Replacing a Tricool fan from an Antec p183

[tysan]

I've had to replace my system PSU this week and while cleaning CPU Fan dust it has become really noisy, so I would welcome some suggestions to replace it.

1) Are Antec Twocool fans a good fit to replace the Tricool?

2) I would like to just use a well rounded budget fan for the time being, but better performing/quieter fan recommendations are also welcomed to upgrade them sooner or later.

Thanks in advance.

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

What's the make/model of motherboard? Whether or not it can handle control of PWM fans will help narrow the selection.

[quest_for_silence]

1) Are Antec Twocool fans a good fit to replace the Tricool?

They are generally quieter, but also the relevant cooling prowess is lower (Twocool top speed should be equal to Tricool slowest one).

2) I would like to just use a well rounded budget fan for the time being

Scythe, either Glidestream or Slipstream (there's plenty of speed options among them).

[tysan]

Welcome to SPCR.

What's the make/model of motherboard? Whether or not it can handle control of PWM fans will help narrow the selection.

Motherboard is an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe

Extra system data (just in case)

CPU: Phenom II x4 965 BL + Prolimatech Megahalem

GPU: Currently a very basic graphic card since my passive radeon 5750 broke some months ago and I'm waiting for the next wave of cards, but not planning on going further than mid range either passive (if we get something interesting) or a semi-passive one.

[CA_Steve]

Ok, that's a 7 yr old mobo design, so it'll support 3-pin voltage controlled chassis fans and not PWM...and since it's 7 years old, the mobo fan control is going to be minimal.

+1 on Luca's Scythe picks. Go with an 800 or 1200rpm fan, grab a Zalman Fan Mate 2 as well, connect it to a PSU molex connector, and dial in the speed you like.

[Abula]

To me the best case fans on 120mm are,

Noiseblocker M12-S1 850rpms (S2 1200rpms if you need more rpms)
Noctua NF-S12B REDUX 700 (one of my favorites atm due to price, color and quietness, but doesnt move a lot of air).
Noctua NF-S12A ULN (if you can live with the brown/tan, also a good case fan)
Nexus Real Silent 120mm (if your budget is tight)
Scythe Glidestream/Slipstream - second the suggestion from Lucas/Steve on them being good option for case fans.

[edh]

Ok, that's a 7 yr old mobo design, so it'll support 3-pin voltage controlled chassis fans and not PWM...and since it's 7 years old, the mobo fan control is going to be minimal.

Plenty of 7 year old motherboards have perfectly good PWM fan control. It has Asus Q-Fan 2 so should be just fine with PWM. I have no experience with this specific board but have an Asus P5E-VM HDMI from 8 years ago that was just fine for PWM use.

We do sometimes forget about how long these technologies have been around for but PWM fans have been common for a decade now and D fan control was even starting to come in 15 years ago.

[CA_Steve]

Plenty of 7 year old motherboards have perfectly good PWM fan control. It has Asus Q-Fan 2 so should be just fine with PWM.

For CPU, sure. Doubtful for case fan inputs. Add to this the rather rudimentary fan control, and it leads me to recommend ignoring mobo control and just having a fixed rpm silent fan.

[quest_for_silence]

Welcome to SPCR.

What's the make/model of motherboard? Whether or not it can handle control of PWM fans will help narrow the selection.

Motherboard is an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe

Extra system data (just in case)

CPU: Phenom II x4 965 BL + Prolimatech Megahalem

GPU: Currently a very basic graphic card since my passive radeon 5750 broke some months ago and I'm waiting for the next wave of cards, but not planning on going further than mid range either passive (if we get something interesting) or a semi-passive one.

Last but not least: which fan do you need/want to replace? And in case how many those fans are?
You talked about the CPU fan dust/noise, but also about the Antec Tricool, which is the stock case fan on the P183.

[tysan]

Last but not least: which fan do you need/want to replace? And in case how many those fans are?
You talked about the CPU fan dust/noise, but also about the Antec Tricool, which is the stock case fan on the P183.

Sorry for not clearing that up, case came with two Tricool 120 fans:

* one is placed in the rear for general case airflow [✔ Still works fine]

* the second one is attached to the Megahalem CPU cooler [✖ This is the one that has become noisy]

I can switch the case one to the cpu and use the new one for the case if its a better solution.

[quest_for_silence]

* the second one is attached to the Megahalem CPU cooler [✖ This is the one that has become noisy]

Apparently you're not using the motherboard fan connectors, aren't you?
And how did you mount the Megahalems? I mean, with the fan facing the front panel, or the top of case?

[edh]

For CPU, sure. Doubtful for case fan inputs. Add to this the rather rudimentary fan control, and it leads me to recommend ignoring mobo control and just having a fixed rpm silent fan.

The case fans will be controllable but I believe may only be in DC mode and will be controllable thermally within a fairly small range. On the P5E-VM HDMI I had roughly 800-1300rpm DC control dependant upon system temperature. You can also set the case fans to a % from 50% upwards in 10% increments.

For the CPU fan, a PWM replacement would be best.

[tysan]

Apparently you're not using the motherboard fan connectors, aren't you?
And how did you mount the Megahalems? I mean, with the fan facing the front panel, or the top of case?

No, fans are not connected to the motherboard.

Megahalem and CPU fan is facing rear case fan. In the same way that can be seen in this image (not my system).

[lodestar]

To keep costs within limits you could consider the Rosewill ROCF-11004 Hyperborea 120mm fan which is $13 plus shipping from sources such as Amazon. This is a rebrand of the Akasa Apache PWM fan which would work fine on your CPU cooler. All you would need to do is to plug it into your motherboard CPU header, and for quietest results select the Silent profile in the BIOS. The Silent profile keeps the PWM fan down to around 20% duty cycle up to a CPU temperature of 40C and only then does it start to increase the duty cycle. As it works on the CPU temperature the other factor that would come into it is the ambient temperature.

I fitted this fan in its Akasa Apache guise as both a CPU fan, and sometime also in the intake and exhaust positions in the systems my gaming family members were using a while back, around 2009-10. Using the Fan Xpert software of that time I ran a profile of this fan and kept a note of it. It is text data rather than a graph but these were the results, the first figure is PWM duty cycle and the second is RPM:

20% 499
30% 505
40% 505
50% 547
60% 721
70% 981
80% 1095
90% 1240
100% 1298

As you can see this profile delivers a constant fan speed in the 20% to 50% range and only then does it ramp up speeds. So used in conjunction with the Asus Silent profile it does give the constant speed that a fixed speed voltage controlled fan would provide but under gaming conditions automatically increase fan speed to keep CPU temperatures in check.

[quest_for_silence]

No, fans are not connected to the motherboard.

Megahalem and CPU fan is facing rear case fan. In the same way that can be seen in this image (not my system).

Ok.

Broadly speaking, your cooling setup look like a bit conservative to me (you should have a minimum speed of 1200rpm), but whether you are satisfied a Scythe Slipstream M (if readily and cheaply available there) would work. The Antec Twocool also, at its max speed it would work enough well: eventually you might consider a 1000rpm Prolimatech Vortex 140, either Blue or Red, if enough cheap/readily available there (here they cost about 9/10 bucks a pop).

On the other hand, if you will to change your current cooling scheme, we may think to other alternatives/arrangements.