P180 done my way :-)

[depravedone]

Two Vantec Stealth 120mm fans. Running off the OTES fan headers on the motherboard and setup to run ONLY when the "SYS" temp reaches 34C, exhaust air out the back.

Under non-gaming duty, the rear/top fans never even fire up, which is a nice feature of the AN8-Ultra motherboard. The Zalman 7700 seams to do a sufficient job of cooling all motherboard components under light duty.

Plan on replacing these with Nexus or similar due to the fact that they won't even spin up on less than 7.5V @ 960RPM. If anyone knows of a good quiet 120MM that runs smoothly on 6V, let me know.



Single 120MM fan cooling hard drive and PSU in bottom chamber. Running at 5V and extremely quiet. This fan was OEM with a Chenming server case. It's made by the same plant that cranks out the beloved Yate Loons. What really appealed to me was that it would start to spin on only 3V from my benchtop power supply! So i snipped off the 4 pin power connector and wired it up for 5V operation with a standard power supply connector. Considering replacing with a Nexus just for the simple fact that I can monitor the speed.



Now the only audible component in the system is the VF700 cooling my video card. Need a good solution to slow this fan down to 5V levels during light duty and still allow higher speeds during gaming.

[peterson]

Plan on replacing these with Nexus or similar due to the fact that they won't even spin up on less than 7.5V @ 960RPM. If anyone knows of a good quiet 120MM that runs smoothly on 6V, let me know.



Single 120MM fan cooling hard drive and PSU in bottom chamber. Running at 5V and extremely quiet. This fan was OEM with a Chenming server case. It's made by the same plant that cranks out the beloved Yate Loons. What really appealed to me was that it would start to spin on only 3V from my benchtop power supply!

I think you answered your own question.
Good work btw.

[jaganath]

Wow! Amazing cable management! That is probably the neatest and most uncluttered silent PC I have ever seen! Great job. Puts my own messy efforts to shame.

[Weldingheart]

Nice,
that modular PSU really give liberty for cabling though.
dunno why Seasonic don't catch modularity along with their non-sleeved main ATX cable
How do those Stealths sound if they fired up?

[depravedone]

Nice,
that modular PSU really give liberty for cabling though.
dunno why Seasonic don't catch modularity along with their non-sleeved main ATX cable
How do those Stealths sound if they fired up?

They are pretty quiet fans, but they won't run reliably with less than 8V. If I try to have them start at 6V they will speed up and slow down constantly or not even start at all. I'd say good for low noise, but not silent duty because they won't run below 1000RPM reliably.

[Mike_P]

Under non-gaming duty, the rear/top fans never even fire up, which is a nice feature of the AN8-Ultra motherboard. The Zalman 7700 seams to do a sufficient job of cooling all motherboard components under light duty.

Now the only audible component in the system is the VF700 cooling my video card. Need a good solution to slow this fan down to 5V levels during light duty and still allow higher speeds during gaming.

it's a std 3-pin header on the zalman fan, any more of the headers the stealths are using?

[BlueCan]

Nice,
that modular PSU really give liberty for cabling though.
dunno why Seasonic don't catch modularity along with their non-sleeved main ATX cable
How do those Stealths sound if they fired up?

My experience with Stealths is they sound like:

click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click
click click click click click click click click click click click click click

-Patrick

[depravedone]

The Vantec Stealths are quiet for the most part. The one blowing out that top does click a little bit, but I think it might be from the load the orientation is putting on the bearings. My next step, as soon as I can find a good source, is to replace them with Nexus or Yate Loon.

I would definately not recommened them if you're a silencer, but for the average user the Stealths would be okay.

[mathias]

I'm guessing your vantecs are new and not worn out and the "stealths" are still 2 ball bearing nidec fans?

I've had two vantec stealths(80mm), and they're much worse than most other fans I've heard, and probably worse than almost all: zalman(made by power cooler), xinruilian, nexus(both yate loon and unknown manufacturers), antec(dynatron), yate loon, panaflo, dynatron, YS tech and coolermaster. On the other hand, they were better than two everflow manufactured thermaltake fans. Still a lousy record, IMO not all all good enough for the average user.

Have you tried the stock tri-cools?

My experience with Stealths is they sound like:

click click click click click click click click click click click click click
...
click click click click click click click click click click click click click

Mine were different:
growl; growl; growl; growl...
...growl; growl; growl; growl.

At least as a pair.

[depravedone]

Stock tricools were okay, but one of them was clcking, so got the Stealths which had the same problem from day one with the one in the top. I'm hoping that Yate Loons or Nexus wont react that way to horizontal mounting like these have.

I'm guessing your vantecs are new and not worn out and the "stealths" are still 2 ball bearing nidec fans?

I've had two vantec stealths(80mm), and they're much worse than most other fans I've heard, and probably worse than almost all: zalman(made by power cooler), xinruilian, nexus(both yate loon and unknown manufacturers), antec(dynatron), yate loon, panaflo, dynatron, YS tech and coolermaster. On the other hand, they were better than two everflow manufactured thermaltake fans. Still a lousy record, IMO not all all good enough for the average user.

Have you tried the stock tri-cools?

My experience with Stealths is they sound like:

click click click click click click click click click click click click click
...
click click click click click click click click click click click click click

Mine were different:
growl; growl; growl; growl...
...growl; growl; growl; growl.

At least as a pair.

[mathias]

So you're implying that both of the stealths and all of the tri-cools click in the top position? Some of the fans will probably wear in into that position.

[jaganath]

I'm hoping that Yate Loons or Nexus wont react that way to horizontal mounting like these have.

From my personal experience (I have about 7 Yate Loons [5 x 120mm, 2 x 80mm] and 2 Nexus 80mm) the Yate Loons are absolutely fine when mounted horizontally, in fact they're better that way than vertical. Haven't tried it with the Nexus fans.

[Badger]

I have a Nexus 120mm mounted horizontally in my Seasonic PSU. It runs from ~ 500-900 rpm depending on heat. Totally fine, it's been in there a few months.

[computergeek22]

How quiet is the psu?

[depravedone]

The load my system presents has never been enough to make the power supply fan ramp up, so I can't say what it would be like in an SLI setup for example. If you're doing a similar system though, you can expect to have very little if any noise out of the supply.

[theyangster]

may I add the Akasa Amber 120 fan to the suggestions

it's different from the rest of the crowd

in a restricted (ex. high impedence) mount, it may not do so well, but considering your needs, it probably will be fine

Slightly cheaper than the Nexus fans

o and nice system

[diver]

Very clean build.

Possibility on the VF700:

Use Speedfan and link the speed of the VF700 to the temperature of the CPU. The additional CPU load of the game should track with the load on the graphics card.

However, if you do a lot of non gaming heavy CPU activity like audio or video encoding, the VF700 will ramp up then as well.

[rpincher]

What software are you using to tell the fans to turn on when the temp hits 34? I'd be interested in doing something similar myself

[depravedone]

What software are you using to tell the fans to turn on when the temp hits 34? I'd be interested in doing something similar myself

My ABIT AN8-Ultra motherboard has the Abit FanEQ built-in to the motherboard on the BIOS. I can configure it to run from 6V to 12V within a given range. Below the low temp of the range, the fan headers simply shut off the power to the fan. What type of board do you have? Maybe there is some option for you as well.

[depravedone]

Yate Loons have now replaced the much-maligned Vantec Stealths. The difference is quite striking. Thanks to jab-tech for taking my hard-earned dollars on these babies.

[Firetech]

My ABIT AN8-Ultra motherboard has the Abit FanEQ built-in to the motherboard on the BIOS. I can configure it to run from 6V to 12V within a given range. Below the low temp of the range, the fan headers simply shut off the power to the fan.

Just checked out your MB's manual online and the control options you have with FanEQ are fantastic! Pity the board's now discontinued...

My Foxconn has something similar in BIOS but only for the CPU and it's too difficult to understand how to set-up so I've left it as stock

[depravedone]

I'm truly sick over the fact the motherboard is discontinued now. It seems I cannot locate a new model from Abit that has the special OTES fan headers anymore. It is a pity, because it works wonderfully for me.

[Firetech]

Yeah, if I decide on a new MB at any time in the future I'll be looking for passive chipset cooling, plenty of space around the CPU and good fan control options.
It's tough that you generally only find out you haven't got these sort of things until after you've bought a board....

EDIT AN8-Ultra can still be got here but it's rare...

[mynameisyoung]

[quote="depravedone"]I'm truly sick over the fact the motherboard is discontinued now. It seems I cannot locate a new model from Abit that has the special OTES fan headers anymore. It is a pity, because it works wonderfully for me.[/quote]

Actually Abit has the KN8 now, it can be had for 110 on newegg, cheaper than the AN8. same OTES passive chipset cooler.

[Firetech]

Actually Abit has the KN8 now, it can be had for 110 on newegg, cheaper than the AN8. same OTES passive chipset cooler.

Thanks
It's an SLI board I see, pretty sure I don't need that facility but handy to know it's cheaper than the AN8!
I'll download and scrutinise the manual!

EDIT Much reduced fan control options, CPU only = not good......
EDIT2 Only forum reported issue I could find with AN8-Ultra was CPU temp (high) mis-readings.

[depravedone]

EDIT Much reduced fan control options, CPU only = not good......
EDIT2 Only forum reported issue I could find with AN8-Ultra was CPU temp (high) mis-readings.

Yeah, I downloaded that manual too and was quite unimpressed with the fan control options. Also, the temp reading problem with the AN8-Ultra was actually fixed with a BIOS update. I'm guessing Abit is cleaning housing getting ready for Socket AM2/M2 in the coming months.