Silent Fan

[wez]

hey... can someone recommend a silent 80mm fan that actually is, umm, silent (ok very very quiet will do). i need 80mm (it's actually for a UPS), 2-pin connection... any recommendations?

[Howard Jones]

What RPM do you require?

[wez]

What RPM do you require?

any rpm as long as i can't hear it! the UPS has a large internal heatsink, and the fan seems to just be drawing the hot air away from that. i think slow and quiet should do it.

plenty of options, but i can't find any with a 2 pin connect.... unless i just mod a 3 pin? i assume the extra pin is just ground (?)

i'm also currently researching water-cooling options for a G4, anyone have actual real-world experience with that?

[jkhuri44]

i know its not water cooling, but have you considered shoving your mac in an isobox? that will shut it up...(or most of it)...

jamil...

[Howard Jones]

[1] The higher the RPM, the more noise. What voltages do you have available for running this thing?

[2] Contact Robert Hindley at Music Computer Systems in Sydney.

[Martin]

if you are talking 12volt... then even 3 wire ones will do, the 3rd wire (usually yellow) is just for RPM either to control it or monitor it not sure

anyway, jaycar has a bunch of 80mm fans, different DB ratings (at full speed) from about 25-45db

different kinds of bearings etc make them louder or softer or more efficient etc etc

run it slower = less noise...

[JulienG]

For a quiet fan I'd suggest anything from Zalman, every product of theirs I've used has impressed me (including the ~2KG CPU cooler that's on my P4).

There's this from my usual guys in Sydney (although they now have a minimum order of $20, so spoil yourself and buy another gig of ram for a machine)

As for watercooling a G4 try the Zalman Reserator, it's a little pricy, and would require some metalwork to go on a G4 (I have a mate who does those sort of mods for me regularly if you'd like), but is otherwise a simple closed system.

Also remember that the fan in a G4 (at least my old one) cools the entire system, not just the CPU, and some things like graphics cards and hard drives really don't like to get hot.

Of course the best solution is an air conditioned machine room with a KVM extender.

[mfdu]

these guys are in moorabbin (victoria) - http://www.pccasegear.com/category9_1.htm (links straight to "fans and accessories")
http://www.pccasegear.com/category40_1.htm (links to "silent PC")

they do zalman fans and stuff.

very handy when building a wintel box . . . or silencing a cheeky UPS!

chris.

[toadmark]

I can draw you quick circuit diagram to create a speed controller for a 12v fan so you can control the noise level it puts out. The parts add up to about $15 or so. You need 4 components (5 with the fuse) - a capacitor, a resistor, a pot and a darlington transistor. .... and a little heatsink to put the transistor on. All available from your local Dick Smith ? Jaycar etc
I've got one running 4 x 120mm 12v fans to cool down a small room - works quite well.

Let me know if you're interested - I'll e-mail you the details (coz I can't work out how to put a *.gif file in this post)

The 3rd pin (on 3 pin fans) is just an RPM sensor and can be left disconnected.

[Martin]

would be interested to see the circuit... work at a jaycar casually and can get the parts uber cheap...

good to have projects to make the day roll by faster :D

i can post it up here if you email it to me, martinm@iinet.net.au

[heathen]

Zalman have some great computer silencing solutions, all sorts of great stuff that really works, I've had a zalman heatsink on my test pc northbridge for the last 2 years, no probs, northbridge fans really suck they are usually the noisiest in any pc, I got a super quiet power supply in my new pc and its extremely quiet, silent ones are available also. The ups I dunno they are always noisy I've found.


A guy I knew put his mac in a self designed isobox which quickly became a coffin for it, it defineately shut it up, all I could think was "I told ya so".

When building a silent computer it is very wise to take your time and think things through, when you do you'll be very happy if you chose components well. This is why I like pc, it is cheaper, though when you start building systems like this even pc is quite expensive, but worth it.

Heath

[wez]

thanks guys, great help, much appreciated.

this is just for my home G4 & UPS (PC is strangely quiet out of the box, so to speak). can't be arsed with isolation, but the noise does my head in after a while. we had two "isoboxes" built at the studio, actually very expensive coffee tables really.

getting the machines out of the room where practical is definitely the best option in a pro situation.

thanks again,

wez

[scott]

I have the Zalman resorator on my pc its awsome. dead quiet and well worth the money in my oppinion. the only noise I get now is from the hard drives and occasionly from the cd drive.

One problem is if you want to take your computer anywhere you are supposed to drain the thing and then refill it each time, which is about four litres of some blue shit that im not sure where to get refills from. But thats what laptops are for anyway.

On another note I decided to get those removable harddrive caddies from dick smith only to find they have a noisy little fan in them. grrr...

[heathen]

Ahh I just ripped the fans out of the caddies (RH 58), no probs in 2 years on the test pc, but do it at your own risk, I slide the tops off to allow a little more air in. My Mackie HDR had no fans it its caddie so I just took this as a prompt to rip the ones out of the pc caddie (7200 rpm drives).
With my new pc I set up another drive internally the other day as a sort of removable internal drive as the mother board has 4 serial ata connections for setting up a raid array (which I hav'nt done). So its as easy as opening the side door and slipping it out. I thought it safer this way on my main machine as there's alot more airflow around the internal bracket.