Antec case owners - how loud are the stock Antec case fans?

[aznskickass]

I'm going to be building a quiet PC soon, and the case I plan to purchase is the Antec 1080AMG.

The case comes with 3 Antec exhaust fans pre-installed, but I am wondering how loud these stock Antec fans are? I have heard that they are quiet, but how quiet exactly? Panaflo/Papst quiet? Because that is what I'm after - near silence.

I will get additional Papst intake fans of course, but if possible I don't want to replace the Antec fans if they are quiet and do the job, as the Papst fans are definitely not cheap!

Cheers.

 

[mechBgon]

The Antec stock fans are not that quiet, and they're sleeve-bearing fans too. Pick up some of the NMB's that SVC has on sale for $2.50, maybe: link These are very quiet, quieter than a Panaflo L1A (although not as powerful).

 

[mindwarp]

I got the antec 840sx with 5 80mm fans and its pretty loud, although 1 7000rpm processor cooling fan is noticably louder than all the rest put together.. Its hard to sleep at night..

 

[PCHPlayer]

I removed my stock Antec case fans and put one of them into the power supply of another computer that sits 5 feet from this one. When the other computer is turned on the noise from the single Antec fan drowns out the sound of the this computer that is only 2 feet from my ears. The short answer, replace them.

 

[DongTran]

mechbgon is right those NMB fans are the bomb. $2.50 is a steal, and they are pre-tailed too....

 

[aznskickass]

Hmm, thanks guys, but those 80mm NMB fans don't really push enough air at 18CFM. Yes, they are cheap, but my system is going to have a P4 2.4B and R9700 Pro, which run pretty hot and it ain't exactly cheap gear, so I still want moderately good cooling at a low noise level.

I think I'll go with the 80mm Papst 26.5CFM fans @ 19dB(A). For a noise/CFM ratio these can't be beat.

Anyway, thanks again for the help guys. I will, like PCHPlayer, probably replace these Antecs and put them into my soon to be 2nd rig. 🙂

 

[Salvador]

The Antec case fans suck!! I have about 1 minute on mine and then I pulled them after I found out how loud they were. I have PC Power & Cooling Silencers in my case that are rated at 28 cfm and 20 db. These fans might be a cheaper option than the Papst fans. I would've put the NMB's in if I knew about them at the time. They are a steal at $2.50 each.

Sal

 

[Jhhnn]

The short answer is that it's really easy to over fan a sx-antec, they come that way from the factory. The other part of the deal is that front fans are extremely overrated and completely unnecessary in the case you're talking about. Two of any of the quiet 80mm fans already mentioned will do the job just fine, mounted in the back blowing out. Or series wire two of the stock antec fans, 6v each effectively, if you want to save some bucks.

The airflow in a 10XX antec is so good that they practically cool themselves, unless you're talking about monster dual processors with 4 disk raid array, super hot vidcard, etc. For that, you'll need the stock fans, maybe a little more.....