Hi:

I have an Antec P150 CAse, running a PIV 3.8Ghz Prescott with a Scythe Ninja on top +Nexus 120 (Orange) Fan.

I'm thinking about an alternative for the Tri-Cool fan exhaust, that I'm using right now at Low setting. The Tri-Cool at Mid-Setting, is just not bearable, and considering it's summer and temps have gone higher here en CA. I would like to find an alternative to move a comparable airflow outisde the case without noise increase.

I actually have in mind a Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm fan, but many poeple here says it's the same as if I put another Nexus 120 Orange fan.

What about a Yate Loon D12SM? Or there is a better champion to put as an exhaust along with a fan mate?

Thank you!

I use a Xilence RED 80mm as the psu fan in my comp. It has been very quiet for me. It would be interesting to see a proper review of these fans rather than the subjective user reviews on aria.co.uk.

I hope that Xilence/levicom.de release some examples of the Xilence RED and Black fans for testing by SPCR Labs.

YL-SL spins at 1350RPM which is faster than Nexus, SM spins at 1600RPM so there will be a noise differense between all three. Concerning the question, Antec tri-cool is actually a pretty decent fan. If you say your temps are already through the roof I would advise going with YL-SL and hooking it up to rheobus or controlling it via speedfan so that you can choose precise balance between noise and temperature that satisfies you. If your temps are that high you could go with YL-SM, but at 1600RPM I imagine even at 5V it's still going to spin at 900 - 1000RPM (someone correct me if I'm wrong). It's all about compromise - noise vs. temperatures.

I'm using the Sanyo Denki 120mm in my P150:
http://www.petrastechshop.com/12x38sadesan.html

If you're going to be using a fan control it's perfect. Has a HUGE range, can start at around 3v.

Otherwise, I'd recommend the Akasa Amber 120mm for fulltime quiet 12v. Similar to the Nexus, with a bit more CFM and a little less sound.
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ak12amseulqu.html

-z

I've moved home today to an SLK3000B with the 120mm Antec Tricool and on the slowest setting it's making an annoying slow "thrum...thrum" noise. It's got to go. Purely on cost/availability grounds I've ordered the 1400rpm Akasa Amber to start my 120 collection.

Another cheap candidate I may try is the Coolermaster TLF-S12, 1220RPM.

Both have their fans here.

Hello,

I'll suggest two that are in the same league as the Nexus, but they are a lot less money: GlobalWin NCB and Scythe DF. The Scythe is made by Young Lin, though I have not tried it to see if it is as quiet.

Apologies to the Antec Tricool, it's innocent of the thrumming , in fact it's not any of the fans. The rather flimsy case door panel is vibrating like a drumskin and amplifying a drive (?) noise. Opening the case door stops it dead.

So here I have an idea and you could tell me if it works before I try it.

I bought a 4-pin molex to 3-pin (female) adapter. And plan to plug the Tri-Cool exhaust fan to a Fanmate through it, and the to the mobo.

Since Tri-Cool is quiet enough for me at Low setting but kind of insufficient air flow for my system. How about putting the Tri-Cool at Mid setting, and from there control it with a Zalman Fan Mate.

This is :

BEFORE) Tricool @LOW Setting

AFTER) Tricool@Mid Setting with Zalman FanMate (lowing the RPM)

Would this work?

I've got 5 80mm Amber series fans and they seem to be pretty quiet even at 1850~rpm, though I may not be able to hear them over the Hyper PSU (which is going as soon as I get enough money to get the antec Phantom...

Id guess that the 120mm wouldn't be much different from the 80mm fans.

HTH,

Dan

Ok. I tried the Tri-Cool fans with the Zalman Fanmate (the idea I was talking about)

It works!! It actually works. But the Fan won't start unless you set it to High Setting (that's 12v) And then you can play with Fanmate.

Only side effect I found, is that you cannot see how many RPM the fan is blowing. The mobo shows it as N/A. Tried SpeedFan and no RPM on the Tricool. Well at least I can play with the Fanmate until I can balance between silence and better exhaust.