Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllable?

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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morkys
Posts: 114
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:26 pm

Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllable?

Post by morkys » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:20 am

I heard that the pwm Cougar fan was an issue and there was a recall a while back.
Is this fan ok now?

http://www.cougar-world.com/products/fa ... x_pwm.html

I just have one case fan connected to my mb and I want to replace it with a quieter one and be able to control the speed. Do I need to look for a specific type of fan in order to be able to control it?

For instance, is the fan below not speed controllable?

http://www.cougar-world.com/products/fa ... x_hdb.html

Here's another fan I saw mentioned.

http://www.blacknoise.com/en/products/i ... ries_120mm

Abula
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Re: Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllabl

Post by Abula » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:27 am

before choosing a fan, first decide how you will control it, are you going for 4pin PWM fans or 3pin voltage controlled.

If you let says dont care, or dont know, then just get a good fan that can be undervolted. I like a lot the SPCR Fan Roundup #6: Scythe, Noiseblocker, Antec, Nexus, Thermalright, as it tests a lot of good fans, Noiseblocker M12-S1, Scythe Gentle Typhoons and Nexus Basic 120, all of this fans are very good tonally and allow under volting, so read the review, and chose according to the cooling you desire and the budget you have set.

morkys
Posts: 114
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:26 pm

Re: Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllabl

Post by morkys » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:59 am

Abula wrote:before choosing a fan, first decide how you will control it, are you going for 4pin PWM fans or 3pin voltage controlled.

If you let says dont care, or dont know, then just get a good fan that can be undervolted. I like a lot the SPCR Fan Roundup #6: Scythe, Noiseblocker, Antec, Nexus, Thermalright, as it tests a lot of good fans, Noiseblocker M12-S1, Scythe Gentle Typhoons and Nexus Basic 120, all of this fans are very good tonally and allow under volting, so read the review, and chose according to the cooling you desire and the budget you have set.
Ok, I will check that out. I seem to have a four pin connector on the motherboard so I am leaning towards using that.

Also, the case has a swiss-cheese sort of circle of small circular holes where the fan is mounted. Wouldn't that make more noise than if it was more open? Not completely cut out, but perhaps a more coarse wire mesh?

The chassis fan reading in the Bios says 2600-2700 rpm. This is probably just an estimation based on voltage? Or is this reading fairly accurate via the three pin connector?

The fan looks generic. I am sure an upgraded fan running at lower rpm will be quieter. If it wasn't for this chassis fan, I would have no complaint for noise. I almost wonder if this system could do without a chassis fan. It certainly doesn't feel hot. I'll check the system temps etc with something like the asus ai software if I get a chance. After running for a few hours, when I rebooted to check fan rpm, the bios says the i3-4130T cpu is 29.0 C. The video card heat sink feels barely warm to the touch if at all. Of course, I've only been surfing.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllabl

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:07 pm

morkys wrote:Ok, I will check that out. I seem to have a four pin connector on the motherboard so I am leaning towards using that.


It's not conclusive: sometimes some 4-pin headers are not true PWM ones, but rather voltage controlled headers with one more dummy pin.
So, your mileage may vary, it depends on the specific motherboard. Which one do you have?

morkys wrote:Also, the case has a swiss-cheese sort of circle of small circular holes where the fan is mounted. Wouldn't that make more noise than if it was more open? Not completely cut out, but perhaps a more coarse wire mesh?


Yes, it does more noise: the reason behind restrictive grills is to protect the fan from anything it can suck in.
A wire grill on the contrary is more "noise-transparent".

morkys wrote:Or is this reading fairly accurate via the three pin connector?


It's a reasonably accurate reading.

morkys wrote:I almost wonder if this system could do without a chassis fan. It certainly doesn't feel hot. I'll check the system temps etc with something like the asus ai software if I get a chance. After running for a few hours, when I rebooted to check fan rpm, the bios says the i3-4130T cpu is 29.0 C. The video card heat sink feels barely warm to the touch if at all. Of course, I've only been surfing.


Broadly speaking it might be possible, but a more detailled description of your hw (and relevant use) would help a lot to make a more educated guess.

At any rate, use a suitable utility, like HWiNFO, Open Hardware Monitor, AIDA64 or SpeedFan, rather than BIOS, in order to monitor your temps.

morkys
Posts: 114
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Re: Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllabl

Post by morkys » Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:25 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
morkys wrote:Ok, I will check that out. I seem to have a four pin connector on the motherboard so I am leaning towards using that.


It's not conclusive: sometimes some 4-pin headers are not true PWM ones, but rather voltage controlled headers with one more dummy pin.
So, your mileage may vary, it depends on the specific motherboard. Which one do you have?

morkys wrote:Also, the case has a swiss-cheese sort of circle of small circular holes where the fan is mounted. Wouldn't that make more noise than if it was more open? Not completely cut out, but perhaps a more coarse wire mesh?


Yes, it does more noise: the reason behind restrictive grills is to protect the fan from anything it can suck in.
A wire grill on the contrary is more "noise-transparent".

It appears I have Asus AI suite II. I ran it and all I can find in there is the fan speed reporting and cpu temps. Shows CPU at 26 C. No control of chassis fan speed as we've seen, I've only a 3 pin fan at the moment.

morkys wrote:Or is this reading fairly accurate via the three pin connector?


It's a reasonably accurate reading.

morkys wrote:I almost wonder if this system could do without a chassis fan. It certainly doesn't feel hot. I'll check the system temps etc with something like the asus ai software if I get a chance. After running for a few hours, when I rebooted to check fan rpm, the bios says the i3-4130T cpu is 29.0 C. The video card heat sink feels barely warm to the touch if at all. Of course, I've only been surfing.


Broadly speaking it might be possible, but a more detailled description of your hw (and relevant use) would help a lot to make a more educated guess.

At any rate, use a suitable utility, like HWiNFO, Open Hardware Monitor, AIDA64 or SpeedFan, rather than BIOS, in order to monitor your temps.
It looks like my MB is an Asus H81M-A as per the sticker on the MB. Because its an Asus boxed system, the AI suite II and the manual simply refer to the box model and not the motherboard, but the sticker I saw inside is the model I list above. Also a number of PP/M11AD/DP_MB was listed.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H81MA/#specifications

They vary. I notice mine is not identical to the one in the picture as in some pins are missing at one area. Not to do with fans.

The chassis fan I have is exhausting.

I use this PC for various things. Often just surfing and doing simple home accounting etc. I would like to use it for a few things like audio and video editing from time to time. I highly doubt I will play any games.

I think a lower speed fan with good efficiency could probably work better than the one I have. It's not deafening, but without the chassis fan the PC is almost dead silent. Kind of sad to make it so loud with this one fan.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Quietest 120 mm case fans. Are only some rpm controllabl

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:01 pm

morkys wrote:It appears I have Asus AI suite II. I ran it and all I can find in there is the fan speed reporting and cpu temps. Shows CPU at 26 C. No control of chassis fan speed as we've seen, I've only a 3 pin fan at the moment.


What about trying SpeedFan?

morkys wrote:It looks like my MB is an Asus H81M-A

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H81MA/#specifications

They vary. I notice mine is not identical to the one in the picture as in some pins are missing at one area. Not to do with fans.


I can't help with your variant (I think it could be an OEM one), but if you look at page 42 of the H81M-A manual you could be able to learn how lo slow down your case fan.

morkys wrote:I use this PC for various things. Often just surfing and doing simple home accounting etc. I would like to use it for a few things like audio and video editing from time to time. I highly doubt I will play any games.

I think a lower speed fan with good efficiency could probably work better than the one I have.


For sure: you may pick a convenient one among any SPCR recommended ones.

morkys wrote:It's not deafening, but without the chassis fan the PC is almost dead silent. Kind of sad to make it so loud with this one fan.


Perhaps you may try some stress testing in order to understand whether you can get rid of the fan, or not: you should just disconnect the case fan and then - case closed - run a either Prime95 torture test ("blend" setting), or FurMark (stability test, for the graphics).
If the temperatures are stabilized under either the CPU or GPU own limits, without sw errors or graphics artifacts, then you might probably live without that exhaust fan, providing you won't change your current usage pattern.

In case, a couple of screenshots after 5 minutes running those tests (Print Screen key, then paste in Paint or any image editing sw) may help.

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