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Fan controllers and fans

H

Hidden Hippo

Member
I'm thinking about upgrading the fans in my Thermaltake Armour to something with a little more oomph. I'd quite like to run them off of a fan controller, and I'm thinking of an Akasa AK FC-03. Is this any good? I've seen some mixed reviews, but they generally seem to be positive.

I would also like to replace the fans, and I'm wanting some relatively high flow and relatively quiet fans, but I don't have a clue what to be looking for. I would like them to shift more air than my current stock fans (naturally) and ideally not be that much louder. Currently I've got 2 120mm fans at 17dB and 2 92mm fans at 19dB. I know you can't get much quieter with decent airflow, but something similar would be nice.

I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks in advance.
 
that is what the fan controller is for 😉 Why get a fan controller if you have quiet fans? You get loud fans, put them on the controller, and quiet them down. Then, if you need the extra airflow crank em up!
 
Hmm. They still seem very loud (59dB at full whack). I spose I could turn them down. How quiet would they get if I decided to turn them down?
 
It's pointless buying a fan that is so loud you can never turn it up to 12V. Buy fans that are as loud as you can put up with at 12V.
My last case used cheapish evercools (120mm, 30dba, 2000rpm, 80cfm). They aren't quiet full whack but the noise is relatively low pitched so not to irritating (i.e. more of a whoosh then a whine). I can't see anyone seriously needing more air then they pushed. I ended up just turning them all down so they ran at 5-7V as the difference in temps between them running slow vs flat out wasn't worth the extra noise. If you want a plain fan that works well I would recomend them - only cost about £5 each.

My new case is practically silent in normal use - I use red wings now (120mm, 21dba, 1400rpm, claimed 68cfm but not that high). imo run at the same rpm's the evercools and red wings push about the same air but the red wing's have less motor noise. For fan control I use speedfan (all 5 of my motherboard fan inputs are controllable by speed fan - asus P5W).

Oh- look at the fan rpm - depending on the fan you can look at turning it down to about 1/2 to 2/3's of the rated rpm. I would say 1000rpm is quiet (but not silent), so if you want to still have a case that you can still make quietish then don't buy a fan's you can't turn down to close to 1000rpm.
 
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