Hi,

Im about to upgrade to Coolmaster CM Stacker, but I want to change the the stock 120mm fans and to something more powerfull and use a fan controler. The two option that I have are,

Enermax Manual Speed Control 120mm Fan
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2292&cat=81&page=1
RPM 1800 ~ 2300
Rated Voltage 12V 12V
Rated Current 0.12A ~ 0.20A
Power Input 1.44W ~ 2.4W
Air Flow(max) 63.05CFM ~ 94.92CFM
Noise 24.60dB ~ 30.10dB

Thermaltake 120mm Smart Case Fan w/ Blue LED
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=278&pid=8485&sid=5TF00HSVB2DV9PGLHV42M19KHLWE7421
Speed 1300 ~ 2800 RPM
Noise 17 ~ 46.5 dBA
Air Flow 38.6 ~ 93.7 CFM
Bearing 1 Ball 1 Sleeve
Temp. Sensor Yes
Variable Speed Fan Yes
Connector (s) 3-pin
Fan Speed Connector Yes

By specs the Enermax seems better, as it can put 63CFM at 1800RPM at 24Dba. Both seem to reach 93CFM but apparently the thermaltake makes more noise at max than the enermax, but dont know if the specs are right, maybe someone here has experience with either of this two fans and can give me an opinion.

Thanks,
Abula

PS, im not looking for the make my pc dead quiet, just as much as I can without sacrifing performance on the fans.[/url]

The Enermax fan is a Globe fan as described in The Top SPCR Quiet 120mm Axial Fans Compared + 120mmAC Fans. They just added a new label, the control knob and new packaging.

The collective mind of this forum decided that the Globe fan is the second best 120mm fan there is. So go for the Enermax.

There are not many users of Thermaltake products on this forum. Thermaltakes marketing is targeted at people who go for bling and fancy. People on this forum usually go for quality

Welcome to SPCR

Tibors,

Thanks for the reply, that was what I was exactly looking for. I will go with enermax.

By the way do you think the 80mm fans are also GLOBE?

Again thanks for the advise.
Abula

Yes, welcome Abula.

No clue on the Globe 80mm.

I would recommend the Panaflo 80mm L1A from www.jab-tech.com , which is the SPCR "reference" fan. Jabtech is the place to buy as you can get a guaranteed Japanese made one (high quality than the Chinese made ones). The "Japanaflo" is ~$7 from that vendor.

If you have an little extra, the Nexus 80mm is an excellent option too. You can buy it from www.endpcnoise.com I believe the Nexus would be a little quieter than modern Japanflos (the Japanflo quality isn't quite what is used to be), but they are a little more expensive too.

DrCR
_______

One thing about the Enermax-labeled Globes that people are not paying attention to is the fact that many of the Globe and Enermax brand fans, particularly the 80 and 92mm ones, are not sleeve bearing, but ball bearing. The best models, acoustically, being the Globe 120 and the AcoustiFan 120. as well as the 92mm and 80mm AcoustiFans, are all sleeve based. Many of the noisy 80mm Enermax or Globe fans are ball bearing; if anyone can find me a good dealer to purchase sleeve bearing Globes of the 80 or 92mm persuasion, do please inform me!

-Ed

Thanks for the replies.



How bad are this enermax ball bearing fans, are they so bad as the thermaltakes?

Can't particularly imagine anything being as bad as the Thermaltakes, honestly...

Used to have a two 80mm Enermax ball bearing fans installed... my experience is that they have a clattery sound to them which used to drive me nuts even though it was not very loud. Might very well have been because of the ball bearings, not sure. Besides the clattering they produce a clearly audible lower-frequency sound which I did not notice inside my (then) damped case but was obvious when I started comparing fans in free air. This was 2 years ago so things might have changes since then. However, I heartily second DrCR's suggestion of Nexus fan, very good results with those.

Oh, one more thing (though it's been said a thousand times before): do not believe manufacturers specs about rpm/cfm/noise ratings. A 120mm that pushes 93 cfm at 24 Db? The air rush alone will make more noise than that.

Do you want powerful or do you want quiet? The Enermax is absolutely not quiet. IMO it sounds growly even at the lowest setting, which is confirmed by the manufacturer specs.

The adjustment on the Enermax is not so wide (perhaps 8-12V?). A proper fan controller should solve this problem.

FYI, I have one of those fans, and I power it from 5V rail. The adjuster can then be used to "fine-tune" the speed (absolute lowest speed while ensuring that the fan starts up every time).

Cheers,

Jan

Thanks for the replies and welcome guys, this a great forum, all the advise give is very different than what I have been given in the past, I really appriciate the time you spend by sharing you experiences and suggestions.

As a matter of fact I have never thought a computer could be dead silent, it has never been my focus in my computer building, but I do try not to put extra noisy stuff as im sensitive to it. Still my focus on computers is performace first and noise second. My actual case was an ANTEC SONATA, and I like it a lot, until I got a Gainward GS 6800GT, which is a noise machine, lol, but even though I like the perfomance Im getting with it, and the noise is not that untolerable. Right now im focusing on trying to lower my case temp by upgrading case to a Stacker, i feel im able to lower the case temp I will also lower the screaming noise the GS is having as it has dinamic fan speed. If this doesnt work I will go for the NV5 Silencer, but still I want to see if the Stacker can lower my temps.

Do you guys think
3 nexus 120mm fans in the front
1 nexus 120mm in the back
2 nexus 80mm in the back
1 nexus 80m in the top
and the crossflow fan can lower the case temp sensible enough to achive what im looking?

Thanks again for all the replies and advise,

You are definatly going for overkill.

The stock fans 2 x 120 and 1x 80 are very quiet, and undervolt nicely. There is over 2 sq ft of ventilation on the case. Temps are barely above ambiant. If you are concerned about a particular hot spot on your board, you can position the exhaust of the hard drive cage so it gets a breeze.

There is no stock way to mount extra fans in the front. The crossflow is noisy, expensive and worthless.

Save yourself a lot of money, try it out as it comes first. I'm sure it will meet your needs, but if it doesn't you will be in a better position to judge what you actually can use.

I built a server in one of these cases, and I'd suggest the first thing you might want to buy to go with it is a power screwdriver

Removing the motherboard tray requires removing 19 screws - no, that is NOT an exaggeration. The tray is very securely attached to the chassis.

You left out one possible fan mount point - there is provision to mount a fan in the side panel, in the middle of that big circular mesh piece. With all those other fans, it would be a shame to miss out on that opportunity.

From the reviews I read, removing the motherboard tray should only be done if you're converting it to a BTX form factor, or if you're truly masochistic. With so much space to work with, it's not worth the trouble to remove the motherboard tray just to install your components.

Thanks for the suggestion, but im buying the clear case window, as hole as big as that, even with the mesh, will make my video card be like next to me, besides I like windows.

Glassman,

Thanks for the advise, really good man, I think your approach is very good, as its toward saving me money. But the only bad thing is that I live in guatemala, and I dont have access to all this quality stuff you guys have, well i have but if i buy piece by piece i get eaten by guatemalan customs. So its better to take a big hit toward what you think will work good and then work from there, but just little stuff, nothing like continue buying. But if had access to all this stuff without customs and freight fowarding companies, I will sure give a shot step by step.

Well, you can never have to many Nexus fans I suppose. But I would suggest running with less fans installed even though you do order them... you can always sell the ones you don't need. But please don't get the crossblower fan, that is a disappointment waiting to happen.

I have negative experience with side blowing fans as they tend to mess up the general airflow pattern throughout the case even though they can provide useful spot cooling, so I'd skip that option. And top-mounted fans usually do not add much if anything to case temps.

I also have an nv silencer on a nvidia 6800gt, and it was money well spent. It is much quieter than the stock solution. A much smarter purchase than the crossflow fan in my opinion. It also removes the gpu heat from the case, and on my chaintech a64 board helps cool the nf3 chipset.

I would put the powersupply at the top of the case. Those two 80mm rear exhausts are at the bottom of the machine and I doubt would be needed. Hot air rises after all. There would be little hot air to expell down there. Of course the 120mm exhaust. An would recommend you go ahead and use the blowhole at the top, though some might argue the PSU would be starved for air. I'll let others comment on this. And then one 120mm intake to cool you hard drive(s).

So:

PSU up top.
120mm rear
blowhole (optional)
120mm intake for hard drive(s)

It's late here though so you'll want to listen to others too.

Perhaps put the PSU at the bottom of the case so it isn't getting a lot of hot air and its fan doesn't spin up?

I just used the fan that came with the case and it works fine. PSU still gets enough air

there is so much ventilation on this case it's a nightmare trying to control airflow. so far i've taped up both side panel vents with cardboard. i still have the bottom open, i've got my phantom in the lower bay. i'm only using 2 fans right now, an s-flex on the ninja blowing toward a nexus on the rear vent. s-flex at 5v and nexus at 7v. i've left the blow hole open without a fan but i can't detect any heat pooling up there so i might tape it up later.
i don't seem to get much time to experiment with these things recently but the only noise source is the suspended, enclosed hd's which i am at a loss as to how to make quieter.
you haven't mentioned what kind of components are going into your system but from from your initial post i'd assume some crazy overclocked stuff, i just can't imagine a need for that many fans. as has already been mentioned the fans that come with this case are pretty decent, i've found other uses for them. the 80mm doesn't move much air at 5v but that's not a bad thing depending on application and the 120's only make slightly more noise at 5v than a nexus at 7v.
just a thought, why not get a VF900CU for the 6800 instead of all these fans?