Quiet case fans

[ming]

Aha - sounds like the Neo4 has the exact same fan/AGP placement as the Neo2 did then - and I am guessing you also have an arctic cooler on your card? Anyways - when I have time I will fidn a link or take a pic for the HS - right now I am the proverbial blue ass fly as we say here...

Nooooo MFG. It's no card!! lol It's my NB chipset.

 

[mlakrid]

if u want something with a good dB to CFM ratio, check out some of the SilenX fans

92mm, 38 CFM @ 14 dBA

Might be a bit expensive for your tastes though :lick:

I have 2 120mm SilenX fans, and they exaggerate their dBA levels, they are MUCH quieter than the thermaltake fans, and even more so, if you run them at less RPMs than they are rated for, and still put out VERY CONSIDERABLE air flow...

I love mine, but I really wonder how they get those dBA levels...

I will have to re-visit the idea of making a review... I still have my PICs...

 

[ElementalDragon]

...... least Mlakrid still seems to be staying on topic. and it appears that the Thermaltake fans MIGHT have been discontinued. oh well.... if Xoxide get's some more in, i might order 3 of the 92mm..... if not... i might look for another brand that's quiet with considerable airflow.... or might just stick wit what i got.

 

[LordOfLA]

ED I told you you didnt need to get the vga cooler from arctic cooling - you're better ff with the reference cooler. If you can hear the reference cooler you're doing something wrong elsewhere in the case.

Still, your money to waste...

 

[ElementalDragon]

well, LA..... i hear something inside the case.... and it's sure not the 92mm fan on the back of the case.... and other than that fan, and the 120mm in the PSU which i also highly doubt i hear..... it's gotta be either a) the CPU fan or b) the VGA fan....... so....... yeah. and it's not hard for me to hear stuff inside my case when the side panels have one huge mesh-covered hole (why do i feel like i've said that like 4 times already in this thread alone?). if the AC Freezer 64 Pro knocks the noise down quite a few notches.... then i probably won't get a VGA cooler.... or i might still just wait and get the Accelero X1 when it comes out...... haven't decided on getting the VGA fan yet (which i also think i've said a few times already...)

 

[Sazar]

I just spent more money on a decent case

That and my fans are connected to speed controllers.

My system doesn't generate much heat so its pretty ok to keep the rpm low.

 

[ElementalDragon]

i was kinda thinkin about a new case....... but then i thought........... wtf am i gonna do with my current beast of a case? footrest? besides..... if the fans are quiet enough, it should be perfectly fine.

edit: just got an e-mail back from Xoxide (e-mailed 'em last night about the Thermaltake fans and when they would be getting them back in stock)..... they said that TT was having some trouble with patent infringements on the Silent Cat fans, and temporarily discontinued them........

 

[LordOfLA]

Hmm case with a huge mesh grill in the side and lots of fans pulling air around and you want to know where your noise is coming from ???

Get rid of the mesh side panel and pickup some silent case fans. Also make sure the case isnt sat on carpet/wood flooring as it'll suck dust up into the fans and make them rattle.

VGA fan is not going to be audible unless you have serious heat issues in your case.

 

[ElementalDragon]

well...... like i said, it's either the CPU or VGA fan that's relatively loud. the case fans probably WOULD be loud..... but the fan controller on the front of my case practically cuts off 2/3 of the fan speed.... so if i had my 80mm fans hooked up, instead of spinning at their average of 3,000 rpm's, it's only spinning around 900-1000. and in theory... if it's 30db at 3000 rpm's, it should, in theory, only be around 10db at 1,000 rpm's. Hope i get an e-mail soon from MGE/XG about the specs for the 92mm fans so i know what THEIR average speed is, how much air they move, and their loudness. As for the case's position, i currently have it sitting on a small wood table.... probably about a foot and a half tall table. used to have it on the floor, but got tired of cleanin all the dust from the mesh panel. GOD was that a dust magnet.

It could very well be the CPU fan...... what speed does the A64 stock fan usually run at? like 3,000-ish rpm's?

 

[LordOfLA]

my freezer 64 runs at 2500rpm.

 

[LeeJend]

ED

As they say in Ebonics... U be f'ked. Just to see how much pain that 12 inch fan inlet is causing you:
-Take 2 sheets of cardboard and tape them togther to cover the hole.

You are never going to get the noise under control without baffling the high noise components. That means a solid wall, cork lined side panel. If nothing else the 7800 cooler is going to kill you.

PS Now I understand why you want to quiet it that badly.

 

[ElementalDragon]

yeah..... mesh side panels are a killer.... though they do seem to allow ample fresh air into the case...... and i honestly have to say that it does give a nicer look than acrylic (though.... some of those etched acrylic side panels are quite pretty.... like the one on the MGE/XG Dragon case). Still.... i should be able to get it quieter than it is now, especially if it's not the (one) case fan i have in it, the power supply fan, or just air noise (not a CHANCE of this being air noise... unless created by VGA or CPU fan). hopefully the Freezer 64 Pro will drastically drop it, since LA says that the VGA coolers are not that loud (though Arctic Cooling's comparisons seem to differ).

 

[VenomXt]

all i have to say is 120 mm fans.

 

[ElementalDragon]

....... all i have to say is..... if i COULD, i would. only way i can is with fan funnels....... or cuttin the crap outta the mesh on the side..... but then... that'd look kinda crappy i think.

 

[VenomXt]

lol. sorry what case you have. ( i admite i havent read everything above) so please dont yell at me.

 

[ElementalDragon]

Venom, look in post #12 on page one... first paragraph, the hyperlink.

 

[ElementalDragon]

well...... just got the Freezer 64 Pro installed....... actually think it might now be running slightly LOUDER than it was with the stock cooler, though it's hard to tell, at the same freakin temperature..... maybe 2 or 3 degrees cooler. might STAY cooler.... but it's not RUNNING cooler. the stock cooler didn't seem loud at all when i plugged it into the fan controller on the front, and it was actually running at 3,000 rpms when it was plugged in up front. moved quite a lot of air too. One question i now have..... how can i kinda... u know..... turn the system on... but only have fans running, and not EVERYTHING... so i can say... unplug the CPU fan and see how much noise (or air noise) the VGA fan makes....... how loud or quiet the PSU fan is...... etc...? i really think it's the VGA fan or the air from the VGA fan making a lot of the noise.

 

[LeeJend]

Option 1 - no risk
If your like me you have ajunk box of left over power cable adapters. So unplug the MB, HD, Optical drives. Then dig through the junk box and find adapters to plug into the MB and VGA fans. The new CPU fan probably came with an adapter.

Then take a metal paper clip, unbend it and short the MB power connector pin with the green wire to an adjacent pin with a black wire. This will start up the PSU without the MB connected. You can now connect and disconnect fans with no fear of frying expensive parts. This is how I tuned my system for quiet. Note some power supplies (i.e. Antec Smart Power) will turn off their fans under this conditon becasue there is no heat load to cool.

Option 1 - has some risk
Take the RAM and the CPU out and disconnect the HD and Optical Drives.
Bios won't run, and most everything will be protected except the MB and Video card. Since bios is dead the CPU and GPU fans will run at max speed.


NAG - Did you try the cardboard yet? Even taping a sheet of thick paper over the grill should make a noticeable difference.

 

[ElementalDragon]

eeh..... if i'd go to that extent, i'd try to find a nice sized sheet of acrylic..... and just try to make my own window to fit it.

so.... you mean take something like what i saw before, where the power supply comes with an adapter to plug in a few case fans directly to the PSU? wouldn't even really need a case or spare mobo or anythin? if so.... think i might be able to manage that. only hard part would probably be testing the VGA cooler's loudness.... though i should be able to tell if every other fan in the case is pretty freakin quiet.

 

[LeeJend]

only hard part would probably be testing the VGA cooler's loudness.... though i should be able to tell if every other fan in the case is pretty freakin quiet.

Oh ****, forgot part of the instrucitons. You unplug the VGA cooler from it's header and run it off one of the adapters. You can do with the card still plugged into the MB. The fan is compleetly isolated from the VGA card once the fan power header is unplugged.

I'd seriously conside an acrylic cover (or cheap plexiglas). You could just glue/tape it to the inside of the side cover, leave the mesh in place for the look. Get thin plexiglas. 1/6 thick. Thicker would be better but it is harder to cut to shape.

An even better approach would be to cover the entire inside of the panel with the plexiglas. Mount it on stand offs (couple of washers) you will then get four air/material interface changes which should make a damn nice sound baffel. If you under size the sheet by about 1/4 inch and use 1/4 inch stand offs between plexiglas and metal you will still get about 0.25 x 400 (case circumference) sq inches of air gap for cooling flow. Thats about a 10x10 inch opening.

Hmm, I'm liking this mod concept thermally, acoustically, and esthetically. I think it's a winner for you.

Tech Note
Sound undergoes a reflection every time the media it passes through changes. So by layering air-plexi-air-metal-air you cut transmitted sound significantly. Also plastics have a lot less sound transmissibility than metal. This may be even better than my cork liner, though the cork was particularly effective for the older 5k rpm fan noise.