Problem with Nexus Real silent 120 mm

thompo · Post by **thompo** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:22 am

Hi there!
Hope you can help me out with this one.
I recently bought a Nexus Real silent 120 mm for my Sonata case. Suprisingly I found out that it is more noisy than my old Antec stock fan (the latter connected to fan only). Is this realsitic or is my new Nexus fan defect in som way? According to Asus probe the fan is running at some 1100 rpm, can these extra 100 rpm be the problem?

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:35 am

i assume you mean the tri-cool antec fan that has 3 levels, low/med/high, and i assume you mean the nexus fan is louder than the stock fan on low?

well when its on low, its being undervolted. so comparing an undervolted fan to a stock 12v fan isnt a very fair comparison.

thompo · Post by **thompo** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:43 am

I don't know the exact name of the Antec fan, but it came with the case. It does not have a speed control on its own but connecting it to the "fan only" connector from the PSU makes it go slower by undervolting, as you say.

I thought the noise was related to the speed of the fan and not directly on the voltage. Since the Nexus fan is running at 1000 rpm at 12 V and the undervolted Antec fan has about the same speed I think its a fair comparison.

doudou · Post by **doudou** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:47 am

No that is not fair as noise is related more to airflow than to rpms. Nexus is design to provide good air flow at low speed, therefore, at same speed it pushes more air than the antec. Check out last SPCR articles on HS (vapochill article i'd say) they compared air flow versus speed for different fans.

thompo · Post by **thompo** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:58 am

Well, the noise is a buzzing motor sound, not a whining wind sound. Is this really connected to the airflow and not to the rpms?

Even so, the Nexus fan at 12 V gives the same temp in the case as the undervolted Antec. I think this indicates that the airflow of the fans is about the same. Undervolting the Nexus gives a quieter fan but insufficient case cooling.

EDIT: My question stands. Is it possible that an undervolted Antec fan gives as much airflow as a Nexus Reals Silent at 12 V, but still is more quiet? I've noticed that a lot of people on this forum has done this exact swap of fans, I hope you can answer my question.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:23 am

Most likely there is a problem with the Nexus fan you have. None of mine have a buzzing sound. I have 3 Nexus 120 fans in my case all running at 12V and they run at various speeds from about 950 to 1125 RPM, and the speed seems to vary a bit over time.

It is possible that another vendor's fan runnng at about the same RPM could be just about as quiet as the Nexus, and even quieter if the individual Nexus sample you have is noisier than average.

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:46 pm

thompo wrote:Since the Nexus fan is running at 1000 rpm at 12 V and the undervolted Antec fan has about the same speed I think its a fair comparison.

So, what's the RPM of the undervolted Antec fan?

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:39 pm

Tri cool specs - http://www.antec.com/pdf/flyers/TriCool.pdf

thompo · Post by **thompo** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:02 pm

Tephras wrote:
thompo wrote:Since the Nexus fan is running at 1000 rpm at 12 V and the undervolted Antec fan has about the same speed I think its a fair comparison.
So, what's the RPM of the undervolted Antec fan?

I don't know. It's a two pin fan, without rpm signal.

evvk · Post by **evvk** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:58 am

I bought a Nexus PSU with the 120mm fan a year and a half ago or so, and it stayed quiet for less than a year until starting rattling occasionally until kicked to stay quiet. A few months ago it started doing it constantly. Therefore I'm not too impressed with their quality. Although, I suspect the "noise killer" speed adjusting stuff is most to blame for killing the fan. As the fan doesn't seem replaceable without soldering etc., I've decided to go passive PSU. At leats it's easier to replace the fan cooling it when it dies.