Help my fan is WAY TO NOISY!!!

The forum for non-component-related silent pc discussions.

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Latapy2003
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Location: Edinburgh, UK

Help my fan is WAY TO NOISY!!!

Post by Latapy2003 » Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:20 pm

It's killing my ears :x

Where can I get a nice quiet one. I am in UK. - btw is this a UK website or an american one?

GamingGod
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Post by GamingGod » Tue Mar 25, 2003 2:05 pm

I think that technically its a canadian site, but there are members from across the globe here. By the way im in the US so I dont know what fans are available for you in the UK

Boomerang Rapido
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Post by Boomerang Rapido » Wed Mar 26, 2003 12:33 am

Well I don't know any stores in the UK, but look around a bit, and you should be able to find an online store easily. I did a quick search and found this place:

http://www.over-clock.co.uk/acatalog/Case_Fans.html

Don't know anything about them, but they do have the Panaflo fans which seem to have quite a few fans (no pun intended) on these boards. I myself am running pabst fans and I'm happy with them.

NeilBlanchard
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QuietPC.com is based in the UK

Post by NeilBlanchard » Wed Mar 26, 2003 3:28 am

Hello:

Here is the first site that I ever came across for quiet PC stuff, an they are based in the UK:

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/

I have never purchased anything from them, but I'm sure that somebody on these boards has! Here is their fans page -- it looks like the are only selling one model fan in each size from 40-120mm with the exception of two 80mm models, which could be a good thing... One of the 80mm puts out a whopping 1.2CFM more than the other one at the same rated noise level.:shock:

[urlhttp://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefans.php[/url]

I do notice that they are still selling the "Slient Drive" hard drive box (casket?) -- I would stay away from this as apparently it tends to silence your drives -- permenantly!

Ralf Hutter
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Re: Help my fan is WAY TO NOISY!!!

Post by Ralf Hutter » Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:43 am

Latapy2003 wrote: btw is this a UK website or an american one?
Actually the Head Cheese here appears to be from Canada. I don't know what that means in terms of the site's location. It's not a UK site though.

jaypers
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Post by jaypers » Wed Mar 26, 2003 6:38 am

You can get Panaflo Ls from ebay for £8.

Or you can try the overclocking store (google search), their postage is free so its quite handy for smaller orders (they are a bit more expensive so for a bigger order you may wish to consider another retailer)...

I always use Google to find & compare retailers before buying...

Check what fan rating you need before buying and/or try Speedfan software - works a treat for me (only if you have reasonable tech knowledge about your system)...

jaypers
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Post by jaypers » Wed Mar 26, 2003 6:39 am

You can get Panaflo Ls from ebay for £8.

Or you can try the overclocking store (google search), their postage is free so its quite handy for smaller orders (they are a bit more expensive so for a bigger order you may wish to consider another retailer)...

I always use Google to find & compare retailers before buying...

Check what fan rating you need before buying and/or try Speedfan software - works a treat for me (only if you have reasonable tech knowledge about your system)...

Latapy2003
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Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:12 pm
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Post by Latapy2003 » Wed Mar 26, 2003 9:48 am

What do you mean by rating? All I know is the current one is 6cm diameter, 3 pin connection, and way too noisy. The computer is a 1.2GHz P3.

Latapy2003
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Location: Edinburgh, UK

Post by Latapy2003 » Wed Mar 26, 2003 10:00 am

The fan seems to be located on a heatsink which is on the motherboard. I found a 6cm fan at that quietpc website but it's 4 pin - can you get converters?

ez2remember
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Re: QuietPC.com is based in the UK

Post by ez2remember » Wed Mar 26, 2003 3:04 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello:

Here is the first site that I ever came across for quiet PC stuff, an they are based in the UK:

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/
Avoid their fans like the plague, I started out my silencing from here too. A whole load of wasted money on noisy fans, you can have em for less than half price if you think they are any good. :lol:

Get yourself a decent fan such as the Panaflo 80mm L1A.

If you are looking for 80mm to 60mm adaptors, look at the useful vendor links in the main site, it has quite a few quiet vendors in the UK.

Mark Larson
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Post by Mark Larson » Wed Mar 26, 2003 10:33 pm

I'd recommend an AX-7 or SK-7 heatsink coupled with a Panaflo L1A or Papst [whichever is the quietest Papst] fan.

dukla2000
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Post by dukla2000 » Thu Mar 27, 2003 2:13 am

Latapy2003 wrote:The fan seems to be located on a heatsink which is on the motherboard. I found a 6cm fan at that quietpc website but it's 4 pin - can you get converters?
You need to work out if the fan is on the CPU or some other component. Technically a straight swap (with a new, quieter fan) is simplest, except realistically it is much easier to get much quieter (with the same airflow) by swapping to 8cm/80mm fans. You may need a new heatsink or to hack together some of your own mods though to fit a 80mm fan on a 60mm heatsink.

Kool n Quietare another UK supplier who flog (relatively) quiet stuff. But as per ez2remember, IMHO you very quickly find these 'specialist' suppliers only go 80% of the way, and once you really start searching for silence the bits you need require more ingenuity to source. (e.g. my local Maplin has grommets for about 99p each, a little electronics store around the corner has them for 10p. I got my NMB fan from RS Components but paid well over the top for the priviledge!)

ps - having cast doubts on Maplin, I must say they are now carrying 'mainstream' quiet components (especially Zalman) which will be mostly OK for the man in the street.

jaypers
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Post by jaypers » Thu Mar 27, 2003 8:26 am

When I meant rating, I meant how much airflow do you need...

I'm assuming you're not too technical and simply want silence. Well, ideally you would probably want to change the heatsink for a new one as per Mark's adivce but if that's too technical, then keep things easy and go for ez2remember's advice. All that is needed for that is a screwdriver.

I just got a Panaflo 80mm L for £8 on ebay and dukla2000 is right try Maplin for bits & bobs.

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