Zalman vs Enermax - which is quieter?

[Evgeny]

Hi,

Can anyone who has personally heard both Zalman and Enermax PSUs tell me which is the quiter one? I've seen a lot of conflicting opinions, some swear by Enermax, some say it's crap and Zalman is much better. I've an Enermax myself, and it's not bad, but I haven't heard a Zalman. So has anyone heard both?

Thanks,

Evgeny

 

[hmsrolst]

I have both and have tried them sequentially in the same computer. In my experience the Zalman is much quieter than an unmodded Enermax, but modding an Enermax by removing the internal 92mm fan and replacing the external 80mm with a Panaflo L1A is much quieter than a Zalman.

 

[DKNYSprt95]

I have a enermax whisper 350 watt PS... Very quiet to say the least... Only thing I hear when I use my comp are the CDrom drives and CPU fan...

 

[Evgeny]

Thanks, hmsrolst. One the one hand, Enermax would be good beacuse it's more powerful (431W vs 300W Zalman), but I don't really want to open the PSU and start soldering stuff in there (you do need to solder to change the fan, right?) Seems a bit dangerous!

Evgeny

 

[hmsrolst]

Actually, although I''m not endorsing opening the PSU (a little disclaimer here), it's quite easy. Without touching anything inside except fan-related stuff, you pull off the fans from their headers (they're not soldered on with the Enermax), and unscrew and remove them. After installing the Panaflo, I ran the wires out the same opening that the other PSU wires go through, attached a molex connector to the Panaflo's tail (lot's of web shops carry them), and then connected it to one of the PSU's lines. You can also attach the fan inside, but it requires more trimming of the tail than I wanted to do, and I didn't want the fan to be temp. controlled. I've done this on two Enermaxes and not only are they a lot quieter, I've found that mobo temps may even have dropped a little bit.

 

[xXgambitXx]

i've already replaced my 80mm on the enermax with a panaflo. are you saying that i should just get RID of the 92mm ? wouldn't that be bad ? or should i just replace it with a panaflo as well.

 

[hmsrolst]

I just removed it and replaced it with a 92mm aluminum mesh filter, but I know of others who replace it with a quieter fan. Based on my limited experience, my guess is that the two fan thing is just a gimmick, since I expected to lose some cooling efficiency from the combination of a lower rpm external fan and no internal fan, but seemed in both cases to get the same temps or a little lower. Maybe the two fans just create more turbulent, less efficient air flow, or maybe there's some situation in which they work better.

 

[ShinSa]

Having two fans stacked is not as good as it sounds. We've seen this before on CPU coolers.

I beliver having the 90mm fan where it is, is not to incresae airflow but to choose where air is being taken in.

For example, most Psus will suck air infrom the opposite end of the exaust fan, behind the IDE cd-roms. By having a 90mm fan on top of the cpu, it can suck air off as it comes off the cpu.

BTW, I think you can easily quiten the enermax by taking the probe that's attached to the copper coil inside the psu.
Since the fan is thermally controlled, just having it "think" that it's cool in there will slow down the fan somewhat.

The enermax 80mm fan is only rated at 30dB but since it's closest thing to the outside world, It'll be louder than a 30dB cpu fan.

 

[Evgeny]

Hmm, hmsrolst, if there's no soldering involved I might just do it... One question though: everyone who mods PSUs seems to be putting Panaflo fans into them, what about Papst (you know, the REALLY quiet ones)? Do they have enough airflow for the job?

Thanks for your help again,

Evgeny

 

[Ausone]

what about Papst (you know, the REALLY quiet ones)? Do they have enough airflow for the job?

That's even better, much better! Use Papst 8412NGL, though. Papst 8412NGL is rated at 12dBA/19CFM, much quieter than Panaflo L1A (21dBA/24CFM).

I have extensively modded my loud Enermax 351V-P and I'm using a no-name fan (Colorful, CF-128025MS) at 5v, which is now estimated to be around 7dBA/13.3CFM. I used to use 7-volted Silencer, also. I've added heatsink to compensate for air flow reduction, but, during winter, I could go without heatsink. I have used Silencer at default voltage, whose noise level is supposed to be 20dBA, but it was loud to me.

 

[Evgeny]

Thanks, Ausone! Nice nick, too, btw. I'll give it a try, but maybe I'll mode my current Aopen PSU for practice first (much cheaper in case I stuff it up). Does you have a link handy to a guide on how to do this?

Evgeny

 

[Boythorn]

Bought a new Enermax 465VE last month - the newer models have a manual adjustment for fan speed - lowest setting is fine if your PC is in a cool room or don't need the added exhaust flow.