fans for the Fong Kai 320

[M7]

Okay I have just built a new sys in a Fong kai 320 case - great case, but the two 80mm fans it comes with make a terrible racket. Any suggestions on how to reduce theh noise or very quiet fans to replace tham with ?

thanks

M

 

[BassDominator]

and I thought that was supposed to be a quiet case according to all the reviews?

 

[M7]

doesn't seem very quiet to me!

Partly its because in my old case I just had the front fan, where as this this has one at the front and the back. Great cooling but to loud for bedroom!

Want to replace both fans with really quiet ones.

M

 

[Garet Jax]

M7,

I think you have a couple of options. You can buy new 80 MM fans from Panaflo or Sunon. People around here seem to think that they run very quietly without comprising too much airflow.

Here is a link to an online store that sells Panaflos and Sunons. There are lots off others, but 2cooltek is one that seems to be well liked here.

Another option is for you to buy or build a baybus or a rheostat. This will allow you to cut the power to these default Fong Kai fans. By doing this, you are definitely sacrificing the total amount of airflow, but they will also produce less noise. If you go with this option, you will need to play with the setting to find the best compromise between airflow and noise.

If you want to buy a baybus, go here..

To my knowledge, there is no store that mass produces rheostats. There is a person named Cliff who may make a custom rheostat for you, here.

Cliff's link is also the best one for getting information and schematics for building your own.

Hope this helps.

 

[MereMortal]

The FK-320 comes with 80mm fans now? I purchased mine last September, and I have a 92mm by the rear duct and room for a 92m or 120mm up front.

I replaced the rear 92mm fan and added a 92mm up front (both Panaflos). It helped a little. I think the duct itself produces some of the noise, along with the CPU fan and PS fan.

 

[M7]

yep your right, they are 92mm not 80. But mine did come with two - both set to suck air into the pc.

seem very loud to me

 

[rondeemc]

flip the one in the rear to make it an exhaust. Be carefull it is very easy to break the screw guides on the shroud mount but if his happens don't worry, just use a larger screw to mount the frame back on to the fan.

 

[Jhhnn]

Rondeemc has it right about the airflow direction. His suggestion may help cut the noise, too, those fans are just fighting each other with both blowing in. Next step would be to run one or both fans at 7v (lots of threads on this) If that's not good enough, look into L1A panaflos, particularly a 120mm at 7v in the front mount should be very quiet with good airflow.

 

[flyers1]

I just got my FK-320 this weekend and it is a great case. It does use a 92mm in rear and a 92 or 120mm in the front. I have a panaflo 120mm L1A in the front and it really isn't too loud. I think the stock 92mm rear fan is fairly loud and I suggest replacing it with a Panaflo L1A also. They good quiet fans with great airflow.

 

[rondeemc]

flyers1
I am curious if you checked to see which direction the rear fan was blowing? When I received mine about a month back it was acting as an intake. Same thing for the person in this link. Under customer reviews at directron.com where I got my case a man had bought several and all were blowing inward.

 

[MereMortal]

The FK-320's come with the rear fan drawing air into the case. I haven't tried changing this around, as I have good cooling with the setup as is. Someday when I have time I may experiment with reversing that fan, and removing the duct hood.

 

[flyers1]

rondeemc,

Yes, when I first turned on the PC after moving everything from my old case to the new FK-320, the rear fan was blowing inward. I thought that was kinda strange having both the 120mm and the 92mm blowing in and only my PSU fan blowing out so I reversed the flow of the rear 92mm. I don't want to have to install blow-holes on my nice new case I also removed the fan hood thing. Since my Taisol CGK HSF blows down and the exhaust would be pulling air in the other direction, I thought this would end up reducing the HSFs airflow. Plus the damn thing is NOISY! My case temps dropped dramatically from my old no-name case to the FK-320. My Asus A7V MB temp used to hover around 30C now it maxes at like 23C! CPU temp under stress also dropped like 6-7C so I was impressed!

 

[rondeemc]

I was wondering about that to. I think I will remove the shroud an see what happens. It just seems like the exhaust pulling air out and the HSF trying to push air down would create a lot of turbulence that the shroud would only aggrevate. I also plan to reverse the HSV just to see what will happen. I just go another case (Antec sx-1030)to build a server for the Church I go to an am anxious to see how the two compare.

 

[M7]

Okay I'll try the fans at 7v as you suggest.

I have looked for threads exlpain how to do this but can only find ones relating to fans with 4 wires. Mine have three, and the manual for the CUSL2 shows the three connections as GND, +12V, and Rotation.

How do I proceed?

Thanks for the help

 

[cdternie]

I turned my rear case fan around in my FK320 to blow out, it was pretty easy.

I LOVE THIS CASE! (even though it IS a bit on the loud side... like a low rumble)

 

[Wingznut]

The FK-320 rocks!

I have an Alpha PAL-6035, which pulls air away from the cpu. Turning the rear 92mm fan around, to exhaust air, was an obvious solution.

I also have a 120mm quiet Sunon fan in the front. But yeah, both the PS fan and the 92mm fan in the rear are loud. I plan on getting a quieter fans this weekend.

 

[princed]

I have the FK-320, and I have to say I feel it is a pretty loud case, despite the reviews. The PS was so loud I had to get an Enermax to allow myself to think straight. I also removed the 92mm fan that came with it, and I am waiting on a Panaflo to replace it. My case is now much quieter, but now that I've removed the noisy fans that came with the Fong Kai, I am starting to become annoyed with the noise coming from my Intel HSF. Would it help if the 320 had plastic sides like the FK-603? Other than the noise, I think its a great case.

Oh, one last thing. My MB temps are ALWAYS 31-32C. Of course, I now have no case fans. It seems like you guys have significanly lower temps. Will this temp decrease significantly when I install the L1A in the rear??

 

[flyers1]

The rear exhaust fan will definately help. I wouldn't worry too much about those MB temps because they don't seem too high. If you read this cooling forum alot, you'll see that MB and CPU temp readings differ ALOT from board to board. It's hard to compare temps unless you are comparing 2 of the same MB. If you aren't having stability problems, you probably don't have a heat problem. But I'd definately suggest getting a rear fan in there cause it will help...

 

[rondeemc]

princed
I replace the rear factory fan unit with a panaflow and noticed no difference. I did see a difference when I used a fan that exhausts air out of the heat sink and into the shroud instead of one that competed with the exhaust fan for air when it tried forced air down onto the heatsink.

I do find it interesting that several of us purchased the FK-320 for its "quiet" factor and to date I have not seen a single posting that is satisfied in this area. Yet it is was hailed as quiet by more then one review.

I need to do another system. Any comments on the FK-603?

 

[princed]

I used the FK-603 as the case for the computer I built my father, and it is MUCH quieter than the FK-320. I used that computer in my room for a while before my dad took it, and I was pretty satisfied with the noise level. When I built my computer and upgraded to the 320, however, I was in utter shock over the change in noise. It's probably the difference in power supplies that accounts for the noise increase in the 320, but the fact that the 603 has plastic sides may help as well...

I'm sad that the panaflo won't be as quiet as I hoped. Maybe the rear exhaust fan in my 320 was faulty as it was reeeeally loud -- according to some specs i just saw, the panaflo should be quieter than my intel HSF, and the fong-kai fan is definitely much louder than that. We'll see. I'm also going to order an Alpha PAL6035 with the quiet 16.1dB ADDA fan from Pham computer. Hopefully that'll solve my noise problems...

 

[rondeemc]

The alpha is what I have but with the sanyo fan. Right now I would say the loudest component is the power supply fan. I exchanged notes with a person who said he had replace the stock PS fan with a Panaflow and saw results. Both happy and sad about your FK-603 experience. I had considered going with it but once I saw the price of upgrading to a larger PS at directron I just decided to go ahead with the FK-320. I just got two of the Antec sx1030(beige and black) and I am very impressed with the case. Unfortunately the box with harddrives, burners, motherboards, etc. came loose in the UPS truck so I had to refuse the whole shipment because of the damage and that has delayed finding out how quite that case is. I have heard alot about its variable power supply fan so am very anxious to experience it for myself. If it is quieter I will probably switch out one with the Fong Kai's to see how that works. I will let you know how that goes.

 

[rondeemc]

Update

I replaced the Enhance in the Fong Kai with an Antec variable fan from a SX1030 and there was some difference. The Antec apears to have a higher pitch but overall the "noise" level was the same.