Lian Li EX-503, Changing the stock fan, recommendation?

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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IdontexistM8
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Lian Li EX-503, Changing the stock fan, recommendation?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Mon Oct 19, 2015 8:19 am

Picked up this 5-bay RAID/JBOD enclosure in the last week, it comes with the Lian Li stock fan LI121425BE-4-A. While it's not loud, it's not exactly quiet either, pretty much slap bang in the middle, but not unpleasant. However I'd prefer something a notch lower, perhaps with a LNA. So since it looks easily replaceable can anyone provide a recommendation?

Thanks :)

Abula
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Re: Lian Li EX-503, Changing the stock fan, recommendation?

Post by Abula » Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:41 am

The LI121425BE-4-A is a 140mm fan, i would replace it with Noctua NF-P14s redux-900 Fan (140x140x25mm, square frame 3-pin, 900rpm), another option is the Antec True Quiet 140, but im not sure the mouting with the rubber edges might be difficult.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Lian Li EX-503, Changing the stock fan, recommendation?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:47 am

IdontexistM8 wrote:Picked up this 5-bay RAID/JBOD enclosure in the last week, it comes with the Lian Li stock fan LI121425BE-4-A. While it's not loud, it's not exactly quiet either, pretty much slap bang in the middle, but not unpleasant. However I'd prefer something a notch lower, perhaps with a LNA. So since it looks easily replaceable can anyone provide a recommendation?
As you can read on the label, it's a 0.14A fan with a starting voltage of about 7V. SPCR tested it here.

So you need a 140mm, 0.10-0.20A fan, with a starting voltage no higher than 7V: that one could be a good candidate, which is 3-5dB quieter through the whole range.

IdontexistM8
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Re: Lian Li EX-503, Changing the stock fan, recommendation?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:00 am

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I would lean towards the Noctua ATM.

I might have a spare Zalman Fan Mate 2 knocking about, if there is a way of tucking it away inside at the front of the unit I might try that initially after fully setting the unit up.

IdontexistM8
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Re: Lian Li EX-503, Changing the stock fan, recommendation?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:36 am

Found it quite quickly :) The only place it could go inside the unit is the floor, that would mean it's inaccessible if there's a drive in the bottom bay but with 4 or less drives it's perfectly workable.

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