Quietest 80mm fan without undervolting?

pandamonium54 · Post by **pandamonium54** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 4:22 pm

Well, what is it? (One that can push a reasonable amount of air, say, somewhere between 20 and 30cfm.)

Is there some cheap DIY undervolting procedure that I could use or would I have to get little adapters for each of my fans and clutter my case? (I really liked a fanbus that fit in a 3.5" bay and had knobs to adjust voltage, but it was also $50...)

Just wondering - I'm thinking about switching my Silencers to Panaflos because I read somewhere that the Silencers don't push anywhere near 27CFM...

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:06 pm

Hello pandamonium54:

After reading the thread topic, I thought -- that's easy: Papst. But, in you post you've added a "deal breaker:" there is no way that the Papst can push that kind of air. Then you mention undervolting -- yes this is a very cheap and (fairly) easy DIY thing to do. I would suggest looking in these pages for how; 5V is available directly. and 7V is derived from the difference between 12V and 5V. Either basically involves extracting the pins from the Molex plugs and repositioning them.

So, are the Silencers too noisy? Or don't they keep things coolenough? Because, give or take a few dB, you are either going to A) get things quieter but warmer by undervolting your Silencers, or 2) get things noisier but cooler by going to a 30CFM+ fan. Any "mix & matching" of this won't gain a whole lot. If noise is the issue, have you already mod'd your grills for best air flow? If heat is the issue, then there is no magic bullet: if you need more air flow, then you'll likely get more noise, too.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 11:52 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:If noise is the issue, have you already mod'd your grills for best air flow? If heat is the issue, then there is no magic bullet: if you need more air flow, then you'll likely get more noise, too.

I second that. You always trade off noise for airflow. The key is to increase airflow efficiency - reduce blockages. Open/remove grills, re-route/re-orient inside cables. And some people aren't gonna agree with me on this one - no filters.

pandamonium54 · Post by **pandamonium54** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 10:43 pm

Well my Silencers aren't keeping things cool enough. I read (possibly here, or at the Yahoo group, or Anandtech...) that the Silencer definitely does not push 27CFM. Currently all of my Silencers are running at 12V. I figured that if I'm not getting decent airflow with the Silencers then the way of the Panaflo is the way to go. Spec wise, I'd be sacrificing 1dBa, but would be getting a definite 24CFM at 12V. If there is any other fan out there that can best the Panaflo though, I'm very interested.

hyum · Post by **hyum** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 11:15 pm

what is your fan setup? intake/exhaust? as a suggestion, before replacing fans, you may want to have your setup examined first to see if you can push air more efficiently before spending money.

for instance, here is a simplified example of what i mean: look at a typcial flow vs. pressure curve for dc axial fans. let's use our beloved 80mm L1A http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/app ... fba08a.pdf, ( since silencer is probably a remarked fan, and p&pc doesn't publish their silencer fan curves).

at 12V, the airflow is 25CFM at 0 Pa pressure. a typical pressurize case may be around 7 Pa (and even higher) if you don't have balanced airflow, e.g. one PS exhaust fan, one exhaust case fan, no intake fan. the CFM drops to half @7Pa, down to around 12 CFM. if you balance the airflow anywhere close to 0 Pa by adding an the right intake fan, in this example, you'll nearly double your airflow.

this should also address other threads where people ask, "why would you want to put in intake fan in?" maybe if i have time, i would write a guide on atx case fans, but hey, if i had time, i'd be getting lots of other things done.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 11:23 pm

pandamonium54 wrote:Well my Silencers aren't keeping things cool enough. I read (possibly here, or at the Yahoo group, or Anandtech...) that the Silencer definitely does not push 27CFM. Currently all of my Silencers are running at 12V. I figured that if I'm not getting decent airflow with the Silencers then the way of the Panaflo is the way to go. Spec wise, I'd be sacrificing 1dBa, but would be getting a definite 24CFM at 12V. If there is any other fan out there that can best the Panaflo though, I'm very interested.

You mean here? http://www.silentpcreview.com/goto.php?t=s&id=63&a=1

If you're not happy with the Silencers, then I think you'd best go with a Panaflo/Sunon/Yate-Loon (click to see this SPCR thread). IIRC, I once bought a Yate-Loon (sleeve bearing) from a local electronic store and it was pretty quiet. But take me with a grain of salt b/c this was years ago when I was still clueless about computer silence.

What temps are you running at? I get the feeling that your idea of cool enough is different than my feeling of cool enough.

pandamonium54 · Post by **pandamonium54** » Mon Jan 27, 2003 7:28 pm

Hrm..... well I ordered three Panaflos over the weekend to replace the Silencers... I don't have enough fans to even implement an intake fan at the moment so I think it wasn't a horrible investment. Anyway, I have two fans total exhausting air from my PC. One is in my PSU, the other is a few inches under it. Instead of intake fans I've opened up a 5.25" bay and a 3.5" bay. I can't really make use of intake fans on the front of my PC because I have a vertically sliding drive cover, and because the plastic is molded in a semi-round fashion. I don't really have the resources or know-how to take any tool to my case at the moment. My temps are actually pretty high.... 62/46 in celcius as reported by motherboard monitor. I want to try adding fans and decreasing voltage to cool things off better. The only issues are finding a reasonably priced fan controller that controls voltage via knobs, and figuring out how to add intake fans.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Tue Jan 28, 2003 4:34 am

pandamonium54 wrote:Hrm..... well I ordered three Panaflos over the weekend to replace the Silencers... I don't have enough fans to even implement an intake fan at the moment so I think it wasn't a horrible investment. Anyway, I have two fans total exhausting air from my PC. One is in my PSU, the other is a few inches under it. Instead of intake fans I've opened up a 5.25" bay and a 3.5" bay. I can't really make use of intake fans on the front of my PC because I have a vertically sliding drive cover, and because the plastic is molded in a semi-round fashion. I don't really have the resources or know-how to take any tool to my case at the moment. My temps are actually pretty high.... 62/46 in celcius as reported by motherboard monitor. I want to try adding fans and decreasing voltage to cool things off better. The only issues are finding a reasonably priced fan controller that controls voltage via knobs, and figuring out how to add intake fans.

I struggled with cooling-inhibited cases for a number of years. I finally bit-the-bullet and bought a Coolermaster ATC-110. There are also many cheaper cases that provide uninhibited air flow.

Can you post a picture of your case. We might be able to come up with some advice.

jamoore9 · Post by **jamoore9** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 7:44 am

I've had luck so far with Enermax's Thermal Control fan. They have 4 speed settings, from 1800 RPM to 3100 RPM. They supposedly push 22CFM at 2100 RPM at 18dBA, which is where it spins when temps are between 45C and 65C. If your over 65C where you place the remote thermistor, it ratchets up to 2600, where they are advertised to push 33CFM at 29dBA. Its nice, because you don't need to screw around with undervolting or thermal control unit like the Vantec Nexus, and it protects in case of overheat. I've got 4 running in my Ahanix Noblesse, and its real quiet.

Oh, and they're cheap! I got 4 for $15 on eBay.

Quietest 80mm fan without undervolting?

Quietest 80mm fan without undervolting?

Quietest -- or 20-30CFM ???

Re: Quietest -- or 20-30CFM ???