Quiet Case Fan Options

[gamephile]

I have an Antec sx830 that I love. I use the 2 80mm's that shipped with it. I cool my 1.2 Ghz T-bird with an agielnt-arcticooler. While the case noise is bearable, for me, its still to loud. I figure if it's too loud to be on when I want to sleep, it's too loud.

I am intereseted in the Papst 80mm's for their 12Dba rating. What worries me is that if I go down to the from the 30 cfm antec fans to the 17cfm papst ones, am I going to be facing a heat problem? I have looked at vantec's 'quiet' case fan line along with the panaflos. The each have similar specs of around 20Dba and 20+/- Cfm. Is 20db really silent? Not, "Next to me delta its pretty quiet," but "Is it even on?" kinda quiet. I am also considering getting a fan mate to slow down the RPM's of me cpu fan. Comments about that? Will slowing my cpu fan, coupled with low cfm papst give me too much of a heat problem?

Thanks for your help guys, (and gals).

 

[gamephile]

Any Takers?

 

[Compellor]

I have three Panaflo L1A fans running in my main box and you can hear the 7200 rpm hard drive over them. They are very quiet and do an excellent job of cooling. I highly recommend them.

 

[hmsrolst]

I have both an SX1000 and an SX600 with PCP&C Silencers rated at 20dB, and you can definitely hear them, although they're much quieter than the stock Antecs. I think that part of the issue is that 3 or 4 20dB fans is more than 20dB (closer to 30?), and part is the very open design of the SX cases. I just got a pcmods baybus to try slowing them down. I get excellent cooling now and plan to see how much I lose with slower fans.

 

[gamephile]

Thanks for the responses guys. Anyone out there with Papst fans? They look nice, but 20 bucks a pop is steep and I'm worried if ill have enough CFM. As for the panaflos, I wish I could hear them in my case before making a descision....damm, don't think that will happen though.

 

[SomeGuy03]

I say get the Panaflos...I dont see how 17 CFM is even moving enough air to cool a case...

 

[lazybum550]

where can i get some panasonic L1A fans from?

 

[gaidin123]

<< where can i get some panasonic L1A fans from? >>



BGMicro

The 80mm Panaflo fan that they have is the L1A and it's dirt cheap compared to any other store people have found them at.

Gaidin

 

[nexus_7]

i use 5 of THESE in my sx 830. pritty damn quiet.

Greg

 

[aircasper]

can someone tell me what the cfm and dba ratings are for the panaflos? i too need a quiet case fan. thanks.

 

[Neurofreeze]

20dB is generally considered whisper level. Four 20dB fans would create a total of 26dB. A Seagate Barracuda IV 60-80GB hard drive produces 24dB idle, 28dB quiet seek, 33dB performance seek (the 40GB version is 20/24/30, respectively); it's the quietest drive on the market. A 10dB increase is a doubling of perceived sound. 0dB is the average threshold of a human (2 x 10^[-5] N/m^2).

Sunon Panaflo FBA08A12L is 24CFM @ 21dB, so it would seem that the Silencer is a better fan, although you can get Panaflo's for $2.50, I haven't seen Silencers for less than ~$18. Also, I hear that the Silencer isn't as good as the Panaflo in cases where it has to create pressure, ie. a negative pressure case (no intake, Silencer used as the exhaust) or as a heatsink fan, but I can't confirm or deny that myself.

 

[hmsrolst]

Silencers are $9 at PCPowerandCooling.com

 

[gamephile]

Thanks Neurofreeze and Hmsrolst (and everyone else) for the responses. I Think I've narrowed Down my choices to the Panaflo's, these Enermax's, and the PcPC's Silencers

So yeah, To summarize, I still don't know what the hell to get.

 

[Compellor]

If you get the Panaflo fans, get them from 2CoolTek. They're cheaper and you can get them with a 4 pin connector:

Panaflo fans

I bought mine there and have had good success with them.

 

[minikitty]

<< Thanks Neurofreeze and Hmsrolst (and everyone else) for the responses. I Think I've narrowed Down my choices to the Panaflo's, these Enermax's, and the PcPC's Silencers

So yeah, To summarize, I still don't know what the hell to get. >>


Ok, say some my personal experience. It is a relatively long story.
I first built my computer in last August. It is a T-bird 1.4G. I was told it is a heat generator. So I ordered a Thermaltake DRAGON ORB3+ with a 7000RPM fan(over 38db, I believe) and some Antec case fans, which are 80mm, 2600RPM,30db. When I turned on the new baby, my god, it was like an engine. My wife didn't allow me to use it in the bedroom. I decided to make it quiet.
After doing research some time, I believed Taisol CGK742092 was a quiet HS, the noise level is around 32db. So I bought one and installed it. At that time, I thought my computer was much quieter, but not quiet enough though. Well at least I could bear the noise. Since it was in the bedroom, I still had to turn it off when I sleep.
Two months later, I was tired to turn on and turn off the computer, I made my mind to make my computer as quiet as possible, I ordered some silencers(27CFM, 20db) for case cooling, a Papst (80mm,26CFM, 20db) for CPU cooling and a 60mm->80mm fan adaptor.
My computer is quieter than before, sometimes, I can leave it on when I go to sleep. But my T-bird 1.4 is running at 57C, system is at 26C when it is crunching SETI@home. I thought it is too hot and have to leave the case open. After reading some posts from this forum, I got to know the performance of GC-68 is good, I bought one last Friday. Combining it with the 20db Papst, cpu is at 55C with 26C case temperature, it is still crunching SETI@home. I am not impressed by GC68.By the way, I also ordered some Panaflo fans(21db) from BGMicro. I compared them with silencers and Papst fans by making different combinations, In my opinion, the performace and noise level of Panaflo, Silencers and Papst are almost the same, at least I can't tell.
Now the new problem comes, I can hear the whinning from hard drive, IBM 40GB,7200RPM. Maybe I am spoiled, but my T-bird is still noisy compared to my old computer, a PII300....

 

[scoobydooby]

Even though I love those enermax adjustables(I have 5) I don't think they're what you're looking for. You probably would only use the low setting in which case they're about the same as the panaflos but a little more expensive. I would go for those panaflo L1A's because they're the cheapest and I think all these fans are pretty similar. On a side note, my old gateway 1 ghz athlon didn't come with any case fans at all and it only had a tiny taisol hsf so if you really didn't want noise you could just take out the case fans and get a 5400 rpm hdd, but that might be taking it a little far... Also, what kind of heatsink/fan do you have? If it's noisy then look into either the alpha 8045 or the thermalright AX-7. Good luck!
Scoob

 

[herbage11]

Just got my 3 Panaflos in the mail....WOW these are silent and good air flow....i am happy

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Ummm Panaflos are $3.19 from BG micro so its hard to beat that price.

 

[gamephile]

I think I'm going to go for the panaflo's, but only if the ones from BGMicro have tails. If they do, are they 3 or 4 pin. If not I think Ill just go for the silencers and not deal with getting tails.

Thanks one more time...

 

[hudster]

gamephile,

here's what I did:

got 5 Panaflo L1A's from MPJA: Panaflos
(plus chucked in some cheap stuff to push my order to $15, since they had a $15 minimum)
these have 2-pin tails.


then I got these 4-pin adapters from Case Mod: adapters
(ooh, I see the price went up on these they had been $0.50 each, and if you order 5 or more, there's free shipping...now they're $0.75 each, but it's still free shipping if you order 5 or more.)

Once the adapters arrived, the only thing that I found I had to do to get them to fit was, on the Panaflo's 2-pin tail, I had to take a razor blade and trim off the 'bumps'/teeth from the 2-pin tail. Once I did that, they fit into the adapter without a problem. Plugged 'em in, and wow, I was in awe of the silence.

I can't wait to get them put into my case for good...I'm tired of sitting next to this Boeing 747, uh, I mean my loud PC!

oh, total cost for me was:
$15 Panaflo's from MPJA (qty:5)
$6 shipping from MPJA
$2.50 3-to-4-pin adapters from Case Mod (qty:5)

$23.50 total for 5 Panaflo fans and adapters (I consider that a HOT deal on cooling!)

-hudster

 

[Yelf]

Good Info Hudster, wish you had posted this 2 days ago! I bought 6 of these fans from BG and then got the tails for .99 from PCMODS.
Could of saved a few bucks, hopefully someone else benefits from your info.

 

[TheSwarm]

Got my Panaflos from bgmicro yesterday. 2pin tails. The motherboard has three pin headers, so I did as suggested in another thread and clipped off the guide on the side closest to the red wire. Stuck it on the motherboard header and viola.

The computer has an Antec 300W PSU, two L1A fans on the front, an L1A on the heatsink, plus a small chipset fan. Seagate Barracuda IV HD. I can technically hear the PC, in the same way that I can hear the hum from the fridge or the air coming out of the heating vent. Do I notice the sound? Not at all. Running at 46 C after 5 minutes of watching bots kill each other in UT, which is about 7 degrees warmer than I was before.

Ironically enough, I just found an unused Pabst 80mm laying around work, so I will play with that this weekend.

 

[MiklosMillora]

for those of you who purchased fans from BGMicro. How long did it take for them to arrive?

 

[ThenIsaid]

<< Ok, say some my personal experience. It is a relatively long story.
I first built my computer in last August. It is a T-bird 1.4G. I was told it is a heat generator. So I ordered a Thermaltake DRAGON ORB3+ with a 7000RPM fan(over 38db, I believe) and some Antec case fans, which are 80mm, 2600RPM,30db. When I turned on the new baby, my god, it was like an engine. My wife didn't allow me to use it in the bedroom. I decided to make it quiet.
After doing research some time, I believed Taisol CGK742092 was a quiet HS, the noise level is around 32db. So I bought one and installed it. At that time, I thought my computer was much quieter, but not quiet enough though. Well at least I could bear the noise. Since it was in the bedroom, I still had to turn it off when I sleep.
Two months later, I was tired to turn on and turn off the computer, I made my mind to make my computer as quiet as possible, I ordered some silencers(27CFM, 20db) for case cooling, a Papst (80mm,26CFM, 20db) for CPU cooling and a 60mm->80mm fan adaptor.
My computer is quieter than before, sometimes, I can leave it on when I go to sleep. But my T-bird 1.4 is running at 57C, system is at 26C when it is crunching SETI@home. I thought it is too hot and have to leave the case open. After reading some posts from this forum, I got to know the performance of GC-68 is good, I bought one last Friday. Combining it with the 20db Papst, cpu is at 55C with 26C case temperature, it is still crunching SETI@home. I am not impressed by GC68.By the way, I also ordered some Panaflo fans(21db) from BGMicro. I compared them with silencers and Papst fans by making different combinations, In my opinion, the performace and noise level of Panaflo, Silencers and Papst are almost the same, at least I can't tell.
Now the new problem comes, I can hear the whinning from hard drive, IBM 40GB,7200RPM. Maybe I am spoiled, but my T-bird is still noisy compared to my old computer, a PII300....
>>





Where did you find the 60mm-->80mm fan adapter?

TIA

 

[gamephile]

Thanks once again for the responses. I think I'm going to go with the silencers, just because I don't really need 5 fans, and I don't feel like messing with getting tails and whatnot. Thanks for the great post though Hudster.

As for ThenIsaid, plycon sells fan adapters for 60<->80mm. As usual, they are a little steep, so hopefully there are cheaper locations. Hope that helps