Silent and effective Fans for H80i?

[solidsnake1607]

Hi people. I purchased a pair of sp120 performance which i hate because they are really loud. I bought the quiet edition and they are still a bit loud.. it makes a weird sound at high rpm. I dont know if this is because of the fan controller (nzxt sentry mesh) or because of my case. (Corsair 600T) any advice?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Hi people. I purchased a pair of sp120 performance which i hate because they are really loud. I bought the quiet edition and they are still a bit loud.. it makes a weird sound at high rpm. I dont know if this is because of the fan controller (nzxt sentry mesh) or because of my case. (Corsair 600T) any advice?

Hmm. Someone else had pointed those out in this forum in the last couple weeks, I think. They looked promising.

Well, Sah! Those are going to each generate 35 dBA at full bore. I think you should describe the noise at high RPM. Is it "fan-motor" whine or vibration?

It is possible to make a decent fan better. First, you could pull the labels from the motor-housing (careful not to damage them - if ever you want to RMA). There may be a rubber-grommet beneath the label, so you'd pull it out, add some Teflon gun-grease, and then replace everything. A dab of rubber cement on the label should put it back the way it was.

Then again, you are using the H80i AiO water-cooler, and these fans you would have applied to the radiator. Right away, I sense a possibility that you didn't take care to do what only some in the enthusiast community might bother to do: completely isolate the fan from any (ANY!) contact with the metal of a radiator, case or side-panel.

Depending on the mounts provided by the Corsair H80 -- likely just holes in metal tabs [Oh, hell . . . . lemme look . . . jus' a minute . . ] . . . Oh, yeah . . . OK . . .

Get some of these:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/setof4rufanr.html

or these:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/setof4fanrid.html

I suppose you could further deaden noise transmission by installing small pieces of Spire foam rubber between the radiator and case, or cut a "washer" or grommet for it -- this would depend on your own inspection of how the H80 is installed, or how you might benefit from this "last grain of rice."

 

[solidsnake1607]

Hmm. Someone else had pointed those out in this forum in the last couple weeks, I think. They looked promising.

Well, Sah! Those are going to each generate 35 dBA at full bore. I think you should describe the noise at high RPM. Is it "fan-motor" whine or vibration?

It is possible to make a decent fan better. First, you could pull the labels from the motor-housing (careful not to damage them - if ever you want to RMA). There may be a rubber-grommet beneath the label, so you'd pull it out, add some Teflon gun-grease, and then replace everything. A dab of rubber cement on the label should put it back the way it was.

Then again, you are using the H80i AiO water-cooler, and these fans you would have applied to the radiator. Right away, I sense a possibility that you didn't take care to do what only some in the enthusiast community might bother to do: completely isolate the fan from any (ANY!) contact with the metal of a radiator, case or side-panel.

Depending on the mounts provided by the Corsair H80 -- likely just holes in metal tabs [Oh, hell . . . . lemme look . . . jus' a minute . . ] . . . Oh, yeah . . . OK . . .

Get some of these:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/setof4rufanr.html

or these:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/setof4fanrid.html

I suppose you could further deaden noise transmission by installing small pieces of Spire foam rubber between the radiator and case, or cut a "washer" or grommet for it -- this would depend on your own inspection of how the H80 is installed, or how you might benefit from this "last grain of rice."

I have always been curious about those Rubber Rivets, i never could install one of those so i throw them back in the box. About the H80i radiator fact you mentioned there about isolating the contact with other metal parts.. i never thought about that. Whats the problem with it ? There doest seems to be any contact with the backpanel. The rad only touches the metal of te case. Looks fine to me i guess. About making a decent fan better is it worth it to do such a thing ? I'd rather sell my actual fans and buy a better one before i break the old ones lol Thanks for you reply. I appreciate the effort to help but i think im gonna do a mess with the fans that way.. there must be something better out there..

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have always been curious about those Rubber Rivets, i never could install one of those so i throw them back in the box. About the H80i radiator fact you mentioned there about isolating the contact with other metal parts.. i never thought about that. Whats the problem with it ? There doest seems to be any contact with the backpanel. The rad only touches the metal of te case. Looks fine to me i guess. About making a decent fan better is it worth it to do such a thing ? I'd rather sell my actual fans and buy a better one before i break the old ones lol Thanks for you reply. I appreciate the effort to help but i think im gonna do a mess with the fans that way.. there must be something better out there..

You might buy some rubber rivets, go through the tedium of installing them properly, and try it. You need something like an ice-pick to "un-install" them without tearing the rubber, but then, they're cheap.

If the fans have a motor-whine, the DIY trick might fix it -- YMMV. If you play with this . . . stuff . . . a lot, you might have the lubricant in your toolbox alongside your AS5 and other items. If not, maybe too much trouble for you.

And then again -- unless the fan provides some feature you can't find with an alternative -- it makes more sense to return it and buy the alternative.

But isolating ANY fan from ANY other metal contact can work wonders. I would think a radiator could be like a zillion little echo chambers. I could explain all the little projects of 1 hour each I created to deal with fan-noise -- which is probably why I have none of the latter -- except for the "white noise" of air-turbulence, and then only at higher temperatures with the CPU under load.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I just bought two of the Viper 140 R fans, and discovering the 120mm version was a by-product of my searches:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...WM_Fan_w_Hydro_Dynamic_Bearings_AK-FN059.html

I don't have a "decibel-meter," and I gauge noise according to the type of noise as well as its subjective "loudness" to my ears. I hung the Viper 140 on my CPU cooler, which has a LOT of flimsy metal on it and is also probably "a zillion little echo chambers."

Works for me!

I assume the reason you wanted to replace the H80 fans derives from your thoughts that they don't provide enough throughput. So you bought the SP120's, and you aren't satisfied with them.

Buying "fan-samples" for $10 to $20 each can add up. I have a whole 18" x 18" x 3' chest filled with extra fans -- waiting to find a use. Ultimately, the rubber rivets and other noise-deadening efforts will improve on the very best of fans. And "best" is partly in the ear of the beholder, or in the beholder's preference for CFM versus silence.

 

[Hieumungous]

You can try gentle typhoons, I haven't had any problems with them.

 

[cytoSiN]

You can try gentle typhoons, I haven't had any problems with them.

I used to love those fans, but do they still make them?

If cost is not an issue, Noctua's fans are near silent and move quite a bit of air at those noise levels (Bonzai is going to yell at me for that recommendation, but it's true!). I personally think they're ugly, and wish they came in black, but that's Noctua's trademarked look, and they do work well. They're extremely well made, and come with rubber fittings preinstalled.

I've also found that Arctic makes some pretty good quiet fans for much less money than the Noctuas. For example, I'm using two of these as exhaust fans in an HTPC case and they're effective and very quiet. The Arctic 120s are also good. I've read, however, that Arctic fans work a lot better as exhaust fans than intake fans. In other words, it's best not to put the intake side of the fan up against anything. If you wouldn't use them that way, than I highly recommend them.

Finally, I have some experience with Cooler Master Blade Masters. Quality control can be an issue, but Newegg and CM are pretty easy to deal with in that regard, and as long as you have a 4-pin header for PWM, they should be pretty quiet.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

+1 on the Arctic fans. Really though the best thing I ever did to reduce noise was set up my rig with constant RPM fans. My system, including the radiator, uses sub 1000rpm 120mm fans.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Per the "Gentle Typhoons:" This:

http://www.maximumpc.com/dream_machine_2013

Apparently from the printed rundown on Max PC's annual extravagance, they used fifteen (15) Gentle Typhoons.

My current machine had six fans in December -- only four fans now, but CPU temperatures under LInX loading are 5C lower than before. To me, [because I don't have a decibel-meter and accept my own subjective judgment] -- it's quiet as a church-mouse. Right now, the CPU fan is spinning at 850 RPM, the exhaust fan at around 650 RPM, and a 200mm intake fan is at full-bore or 1,300. I need to do some more tweaks to make this latter item run half that fast with no CPU load, and spin up with the other two.

Somewhere else here -- other threads -- I'd inquired about the Swiftech 8W-PWM-SPL "PWM-splitter" for thermally controlling multiple PWM fans from the CPU_FAN header -- but powered from the PSU. Given the thermally-controlled 3-pin plugs that I trust, I need to dump my Panaflo NMB-MAT thermally-controlled exhaust fan and replace it with a PWM unit. Then I can move the 200mm case fan from PSU power to the thermally-controlled CHA-FAN1 3-pin header.

Somebody is going to go ballistic about choices I've investigated for the Panaflo replacement:

http://www.crazypc.com/store/mercha...tegory_Code=computer_pwm_fans&Product_Count=3

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...oduct_info&cPath=36_407_696&products_id=26058

"Are you CRA-ZY?!" I can imagine the response. NOte also: a lot of motherboards are limited for total or individual amperage draw of fan-headers. The latter 120x38mm Delta needs 1.07A, and I wouldn't myself get too close to the 1.00A limit of my motherboard. But the Swiftech device (like so many cables you can also buy) powers the fans from the PSU.

Some of the Delta fans can be truly quiet at low RPMs, and a good one can run full-bore with only the noise from air-turbulence.

But you can see my approach is fewer fans, thermal control, more flexibility for CFM under varying situations. I might buy a high-powered fan and seek to only run it at 70 or 80% to achieve the CFM objective . . .

This isn't going to work too well for people with radiators for water-cooling, unless you didn't feel constrained for selecting a square rad that fits a 200mm fan, or choose cases as I do.

 

[ethebubbeth]

I used to love those fans, but do they still make them?

You can still find them here and there. You still can't get a better quiet 120mm radiator fan, in my opinion.

 

[cytoSiN]

Delta fans are amazing....ly loud. I don't think that's what OP is looking for--why buy a high-power, high-noise fan, only to intentionally clip its performance--but I may be wrong? That said, if you don't care about noise under load, it's hard to beat Deltas.

 

[cytoSiN]

You can still find them here and there. You still can't get a better quiet 120mm radiator fan, in my opinion.

I agree, I loved them back in the day. I remember reading some threads here that they were discontinued. Glad to hear you can still get them.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Delta fans are amazing....ly loud. I don't think that's what OP is looking for--why buy a high-power, high-noise fan, only to intentionally clip its performance--but I may be wrong? That said, if you don't care about noise under load, it's hard to beat Deltas.

I wouldn't recommend those Deltas for water-cooling rad fans . . . no, no, no.

what I discovered with some of them, for instance a "Tri-Blade" that could spit out 150CFM, was that they can be reasonably quiet across a range of speed.

I think I had adopted the conclusion that you could judge some fans by their weight: if they weighed more, the motor was "beefier" and had less in the way of motor-noise issues. I could even see buying a fan rated for 150CFM so I could get 110 as needed.

The "quiet fan" phenomenon puts low dBA above higher CFM as the priority. Nobody would disagree that the Noctua P12 or P14 are well-made, quality fans, but even for "enhanced output" with lower rpms and noise, they're pretty limp. Yet three limp fans on a three-fan radiator might do the trick there.

Actually -- this was the more recent argument on the "water versus air" threads pertaining to large heatpipe coolers. While water had been touted as a low-noise solution with effective cooling, I now see people complaining about the sound of the pumps and fans as well. The Maximum PC magazine's 2013 DM build also makes me wonder if the choices and excessive cost-adding components has "gone over the edge" with fans.

One thing for sure. No matter what you do, the need for fans in computer-building won't just "go away." I DID however remember a Zalman high-priced case that had heatpipes up the kazoo running to case-side-panels and no fans. But your average over-clocker is going to need some fans anyway.

AFTERTHOUGHT ANECDOTE: We've had from time to time six computers and never less than four running in this house -- exploiting sleep-states for most of them was the best we could do.

Couple years ago, we had the gas company send someone test the air in the house. So-Cal probably has the worst air in the US (for lack of rain, among other reasons). The man ended his visit noting "Ah been testin' houses all over this city. Your house has the cleanest air Ah ever seen!" I could only remark: "Ahh ... We have a network of household filtration units . . . "