Some of the quiet fans seem to pull a relatively large current for their rpm. I'm thinking this is because they gave up some motor efficiency to get rid of the damn motor coil switching noise. I've gotten a bit burned out on buying so many fans and trying them out personally. The published noise fig...

Worth a try. remember to take CFM ratings with a large grain of salt as they are usually only approximately valid with zero backpressure. No fan runs in a system with zero backpressure in the real world. Also note that fan is blowing air OUT of the case in the pictures so mount it accordingly. I wou...

Unless you use a fairly potent pump the MCW6000 is as good as any block out there and cheaper than most. Also unless you are going to run your fans pretty hard getting a Storm block is a waste of money, in a low noise system it will make little difference over an MCW6000. Don't put 2 CSP750s in seri...

the amount of heat going in the system can vary a lot from idle to full bore computing or gaming. Temperatures can swing as much as 15-20C going from idle to full load if you have fans set low on a WC system. The limitation is trying to dump all that heat into the air going through the system and if...

I don't find the L1A to be all that quiet. All the 120x38mm fans (papst, panaflo, sunon) have a lot of motor chugging noise at any rpm that's annoying. They are considerably noisier than the Nexus or Globes. a Nexus at 7V is very quiet. The globe runs faster at 7V, pushes more air, makes more noise....

Here's the things I've learned from messing with axial fans. 1) There are three major noise sources. Motor noise from coil switching, bearing noise (ball bearings are worse than sleeve), and air/blade noise. In your case it's all dominated by air noise and motor/bearing noise is not going to make mu...

the Nexus 120's are closed corners, but you can easily cut out the corners to open them up.

I'm UK rather than US, so the components (and voltages) will be slightly different. The plan is to have about 4 or 5 solid state relays shorting out a series of resistors giving me a series of different fan speeds. The control circuit isn't all that complicated, and I'm fairly happy with the logic ...

Hey guys, As a W/C total ubernoob and as a silentpc enthusiast I find no solutions on this website! Time to change some things around here and several people can contribute to the cause... Quiet Pumps? Low flow blocks to go with those pumps? Cheap places to buy pumps and other silent w/c gear? Best...

Fortunately sleeve bearing fans last MUCH longer when they aren't spinning at full rpm. It's when the oil is spun away from the bearing that they have problems, at low rpm that isn't really a problem. I'd get the Nexus, it has lot more airflow potential than a vantec at 5 or 7V. It keeps getting men...

Is the Sunon still quieter than the Nexus with the hum? If so, about on what voltage does the Nexus compare? Thanks! DrCR _________ Yes, it's still quieter than the Nexus. The hum introduced is very slight. If you use the 1K pots for speed control instead of the fan speed controller you get the bes...

Try it without fans and stick a thermometer back there and see how hot it gets on the top of the TV. If it doesn't get too hot you don't need fans.

fanmates go down to 5V. The Nexus 120 fan has a better airflow to noise ratio than the Zalmans, which aren't all that good really. Get a Nexus.

The reason they use counter rotating fans when stacked is precisely because the airflow is rotating as it comes out of the first fan. If you stack a second fan on the first with the same rotation it will perform very poorly and add hardly anything to the pressure gradient because the air coming into...

Decent airflow/pressure curve for 950RPM. The fact that it's ball bearing doesn't bode well for silence though. Guess we'll have to see.

Is globe's noise, so bad? I mean, can you hear the bearing noise\clicks\whatever (i don't mind air noise) from a distance ~2 feet in a really quiet room? With the fan at 6-7v. My original application was fans for a radiator on a water cooled setup. I wanted to use 120x38mm fans because thicker fans...

No it's not a bad idea at all. You need to vary the resistance from 0 at the fastest to about 1k - 2k at the slowest. 35C and 50C seem like good starting setpoints. The easiest think to do would be to use one of the 1K 3watt pots from allied to set the low speed rpm (stock # 522-0049), and something...

yeah, he slipped a decimal point.
They actually pull about 75mA at 120V, about 90mA at 160V.

The terminal connection is on the side of the fan near one of the corners. You can get an idea if you go here http://www.sunon.com.tw/products/pdf/ac-axial-fan/ac-fan.pdf and go to the 120mmx38 fans and look at the mechanical drawing. you can see where the cable comes off. The connectors seem to be ...

You can also use Sunon 2123XST 120x38mm 230V ac fans and run them on 120v. Then you don't need a power supply. If they are too noisy even undervolted at 120V put a 270 ohm 3 watt power resistor in series with each fan. These things are exceptionally quiet. The fans are $9 from Allied electronics. Al...

The price on the 939s has come down recently. Get this 90nm version http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-499&depa=1 or it's 3200 variant. These 90nm versions put out substantially less heat than the older 130nm versions, easier to cool, easier to keep quiet. The also over...

The specs on the Silenx are a total lie. get a globe

I had also once hoped that dBA/1m specs would be helpful in finding a quiet fan. My opinion now is that they are utterly useless to an astonishing degree. Ignore any dbA readings manufacturers claim for their fans, they cannot be used to compare fans with in any usefull way. There seem to be 3 major...

I got some of those overpriced Silenx 120's in. As pointed out before, the quoted noise specs on them are ludicrous. The Silenx running at 7v is about the same loudness as a 120 Nexus running at 12V. The Nexus flows more air under those conditions. The Airflow vs Noise ratio is worse than a Nexus bu...

I am aware that the quality of Panaflo's are inconsistent. Some people get good ones, some get bad. Hopefully, since these OEM's are not made anymore, are a good quality fan made in Japan. One question for you: Have you owned one of these 120mm OEM Panaflo's? If you have, then I would have to agree...

As Rusty075 mentioned you increase the pressure capability of the fans, which can have zero increase in CFM if they are blowing air in an unrestricted system, or substantial increase in CFM if the system is restricted. If you just stack the fans one on top of the other though they won't be very effe...

You have to have some spacing between the balls in a bearing so it doesn't bind up, so ball bearings are always prone to those clicking noises. For low noise it seems you need to use some variant of a sleeve bearing and avoid the ballbearings.

Wow, some very impressive work there. Congrats

Sorry, no rpm monitoring on AC fans that I know of
2123XST has a terminal connection
2123XSL has lead wires

To give you a point of reference on the 2123XST fan, the Line voltage here is around 125V (a bit higher than typical). For me 750 ohms gives me about 91 Volts on the fan and it runs about as quiet as a Nexus at 7V. 270 ohms gives me about 110V on the fan and it is roughly as noisy as a Nexus at 12V....