Are "fan cards" quiet?

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 6:17 am

I was looking for a way to cool my Zalman-heatsinked GF4 when I came across this thing:
http://www.vantec.com.tw/fancard.html

I have seen it described as a "system exhaust blower," "squirrel cage fan," or "slot fan." Whatever it is called,

1. Does anyone know of any others?
2. Are these types of fans quiet?
3. What's the best one?[/url]

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 6:31 am

Ive seen those too, but from what ive read and been told about them, they are fairly loud, usually 35+db and put out very little air.

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:39 am

Do you remember where you got the 35dB number? I saw a number for the Vantec that said 26dB, but I don't know if I believe it.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:59 am

Its not a set number, its just the ones ive seen seem to be louder than conventional fans, and not put out as much air.

Dru · Post by **Dru** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:49 am

I did own a fan like this once. However, it was a sleeve bearing fan. I must say it was pretty quiet, though. After about 1 year of use, I started hearing bearing noise so I ditched it.

If you are close to a Fry's Electronics, check them out. That's where I bought this fan from. I think the box claimed 26db. My "guess" is that 26db is pretty close. It might be closer to 30db, though (which still isn't that bad for this slot fan).

Ducky · Post by **Ducky** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:36 pm

Phoner wrote:1. Does anyone know of any others?
2. Are these types of fans quiet?
3. What's the best one?[/url]

I just got a "generic" one at a local retail store. It claims to be quiet, and I believed them -- They are, if you have a normal PSU and relatively high-end graphics card. Once I actually started my silencing project, though, it ended up being the loudest fan I have.

Just for reference:

I now have a Nexus PSU, a Zalman "flower" heatsink, and undervolted case fans (soon-to-be Panaflos) on FB123s.

I started off with the stock Pentium 3 866 retail fan, a Antec TruPower PSU, and a PNY Ti4400 Geforce graphics card.

Hope this helps.

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 10:52 am

OK so it looks like they might be okay, especially if I could get them to run a bit slower. These fans seem to have 4-pin connectors. Anybody know how I could connect one to, say, a Zalman Fanmate or a Thermaltake switch so I could control the speed? Those speed controllers only seem to work with 3-pin fans.

seishino · Post by **seishino** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 2:30 pm

I have a generic one. It's a squirrel blower, basically. They're not as quiet as a box fan for the airflow you get*, and they are setup to blow air out of the case. If you mount it at the bottom of your case, where your cards are, that means you are removing the cold air from the inside, which isn't what you want to be doing. They're loud, basically, and I'd stay away from them if I were you.

They follow the basic rules for modding... connect the black ground wire to the black ground wire, the live 12+ line to the other live 12v line, and ignore the rpm line.

*hmm.. I never tried cutting the fan grill off...

Phoner · Post by **Phoner** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 8:12 pm

Thanks Seishino. I got an SC-190 (90mm fan) and cut the fan grilles off. It still made a pretty loud whoosh, but I took your wiring advice and connected it to a ThermalTake 3-speed switch that sits in a PCI slot. The fan is great at low setting. It is pretty silent and still gets decent airflow.

It is ejecting some cool air though - much cooler than that coming out of the PSU. Fortunately I have an Intel mobo (D845PEBT2) that has Active Monitor so I can see that my internal temps haven't gone up. All in all I feel better now that I probably won't fry the video card, though I suspect in the future I may switch to a Zalman FB123 and just blow air around inside the case.

optikillusion · Post by **optikillusion** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 4:29 pm

I found this on another forum.
19CFM @ 12dB & only 10cm wide!

http://www.moddin.net/review.asp?ReviewID=90
http://3men.com.tw/sd_e.htm

Now, just to find a place to buy them.

Are "fan cards" quiet?

Are "fan cards" quiet?

Re: Are "fan cards" quiet?