i currntley am running in my sonanta case

- the std 120mm rear case fan
- 90mm zalman with fanmate over flower cooler
- 80mm zaman over graphics card


i am buying a fan controller as i want to be able to adjust the anspeeds from outside the pc (so i can urn them up a little whein i do and taxing stuff but get them really low ehn using the pc for audio recording

at the moment the pc is reasonably quiet it is the rear 120mm fan that is making the most noise

i would like a quiet (available in the UK) 120mm fan to replace this with
also would it be benifical for the cooling if i put a 120 mm front case fan in my system

i am quiet happy with the zalman fans
although i have had probs when running the fanmate at its lowest involving the pc turning off when playing games but this has stopped by raising the speed slightly

also when running just the cpu fan the psu sems whiney
i deflected the airfloe down wards and this reduced the noise oif both the air and the fan
is there anything you can buy thet does that job deflecting airlow but not reducing it

You should look into some small modification of the air intake on the Sonata. Do a few searches and you should find posts that decribes this in detail.
This will make your case fan flow more air with less work, so you could lower its speed and get same cooling as you have now.
You might just want another fanmate for this fan or hook up all fans to a fan controller.

I recommend that you run a program that monitors your temps (like MBM) and run Prime95 for 1 hour+ to see that your cooling is set at a level that is safe. Redo this procedure whenevery you test a new fan configuration.



Short answer is no. There is nothing that deflects airflow and not lower the noise level at all, but anything that has soft curves only reduces the flow slightly, and still direct and dampen noise quite efficiently.

yes, and do this before you do anything else, take the front cover off and cut away a lot of restricting plastic, also place spacers under the case to let more air into the air filter inlet, a cheap and easy thing to do, my case sits on 2 pieces of 12mm thick, 190mm long, 30mm wide wood, sit them under the cases rubber feet, use blu tac to keep it all stuck together if you want

once the case can breathe freer you'll proably find the rear fan will quieten down as it doesn't have to work so hard getting the air out of the case



i tried that, didn't make much difference, and actually now i use a suspended 92mm fan in that same position, i run 3 hdds and the 92mm spans the whole 3 when positioned centrally, it's actually mounted like a diamond, not like a square, if you understand my meaning, the reason i used a 92mm is because it has a lower airflow than the 120mm, and that in turn means that the rear fan, furtherest away from you and therefore quieter, will keep the case airflow more strongly in the right direction

mine is pretty quiet now, the main sound coming from my machine is the sound of the air travelling in through the case, i know this because when i take the side of the case off, it's actually quieter still

one day when i get around to it, i'm going to take the front cover off again and cut away even more of that plastic, there's 3 places where the air enters at the front and enlargening these openings even more, not to the point where the larger cut-aways are visible though, will i'm sure minimise the airflow sound to the quietest possible

if that's not enough, as a last resort, i'll mount the case under my desk so it's not 800mm from my right ear anymore

I like the stock Antec Sonata fan but it was loud until I slowed it down from the "Fan Only" speeds. I'm using a Sunbeam Rheobus and like it quite well.

I replaced the stock Sonata fan with an evercool 120mm, attached to a zalman fan mate set to lowest voltage. this evercool rated at 2000 rpm
at 12v. motherboard monitor reports it turning at a constant 1000 more or less. its slightly quieter, and doesnt have any odd clicking,whining, buzzing
or whatever. i also placed some thin rubber gromets between the fan and the case to help with any metal to metal contact(the evercool has an aluminum
frame) what with only one case fan, zalman alcu7000 set to lowest speed,
zalman heat pipe thingy on video card(with no fan) and no fan on northbridge,(stock mobo heatsink) the noisiest fan i have is the power supply.
lots of zalman stuff since its available in the local stores. so is evercool.
temps are reasonable, but not record breaking.