OK. I'm impressed

[mdlbear]

For some time, my Mini-ITX system has been plagued by a noisy CPU fan. My original plan had been to replace it with a silent video chipset cooler, but a little experimentation convinced me it wouldn't fit. This afternoon at Central Computer I spotted a CooolerMaster Blue ICE chipset cooler -- it had a fan, but I'd had good luck with their fans before so I bought it (for all of $8).

The next challenge was getting the old heatsink and fan off the CPU. After easing the board out of the case and removing the pushpins, I discovered that this was far easier said than done. Humf. Well, I've been in that situation before. I pushed the pushpins back in and swapped the fans, which is what I should have done in the first place.

The results were pretty impressive -- it's a lot quieter. Not perfectly silent, of course: there are still two motors in there (the other's in the hard drive; the power supply was already fanless, from an earlier mod). But it's now quieter than dantooine, which is the machine I was using for recording before, so it can take its place in the studio bedroom.