Replace the Antec Solo outtake fan?

Quitch · Post by **Quitch** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:06 am

I'm putting together a build with noise being a consideration for the first time ever. I'm not obsessive over it, I'd just like to keep it down where possible.

My build looks as follows:

Antec Solo case
Core 2 Duo 3.33Ghz 45nm w/ HR-01 PLUS using 120mm duct to outtake fan
2x 4GB RAM
ATI HD 4870X2 - just starting to look into cooling for this
Asus Xonar DX
Some power supply, I know the Enermax Modu82+ 625W is popular here

My question, quite simply, is what to replace the outtake fan with. I hear the fan gets noisy at high load and often Scythe fans are mentioned in conjunction with replacing it, but I don't know which one to get.

DaveLessnau · Post by **DaveLessnau** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:46 am

Depending on how much trouble you're willing to go through, you might just leave the Antec Tricool fan there and try it out. On the machine I'm currently using, I started out with it and was generally satisfied (heck, since I was just coming from a jet-engine of a computer, I was ecstatic with it). On low, in my environment, I couldn't hear it. On medium, it was audible (not bad audible, just audible). I swapped it out for a Nexus 120mm Real Silent fan just to see and found it to be silent. The trouble is that it might be a bit knuckle bruising to swap the fan once everything's in the case.

On my son's machine (again, an Antec Solo), I just left the Tricool in there. The only complaint he has with it is that it's so darn quiet he can't tell if it's on

. I'm in the process of slowly putting a machine together from on-sale parts. This time around, I'm replacing the Tricool with a Scythe S-Flex SFF21E 120mm fan. I can't tell you how it sounds since I don't have a few minor parts yet (motherboard, CPU, and RAM

). But, the reviews here are good. You can shop around to see where you can find it. But, I got mine here:

http://www.svc.com/sy-fan-sff21e.html

There's not much on the vendor (Silicon Valley Compucycle (SVC)) on these forums. But, I had no trouble with them at all.

Faster_Madman · Post by **Faster_Madman** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:28 am

I seriously doubt that, with a HD4870X2 in the PC, you will able to hear the Tri-Cool at low. At the middle setting it will be audible but mixed in with the noise of the vid card it won't be seperately noticable.
If you find a quiet cooling solution for the vid card in the future, you might want to consider swapping the case fan.

Quitch · Post by **Quitch** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:59 am

I prefer to get as much work done up front as possible. I may find an after-market solution for the GPU (no doubt they'll be along), and as the case fan will be linked to the CPU it's entirely possible I'll perform a task which puts strains on the outtake without calling on the GPU and thus it may become the louder part.

However, as I've put into another topic, the SOLO is out of contention because I'm told it doesn't fit the X2.