Quiet 80mm on a budget?

[Copyright]

Built a little HTPC and the Antec tri-cool fans sound HORRIBLE. I was going to do NOctua but way to expensive considering this is just a media box for the bedroom. I found the Nexus for 20$ cheaper for all 3 I need. Are there any budget 80mm that sound good? My local Frys carries the Marathon fans and SilenX.. not much else. I guess ill have to order whatever I get. Thx for any advice! I plan to use one on teh PSU fan of the Antec ISK300 case.. and then fill the other two spots.

[Abula]

Silence for HT setup is imo much more important than in personal PC, although i do value all my setups as quiet as possible. But i would invest hard on the fans given that its one of the last noise sources and i would hate to hear the fans on quiet scene.... distracting on a movie kills it. Either way the Nexus should be a good option, my favorite 80mm on 3pin voltage control is the Noiseblocker M8-S1, its still cant compete with the M12-s1/2 in terms of cooling/niose, but its hard to find good fans on 80mm that are quiet and cool well, the M8-S1 undervolts well, with a fanXpert2 motherboard you can reach around 40% (550rpms).



I do think the nexus should work well but i have no experience with them or how well would they will undervolt. Another one you should consider is the Noctua Redux line that should be cheaper than the standard one, for example Noctua NF-R8 redux-1200

[quest_for_silence]

Are there any budget 80mm that sound good?

AC F8 are usually cheap and decent, if you have a PWM headers on the mobo there's also the AC F8 PWM (any Nexus PWM, on the contrary, is not as good as the 3-pin siblings).

[washu]

AC F8 are usually cheap and decent, if you have a PWM headers on the mobo there's also the AC F8 PWM (any Nexus PWM, on the contrary, is not as good as the 3-pin siblings).

I'll second the AC F8 as a decent cheap 80mm. The F8 pro is also great, but can only be used as an exhaust because of the mounting. The PWM models can daisy chain of the CPU PWM header if you don't have extras on your MB.

I have an F8 pro PWM in one of my HTPCs chained off the CPU header. It's silent to my ear unless I artificially load the CPU with something like Prime95.

[fuzzymath10]

I've gone through quite a number of 80mm fans of all sorts. The Noctuas don't seem so expensive after spending time and money trying other options only to find them lacking out of the box or in some cases performing well for under a year before starting to click. That's what happened to my low rpm S-flexes and all Scythe had on hand to replace them were the high speed 3000rpm versions which sound horrible undervolted.

The NF-R8 PWM redux fans have gone as low as $13 in Canada at NCIX. That's a few dollars cheaper than amazon

[quest_for_silence]

I've gone through quite a number of 80mm fans of all sorts.

Did you try the AC?

[fuzzymath10]

I've gone through quite a number of 80mm fans of all sorts.

Did you try the AC?

I haven't. After a quick glance it looks attractive so if it can perform well over an extended period it looks like a good candidate. How long have you had them running? Any chance you've had the opportunity to compare against Noctua? I have some of the older non-PWM NF-R8 and I felt they clicked a bit more than the newer PWM ones I got more recently.

I think the S-Flex was generally well regarded at the time (this was 3+ years ago) and it was a very strong performer out of the box but the bearings (FDB) gave out unusually soon.

[quest_for_silence]

After a quick glance it looks attractive so if it can perform well over an extended period it looks like a good candidate. How long have you had them running?

A couple of years, even better, probably a tad more: I selected those AC because it isn't easy to source the Nexus Basic here at a fair price, which is my first choice. To be fair I've used them (up to now) always in a vertical position, so I don't know whether they can wear out more quickly when horizontally mounted, or not (the Nexus is good even so).

Any chance you've had the opportunity to compare against Noctua?

Yes, I've also the R8 (3-pin), this latter is blatantly of a better quality, but on the other hand it costs here 5 times more.

I think the S-Flex was generally well regarded at the time (this was 3+ years ago) and it was a very strong performer out of the box but the bearings (FDB) gave out unusually soon.

I got the first Nexuses six or seven years ago, after I tried the SFF-80A and SFF-80B: the 80mm S-Flex are in my opinion bad fans, despite the FD bearing.

Other good sounding 80mm fans are the Coolink Swift (rather close to the Noctuas with reference to build quality), but availability and price is often questionable.

[Copyright]

Anyone know if the Antec ISK-300 case PSU throttles the fan? I hate to stick a low rpm fan in there and find out it spins way to slow because it's meant to throttle a high rpm fan. ALso, I have decide to go ahead iwth the PWM 80mm Noctua fans since I do have fan control via software with the mobo.

EDIT: I will probably power the PSU fan externally through a zalman fanmate.. I got the 1,800rpm fan and I can dial it in how I want it. I will remove the factory grill over the PSU to increase air flow and eliminate noise. I think these 3 fans will get the setup very quiet. Now if I can just figure out how to get the AMD APU to run at the optional 45W..

[Darth Santa Fe]

I've honestly found Apevia 80mm fans to be really good for the price. The two that came with my case, although they make a bit of ticking noise, have been running great for over 6 years, and the airflow has a fairly smooth sound. I also tried Antec and Enermax maglev fans. The Antec fans had a very harsh sound and the worst ticking noise I've heard next to a Thermaltake 120mm, and the Enermax fans were near silent in comparison. The Apevias sound much closer to the Enermax, and you can get them for like $2 apiece!