Quiet fans for InWin Q500?

[Night201]

I have lots of heat generating stuff in my computer:

P3-866 cpu (gonna upgrade to a thunderbird next month)
3d card
mpeg-2 decoder card
video editting card
3 hard drives

All these generate lots of heat when in use. It's all in an Inwin Q500 case. I have 1 fan (came with it) in the front and 2 in the rear, it's pretty loud though with those 3 fans on and the PS (400 watt) and CPU fan. I would like to replace all the fans in the case with some real quiet ones without having to mod anything (make bigger holes). It's about 2 feet from my head and it can be annoying, especially when watching tv.

 

[kelesh3]

bump bump for jh0o.

i also have a Q500. i have the PS fan, golden orb for cpu fan, one case fan in front, 2 case fans in back, my GF2 gts has a fan, and i have a PCI slot fan. i know it's loud but i don't notice it in the summer cuz it's right next to the air condition which is on all the time, hehe.

 

[kly1222]

Also a Q500 owner...

P3 700 @ 868
4 hard drives
3 cdrom drives (burner, dvd, cd)
2 video cards
2 promise cards (fasttrak66, ultra100)
1 sound card
1 firewire card
4 80mm fans
4 40mm fans
1 Nidec gamma blower
1 ps fan
1 golden orb

and yes...it is loud

Try getting some 120mm panaflo L1A's, which are very quiet and offer decent airflow. I'm thinking on doing this, if I can find some cheap.

 

[MrThompson]

While I realize you don't want to cut your case, for the best results, a Dremel and a couple of Panaflow L1As would be my choice for a quiet case. Big fans move more air with less noise than smaller ones. This fact alone begs for some Dremel time. Cutting the punched out grill away on the case will improve airflow and reduce noise. Sometimes MPJA has L1As for about $7.

Anyone with and Inwin Q500 should read this and pay close attention to the front bezel ventilation. It works better than a big hole in the bezel.

You can see my Q500 cooling details
here. The case temp is within 1C of ambient and fairly quiet unless I dial up the four YS Techs for CPU intensive work on a hot day.