Nexus Fanbus louder than the fans!!

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

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aaronspink
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Nexus Fanbus louder than the fans!!

Post by aaronspink » Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:27 pm

So I picked up a nexus fanbus to put into my new machine I'm building, and I figured I might warn people...

The buzz from this fanbus is generally louder than the fans. At about half power the noise from the fan bus overpowers the noise from a 120mm panaflo L1A. At min voltage it is incredibly annoying, a high pitched buzz.

If you are looking for quiet, I would suggest you look else where.

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Post by MikeC » Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:50 pm

Wow, that's something. I wonder if this is an anomaly. Is it using PWM for the fan speed control? Have you considered exchanging it? I think someone is sending me a sample to review, but if your sample is normal, I don't even want to bother. What is it with Vantec, anyway? You are referring to the Vantec Nexus, right?

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Post by TheMuffinMan » Fri Jan 24, 2003 11:12 pm

MikeC wrote:Wow, that's something. I wonder if this is an anomaly. Is it using PWM for the fan speed control? Have you considered exchanging it? I think someone is sending me a sample to review, but if your sample is normal, I don't even want to bother. What is it with Vantec, anyway? You are referring to the Vantec Nexus, right?
You might want to bother anyway - to inform the general public that the unit defeats the purpose of itself (sounds so odd)

Yeah, I don't know what's up with Vantec. The stealth fans aren't really that quiet, they push no air (especially the 60mm), and their PS is one of the loudest.

aaronspink
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Post by aaronspink » Sat Jan 25, 2003 12:12 am

MikeC wrote:Wow, that's something. I wonder if this is an anomaly. Is it using PWM for the fan speed control? Have you considered exchanging it? I think someone is sending me a sample to review, but if your sample is normal, I don't even want to bother. What is it with Vantec, anyway? You are referring to the Vantec Nexus, right?
Don't know if it is an anomaly or not. The sound is like a higher pitched geiger counter sound. I tried the 4 seperate circuits on the fanbus and they all exibit the same issue. Also tried several different fans ( Sanyo 92, Vantec Stealth 80, Panaflo 120 L1a, 80 L1a, 80 M1a) with the same resutls. And yeah, it is the Vantec Nexus Fan Controller

Looking at the board, it contains an Elan Microelectronics ( www.emc.com.tw) EM78P458AM 8b microcontroller with up to 8 input ADC capability (most likely sampling the reostats), up to 8 GP I/O pins, 2 of which can be used as PWM pins. Seeing as how it appears that Vantec has 4 independant controllers, this suggests that they either aren't using the PWM functionality or are doing something funky between the PWM pins and the other output pins.


I'll probably give them a call on monday ( they are literally 10-45 minutes from work, depending on traffic) and see what they say. I'd still review it if I was you, I might just have a flaw, or it might be some interaction somewhere in my system that is causing it.

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Post by Ralf Hutter » Sat Jan 25, 2003 6:24 am

MikeC wrote:Wow, that's something. I wonder if this is an anomaly. Is it using PWM for the fan speed control? Have you considered exchanging it? I think someone is sending me a sample to review, but if your sample is normal, I don't even want to bother. What is it with Vantec, anyway? You are referring to the Vantec Nexus, right?
No it's not an anomaly. Peeps at OCforums and Anandtech are bitching/commenting about it too, and their case noise levels are orders of magnitude higher than we're dealing with here at SPCR. There also appears to be QC issues with these. A lot of them have burned up or are non-functional right out of the box. There's a few threads about this problem also and they have lots of posts in them. I'd definitely stay away from these if I was you.

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Post by GamingGod » Sat Jan 25, 2003 12:05 pm

hey there should be a "not recommended" or stay away at all costs thread/article.

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Post by Dru » Sat Jan 25, 2003 12:59 pm

LOL! I 2nd that GamingGod. I thought the "exact" same idea when I started reading this thread. You beat me to my post. :)

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Post by MikeC » Sat Jan 25, 2003 2:11 pm

How about a NOT RECOMMENDED forum?

EDIT: On the other hand, the # of review samples flowing in would probably trickle down to zero... maybe not.
Last edited by MikeC on Sun Jan 26, 2003 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oricom
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Post by Oricom » Sun Jan 26, 2003 12:03 pm

I was going to buy this, but I'm glad I didn't since alot of reviews report a buzzing sound.

Here's a review.

I think I'll get 4 Zalman Fanmates instead. Anyone know the cheapest place to buy Zalman fanmates in UK?

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Post by powergyoza » Sun Jan 26, 2003 12:21 pm

MikeC wrote:How about a NOT RECOMMENDED forum?
I second that. That will probably keep the manufacturers from being discouraged to send stuff in for review. I'd bet some would get scared away if there was an actual section dedicated to that.

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Post by Dru » Sun Jan 26, 2003 6:11 pm

What's the difference if there's a not rec. forum than having a company send it in for review... and then the review looks bad. So do you not post the review or "fudge" on the review?

The reason this site exists is to share knowledge related to quiet products! Look at some of the big internet sites like AnandTech and look at magazines. Bad products get reviewed all the time.

I don't know what would be best but I see these 4 possibilities:

(1) have rec. and not rec. sections
(2) change the recommended section. For example: instead of "Recommended Fans", list as "Fans" and then list by ranking (with data).
(3) add a not recommended forum
(4) no nothing and use the existing forums and have threads like this one

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Post by MikeC » Sun Jan 26, 2003 7:13 pm

Dru,

For silent computing, most PC products are bad. Most are noisy or too hot.

-- Think about how many HDDs can really be considered GOOD. Only the Barracuda in my opin.

-- How many fans -- a small handful, and NONE at 12V.

-- How about PSUs -- a few.

-- CPUs? -- probably one: C3, maybe the slowest Cel/P3 currently available.

-- HSF? -- Just a handful if used as intended by the mfg.

Do you see what I am getting at? If the site tried to say what is NOT quiet as well as what is, well, the amount of stuff to wade through -- for me, for you -- would be a hundred times more. The site is useful for people like you because try to examine products that are useful for quiet computing -- because I don't write indiscriminately about every doohickey that comes my way.

Sometimes, I've reviewed stuff I didn't really want to -- the Vantec PSU, for example. I knew before I ever saw/heard it that it COULD not be quiet. It got kind of forced on me. I would rather spend my precious time examining and writing about products that are useful, not one that is noisy.

Having said all that, I agree that giving honest assessments of bad products is part and parcel of reviewing. We all know that false advertising is already happening with so-called quiet PC components. I've alluded to that in the recent editorial piece about the state of PC Noise.

This Nexus fan controller may be an example of that. I was hoping it would be a good product. If I had received a sample & found it to be nasty, well, I would have told you all about it. I think you all know I don't mince my words much.

The good thing is that YOU guys already know it's not that great, that it buzzes. So I don't have to get a sample from whoever, and then have that supplier feel burned by the first review of the first sample they send to SPCR. We are not Anandtech or Tom's Hardware, we don't have nearly a decade of history through the greatest tech growth period in recent history, and we don't have a hundred advertisers and sponsors -- quiet computing is still just one small current in a big river.

Like I said, I would prefer to help you find what is good, not warn you against what is bad. I have gone out of my way to do the latter from time to time & will do so in the future again, but this time you've done it for yourselves already. Which is great. Caveat emptor always applies in our world.

That's a longwinded way of saying I choose your option 4). :roll:

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Post by Dru » Sun Jan 26, 2003 7:30 pm

I think that's a good choice. 8)

I'm sure others will be doing what I do for my next computer: select products from the recommended section. My gut is that this "quiet" market will grow over time until companies "get it right." Keep up the great work and thanks for the site!

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Post by GamingGod » Sun Jan 26, 2003 8:57 pm

option 4 is good, i was just saying, for example, maybe there is a fan that everyone always recommends is quiet but you know for a fact that it isnt, it would be nice to post that info somewhere so people wouldnt buy a product they thought was quiet because some overclocker said that it was a real quiet fan (compared to his delta).

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Post by MikeC » Sun Jan 26, 2003 9:23 pm

I see that and it irks me too, especially when its misleading advertising that's led to the bad buy. If you look in the Recom. HDD page, you'll see my "rating" about the silent drive: it's thinly disguised warning to stay away from it. I got flak from the distributor for that & that got sorted out.

But often, people will do what they do, there's no stopping them. Sound perceptions are so subjective & tricky it is hard to share info about it even with like-minded people.

Anyway, I think everyone in these forums is really good about guiding newbies, and if anyone feels strongly enough about a particular product, he can always start a thread like this one.

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