Fan Question

I

iBeInspire

New member
Hey guys, I'm looking to replace the fans in my case and my priority is silence, so is it better to run more fans at a lower speed, or less fans at a higher speed? The enermax fans I'm looking at run 750rpm @12v and ~480rpm @7v. Which of the following setups would be better :

Setup #1:

2x 7v front intake
3x 7v top exhaust
1x 7v rear intake

Setup #2:

1x 12v front intake
2x 12v top exhaust

Maybe I'm overthinking this a little too much but I really want the rig to be as quiet as possible :/
Thanks for your time boys/girls :)
 
I personally can't recommend enermax fans, especially when undervolted, I have 4 enermax fans in my rig and in the beginning all was quiet, but now after some months they are starting to click and rattle. I think it's because I ran them on lower volts since the fan is mainly held in place by a magnet (that's why you can take them apart so easily) and that magnet isn't strong enough to hold it correctly when there is not enough power
 
Right so let's assume that at full speed they do 18dB, meaning that at half speed (7v) they will do ~15dB.

When doubling the amount of noise (so going from 1 to 2 fans, or 2 to 4 fans), the dB will gain by 3. So theoretically 2 fans at 7 volt would be just a slight bit noisier than one at 12volt. This does not include the noise of the actual air being pushed though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Why do you want so much more exhaust than intakes anyway? What case do you have?
 
TPC said:
I personally can't recommend enermax fans, especially when undervolted, I have 4 enermax fans in my rig and in the beginning all was quiet, but now after some months they are starting to click and rattle. I think it's because I ran them on lower volts since the fan is mainly held in place by a magnet (that's why you can take them apart so easily) and that magnet isn't strong enough to hold it correctly when there is not enough power
Click to expand...

That makes sense, however the fans I'm looking at have turbine blades, not batwing. This means that the blades aren't detachable, so I assume they won't be subject to the same issues :/

Feronix said:
Right so let's assume that at full speed they do 18dB, meaning that at half speed (7v) they will do ~15dB.

When doubling the amount of noise (so going from 1 to 2 fans, or 2 to 4 fans), the dB will gain by 3. So theoretically 2 fans at 7 volt would be just a slight bit noisier than one at 12volt. This does not include the noise of the actual air being pushed though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Why do you want so much more exhaust than intakes anyway? What case do you have?
Click to expand...

So according to the maths both set-ups will be hovering around 21.5dbA :/ But I assume the setup with more fans will push more air?

Honestly I don't know... I have an Enthoo Pro and I just kind of figured I should fill in all the gaps in the panels with fans :/
Is there a better setup I could use? Perhaps the setup with less fans, but still run them at 7v? Would that be enough airflow? :/
Thanks for the help guys :)
 
eddywarston said:
Blue Led fans enhance computer's performance with this Antec 77095 120mm CPU cooling fan that offers a 56 cfm airflow volume to effectively dissipate heat.
Click to expand...

Sorry but at 28dBA that's not quiet at all, Corsair AF quiet edition running at 7v are what i would use.

On another note i do like your case choice ;)
 
If I wanted silence then Corsair AFs or of course Noctua NF-R8 (not the 1800RPM ones) They are rated at something stupid like 10dBA and I think the S12a are even lower than that
 
I would go for Corsair's fans like the AF's quiet edition or Noctua.
Personally I'm using Corsair's because of the aesthetics and my scheme color, but everyone heard about Noctua's fans for the performance and silence operation.
In my rig I'm using the SP's Performance edition of the Corsair's on my radiator and AF's Quiet edition but with a fan controller running them at 8.5V and they are REALLY quiet.
 
In my Bitfenix Neos case I have two Corsair AF120 LED fans at 7v as intakes, and one Bitfenix 120mm fan at 7v as exhaust. The BF fan came with my case.

I'm really fussy about fan noise, and I can't hear my fans at all. My case is less than a metre from my head on top of my desk. The only fan I can hear at all in my case is the HD5850 fan at full GPU load, and a very slight whine from the Arctic Freezer Pro 2 CPU cooler at full CPU load.

So under general usage, my PC is completely silent. And that's with the 5850 runnin g at 5870 clocks, and my AMD 955 CPU at 4ghz overclock.
 
I'd get some Scythe Slipstreams 120mm 800rpm models, silent until around 700rpm, even then its just air noise and much quieter than the 140mm fans that came with the Define R5 by a considerable amount at the same RPMs(can barely hear it at 12v when FD fans are at 5v!)

I never hear these, by the time there spinning up fast a GPU has drowned them out completely or the NF-F12 on the Heatsink has, they also push a pretty incredible amount of air and are much cheaper than Noctua's,Corsair etc(you would nearly get 4 Scythe fans for a Twin pack of corsairs at least on the EU shops I use) no clicking when undervolted, my case is about 35cm away and to me these are seriously quiet(id say silent), gonna buy a couple more to replace all the fractal fans and maybe even the Noctua one depending on how it affects temps.
 
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