Why 120mm? You can easily find a cooler/heatsink which supports 80mm fan.

Nehalem501 wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:16:

Hello everyone, […]
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Hello everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for a cooler for my old childhood PC.
It’s a socket A machine with an Athlon XP 1400 (if I remember well) and the stock cooler.

When I used this computer at the time I didn’t notice the noise as much, but I guess I’ve been spoiled by modern PC hardware since. What I’m looking for ideally is a cooler I could use with a modern 120mm fan that would be as silent as modern PC coolers. As the GPU is fanless and I will be replacing the HDD with an SSD, the stock cooler is main culprit when it comes to noise.

I’ve looked a bit at older threads on this subject, and they all seem to point to coolers that are visually similar to the stock cooler with tiny fans. Tiny fans that rotate at a high speed are not really compatible with my goal of relative silence.

I’m not very knowledgeable about PC hardware from this era outside of the main PC components as I’ve really started to get into the hobby during the socket 775 / core architecture era.

I don’t really plan to overclock the CPU, but I might upgrade it some day.
My motherboard has cooler mounting holes around the CPU socket.

Also, I’ve noticed that the connector on the motherboard has 3 pins, how does that map to the 4 pins of the more recent CPU cooler fans? I can build an adapter if I know which pins have to be connected.

Thank you for your help.

You should be able to plug the 4 pin fan into a 3 pin board header. The alignment notch will guide you as to what pin will hang over the side.

dominusprog wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:38:

Why 120mm? You can easily find a cooler/heatsink which supports 80mm fan.

Won’t a 80mm fan be noisier than a 120mm because it will have to go faster to push the same amount of air?

Dothan Burger wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:44:

You should be able to plug the 4 pin fan into a 3 pin board header. The alignment notch will guide you as to what pin will hang over the side.

I didn’t know it was backwards compatible, thanks!

Alpha PAL 8045 with 80mm to 120mm adapter?

I have run my 8045 with a “silent” 80mm fan and it’s fine, but I guess a silent. 120mm would probably cool as well as a low noise 80mm.

In my experience a decent heatsink sized for 80mm fan, probably with a copper plate + modern relatively slow 80mm fan (around 2000RPM) will work well enough. It is not absolutely silent, but quiet enough to not be annoying. I've used Igloo 2520pro myself as i was able to find a few of them for good price, but there are a lot of options like this. You may be able to use slower fan too, at a cost of higher temperatures.

IMO given how most coolers are attached (those plastic clips on the socket) and AMD's load limitations on exposed CPU die, leading to specified cooler weight limit - do not go overboard. There are large pure copper coolers, like stuff from zalman. Some require motherboards with holes for attaching the cooler in more modern way, but you still risk damaging the CPU by using this. Some people are fine with the risk though, so it is your choice...

One more issue with socketA is that clearances for coolers are fairly low, some motherboard components like VRM caps can be very close to the socket and on some motherboards even heatsinks sized for 80mm fans may cause issues or at least be very tight fit - 120mm will be unrealistic.

Also be sure to pick a fan with RPM you want out of the box or some standalone means of controlling it, most of this boards did not have proper fan control.

Contemporaneous reviews here:

for 2000 -- https://www.anandtech.com/show/583
for 2001 -- https://www.anandtech.com/show/825

I had an Alpha PAL8045. It was the most "substantial" heat sink I ever bought, but had enough mounting points to be gentle on the brittle die on the socket A athlon.

The spring latch heat sinks were more likely to cause damage.

Nehalem501 wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:52:

dominusprog wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:38:

Why 120mm? You can easily find a cooler/heatsink which supports 80mm fan.

Won’t a 80mm fan be noisier than a 120mm because it will have to go faster to push the same amount of air?

Well, you can use a buck convertor to reduce the voltage to 8 or 6V. You can also make a convertor yourself, using a LM317 regulator.

There are coolers being sold for socket 462 that use slim 80mm fans. Just replace it with full size fan and add a fan regulation panel.

For quiet operation you need to get down to about 1300rpm. At 800rpm fans are really quiet but it works well only for bigger fans. My Athlon 64 fan runs at 1300 rpm, but I have a large full copper orb heatsink.

You will need a well ventilated case if you want low rpm. Historical cases are usually not good enough. Semi-modern mesh cases were introduced in about 2008 with 120w cpus.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-02, 11:18:

There are coolers being sold for socket 462 that use slim 80mm fans. Just replace it with full size fan and add a fan regulation panel.

For quiet operation you need to get down to about 1300rpm. At 800rpm fans are really quiet but it works well only for bigger fans. My Athlon 64 fan runs at 1300 rpm, but I have a large full copper orb heatsink.

You will need a well ventilated case if you want low rpm. Historical cases are usually not good enough. Semi-modern mesh cases were introduced in about 2008 with 120w cpus.

This depends on specific fan a lot. I'd say there is no specific universal number like that. Good fan with sleeve, fluid dynamic or maglev bearing will not generate significant amount of noise itself - most noise comes from airflow. So more airflow = more noise, larger fan = more airflow at lower rpm.

For CPU fan specifically it also depends on the case and how much it dampens noise a lot. And it is highly subjective too. For me thresholds seem to be around 1200rpm for 140mm, around 2000rpm for 80mm and somewhere in between for 120mm. Again - assuming good fan in good condition.

Ball bearings are great for longevity and were often used in high end coolers back in s462 time, but they also generate a bunch of noise. That's where rpm starts to matter regardless of airflow and one reason i tend to replace fans with modern ones - FDB is great - quiet and no longevity issues like with sleeve bearings. Applies to power supplies also - if old power supply is used the fan is probably worth replacing if noise is a concern.

The Thermaltake Volcano 7CU+ had a speed controller I think, also the 9 .... either of those should be very quiet on the lower speed XPs, but get into the 2200+ CPUs and you might need to make it hum a little.

There is also Thermaltake Volcano 11 with fan speed control. Just buy whatever is cheaper and new fan is easiest to mount.

Nehalem501 wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:16:

My motherboard has cooler mounting holes around the CPU socket.

Most overkill solution would be a custom bracket for modern coolers like AM4.
I'm trying to use a similar 3D printed bracket for my S478 build (P4-3.2 Prescott), but there is not enough space for 120mm tower size cooler - the CPU socket is too close to the top edge of motherboard. I will have to replace the ATX case or fit a smaller cooler.

Nehalem501 wrote on 2025-07-01, 21:16:

Also, I’ve noticed that the connector on the motherboard has 3 pins, how does that map to the 4 pins of the more recent CPU cooler fans? I can build an adapter if I know which pins have to be connected.

4pin PWM fan will work as regular fan in DC mode on a 3pin connector, so no adapter is needed.

If you can find and fit it: Thermaltake SonicTower.

Ran it on an asrock k7s8x and an asus a7n8x, worked a treat with an athlon XP 3000.

Thank you all for your help.

From all the coolers you’ve mentioned the only one I could find was the ThermalTake Volcano 9, but I got it super cheap (less than 10€ including shipping). I will test it with the stock fan but I plan on replacing it with a newer one.

One day I might experiment with 3D printed brackets for modern coolers as this seems the proper way to not have to bother with finding old compatible ones.

On another note, I took out the motherboard from storage and it doesn’t POST anymore. It even doesn’t react if I don’t put any RAM (normally it would beep to complain). The only things that seem to work are the CPU fan, the power LED and the on-off button.

Some of the bigger caps near the CPU socket look suspicious (they are a bit swollen). I will try replacing those.

It was still working last time I turned it on but it has been at least 10 years since…

So change of plans, I need to resurrect the MB first before experimenting with different cooling solutions.

thermaltake sonic tower with a be quiet silent wings 4 fan strapped to it, problem solved

Nehalem501 wrote on 2025-07-03, 08:35:

From all the coolers you’ve mentioned the only one I could find was the ThermalTake Volcano 9, but I got it super cheap (less th […]
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From all the coolers you’ve mentioned the only one I could find was the ThermalTake Volcano 9, but I got it super cheap (less than 10€ including shipping). I will test it with the stock fan but I plan on replacing it with a newer one.

One day I might experiment with 3D printed brackets for modern coolers as this seems the proper way to not have to bother with finding old compatible ones.

On another note, I took out the motherboard from storage and it doesn’t POST anymore. It even doesn’t react if I don’t put any RAM (normally it would beep to complain). The only things that seem to work are the CPU fan, the power LED and the on-off button.

Some of the bigger caps near the CPU socket look suspicious (they are a bit swollen). I will try replacing those.

It was still working last time I turned it on but it has been at least 10 years since…

So change of plans, I need to resurrect the MB first before experimenting with different cooling solutions.

Ahh, the bad caps. I got a couple projected indefinitely on hold until I find the time to recap the boards. I need more long conference calls when I'm working from home. Those are always good for desoldering projects.

Volcano 9 is a good heatsink. I used one for a bit. Just don't crack the CPU die putting it on. https://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/ther … volcano9review/

Last year I bought a new old stock Thermaltake Socket A Silent Boost because it is supposed to be quiet. I haven't tried it yet. Its a big chunk of copper though, so I expect cooling performance to be excellent. It says 21dba on the box, but reviews say it is more like 40dba on full speed.