11/16 of what?: BUYING... intake & exhaust fans

[kgs]

I am new to OC'ing, but I'm ok at comparing specs. I am soon to assemble an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe/ 2.6C/ 512MB Dual channel EL4200/ 2 SATA Raptor 36GB RAID0/ DVDRoM/ 30GB U-ATA-100 storage HDD/ floppy/ SBLive5.1 pci/ USRV.90 pci/ Radeon VIVO 64MB DDR/ SB Lexmark MFD/ system.

So, for cooling I just bought my first 3-pin fan for this potentially OC'able to ~280/260/250FSB... soon to be all together system. It's a Thermaltake 37cfm, 30dBA, 2900rpm+/-10%, TT-8025A-2B, Rated Voltage 12V, Started Voltage 7V, Rated Current 0.18A(2.0max), Power Input 2.16W.

I briefly tested this newly bought Thermaltake TT-8025A-2B on my soon to be history ASUS cusl2-c (my first time using the 3-pin CHA_FAN mobo connector as opposed to 4-pin)

At a full speed stock 30dBA It is louder than the 600MHz celeron cpu fan, psu fan, and 2-pin rear case no-name exhaust fan I currently have on my ASUS cusl2-c, to the point that it is at a noise level that I do not want to sustain for day to day computing, unless warranted. (ie unless to reach best OC'ing/gaming/or when music is up).

I was recommended at first to buy a Vantec Stealth, which is 27cfm @20dBA, 12 V Current, 0.10 Amp , 1.20 W, 2050 RPM.. I get the feeling this is a desirably quiet and adequate fan for a non OC'd system.

But I want to be able to adequately cool if I reach the OC figures published by others for the above System (eg anantech and legitreviews.)

Because I may want more than minimal quiet cooling, but still want quiet computing, I am considering replacing this newly bought Thermaltake with The Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2. I am thinking of buying two: not only for my monitorable 3-pin CHA_FAN, but to tackle both front intake and rear exhaust needs. One or the other will need to be a 2-wire/4-pin. I'm gonna end up with 1 psu, 1 cpu, 1 front & 1 rear fans.

The Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2 seems to have it all: a great possible range of adjustment, manually adjustable, thermometer, and 4-3 adaptor, and if I can read the specs correctly is potentially quiet. 20.55 CFM at 1300rpm 75.7 CFM at 4800rpm, 17 dB at 1300 rpm 48 dB at 4800 rpm, Rated VOLTAGE 12V VOLTAGE 12V, Started Voltage 6V, Rated Current 0.04A ~ 0.50A, Power Input 2.40W ~ 8.40W, FAN Speed 1300RPM AT 20°C, 4800 RPM AT 55°C, Connector 3-PIN.

All of this means nothing if the fan will not co-operate with the other possibly non-OC'ing-type range fans in the system, or if it gives off a false reading because I have manually adjusted to compensate, because I will want to maintain (i) rpm monitorability, and (ii) ASUS Q-FAN fractionability (e.g 11/16...).

But there are so many fan factors that may be involved which I am potentially overlooking when choosing a quiet fan. I want to know I can achieve safety if required and now know I want/demand quiet. I have enough to deal with enough to not blow up my pc if trying to reach guaranteed specs without needing to match the electrical specs of each fan number by number, while at the same time ensuring safety. Trail and error won't be happening.


I am interested in the 11/16-15/16 feature of the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe. What this does and what effect having one fan(s) model, as opposed to other(s) I don't know. Is it strictly a voltage fraction, and does it apply to all fans. Does it even adjust fan speeds. If I have fan(s) that are individually adjustable can they play, or are they disqualified from entering monitoring, and adjustment?

IF I BUY A FAN WITH A MANUAL ADJUSTMENT KNOB, SUCH AS THE SMART CASE FAN 2, TO GIVE ME A SPECIFIC SIGNIFICANT RANGE WHICH ALLOWS BOTH POWER AND QUIET OPERATION OPTIONS, WILL IT HAVE A CONNECTOR TO THE 3-PIN ASUS MOBO TO ALLOW MONITORING THE RPM

WITH SUCH AN ADJUSTABLE KNOB TYPE-FAN, IF I ADJUST THE MANUAL KNOB TO ANY SETTING I WANT, WILL THE OPERATION OF THE SPEED MONITORING OR FUNCTIONALITY OF THE Q-FAN RANGE (11/16-15/16) BE AFFECTED, OR CHANGE THE PARAMETERS (POSSIBLY DUE TO FLUCTUATIONS IN VOLTAGE) SUCH THAT MAY REQUIRE A BETTER ELECTRONIC MATCH TO BEGIN WITH. THAT IS, RUN STOCK SYSTEM WITH STOCK FAN(S)/ RUN OC'D SYSTEM WITH ALL FAN(S) GREATER THAN STOCK.

; AND, DEPENDING ON WHAT 11/16 DOES, WILL I BE ABLE TO WORK WITH BOTH THE MANUAL KNOB AND THE 11/16... SETTINGS THE ACHIEVE.

If I need cpu cooling I'll buy a 7000Cu, which is adjustable; don't know if mobo monitorable though!

Sorry, please try to sympathize (esp. TEXT). You may get lost in here, but here lies the problem. Need answer by refund Saturday. BTW, is this too much text for a forum message?

 

[mechBgon]

Ahem...

Do not even THINK about plugging a Thermaltake Smart Fan II into your expensive motherboard. It draws a lethal 8.4 watts. Bye-bye, motherboard...
Now... what the Asus Q-Fan ratio does is simply to lower the voltage on the CPU_FAN header when the CPU temperature is remaining below a certain threshold. Combining that already-low voltage with a manually-adjustable fan would only reduce the voltage to the fan's motor more, resulting in it possibly stalling. Bad. Generally, you'd be best off using either a fixed-speed fan with Q-Fan doing the variation, or use a variable-speed fan and leave Q-Fan turned off.

If I were you, I'd grab me one of Thermalright's highest-end heatsinks such as the SP94, and use it with a Panaflo L1A 92mm fan. That's going to be hard to beat for a cooling + noise combo, and you can safely plug the 92mm Panaflo L1A into your motherboard header to allow you to use Q-Fan if desired.

Keep in mind that Q-Fan is like a super-quiet muffler on your car... its first concern is NOT high-performance cooling, it's low noise. If you want full-performance cooling, you leave Q-Fan off.

Welcome to the Forums I commend you for breaking up your essay into paragraphs for us, but just FYI, that's a lot of text and some of us have short attention spans Brevity is the soul of wit...

 

[kgs]

Is there anything in Q-fan/Pc Probe/BIOS that pertains to the actual adjustment of any other of the fans besides the CPU_ fan?

If not, this is good and bad news. Bad because my computer may burn up, and good because I won't have to worry about why from this point foreward.

PS
I think I have decided on fans. (I have just made another post in this group called "replacing a 2-wire fan out of psu that states supports fan speed monitoring!?" I want to yank my stock psu fan and replace it with a quiet Stealth. See why I don't know if this is advisable.

 

[mechBgon]

Q-Fan is concerned only with the CPU_FAN header, not the other ones. If you get a Pentium4, it will start throttling back if its core temperature exceeds 67°C, so you're probably not going to burn it up unless you run an imprudently-high core voltage on the Pentium4.

 

[kgs]

 

[kgs]

thats good

I bought three Vantec Stealth 80mm 3-pin rpm monitorable fans: to refit my psu fan with 3-wires to the mobo (which is now rpm monitored); replace my 4-pin rear exhaust non-rpm monitored fan (as 4-pin non-rpm monitored); and add a front intake fan (rpm monitored). Stealths are 12V, 21dB, 1.2W, 2050rpm, 27cfm, double ball bearing. Stealths are quiet and well reviewed, and for the lowest noise are relatively pretty powerful.

I now have all the available ASUS x_FAN 3-pin connectors filled (includes cpu fan) to give me rpm monitoring of all 3, and I already had cpu and mobo temp monitoring.

I happened to have Motherboard Monitor 5 software installed, which nicely gives the mobo and cpu temp readouts directly in the systray. It also has a readout (now at zero) for a third temp monitor-surprise: there is a "TRPWR (designated as a power supply thermal connector....if ps has a thermal monitoring feature", Asus. I suppose if things are gonna heat up in the psu or elsewhere I could install a thermisor (or whatever you call it anywhere I want).

I don't know if there is any way to have 3 fan speeds listed in the systray also. - ANY ANSWERS HERE?

The 3 fan speeds are varied by current/average/min/max by up tp about 5% each (after 1 hr.), and the Stealths aren't the exact same.

I have dropped a few degrees C overall (not nec'y on cpu) by the looks of it. The overall noise is only slightly lower than it was before with a cheesy rear exhaust 4-pin, and stock psu fan, and cpu fan to compare with. But I also did not have any front intake before. If anything it is just repaced by a midrange deeper (better) drone. I am confident that I now have more efficient air flow, and if I need more I will put one intake Stealth on the side, and maybe another exhaust Stealth on the top. I can leave the real work up to a quiet cpu cooler, as I believe any extra benefits of having high rpm fans are outweighed by the lack of any real accurate control worthwhile (automated) control system, but mainly because of NOISE - I'll see.

Now I know you can get tiny rubber edging at hardware stores I 'm gonna cut holes in my case for plexy and more fans.

It occurs to me that mbm5 software does as much and more as ASUS and that hardware should be bought for purpose and not to comply with any software, which was my original concern.

currently ASUS cusl2-c, soon p4c800e-deluxe.


Thanks to all.

 

[mechBgon]

You might also consider a manual or automatic fan controller if you have a spare drive bay for it There are a lot to choose from. Coolermaster has a very trick-looking one called the Aerogate II, Enermax makes a variety of them that have other stuff like front-audio ports, and there's the Digital Doc 5 and 5+ which have voltage monitoring and alerting too. Anyway, congrats on your new cooling setup