Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

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doveman
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Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Mon Aug 05, 2013 4:33 am

I've got three fans in my case, an Xilence Red Wing 120mm rear exhaust http://www.xilence.net/en/products/fans ... g-120.html, the fan that came on the Xigmatek HDT-D1284 top-down cooler (PWM) and a Arctic F12 PWM front intake.

The Xilence Red Wing is fine (I'm using a Zalman 100R resistor to run it at around 950RPM), the Xigmatek fan is not too bad but does have an annoying buzzing although it's probably not noticeable with the side on the case and a couple of feet away (it also won't run any slower than 992RPM with the Asrock BIOS set to Level1, which is the lowest it goes) but the Arctic F12 is very whooshy, even with a Zalman 56R resistor on it bringing it down to under 850RPM.

EDIT: I just realised I'd gotten confused and the Chassis (front) fan connector does actually have speed/temp control in the BIOS, it's the Power (rear) fan that doesn't. With the Artic F12 set to Level 2, it runs at 550RPM and is inaudible, so that's cool.

I've also got a Arctic F12 on my other PC's TRUE Rev.c heatsink and I haven't been particularly impressed with the noise from that either. I'm currently running it at 1265RPM because even with the TRUE my CPU gets too hot (55c) if I run it at low speeds and I haven't found a way to make it run slow at idle but full speed when needed (the BIOS can control it but if I set it to run slow at idle, it only goes to 900-1000RPM at full load). So at very low speeds it seems to be nice and quiet but at higher speeds seems a lot worse than some other fans.

I still wish I could reduce the speed of the Xigmatek fan a bit and the Xilence would probably be completely inaudible if it could run a bit slower as well but the Xigmatek's definitely the loudest at the moment.

EDIT2: Actually, I think the Xilence is a bit louder than the Xigmatek. The latter just got my attention due to the buzzing. It's weird now but sometimes it makes a raspy sound like it's catching on the heatsink but I don't think it is. If I lightly (and I mean very lightly, not pushing at all) touch the fan frame on the bottom then it seems to set this raspy noise off and then it stops when I remove my finger.

Now I've got the HDDs connected it's somewhat moot anyway as the whole case is vibrating but I ought to sort out the CPU fan, 'cos knowing my luck it will fail or start making some horrific noises the day after I send this PC to my brother for his birthday!

EDIT3: For the Xilence exhaust fan, perhaps I could take one of my Zalman RC56 cables (I seem to have acquired about six of them) and cut the resistor out and replace it with a higher resistance one. I'm not sure what resistance it would need to be though, as the 100R only gets it down to about 950RPM and I guess it needs to be at most 800RPM or maybe even around 550-600RPM like the front fan to be silent?

doveman
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Wed Aug 07, 2013 4:55 pm

So does anyone know if it'll be OK to just get a higher value resistor and replace the 100R with that to run the Xilence slower?

For the Xigmatek fan, I think I'll have to replace the fan if I want to reduce the noise, as I don't think I can use a Zalman resistor on the socket as it's PWM and it won't work properly like that. Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement (also PWM I guess) that will run very quietly but is able to speed up enough when the CPU is loaded? Another Arctic F12 PWM might be suitable, if I start it at Level 3 or 4 maybe that will run it fast enough (around 800RPM) for idle/light use and allow it to speed up when needed but I'm not sure if it will provide adequate CFM and they are rather loud at faster speeds, so it might be nicer to get something else that stays fairly quiet at various speeds, if possible.

It's rather fiddly removing the fan from the heatsink and attaching another one, so I don't really want to be experimenting with fans and I've only got a couple of weeks to get this finished and packed up for my brother's birthday anyway.

I stuck a bit of foam-board I bought a few years ago and had lying around over the holes in the side-panel (actually, I put it on the inside and used zipties to secure it in the four corners through the holes (they're designed for mounting two 120mm fans on the side-panel) which has reduced the high-frequency noise coming out of the case a fair bit anyway. I'm rather spoilt with my own PC, having the HDDs just resting on the soft-foam they came packaged with (in fact I haven't even got my gear in a case at all yet, so no panels to resonate), so the two HDDs in my brother's case sound awfully annoying to me but he probably won't care, considering the state of his current PC ;)

Pappnaas
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by Pappnaas » Wed Aug 07, 2013 11:01 pm

I gather this is a top down cooler.

Some people have made good experiences with the YateLoon PWM fan, but sample variance is said to play a big part, so you might order a few fans and just keep the best model.

A Scythe Slip Stream 120 PWM doesn't break the bank (is listed around 8 Euro + p&p in germany) either.

And an Enermax T.B.Silence PWM can be had for a few cents more.

doveman
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Thu Aug 08, 2013 10:46 am

Pappnaas wrote:I gather this is a top down cooler.

Some people have made good experiences with the YateLoon PWM fan, but sample variance is said to play a big part, so you might order a few fans and just keep the best model.

A Scythe Slip Stream 120 PWM doesn't break the bank (is listed around 8 Euro + p&p in germany) either.

And an Enermax T.B.Silence PWM can be had for a few cents more.
Thanks, I might have a Scythe lying around that I bought but didn't like for some reason but it might be an improvement on the Xigmatek-supplied fan.

Yep, it's a top down cooler, so the CPU fan's facing the side-panel (well now it's facing the foamboard I fitted, which will absorb some noise from the fan), with a front intake and rear exhaust fan.

doveman
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:00 pm

Well running Prime95 x64 Large FFTs Torture Test and the CPU gets to 54c (core 48c, motherboard 44c) in under 10mins (BIOS Target Temp 45c).

The noise is terrible as well, with the Xigmatek CPU fan running at 1454RPM and the Arctic F12 front fan at 1360RPM.

It's hard to tell if one's worse than the other and I'm not sure if the front fan speeding up makes much difference to the CPU temps anyway, so I'll see if I can get that to stay running at 600RPM whilst the Xigmatek speeds up and check the temps and noise like that.

It might make more sense to have the exhaust fan speed up but I'd need a long cable to connect that to the chassis fan MB header, which is at the front of the board/case as the power fan MB header it's currently connected to doesn't support variable speed.

OK, it's definitely the Arctic F12 that's horribly loud when it's fast. If I keep that around 600RPM and let the Xigmatek fan hit 1454RPM again, it's noticeable but not screaming loud like the Arctic. I'd probably prefer it to stay quieter, so that I could leave it running jobs without the fan getting on my nerves but for many people it probably wouldn't bother them. I'm going to try a different fan anyway.

It probably is getting a bit hotter with the Arctic F12 pegged at 600RPM and I've got CPU 55c, Core 49c and MB 44c after about 5mins but it hasn't gone any higher after another 5mins (it's quite cool in my room tonight though, about 26c so it might not do so well when hotter, like 30c as it was last week). I was hoping to overclock to maybe 3.4Ghz, 2400Mhz NB and 1600Mhz RAM but I'm not comfortable with the CPU going over 55c so I might have to forget that.

The Asrock BIOS seems a bit buggy as if I adjust the Target Temp for the Chassis fan to say 60c, this prevents the CPU fan from spinning up even though I left that on 45c. I have to reduce the Chassis fan to 50c and then the CPU fan spins up whilst the Chassis fan stays at 600RPM. Mind you, I'm using the Asrock Extreme Tuner app rather than the BIOS directly, so it might work properly if I do that.

doveman
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:27 am

I actually found a Zalman Fanmate variable resistance fan controller and using that to reduce the Xilence to around 800 RPM makes it practically inaudible. According to my meter, there's just under 1k resistance at that setting (0.958 on the meter's 2k range) but that's so far from the 56ohm or 100ohm of the Zalman RC56 and RC100 that I must be measuring it wrong!

Anyway, I just tried it with the RC100 again and it runs at around 915 RPM and is pretty much inaudible, so that'll probably do. If I can work out what resistance I need to run it at 800 RPM, I'll get a suitable resistor and splice it into one of my RC56 cables though.

Then I just need to replace the CPU fan as that's making rasping/scraping noises intermittently (perhaps the bearings are going, even though it's a new fan). The Scythe I had lying around is the non-PWM SY1225SL12M unfortunately (I've still got a feeling I have or had a Scythe PWM but who knows where it might be), so I've ordered a couple of the PWM ones, which I've found for around £9 each including shipping. They're rated at max 74CFM, which is a bit higher than the Enermax T.B.Silence PWM at 71.25 CFM which I doubt makes much difference but I don't know if the Enermax is better in other respects to justify paying an extra £2-3 for it.

doveman
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:15 am

Well I got my two Scythe Slip Stream 120 PWM and have tested one on my main system's TRUE rev. C, in place of the Arctic F12 PWM.

It's not that impressive, with a nasty raspy noise at only 750RPM. At 550RPM this disappears but that's too low to keep my CPU cool (idling Core at 48c, CPU at 40c).

It doesn't help that the fan control on my MSI 990FXA-GD80 doesn't work very well, so to get it to run at 550RPM I had to set minimum speed 37.5% (next step is 50% which runs it at 750RPM) but even with the target temp set to 50c, it doesn't speed up at all when it's hitting 55c. I had the same problem with the Arctic F12 PWM and had to just run that faster (i.e. noisy) than I'd like at idle.

xan_user
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by xan_user » Tue Aug 20, 2013 3:37 pm

but that's too low to keep my CPU cool (idling Core at 48c, CPU at 40c).
those temps are fine. there's zero advantage to keeping cores "cool". as long as they are not throttling back, youre set.

doveman
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Re: Xigmatek HDT-D1284 fan not much good

Post by doveman » Tue Aug 20, 2013 4:53 pm

xan_user wrote:those temps are fine. there's zero advantage to keeping cores "cool". as long as they are not throttling back, youre set.
Yeah but what I meant to say was that as soon as I run prime95 it jumps to 55c and I've been told to keep it under 55c (I think the max spec is 62c).

Tested the other Slipstream and that sounds the same above about 650RPM (maybe raspy isn't the right word but there's a bit of a rough tick sound), so these are only really any good as case fans running at around 600RPM. I prefer my Arctic PWM as it doesn't have this noise characteristic and neither does the Xigmatek fan, so not really impressed with the Slipstreams and I don't think they're worth £9 a piece (the Nexus/Yate Loons are probably better and cheaper).

I've found running the Xigmatek at around 800RPM makes it almost inaudible. Frustratingly though, the lowest setting in the BIOS only gets it to about 1050RPM. The only way to run it slower is to disable the BIOS control and use Speedfan, which works fine except then I have to put up with having the fan running at full speed from POST until Speedfan loads, about four minutes later (I need a lot of stuff to load at Windows startup, without all that it was down to about 50s).

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