120mm Evercool noise

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 1:26 pm

I've mounted my 120mm evercool (using cable ties and washers) in my 3700 BQE, and while it is not noisy, it is audible. From my seat (about 10 feet away from the fan) I can hear a faint pulsating sound from the fan. The noise is gone when I unplug the evercool, so I know that it is coming from there. The noise is bearable, but I was wondering if others have the same experience from their evercool.

prof99 · Post by **prof99** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 1:35 pm

You are undervolting the fan, aren't you? If you're not, that's your problem (just follow these instructions). If you are undervolting the fan, then...hmm...I don't know. I have the same fan and it's very quiet. Maybe a bad motor?

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 3:53 pm

I also did not approve the noise the 120mm evercool fan makes either

I undervolt it to 5volts and it still make noise. no motor noise, just air whooshs.

It is quiet, but not quiet enough for me

~RaNDoM

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 4:50 pm

Use a Zalman fan controller to drop the voltage even further. I use 2 fan controllers on my Evercool and run it below 5v. Can't hear anything. Just make sure you don't turn it down TOO far, or the fan won't start when you turn the computer on.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 6:12 pm

RaNDoMMAI wrote:I also did not approve the noise the 120mm evercool fan makes either

I undervolt it to 5volts and it still make noise. no motor noise, just air whooshs.

It is quiet, but not quiet enough for me

~RaNDoM

my thoughts precisely.

Nebor · Post by **Nebor** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 7:54 pm

As far as I'm concerned, the Acoustifan 120mm butchers the Evercool, I've used them both.

Stupid boy · Post by **Stupid boy** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 9:24 am

You could run it at 3.3V. (The orange wires are 3.3V.)

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:31 pm

Ya, I am running it at 5V. I rewired the 4 pin molex adapter that is included with the fan so that it draws from the 5V wire. I also tried connecting the fan directly to the MB and using speedfan, but that didn't seem to work. No matter what percentage i set it to, it still ran just as loudly (I am using a ASUS P4P800 MB). I guess I can try using the fanmate as well, but I only have one, and want to use it with the cpu.

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:32 pm

Is there a 3.3V wire readily accessible? As far as I know, they are only attached to the MB connector (I have an NX-3000)

DG · Post by DG » Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:31 pm

Why don't you build a simple muffler for it. It works great for this fan...

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 1:04 am

Use 5V + Fan Mate. Outputs ~3.5V. I don't remember whether the speed setting should be max or min though.

Cheers,

Jan

Smokeey · Post by **Smokeey** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 7:09 am

What about something like the Sunbeam Rheobus fan controller? I believe that operates in the 0-12V range and its less than £20 here in the UK. You could then drop the voltage to under 5V easily whilst still having the power to increase/decrease the voltage on the fly.

DG · Post by DG » Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:24 am

I have the Sunbeam Rheobus, and it's working ok with the Evercool. My problem is that i have the plastic evercool, and it doesn't start at 5v, only at 7v. I hope the aluminium vers will start at 4v or 5v. Anyway, at 4v-5v this fan IS silent. At 7v, the air whoosh is loud, but i discovered that, with a simple fan muffler, the air whoosh is reduced VERY much (the 7v air whoosh!!!). So, build a fan muffler for it!

Something like this: http://modasylum.com/reviews/Marsupial/ ... ection.jpg (that's for a PSU, but it works for a case fan also..)

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:23 am

Will a muffler really help? I'm not sure if the noise is comming from moving air. The sound is a pulsating noise (albeit quiet)...I would guess that the motion of air would be a continuous droning noise. So I'm thinking that the sound is produced by the motor (or some mechanical component driven by it), and don't know if a muffler can solve the problem. Though I admittedly know little about the effectiveness of mufflers.

Ephemeral · Post by **Ephemeral** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 9:00 am

I just got my Al evercools as well, and 2 of the 3 were making an annoying pulsing noise due to the blades grazing the plastic spokes. I was about to RMA them - which I hate due to the hassle - when I just bit the bullet and decided to rip one apart to see if I could fix it myself.

I ripped off the sticker, and behind that I saw the bearing and shaft. I started pushing the hub of the fan away from the spokes, and it "popped" softly a few millimeters away from the spokes and stopped (it didn't come apart). I plugged it in and voila, the pulsating noise was gone.

Tried this on the other fan (didn't bother removing the sticker) and it worked too.

So for me at least, it looks like my fans weren't seated well on the shaft (or had compressed during shipment) and that was causing my noise. Pretty quiet now at 5 volts.

I'm disappointed that the fans themselves aren't built well enough to prevent something like this, but at least I don't have to RMA them...

prof99 · Post by **prof99** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 9:42 am

I think that trick also works on the Zalman CNPS7000 fans.

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:39 am

Thanks for the advice! I'll give it a try.

Let me make sure I understand correctly (wouldn't want to break my fan). All I need to do is pull the fan a little bit apart (without having to remove any covering)? How much force did it take?

Thanks

Ephemeral · Post by **Ephemeral** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:02 am

Yes, you've got it (no need to remove the foil sticker either).

I was actually pushing quite hard as I wanted to remove the hub altogether. This didn't happen though (I'm googling for a way to do this now, I want to look at the bearings directly).

Start by pushing the fan "back" towards the spokes, squishing the fan hub and the aluminum base together, just so you know you are starting from the bottom. Shouldn't need to push all that hard here, but don't need to be too soft either. If you see the bottom of the hub actually touch the center of the spokes, definitly stop there.

Then push "out" away from the spokes, gently to start of course, and the fan should move with a little "springy" action and hit resistance, push harder and you should feel it move a tad and hit a new "pop" of resistance that makes it stop. That should be all you need.

Stop if you are afraid the force would crack plastic

.

Hope that's enough to help.

Ephemeral · Post by **Ephemeral** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 1:16 pm

I got a chance to take a closer look at the shaft under sticker at lunch. It is secured with a nylon "C" washer, so if you pushed hard enough this would just pop off (doesn't look like you have to worry about busting anything - though I wouldn't recommend pulling off the fan this way).

I was able to spread the C washer a bit with an xacto knife and press the fan off gently to take a look at the bushing and bearing. Looks like a bit of slop in the tolerances, which can also be causing some very slight pulsating noises when rotating even after I adjusted the clearance of the hub from the spokes. Also, it uses a rubber "O" ring at the base of the shaft and the hub of the blades to act as a "spacer" to avoid bottoming out I described in the posts above. I'll probably add something thicker here under the o-ring so that the hub can't slip back into contact with the spokes.

I'm looking around for sources to try better bearings/bushings to see if that will make any difference in noise as well...

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:40 pm

Thanks for the detailed guide! I'll keep you apprised of how it goes...I should have time in the next week to give it a try.

shathal · Post by **shathal** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 11:54 am

Take piccies

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 8:28 am

Well, I tried adjusting the Evercool, but had little success...

I first pushed the fan until it touched the plastic spokes. There was a small pop when I did this. Next, I pulled the fan and spokes apart. This created a slightly louder pop.

But the fan wasn't any quieter afterwards...

Ephemeral · Post by **Ephemeral** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:37 am

Could be you have a fan with the cylinder that holds the bearings & shaft out of tolerance. Out of the 3 I got, one of them is like this. It lets the bearing "wobble" slightly, and leads to an annoying noise - even though its slight, I can hear it, and I'm very picky. I'm going to try to fix this myself by using some filler (likely silicone RTV) to make up for the slack in the tolerance.

Of course I would recommend doing an RMA for most people. I'm going to try and fix mine since I've already ripped it apart and thus am past the ability to RMA

. Plus I've got some experiments in mind to try and make the fan quieter. If I have any success, I'll post results in a few weeks when I get time.

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:32 pm

Well, I did some further experimenting and found that if I pushed the hub back in, the noise went down...but not completely silent...

However, when the fan is at a particular angle, there is no audible mechanical noise. But this angle is not constant...it can vary from time to time, although most of the time it is when the fan is placed on a 45 degree angle. Not just any 45 degree angle, but specifically the position with the bottom of the fan outwards. In other words, if you were holding the fan in front of you (in the position where you can read the label), and it where tilted 45 degrees back (so the top would be further way than the bottom).

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:35 pm

Ephemeral,

Hum, what is Evercool's service like? will they cover the shipping both ways? If not, there is little point given the price of the fan itself. I bought the fan from directron, and I believe that they only cover the return shipping (like most places).