Can I ditch my front intake fan?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mark
  • Start date Start date
M

mark

System:

Athlon 64 3000 ( NOT overlocked )
Zalman CNPS 7000A-CU Cooler
Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W PSU
9600SE heatsinked Graphics card
200GB Maxtor SATA
Coolermaster Alluminium case
1 SilenX intake fan, 1 SilenX exhaust

I'm close to almost having a silent PC. The case is lined with acoustipack
damping foam(works great) and the HDD is placed in a SilentMaxx
silencer(wors great too). The noisiest thing in my case now and the two
SilenX fans, if you can believe that, cosidering these are highly rated
quiet performers. I'm not sure whether they are generating some case rattle,
the rear one does for sure but it's hard to tell with the front intake
fan...

My system never seems to get hot, and so far have had no problems with
heating issues. Which leads me to wondering whether or not I can safely
remove the front intake fan and not be paranoid about overheating inside the
case? If I could remove the fron intake fan and deal with the slighlty
screw/case rattling of the rear fan I'm down to Xbox levels of ommited noise
:)
 
case? If I could remove the fron intake fan and deal with the slighlty
screw/case rattling of the rear fan I'm down to Xbox levels of ommited noise
:)
Click to expand...

I'll just correct that. Just turned on the Xbox(outside the tv cabinet) for
side by side comparison and the PC is way quieter!
 
Just get a fan controller and knock them fans down to 7volts, problem
solved and you will still have airflow to keep your pc cool :), well
thats what i did.


My pc is quiet and i have a 120mm front,side,top and two rear 80mm
fans all running at 7 volts, i can barely notice my pc is going.


And with my Zalman 7000a Cu cpu cooler its bliss :)
 
Just get a fan controller and knock them fans down to 7volts, problem
solved and you will still have airflow to keep your pc cool :), well
thats what i did.
Click to expand...

I too use the Zalman Flower cooler. No need to buy a voltage regulator -
just swap the 12v pin with the 5v (yellow and red) in one of your spare HD
power connectors and plug the fans into that - hey presto a 12v fan down to
a silent 5v. Just make sure they start properly - some older fans won't
start at 5v - they need a little help to get going, but fine once they have
some momentum and are spinning.
 
mark said:
System:

Athlon 64 3000 ( NOT overlocked )
Zalman CNPS 7000A-CU Cooler
Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W PSU
9600SE heatsinked Graphics card
200GB Maxtor SATA
Coolermaster Alluminium case
1 SilenX intake fan, 1 SilenX exhaust

I'm close to almost having a silent PC. The case is lined with acoustipack
damping foam(works great) and the HDD is placed in a SilentMaxx
silencer(wors great too). The noisiest thing in my case now and the two
SilenX fans, if you can believe that, cosidering these are highly rated
quiet performers. I'm not sure whether they are generating some case rattle,
the rear one does for sure but it's hard to tell with the front intake
fan...

My system never seems to get hot, and so far have had no problems with
heating issues. Which leads me to wondering whether or not I can safely
remove the front intake fan and not be paranoid about overheating inside the
case? If I could remove the fron intake fan and deal with the slighlty
screw/case rattling of the rear fan I'm down to Xbox levels of ommited noise
:)
Click to expand...
IMO you can ditch it, if you just have 1 in & 1 out then you will still have
the same airflow just by
having the one out as long as you leave the front vents open.
 
mark said:
System:

Athlon 64 3000 ( NOT overlocked )
Zalman CNPS 7000A-CU Cooler
Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W PSU
9600SE heatsinked Graphics card
200GB Maxtor SATA
Coolermaster Alluminium case
1 SilenX intake fan, 1 SilenX exhaust

I'm close to almost having a silent PC. The case is lined with acoustipack
damping foam(works great) and the HDD is placed in a SilentMaxx
silencer(wors great too). The noisiest thing in my case now and the two
SilenX fans, if you can believe that, cosidering these are highly rated
quiet performers. I'm not sure whether they are generating some case rattle,
the rear one does for sure but it's hard to tell with the front intake
fan...

My system never seems to get hot, and so far have had no problems with
heating issues. Which leads me to wondering whether or not I can safely
remove the front intake fan and not be paranoid about overheating inside the
case? If I could remove the fron intake fan and deal with the slighlty
screw/case rattling of the rear fan I'm down to Xbox levels of ommited noise
:)
Click to expand...

The quick answer is try it and see. There are some that believe front
intake fans are vital because otherwise you end up sucking too much air,
and dust, through the floppy and rom drives. The only difference I've
seen is noise: more of it with front fans.

Cheers,

Ari


--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. To jump to the end
of the story, as a result of this I need a bone marrow transplant. Many
people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant, too. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
spodosaurus said:
The quick answer is try it and see. There are some that believe front
intake fans are vital because otherwise you end up sucking too much air,
and dust, through the floppy and rom drives. The only difference I've
seen is noise: more of it with front fans.

Cheers,

Ari
Click to expand...

One more thing: you might want to consider cutting off the inbuilt
'grilles' that are part of the case and replacing them with regular fan
grilles. This usually cuts down on noise, too.


--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. To jump to the end
of the story, as a result of this I need a bone marrow transplant. Many
people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant, too. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
spodosaurus said:
One more thing: you might want to consider cutting off the inbuilt
'grilles' that are part of the case and replacing them with regular
fan grilles. This usually cuts down on noise, too.
Click to expand...

Agreed. IMO, you should remove the rear fan and apply a cover over
its empty position. This will help keep the suck and blow balanced.

Cutting out the inbuilt 'grille' at the front is good and doesn't even
need
a wire guard since it's behind the front panel. See the 'Recent XP1800
build' article in the 'Miscellanea' section of my website in sig.

HTH
 
I just wondering about these large 120mm DC fans. If you put a
resister in series with one of the legs, the fan should slow down.
Has anyone tried this? Did you use a one ohm resister?
 
Graham W said:
IMO, you should remove the rear fan and apply a cover over its empty
position. This will help keep the suck and blow balanced.
Click to expand...

Intake and exhaust will always balance, otherwise the PC would ultimately
implode or explode. Eliminating an exhaust fan (and covering the hole) below
the PSU typically results in a significant increase in CPU operating
temperature. This seems to be particularly true when there is a high power
graphics card in the AGP slot.

Alex
 
Phisherman said:
I just wondering about these large 120mm DC fans. If you put a
resister in series with one of the legs, the fan should slow down.
Has anyone tried this? Did you use a one ohm resister?
Click to expand...

If you want negligible speed reduction, one ohm would be fine. Otherwise,
a minimum value of 20 ohms is recommended.
 
On every PC I have built, the "burn-in" period (about 24 hours) is done with
no case fans unless something becomes noticeably hot, What I do is every 30
minutes or so to feel the video card, the CPU heat sink, the hard drive(s),
and the CD-ROM drive(s). If they feel uncomfortable to the touch, I add a
case fan.

If there are any doubts, use a case fan.
 
On every PC I have built, the "burn-in" period (about 24 hours) is done with
no case fans unless something becomes noticeably hot, What I do is every 30
minutes or so to feel the video card, the CPU heat sink, the hard drive(s),
and the CD-ROM drive(s). If they feel uncomfortable to the touch, I add a
case fan.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, what does your burn in process involve? Do you
run a set software product during the burn in? Is it a constant run of
the software? Do you check temps? If so, what do you consider
acceptable limits?



Harry
 
Alex Fraser said:
Intake and exhaust will always balance, otherwise the PC would ultimately
implode or explode.
Click to expand...

Of course they will, but why deliberately mis-construe the information?
My comments were meant to be taken as a whole - remove the fan
and cover the hole. As such, the balance achieved would provide
close to external pressure inside the case and avoid fluff/dust gaining
access through the front removable drives as another poster mentioned.
Eliminating an exhaust fan (and covering the hole) below
the PSU typically results in a significant increase in CPU operating
temperature. This seems to be particularly true when there is a high
power graphics card in the AGP slot.
Click to expand...

If you are advocating that the rear aperture be left open in the interests
of CPU cooling then that will certainly provide a short (circuit) for warm
air behind the case to re-enter and be pushed straight out again by the
PSU fan.
 
Just installing the OS will be a pretty good test of the major hardware in a
PC. Beyond that, repeated read/writes to the HD, testing of RAM, etc. is
called for - along with a careful observation of temperatures. Try Winstone
for a good program.
 
Graham W said:
Alex Fraser said:
Graham W said:
IMO, you should remove the rear fan and apply a cover over its empty
position. This will help keep the suck and blow balanced.
Click to expand...
[snip]
Eliminating an exhaust fan (and covering the hole) below
the PSU typically results in a significant increase in CPU operating
temperature. This seems to be particularly true when there is a high
power graphics card in the AGP slot.
Click to expand...

If you are advocating that the rear aperture be left open in the
interests of CPU cooling [...]
Click to expand...

My point was that following your suggestion would probably increase CPU
temperature significantly. I made no comment about leaving the hole
uncovered, but that's not good either.

Alex
 
I too use the Zalman Flower cooler.
Click to expand...

Me too, they're great.
No need to buy a voltage regulator -
just swap the 12v pin with the 5v (yellow and red) in one of your spare HD
power connectors and plug the fans into that - hey presto a 12v fan down to
a silent 5v.
Click to expand...

One thing - don't _swap_ the yellow and red, pull the yellow 12v and
tape it up, then put the red 5V in the 12v hole and use your new 5v
connector to run the fans.

I blew up a CDRW by accidentally using the modified connector when
fumbling around (I only wanted to eject the disk I'd accidentally left
in the drive, too). Don't be as dim as me, kids.

Cheers - Jaimie
 
Back
Top