I was going to do a writeup on the Vantec Stealth, but I had a funny thing happen to me. When I shut my computer down, switched the fans in, and booted it back up, my hd got a ton of errors on it, and somehow my webcam decided to go like 4 frames per minute. I thought it was the fan, but after switching it back, the problem stayed. Windows takes like 4 mins to boot up, instead of the 8 second times I had with the 1600+.

The story on the fan is, its very quiet. With the 80-60mm adapter, I think I lose some of the CFM from the fan, because of the way the adapter is shaped, not for smooth operation. The fan says it puts out 27cfm, and it says its 21dB. I'll admit, its very quiet. My fan on the power supply is louder, and that's not all too loud. The downside is, its only pushing 27cfm. The Igloo's box says it pushed 26cfm, which is one less than the claimed cfm on the Stealth, so something's gotta give... maybe it is the goofy adapter. I plan on getting a Thermaltake AX-7, which is a 80mm heatsink, maybe my temperatures will significantly drop. With the case closed, I'd have about 43 idle, 50 load, and with this fan, its like 50 idle, and 57-8 load. I can't get my webcam to work, but you can go to vantecusa.com to see it. Its the SF8025L, which is an 80x80x25, and revs at 2050rpm.

Did it come with the silicon on the heat sink? Seems odd to me that it would effect your hd and other hardware. Maybe you had a surge on the board when you made the change. Did you ground yourself first?

Well, I know what I'm doing pretty well. I bought only the fan, and attached it to my Igloo 2300 heatsink/fan, and removed that fan, then put a clear plastic 60mm-80mm convertor and then attached the new Vantec by that.

I can only guess that in the process of installing it, I touched the motherboard, or a screw did something to that nature. I didn't have to remove the heatsink and break the Arctic Silver bond while installing this.

Still weird to get such a rise in temparature if you didn't touch the heat sink and the CFM's are that close. Only other thing I can think of is maybe you bumped something on the board.

Yeah, I'm working on it. My only guess is that the 60-80mm adapter is at fault. It is a 3 tiered drop from 80mm to 60mm, somewhat like smaller and smaller octagons. If those were smoothed and shaved to a more pyramid-ical shape, I could see some better flow and compression. Something like cars, and how the airflow and turbulence are actually important. I am also looking into the board, I may have knocked a transistor or resistor off, maybe drawing more voltage or something. No long term worry, I plan on moving to an Epox 8k3a or Soltek KT333 solution with some certified Samsung PC3000 modules. Then I'd put an 80mm heatsink, and be in business.

Anybody got any ideas what I did wrong?

I've got a MSI KT7 Pro Turbo2 mobo.

I had an Igloo 2300 fan on there, which was giving me temps in the low 40's. I switched fans, and since then, the temp is in the low-mid 50's, and the USB is messed up. At first, I thought it was the webcam because its been dropped numerous times, but it works on other computers fine. For elimination purposes, I've put the old fan back on, and the temps still hover in the low 50's and the USB is still messed up. I may have broken some of the thermal paste bond when screwing the fan down, and when I get some free time, I'll try that and see what I can do about it.

I'll work on the USB drivers, delete all I can find, and reinstall them, but that won't fix my temperatures, I'm sure.

I'll resit the sink down with another layer of thermal paste (AS3), because 55 deg C for an AMD Athlon XP 1600+ is a little funny, especially when I drop the voltage down to 1.675 Vcore.

If I knocked a resistor off, is there a way I can get it back on?

Problem solved. Here's what I did.

I remember reading a while back on anand or hardforums something regarding the KT133A chipset and difficulties with the onboard USB bus when overclocked upwards of 138mhz, no matter what chip, no matter what power supply, etc. My solution? I have an external USB card that goes in a PCI riser slot. ... and becaust of that, I am currently running my FSB at 150 (10.5x150=1.575) very stable, and my webcam works flawlessly, because it goes through another power source.

The second problem was the high temperatures. When you take off your processor, you'll notice this little plastic thingy in the middle of the CPU socket. That is where most, if not all, motherboards record their temperature from. They have other ones on the board a bit farther away for a case temp, and one very close to the pci bus where it meets the outside, which is used for ambient/room temperature. So as I was taking off my fan and redoing the Arctic Silver 3, I decided to bend the thing up a little more so that its sitting on the bottom of my cpu. At stock settings, 133mhz FSB, 10.5x, 1.75v, it said I was running 58 deg C, which is close to where most people call their highest temperature. I was in the BIOS PC Health section, where its just the fan RPM, and temperatures. There is absolutely nothing running in the background or nothin. So I wait like 30 mins, every 4-5 mins, I give the heatsink a little tap. 58 deg Celcius is abuot 140 Farenheit... no matter how good the heat sink is, it should be somewhat hot to the touch. The thing is literally stone cold. I put my hand on the now AS3'd northbridge heatsink (some of you have heatsinks, some of you have those fans on your mobo), and that too, almost stone cold. So I learned by moving that thing around, you get totally different temperatures. This air combination did fine before, and adding a little more surface area and some more CFM should do it better than before, so I figure, to hell with temperatures.

Also. I did some modifications, and I must say, I'm quite impressed. First, go get a Vantec Stealth 80mm fan. Its very, very quiet, and it has the same airflow as your stock Igloo 2300 fan. Secondly, get an 60mm-80mm adapter, best choice would be plastic, or you can make your own metal. Then, grab a lighter, a screwdriver, and something like a steel file.

Here's the fun stuff.

1. Take off the heatsink
2. Remove the fan from the heatsink.
3. Take the little blue thingy off of the Igloo, you won't be needing this when I'm through with you. Besides, it traps heat in the heatsink.
4. Take your plastic adapter, and put the lighter to it. The one I got was fairly flammable, and smelled more like a nail polish than the funky rubber smell.
5. Wait a few seconds for it to self ignite, and when it picks up a bit, use the nail file, and basically, scoop yourself a bigger adapter. Be extremely careful to not move the inside dots, as those line up to the original 60mm slots. You could choose to have new 70mm or 75mm dots because there's no more blue thing, but the Igloo is only so big. Eyeball it before you melt it if ya do.
6. Make sure to blow out the flame, and immediately after mold your shape. Repeat 4-6 on all sides except the pegs.
7. Attach adapter to heatsink, fan to adapter, and voila, you're finished.

What you've accomplished is this:

http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/blowgoats/mod.txt

Extra airflow that covers just about every mm of the heatsink, and since its aluminum, by design, aluminum doesn't really hold heat, but transfers it quickly... by providing all that extra surface area, you've got some extra cool.

The black is a graphic representation of the original 60mm shape, and the white is a very cheaply hollowed out modification. I could have done it cleaner, but its late, and I don't feel like sawing it for hours. Besides, its smooth.