is it just me, or are the 'quiet stealth' fans a waste?

[iampants]

hello
until recently my computer sounded more like a vacuum (and not those cool ones in space with no air ), so I was looking into all of the 'stealth' fans and such, and one thing struck me:
they are all slower. (and usually more expensive). well, the first attempt is as follows (I can post pictures if you wish). I have 3 10K scsi drives, and so instead of getting a 2-fan hdd cooler for each, I made an external box to house the drives and a 120mm case fan.
hence the sound of the vacuum.
now, instead of getting one of those silly stealth fans, I soldered 30 ohms of resistors to the fan's power cable (three 10-ohm resistors, two of which can be bypassed with a little switch)
and I've dropped the noise to about %35 of its original. (granted, most of the original noise was the scream of the fan pushing air through my fan-cover-- but still...)
anyways, so my point is: resistors are cheap (and if you want to rip apart an old modem or something , they're free ) ordering new fans + shipping, not so cheap.
just a thought.

 

[SWScorch]

Its true that what you did is certainly cheaper, and with the addition of a switch, offers more flexiblity for a lot less money, but for those who either dont know how to solder, dont understand electrical systems, or simply dont have the resources to do what you've done, then paying for the quieter fans is the only option.

 

[Phunktion]

is it just me, or are the 'quiet stealth' fans a waste?

It's just you..

 

[BA]

And those resistors are dumping a small amount of heat into your computer.
But probably only a Watt or so at most, so pretty negligible if you've got a Tbird or something kicking out 60-70W...

 

[THUGSROOK]

the panaflo L1As are great stealth fans - cant even tell they are on :Q

if you have loud fans...
the 7volt power line mod is alot easier to do for the less able - and even cheaper then what youre doing

 

[CubicZirconia]

I agree.

 

[BD231]

80mm Stealth fans move a fat load of air for the amount of noise they make.

 

[trikster2]

While we are at it:

Which is better for the PSU?

Seems like the resistors suck up power, making it unavailable for other uses.

But the 7 volt mod is a hack the PSU makers never intended.

So are either good/bad for your psu and if so which is the best all things considered.

 

[keyeye]

Actually, the resistors shouldn't suck off power. They actually decrease the overall amperage as well as the volts going to the particular fan. In doing so, they do generate a little bit of heat. Thus, resistors should be theoretically better.

My simple way of thinking about it: 50 ohm fan + 50 ohn resistor = 100 total ohms
So you would halve the overall amperage because V is constant (12), and you doubled your resistance. The fan see's 6 volts, the resistor 6 volts. If I remember correctly, the watts through the resistor would be 6 (V) x .12 amps = 0.72 W = heat out from resistor, which is why most recommendations are for a >1 watt resistor. The overall circuit uses 1.44 W, which is half of what the original fan uses. Please correct me if this is wrong.

 

[BA]

Your math is right. The fan converts electrical energy primarily to kinetic(moving the fan and air), while resistors convert it to thermal.
And anyway, like I said, it's pretty negligible.

 

[Soldat]

i agree with phunktion..it's just you. I can swing a few extra bucks for a better fan before I hassle myself with soldering, mods, and trips to radio shack. My time is worth more to me.

 

[iampants]

meh, the resistors were only a dollar, and it allowed me to keep the speed down without waiting for shipping, etc. that and I've got obscene amount of freetime these days
:-/
but anyways, the original point for this project was so that I could learn to solder... that being done, (sorta), I was prety much just wondering if there is anything special about the stealth fans that make them quiet, or if it was just that they were spinning slower and pushing les air (the 92mm Vantec only pushed about 30CFM as I recall...)

and finally, is there anyways to test the CFM or Db of something other than simply feeling it or getting a decible reader-thingy. ahh well, this is one more reason why I shouldn't do anything in the morning