Should I replace my Centurion 5 120 mm fan?

Denis54 · Post by **Denis54** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:03 pm

The 120 mm fan in my Centurion 5 is the noisiest component in my PC. I run it at 12 V.

Should I replace it with a Nexus? CFM wise, how does the Centurion 5 fan compare to the Nexus?

Trunks · Post by **Trunks** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:17 pm

I would try undervolting it first. You might be happy witht the results.

Denis54 · Post by **Denis54** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:01 pm

I have undervolted the front 80 mm fan to 5 V because it was extremely noisy at 12 V. I will replace that fan with a 80 mm Nexus. I cannot use a 120 mm in the front.

I do not want to undervolt the rear 120 mm fan because I want to maximise air flow through the case. I assume that the Nexus at 12 V would push more air out than the Centurion 5 fan at 5 V. Am I right?

Nexus fans are the only ones available locally and I do not want to bother ordering such a small cost item on line.

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:53 pm

I feel that the Nexus fans don't have enough airflow for my needs. But this is pretty subjective, and I'm not sure how much airflow you're expecting, but don't expect a lot of airflow from them, even at 12V.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:34 pm

Hello,

What is your stock fan? You should try it at 5v and see how it dows for temps. You might very well be fine -- and it certainly should be a lot quieter.

If it doesn't have enough air flow, there are better ways to increase it -- w/o cranking up the fan. Like cutting out the fan grills.

What CPU do you have, and what HSF?

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:08 pm

Switching the Cent 5's fan with a Nexus won't greatly improve things. The 120 is a pretty good fan, and has a CFM/dB that's about the same as the nexus. (the 80mm is junk, as you've already discovered). You must have a very quiet rig if that's the noisiest bit.

Try undervolting it....I found that even lowering it by a couple of volts really gets it into a "sweet spot" of both noise and CFM. If you don't have access to a fanmate, or a baybus type of thing, just try the 7 volt trick and see how that sounds for you. Unless you're running some crazy hardware in there you'll probably find that the temps don't go up much at all, but the noise will go down.

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:28 pm

I have 2 of those in my Sonata.

I find them to be more quiet than their UV/LED counterparts.

Running both @ 7v

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:39 am

I have two of these too and they are nice fans when undervolted. A good choice for HDD cooling when run at 5V.

Denis54 · Post by **Denis54** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 2:06 pm

I will get a fanmate 2 and undervolt it. Hopefully that will enough.

This site is kind of addictive. I had never bothered about computer noise in the past. However, when I got my P4, it was noisy enough to be a nuisiance. I discoverd this site and now eventough I can hardly hear my PC, I still want to improve it.

So far, I have bought a ZALMAN 7700 AlCu CPU fan, a ZALMAN VF700 AlCu GPU fan, a Seasonic S-12 PSU and a Centurion 5

Jubei · Post by **Jubei** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:40 am

Addictive this is.

I too have the Centurion 5 with an Antec TruePower 2.0 PSU. The Antec automatically controls fans connected to its dedicated 12V fan switch - and basically the rear 120mm fan didn't even spin!! At first I thought I had a faulty fan, but the case has a QC mark dated 01 Feb 2006 (!) so I tried connecting it to a non-fan 12V line and it spun at full speed.

Things is I was concerned that I couldn't be sure whether the fan was moving or not since the rear 120mm fan does not have a 3-pin connector and can't be monitored with AsusProbe.

So today I got a SuperRed 120mm fan and a Zalman CNPS 7000-AlCu. I'm using the Zalman Fan Mate that came with HSF for the rear fan - it is turned to the lowest setting, which I think is 5V. Will probably get another Fan Mate for the HSF.

I am sure I will find it noisy after a while.