Quieter fans?

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jtsnow

We had a PC upgraded and they put 2 exhaust fans in. Its in a bedroom and
kinda of loud. I think there is on on the CPU too. Are there quieter fans
one can obtain or other quieter techniques for cooling. If so, I would
appreciated any tips or hints to websites that would carry this sort of
gear.

thank you
 
Making quiet PCs is a hobby in itself:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

On a practical basis, you could replace the exhaust fans with thermally
controlled ones:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-999-111&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-129-031&depa=0

(These run slowly if the PC is cool, but speed up when things heat up. It's
a compromise between silence and cooling.) The ones I list above are 80 mm
models, which seem to be the most common.

Larger diameter fans tend to produce less noise than smaller ones for a
given amount of air flow. My case (Antec Super Lanboy) uses two 120 mm fans
for cooling (one blows in at the front, a second exhausts at the back). It's
even possible to buy a CPU heatsink that uses a 120 mm fan:

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp120.htm

(The XP-120 is huge, but it weighs less than most copper heat sinks with
similar performance.)

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
For the exhaust fans, if they're not controlled by the motherboard, put
some Zalman Fanmates between the fans and the power connector. You can
turn the little pots to give the fans less voltage. Less voltage =
slower fans = quieter fans.

For the CPU fan, go into the BIOS and see if you have any provision for
letting it control the fan speed based on the temps. You might also
check the CPU temps while you're in there.

Yes, there are lots of quieter fans around tho "generally" they move less
air because they run more slowly. Most likely there are quieter CPU fans
and more efficient heatsinks than what you have. Not taking poorly designed
heatsinks and fans into consideration, as a rule of thumb, for aircooled
systems, the quieter it is, the less heat it's getting rid of.

You still need to know your temps so you have a better idea of what you
want to change and what you can safely change.

In the mean time, here's some fans you can listen to;

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/tecar.html

We had a PC upgraded and they put 2 exhaust fans in. Its in a bedroom and
kinda of loud. I think there is on on the CPU too. Are there quieter fans
one can obtain or other quieter techniques for cooling. If so, I would
appreciated any tips or hints to websites that would carry this sort of
gear.

thank you
Click to expand...
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My new Antec power supply came with (two) fan power supply leads
which are thermally controlled like the power supply fans. I suppose
one would look for three-wire case fans to go with that.

My new MSI mainboard has two thermally controlled fan connectors. One
of them is connected to a Zalman FB123 mainboard cooling fan.

Not saying my computer is quiet, just adding to the thermally
controlled fan recommendation.
 
the only fans really worth considering are the panaflo L1As or the nexus
real silent.

for the cpu zalman 7000 or thermalright xp120 if it will fit.
 
I would recommend 80mm Vantec Stealth case fans. They may not be the
quietest, but come very close, and produce a little more air than fan
such as Zalmans. They're also likely to be more reliable, they're dual
ball bearing, and have a lifetime warranty (I think). I replaced my
80mm Zalman with one, and there was a very slight noise increase, but I
suspect that it may've been due to forcing more air through the tiny
holes in my case.

I've now remove all 80mm fans completely and got an 18db, 120mm Akasa
amber fan. I think it has a slight 'hum' to it (bearing noise), like
the other 20db 80mm Akasa fan I had a while ago. It is hard to tell
though because my north bridge fan is making loads of noise :-(

It depends on what your needs are really. The 120mm fan pushes a lot
of air, but can be hard to mount, and the air flow isn't as focused as
an 80mm. After a bit of rearranging I want to get a passive
northbridge cooler, and then have the 120mm fan half over my CPU, and
half over my n/b.

What ever you decide to do, it's definately worth monitoring your
temperatures, you may even find that you only need one of those exhaust
fans.
 
Sounds good, but db isn't everything. The db rating doesn't give any
indication of the pitch or how anoying the sound is :-(
Click to expand...

Well, that site has user reviews and comments too for a clearer idea
of how they perform. I've never used SilenX fans and I get the
impression they are very quiet but not so great at cooling because
they are running at such a low rpm. I just hook up all my fans to a
Fanbus and control their speed myself - works for me.
 
jtsnow said:
We had a PC upgraded and they put 2 exhaust fans in. Its in a bedroom and
kinda of loud. I think there is on on the CPU too. Are there quieter fans
one can obtain or other quieter techniques for cooling. If so, I would
appreciated any tips or hints to websites that would carry this sort of
gear.

thank you
Click to expand...

Another site for parts is
www.quietpc.com.

I have had various bits like the Zalmann PSUs and some 120mm fans all of
which have made a tremendous difference.

As an aside the Hard Discs can make a surprising difference to the noise
levels, you can quite them or replace them with quiet models (I use the
Seagate Barracuda7200.7 which are almost inaudible.

You can spend more money making your PC totally silent than most people
would spend buying a complete PC but there are some advantages, the PSUs
and fans you get will as a rule last much longer than cheap off the shelf
stuff.

Hope this helps

Andy
 
[email protected] said:
Another site for parts is
www.quietpc.com.

I have had various bits like the Zalmann PSUs and some 120mm fans all of
which have made a tremendous difference.

As an aside the Hard Discs can make a surprising difference to the noise
levels, you can quite them or replace them with quiet models (I use the
Seagate Barracuda7200.7 which are almost inaudible.

You can spend more money making your PC totally silent than most people
would spend buying a complete PC but there are some advantages, the PSUs
and fans you get will as a rule last much longer than cheap off the shelf
stuff.

Hope this helps

Andy
Click to expand...

Yes, HDiscs do make a difference. Just replaced mine with Hitachi
Deskstar 80GB. It's very quiet. Trouble is, i'm now more awware of the
fans. Is it an easy job to replace the processor fan (Pentium 3 866)?
 
Peterborough Effect wrote:

Yes, HDiscs do make a difference. Just replaced mine with Hitachi
Deskstar 80GB. It's very quiet. Trouble is, i'm now more awware of the
fans. Is it an easy job to replace the processor fan (Pentium 3 866)?
Click to expand...

All CPU fans are easy to replace if you get the right one (as in it fits)
Have a look at
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/p3cooling.php
which gives you a choice.

One thing to remember is quiet coolers are usually heavy so great care must
be taken when you move the PC around or you can break the Motherboard. I
have never had any problems but it could happen.

Andy
 
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