Annoying PSU fan "clack"

SinnerG · Post by **SinnerG** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:48 pm

Recently upgraded my machine. As is the norm, once things are running fine you'll find some issue on it to turn into a project. This time round it's trying to get it quieter.

The fans I have aren't really things people here would consider useful.

They're just "generic" Cooler Master sleeve bearing fans (14cm, 12cm) but they're being run on very slow speeds so there's just more air whoosh rather than motor spin noise. They've got that scrape or commutator click if you get real close, but I intend changing them all for SPCR recommended items at some point ... when I'm not broke like.

But there's one darn fan that's irritating me and it's in the PSU. I've tried isolating the PSU from the aluminium chassis (great choice there... wish I'd known I was going to all quiet crazy before that purchase), but no luck.

The sound it makes is sort of a constant clack noise one sometimes gets with slow spinning ball bearings fans. It wasn't there when I got the PSU.

I pulled out an old Gigabyte PSU and thought I'd swap the fans, but it too has that slow rpm clack going on.

How can I kill it? Would a few drops of machine oil into the bearing section help? Or should I rip it open and just get a different fan and probably face the same problem later on?

The PSU is a Vantec ion+2 600W something something. My setup pulls about 170W at max, but I'm not too keen on getting a lower PSU right now as, usually, things get added over time and power requirements go up. I'd like a X-650, but not affordable right now.

Klusu · Post by **Klusu** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:49 am

just get a different fan.

SinnerG · Post by **SinnerG** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:15 am

And which one would you recommend that runs as slow as those found in today's PSUs and that will not form the clacking noise from being mounted upside down?

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:14 pm

Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm.

Its fluid dynamic bearing doesn't suffer from horizontal mounting. You will have to do a bit of wire cutting if you want to wire the fan to the PSU's fan header. My tip is to buy a short fan extension cable as well, and cut this to splice a connector to the PSU fan. This way, you avoid cutting the wires on your nice S-Flex fan in order to wire it to the PSU.

SinnerG · Post by **SinnerG** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:34 pm

Sweet.

I've been eyeing those and the Scythe Gentle Typhoons. None of them available where I am so need to get an order together.

After messing around on another PSU and some other fans today I realised this is probably commutator switching noise. I have sleeve bearing 14cm fans as well and just oiled them up. This quietened down that sleeve bearing faint "scrape" noise, but the subtle "clack" can still be heard.

Is there such a thing as commutator noise anyway?

I don't mind the sound of air flow, but it's that other stuff that's irritating.

I think I'm paranoid.

SinnerG · Post by **SinnerG** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:36 pm

And I already have some fan header pins so I'll crimp those on instead of the splice. Good idea to do it so it's removable though. Thanks for that tip.

SinnerG · Post by **SinnerG** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:58 pm

I just noticed they don't have them in 14cm, so 12cm will have to do along with some grafting.