New build - various fan questions.

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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SecondTimeLucky
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:54 pm

New build - various fan questions.

Post by SecondTimeLucky » 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! :wink: 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.

boost
Posts: 661
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:29 am
Location: de_DE

Re: New build - various fan questions.

Post by boost » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:11 am

Welcome to SPCR!
Thank you for finding the recommended pages on your own.
Can you post a sketch? I can't imagine what a 6 fan intake configuration will look like.
PWM fans are a good idea with FanExpert2, they can go to very low RPM, regular fans are capped at 40%.
The Noiseblocker M12 has rubber mounting built-in, but it is pretty expensive. The Nexus/Scythe Gentle Typhoon/S-Flex are all very quiet fans at low RPM it's hard to hear a difference, one might do slightly higher RPM at your target sound level, but with four fans there will be enough airflow with either of them.
Take a look at the Noiseblocker e-loop, these fans are strictly single purpose push fans. There's a thread in this forum and people are not fans, because they probably don't know that yet. The review on OC.net isn't ideal either because they are used in a pull configuration. As soon as there is something disturbing airflow less than 1cm in front of the fan, like a fan grate, a dust filter or a heatsink they can drone. If used in a push configuration I found you can run them ~300RPM faster than other fans at the same noise level.

Koldun
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:58 pm

Re: New build - various fan questions.

Post by Koldun » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:43 pm

boost wrote:Welcome to SPCR!
Thank you for finding the recommended pages on your own.
Can you post a sketch? I can't imagine what a 6 fan intake configuration will look like.
PWM fans are a good idea with FanExpert2, they can go to very low RPM, regular fans are capped at 40%.
The Noiseblocker M12 has rubber mounting built-in, but it is pretty expensive. The Nexus/Scythe Gentle Typhoon/S-Flex are all very quiet fans at low RPM it's hard to hear a difference, one might do slightly higher RPM at your target sound level, but with four fans there will be enough airflow with either of them.
Take a look at the Noiseblocker e-loop, these fans are strictly single purpose push fans. There's a thread in this forum and people are not fans, because they probably don't know that yet. The review on OC.net isn't ideal either because they are used in a pull configuration. As soon as there is something disturbing airflow less than 1cm in front of the fan, like a fan grate, a dust filter or a heatsink they can drone. If used in a push configuration I found you can run them ~300RPM faster than other fans at the same noise level.
Whoa, that's incredible. Which fans were you testing them against? Although, I don't really want to be using my fans without a dust filter =/

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