks? graphics/sound card?

Also, which Athlon CPU do you actually have?

I have dual athlons 1800+ MPs

The other components don't seem to be giving off as much heat.

Temps are usually

CPU0 and 1: 40-44C
AGP 46C
Memory Area 47C

Thats about it.

I really just need things quieter. Thanks for your help.

Soundcard/Firewire card area has no measurement, but it never seems too warm.

I don't have any advice for you except to look at this website if you haven't already. There's tons of people facing the same problem as you.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Myself, I've given up on fans and cooling and am saving up to buy a VIA Mini-ATX chipset which requires no fan whatsoever.