New build - various fan questions.
Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:26 pm
Hello there,
Well, unfortunately my PSU decided it had done enough transforming and packed in a few days ago - taking my three hard drives and possibly damaging the motherboard with it; so, it's new build time... although my wallet would have preferred to wait a little while yet! Anyways, I'm certainly not new to PC builds, but to be honest I've not really taken too much care or interest in the fans I installed other than making sure they weren't cheap and nasty, but as I'm building a custom case and putting quite high quality components in, I'd like to take some more care regarding the fans.
The case design calls for 4 (with the option to expand to 6) vertically mounted fans - 2 (optionally 3) that will blow into the front of the case and 2 (optionally 3) rear fans to suck out. I don't really require the fans to be so quiet that I could hear a pin drop but I certainly don't want them to be so as to be a distraction (sorry, that isn't too helpful I know). I'm not 100% sure how exactly you add the dBA values together for fans other than knowing that it isn't a simple addition, but would having 6 or even 4 high quality quiet fans make trying to have a reasonably quiet PC a mute (haha!) point?
The motherboard I'm planning on getting is the Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE, which has 4 fan connectors (the manual states that the 2nd optional CPU fan connector is not controllable with Fan Xpert 2), as these are 4 pin connectors they seem to be PWM fans. I'll be using an Intel 3770k CPU, and will be doing some (most likely moderate) overclocking. I'm unsure just how compatible quieter fans are with overclocking on a CPU that seems to run on the hot side to begin with?
As the board supports 4 PWM fans, would I be best going for PWM fans and some sort of splitter cable (I can't recall the correct name) that can take the PWM signal from the motherboard but draw power from the PSU, rather than just the 3 pin case fans that are voltage regulated?
I've had a good look at the recommended fans page and it seems that the 120mm fans are the way to go. I'm looking in particular at the M12-S2 for both the 4 case fans and a CPU fan, however I'm not quite understanding how the NEXUS D12SL-12 seems to get similar results yet costs nearly a third of the price of the noiseblocker. What exactly is the cause of the price difference?
Finally, as this is a custom case I've got the chance to do whatever I want. One thing I'm looking into is the possibility of fitting some sort of baffle box (see here) to help reduce the sound level. Has anybody here done anything like this, or know if it being done - and if so what the results were?
Thanks for your help.
Well, unfortunately my PSU decided it had done enough transforming and packed in a few days ago - taking my three hard drives and possibly damaging the motherboard with it; so, it's new build time... although my wallet would have preferred to wait a little while yet! Anyways, I'm certainly not new to PC builds, but to be honest I've not really taken too much care or interest in the fans I installed other than making sure they weren't cheap and nasty, but as I'm building a custom case and putting quite high quality components in, I'd like to take some more care regarding the fans.
The case design calls for 4 (with the option to expand to 6) vertically mounted fans - 2 (optionally 3) that will blow into the front of the case and 2 (optionally 3) rear fans to suck out. I don't really require the fans to be so quiet that I could hear a pin drop but I certainly don't want them to be so as to be a distraction (sorry, that isn't too helpful I know). I'm not 100% sure how exactly you add the dBA values together for fans other than knowing that it isn't a simple addition, but would having 6 or even 4 high quality quiet fans make trying to have a reasonably quiet PC a mute (haha!) point?
The motherboard I'm planning on getting is the Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE, which has 4 fan connectors (the manual states that the 2nd optional CPU fan connector is not controllable with Fan Xpert 2), as these are 4 pin connectors they seem to be PWM fans. I'll be using an Intel 3770k CPU, and will be doing some (most likely moderate) overclocking. I'm unsure just how compatible quieter fans are with overclocking on a CPU that seems to run on the hot side to begin with?
As the board supports 4 PWM fans, would I be best going for PWM fans and some sort of splitter cable (I can't recall the correct name) that can take the PWM signal from the motherboard but draw power from the PSU, rather than just the 3 pin case fans that are voltage regulated?
I've had a good look at the recommended fans page and it seems that the 120mm fans are the way to go. I'm looking in particular at the M12-S2 for both the 4 case fans and a CPU fan, however I'm not quite understanding how the NEXUS D12SL-12 seems to get similar results yet costs nearly a third of the price of the noiseblocker. What exactly is the cause of the price difference?
Finally, as this is a custom case I've got the chance to do whatever I want. One thing I'm looking into is the possibility of fitting some sort of baffle box (see here) to help reduce the sound level. Has anybody here done anything like this, or know if it being done - and if so what the results were?
Thanks for your help.