Quietest 120mm fan?

[aggressor]

I have some Panaflos (I think they are the low speed versions?) but they are too loud. I don't know if its from the air its pushing, or the motor noise, but its way too loud

What are some really quiet ones?

 

[lazybum131]

Have you tried undervolting them?
There's no 120mm fan that's gonna be really quiet at 12volts.

I've heard good things about the 120mm from Papst, Enermax, and Evercool.
You can look at those as replacements, but if you haven't tried undervolting your panaflo's, i'd try that first.

 

[jjyiz28]

Originally posted by: aggressor
I have some Panaflos (I think they are the low speed versions?) but they are too loud. I don't know if its from the air its pushing, or the motor noise, but its way too loud

What are some really quiet ones?

if you have the metal mesh on your case, use tin snips to remove em. these will greatly reduce noise, and improve the airflow. also, you could remove the fan guard.

mesh removed
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/jjyiz28/fan1.jpg

fan guard removed
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/jjyiz28/fan2.jpg

 

[RalfHutter]

No 120mm fan at 12 volts is particularly quiet. You really need to undervolt them before they start becoming fairly quiet.

Good candidates are the Panaflo L1A, Enermax adjustable, Papst, NMB "B10" and some people are playing with an aluminum version of the Evercool 120mm and having good luck.

 

[aggressor]

How do you undervolt fans?

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: aggressor
How do you undervolt fans?

Switch a couple wires. Google is your friend. I have Antec and Sunon 120mm fans and they are silent at 7 volts.

 

[ToxicWaste]

Evercool Aluminium Frame 120mm Case Fan, Model FAN-AL 12025B, are rated at 31dba for 80cfm or so is the lowest spec I've seen. I've only played with 80mm fans myself, but the spec is good... You can see it at http://www.evercool.com.tw/index_eng.htm.

 

[TDon]

Originally posted by: chocoruacal

Originally posted by: aggressor
How do you undervolt fans?

Switch a couple wires. Google is your friend. I have Antec and Sunon 120mm fans and they are silent at 7 volts.

Now that is a very good explanation. I have a couple of noisy Antec fans that this just might help fix.
I have now found my next project. Thanks chocoruacal.


TD

 

[wluk]

I had a vantec stealth which is much quieter than my current panalfo 120 L.

 

[ethebubbeth]

get the jmc 120mm at coolcases.com. it outputs a respectable 61cfm while only making 26db noise

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: wluk
I had a vantec stealth which is much quieter than my current panalfo 120 L.

yeah. i've got a vantec stealth 120mm running off the moterboard and it's quiet. had it on the fan only line of my antec and both are quiet.

 

[aggressor]

Originally posted by: chocoruacal

Originally posted by: aggressor
How do you undervolt fans?

Switch a couple wires. Google is your friend. I have Antec and Sunon 120mm fans and they are silent at 7 volts.

I finally got around to trying this, and it works great. Is there any drawback to doing this, besides the fan not starting up if it can't run at a lower voltage (It won't randomly not start up, will it?)

 

[BG4533]

I have heard a lot of debate about whether doing the 7volt mod is bad for the PSU as the 5V line is used for a ground. However, it seems a ton of people doing it and I really dont hear of people saying their PSU failed from doing it or other problems.

If your fan starts reliably without stuttering or anything you shouldnt have issues with it. I run my Panaflos at 5V where they start fine 90% of the time. I usually turn them up to 12V to start just to be sure. Seeing as I only turn off the computer if I leave the house for more than 3 days or make hardware changes it isnt an issue. I have never had an undervolted fan that worked well just stop.

 

[aggressor]

Well, I just read the following on this page:

Caution! There are people, who will say "You can't feed current back into your power-supply" and they are right!

If you plug something between the 12V and 5V lead, you have to be absolutely sure, that no current is fed back into the PSU. Because if this happens, the output voltage of the 5V rail will start to raise.

Then there are two possibilities:

A) The PSU has a protection circuit, which senses the overvoltage and shuts the PSU down at a certain voltage.

B) The voltage just keeps rising until an sort of equilibrium is reached. The 5V output might now be at an voltage, which will be so high, that it destroys equipment hooked to the 5V rail (HDDs, CD-ROM etc.).

I have an Antec Truepower, and I really don't want to kill anything
Is there any kind of *simple* set up I can use to do this the correct way? Not really interested in getting a Fanbus or something like that. Maybe a new molex connector that has resistors on it? I don't even need a switch, just something that will force it to 7v without the possiblity of my HDs or cd-roms dying

 

[mrweirdo]

the option i like would be geting a rheobus were you can speed up your fans and slow them down as needed. Like if your playing some hardware intensive game then you would probably want to speed them up. I believe SVC.com has a sunbeam for $15

 

[aggressor]

Is there anything simplier than that? I would like to run them at 7v all the time, no need for a switch\knob really.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: aggressor
Is there anything simplier than that? I would like to run them at 7v all the time, no need for a switch\knob really.

Zalman Fanmate

Zalman Fanmate.

You can get them from online places like SVC.com. CompUSA even sells them under the "PCToys" brand name.

 

[slashDevSlashNull]

You can use a couple of diodes connected between the fan and +12(or GND) to reduce the voltage across the fan. Just cut one of the wires to the fan and connect a couple of diodes, making sure you align them correct. If you use standard diodes every diode will "steal" something like 0.7 volts from the fan.
The only downside with this trick is that you need a lot of diodes if you plan to take the fan down from 12 volts to 7 volts...

I have used this trick several times and it works great

 

[aggressor]

Originally posted by: RalfHutter

Originally posted by: aggressor
Is there anything simplier than that? I would like to run them at 7v all the time, no need for a switch\knob really.

Zalman Fanmate

Zalman Fanmate.

You can get them from online places like SVC.com. CompUSA even sells them under the "PCToys" brand name.

Thats almost what I need, but all of those are for 3 pin, these fans use molex

 

[Sarobi]

This Evercool looks promising to me -- pushes 84 CFM at only 31db