Quiet the Coolermaster Centurion 5

esromneb · Post by **esromneb** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:52 am

I just built a new computer, for $2000. (19 lcd monitor included in that price) So about 1500 for the computer itself. Anyways I was going for a really quiet system, and I think I've mad a few mistakes. I'm using a Coolermaster Centurion 5 case, which:

The double edged sword of an open bezel is becoming clear: It lets the air in, and it lets the noise out.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article200-page6.html

My system is fairly quiet, my psu is the Nx-4090 (ironically listed in a banner right above this text box), and I have a zalman 7700-alcu cpu cooler.

My case had an 120mm outtake fan, but only a 80mm intake. The intake is really loud

Acoustically, eliminating the front fan makes a huge, instantaneous improvement.

so I have it unplugged, but I am worried about the loss of airflow.

I really want a fan in the front of the case, so the way I look at it: I have two options. Either I can find a really silent 80mm fan (mehhh), or I can mount a 180mm in the space equal to 3 5.25 drive bays. I was able to jerry rig a fan there temporaraly, but I took it out because the fan is loud. I didn't test temps or anything with the intake fan inplace.

To sum it all up:
Can you buy a thingy to mount a 120mm fan in 3 5.25 drive bays? If not which 80 mm would you recommend? Thanks!

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:29 am

Judging by Mike's review, the airflow through the Centurion 5 is so good that unless you really have a scorching hot system or a shedload of hard drives I'd imagine the front fan is more or less redundant.

If you really want a 120mm at the front, you could get one of Coolermaster's 4-into-3 drive bay modules that has an integrated 120mm fan... it's designed for the Stacker but AFAIK you can put it in any case that has three free 5.25" drive bays (you'd also be getting another 4 rubber-grommeted 3.5" drive bays as a bonus if you ever need them). I don't know how quiet the included fan is, but I'd imagine it's more or less the same as your existing exhaust fan and you could always swap it for a Nexus/Yate Loon etc if it's not that good.

I don't know where you'd buy it in the States but I imagine Newegg would carry it, or anywhere else that sells the CM Stacker...

edit: it was Rusty075's review of course... oops...

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:37 am

Welcome to SPCR

Can you buy a thingy to mount a 120mm fan in 3 5.25 drive bays?
Not that I know of.

If not which 80 mm would you recommend?
The only reason I can think of to need a front fan with this case is if your drive temps are too high. So as long as your drive temps are OK I would recommend no fan. Otherwise the Nexus Real Silent case fans are the best option.

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:02 am

esromneb,

Look at the temperature results that I got while testing the different the different fan configurations. Removing the front intake fan made only trivial differences to the temps. Even with just the rear fan running at 5 volts the temps were all quite low.

Unless you're running a whole stack of hard drives, you can safely eliminate the front fan completely.

esromneb · Post by **esromneb** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:44 pm

I guess I didn't explain enough about my situation. I have a MSI nx6800, which has a really loud fan. So I replaced it with a VGA silencer http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40 which made it a LOT quieter, which is nice. The only problem is: I have a MSI k8n neo4 platinum. Now if you look at this picture here:
http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/imageview.php?image=9000
You can see the the nb fan gets partialyl covered by the video card. In my case, with the VGA silencer on, the nb fan is almost 100% covered. This of course rules out any sort of passive cooling, and I haven't been able to find any low profile nb fans that are quiet. And of course, the nb fan is the loudest thing in my system. I have it turned down from 6600 rpm to about 5000, but there isn't a temp sensor so I'm worried I might accidentally fry it. (Not that it matters but my board actually had a different nb fan, but it probably functions exactly the same) So my newbie idea was that I could turn the fan down even more if I had a lot of air flow through my case. I also saw a fan that was mounted in a pci card, maybe I could vent that onto the nb? I'm just throwing out ideas.
If you guys don't have any ideas what I'm talkin about, I can post pics.

-ben

P.S: Does this thread belong in the silent front?

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 3:45 pm

Have you seen this thread

esromneb · Post by **esromneb** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:26 pm

Wow damn, no I haven't seen it before. Very helpful info. I think I'm going to go with the "Papst 412FM Quiet Fan" option. Cutting my VGA coller doesn't look very promising. Ie if I get a new mobo or something. Plus I'd rather have active cooling and turn it down a lil bit. Thanks!
Now it's time to search up about the Papst.
-ben