CFM on BQE Exhaust Fan

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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wgragg
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CFM on BQE Exhaust Fan

Post by wgragg » Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:03 am

Does anyone know what CFM the stock fan for the Antec BQE case is? I've looked at teh Antec site and can't find any info. I want to put a front fan on to cool my hard drives a bit more, but want to also make sure I keep a negative or possibly equal pressure situation in the case.

Thanks,
Wendell

Ralf Hutter
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:08 am

I have no idea either. Put one of those variable speed Enermaxes on the front. You really need very, very little airflow to cool your drives and adding a fan in the front to cool the case is a waste so you can easily get away with the Enermax at 5V (or less if it will start up consistantly). using the Enermax at 5V means you'll have negative pressure for sure.

Are you intending to run the Antec fan at 12V? It's fairly noisy at 12V you know...

wgragg
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Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 7:34 am

Post by wgragg » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:41 am

I'm running it at 12v now and though I hear it, it is acceptable. I need to find out how to mod for 7 or even 5 volt. I'm afraid I don't do too well at that though. Is there an adapter to take it down or do I have to rearrange pins?

If I mod the antec fan down, won't I have a problem with my case temp going even higher? It ranges from 33-37 now which I can tolerate. I don't really want it to go any higher though

Wendell.

Ralf Hutter
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:18 am

wgragg wrote:I'm running it at 12v now and though I hear it, it is acceptable. I need to find out how to mod for 7 or even 5 volt. I'm afraid I don't do too well at that though. Is there an adapter to take it down or do I have to rearrange pins?
You can do either. A Zalman Fanmate will work but you'd also need to get one of those 4-pin to 3-pin adapters from SVC to mate the 4-pin Antec fan to the 3-pin Fanmate.

You can also move the wires on the Antec connector to run the fan at either 7V or 5V. There's some links on the main site as well as links in a lot of posts in the forums that show you how to do this.
wgragg wrote:If I mod the antec fan down, won't I have a problem with my case temp going even higher? It ranges from 33-37 now which I can tolerate. I don't really want it to go any higher though

Wendell.
Maybe, maybe not.

What's the ambient temp were you are? Your case temp seems a little warm for that case and that fan running at 12V. What hardware is in your case? How's your cabling, is it a mess (resticting airflow)?

wgragg
Posts: 246
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 7:34 am

Post by wgragg » Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:03 pm

Here is what I am running.

Epox 8rda3+ Mobo w/1 Gig pc3200 ram
Barton 2500+ oc'd to 10x200 (2 gig)
Silent Boost hsf with AS5 TIM
Ati Radeon 9800 non-pro with stock hsf.
1 120 Gig WD hard Drive
1 120 Gig Seagate HD
HP 300i DVD writer
Seasonic 400w single fan psu

And of course, the obligatory floppy drive!

I have tried to route as many cables as possible behind the hard drive cage on the mobo side so I have very little restricting air flow. I did notice that when I installed the Radeon, (before I got this case) that my case temps went up by at least 3 degrees, so I am sure that is contributing. That is why I am itching for that Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer to come in!

Another thing that probably is contributing to the temp rise is the fact that I used to use a dual fan Antec 350 wat psu.

My ambient temps have been about 72-76 degrees Farenheit. Sorry, I am not sure what that is in Celsius. I'm just an old Yank after all!

In my old Antec case, which was a bit bigger, I ran 4 case fans, the dual fan psu, 2 optical drives and a lot messier inside and my temps maxed out at 32c, even with the Radeon installed.

I may take out the front filter for a little bit, just to see if it makes a temp difference.

I'm open to any other ideas!

Thanks.
Wendell

Ralf Hutter
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:12 am

For all your stuff (including the toasty vid card and two warm HDDs) those temps are fine. I wouldn't even worry about it.

I'll stick with my original recommendation of putting a very low volt fan in the front of the case to cool the drives down, and if you want you can undervolt your main fan to 7V and see what that does to your temps. That case has very good airflow and you may well find that they don't go up at all.

wgragg
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Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 7:34 am

Post by wgragg » Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:51 am

Thanks Ralf. Your advice is very much appreciated. I did move my second hard drive down a slot so that the air flow would be less impeded and it actually did make a difference, though minor. I will see about ordering the fan and we will see what happens.

Wendell

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