My PC has an Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU E2160 cooled by an Intel heat sink and fan that came together with the CPU. The fan has been running fast and noisy ever since it was installed onto the CPU, since 18 months ago.
The CPU temperature has been hovering around 83C and that's hot. The motherboard is an Abit I-45CV. I've been tweaking the BIOS settings and nothing seemed to cool down the CPU. The fan is rated at 12V 0.60A, so it really does make a lot of noise at full speed. But the temperature still can't go down.

The noise finally got onto my nerves and I decided to take the fan out to check. It turns out that one of the legs was not mounted securely onto the CPU. This was the source of the noise; rattling legs!
After pushing the legs into the motherboard with some banging and brute force, the CPU now cools down to around 48C. I've also tweaked the BIOS settings to make the fan run slower. Yes it can now run slower because of the good contact between the CPU and the fan's heat sink.
Encouraged by this, the next thing I'm going to do is replace the case fan with a slower and quieter fan. The ultimate aim is to make the PC quieter than a mouse!










