Antec nsk3480 case fan too noisy ! Result !

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:59 am

I do not have the time to research all the different strings here in this forum so I'll just ask straight out:

Is there anything I can do to make my stock case fan in my Antec NSK3480 run quieter. It is FAR to noisy for me I'm afraid. I already have it at "low"....

If you know of a thread or solution, please post it here.

Sincerely your friend from Norway.

F for Fragging · Post by **F for Fragging** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:33 am

Your post sounds incredibly lazy to me, "I don't have time to search the forum or the website, so I hope you can do it for me". A first step to get your questions answered is to search the website and the forum to see if your question has already been answered before, and in your case it has been answered already. Next time you should search for yourself first, or do you think we have all the time to help you?

Anyway, I'll answer you question for now. Check this on the website to see an Antec NSK3480 modified for silence. Just ditch the stock Antec TriCool case fan and replace it with a 800 rpm Scythe Slip Stream fan, there is consensus on this forum that it's one of the best silent fans. It's reasonably cheap as well, Noctua's fans might be better, but they cost three times more.
With regards to the power supply in the NSK3480 for which you posted another topic, as you can see on the modified NSK3480 they replaced the entire PSU with a Corsair VX450W which is one of SPCR's recommended PSU's. If the stock fan in the VX450W isn't silent enough for you, replace it with a 1200 rpm Scythe Slip Stream fan using the instructions found here.

I hope that helps, and next time search by yourself first before opening a topic.

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:56 am

F for Fragging wrote:Your post sounds incredibly lazy to me, "I don't have time to search the forum or the website, so I hope you can do it for me". A first step to get your questions answered is to search the website and the forum to see if your question has already been answered before, and in your case it has been answered already. Next time you should search for yourself first, or do you think we have all the time to help you?

Anyway, I'll answer you question for now. Check this on the website to see an Antec NSK3480 modified for silence. Just ditch the stock Antec TriCool case fan and replace it with a 800 rpm Scythe Slip Stream fan, there is consensus on this forum that it's one of the best silent fans. It's reasonably cheap as well, Noctua's fans might be better, but they cost three times more.
With regards to the power supply in the NSK3480 for which you posted another topic, as you can see on the modified NSK3480 they replaced the entire PSU with a Corsair VX450W which is one of SPCR's recommended PSU's. If the stock fan in the VX450W isn't silent enough for you, replace it with a 1200 rpm Scythe Slip Stream fan using the instructions found here.

I hope that helps, and next time search by yourself first before opening a topic.

I just assumed that someone has researched this before me and could give me the "low down" on the issue.

And yes - I admit to being lazy - again it's a question of priorities.

One is absolutely free to comment to this post - and I am happy that you did. I usually do research but in this case I found it to be easier to get the answers from someone who has already done it.

Have a nica day

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:51 am

Uhm, the easiest would be to rip the wires from the fan out of the white socket and stuff them into 5 V or 7 V in a molex plug, so they run undervolted. That's a 5 minute fix, very cheap (free as in free beer) and gives a decent result!

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:00 am

Strid wrote:Uhm, the easiest would be to rip the wires from the fan out of the white socket and stuff them into 5 V or 7 V in a molex plug, so they run undervolted. That's a 5 minute fix, very cheap (free as in free beer) and gives a decent result!

Excellent - just the kind of thing I was looking for. Could very well be the "ticket". Where do I get the molex plug ?
You wouldn't happen to have a fix for my Earthwatts 380 PSU that makes noise too ?

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 6:22 am

A Molex plug is the power plug powers IDE drives, like most CD/ROM drives and harddrives that are not the new SATA standard.
They have four poles, the one side is +5 V and 0 V, and the two others are +12 V and 0V. Just put the fan wires into the correct holes in the molex plug, and you run your fan at that voltage instead of the 12 V from the normal fan plug.

You probably need to swap the fan for a low noise fan, if you want to do something serious about the PSU fan noise, but that is very fiddely, lol!

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 6:47 am

Strid wrote:Uhm, the easiest would be to rip the wires from the fan out of the white socket and stuff them into 5 V or 7 V in a molex plug, so they run undervolted. That's a 5 minute fix, very cheap (free as in free beer) and gives a decent result!

Actually, this not a particularly good fix for the Antec Tricool as it has built in 3 way voltage control. The OP has his set to low, which means it's already at ~ 7 V. If you find a Tricool to be too loud, your best bet is to swap it for a different fan known to be quieter (eg 80 RPM Slipstream).

Shaman · Post by **Shaman** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:00 am

According to the SPCR 120mm Fan Round-up the Tricool runs at 5V on the Low setting. But it's still not very quiet. When I got my P182 last week, the 1st thing I did was unplug the top fan because two Tricools on Low were driving me bananas. Even just 1 Tricool on Low is annoying and it will go soon, I ordered an S-Flex 'E' that will run at 7V.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:59 am

NoMoreNoise wrote:You wouldn't happen to have a fix for my Earthwatts 450 PSU that makes noise too ?

If your wall socket power is 100W or less, use a Slipstream 500RPM fan for the exhaust and remove the fan from your PSU (voids the warranty, but produces astonishing quietness). Same thing if your wall socket power is 100-160W, but use an 800RPM Slipstream.

Do not do this with a different fan (other than the Slipstream). This fan really likes additional air intake area, and removing the fan from your PSU turns the PSU into an air intake.

edit: if concerned about the PSU warranty, remove the PSU and set it aside. Replace with a $24 ~300W InWin PSU from Newegg - after removing its fan, of course. Since you are pulling no more than 160W from the PSU, 300W is more than adequate. This is the PSU I use on all my computers.

Shaman · Post by **Shaman** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:43 pm

Felger Carbon wrote:Do not do this with a different fan (other than the Slipstream). This fan really likes additional air intake area, and removing the fan from your PSU turns the PSU into an air intake.

The PSU in the NSK3480 is in a separate chamber...

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:18 pm

Shaman wrote:The PSU in the NSK3480 is in a separate chamber...

Oops! The photos don't show that. Too bad. My suggestion works well in the usual situation, such as my EverCase E3505B's. Thanx for the correction.

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:22 pm

Felger Carbon wrote:
NoMoreNoise wrote:You wouldn't happen to have a fix for my Earthwatts 450 PSU that makes noise too ?
If your wall socket power is 100W or less, use a Slipstream 500RPM fan for the exhaust and remove the fan from your PSU (voids the warranty, but produces astonishing quietness). Same thing if your wall socket power is 100-160W, but use an 800RPM Slipstream.

Do not do this with a different fan (other than the Slipstream). This fan really likes additional air intake area, and removing the fan from your PSU turns the PSU into an air intake.

edit: if concerned about the PSU warranty, remove the PSU and set it aside. Replace with a $24 ~300W InWin PSU from Newegg - after removing its fan, of course. Since you are pulling no more than 160W from the PSU, 300W is more than adequate. This is the PSU I use on all my computers.

Just so that I have got this right:

Remove PSU fan and install Slipstream 500/800 120mm CASE fan (instead of my Antec Tricool 120mm)

or

Remove PSU altogether and replace with ~300W PSU and take out THAT fan.

??

Shaman · Post by **Shaman** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:25 am

NoMoreNoise wrote: Just so that I have got this right:

Remove PSU fan and install Slipstream 500/800 120mm CASE fan (instead of my Antec Tricool 120mm)

or

Remove PSU altogether and replace with ~300W PSU and take out THAT fan.

??

Do not remove the PSU fan in any circumstance! Felger Carbon did not know the NSK3480 has a separate chamber for the PSU. See his post above.

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:28 am

Do not remove the PSU fan in any circumstance! Felger Carbon did not know the NSK3480 has a separate chamber for the PSU. See his post above.

i wont. I just got the Noctua NF-R8 and will swap with this....I'll keep you updated. How can I check temps before and after ?

Shaman · Post by **Shaman** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:56 am

NoMoreNoise wrote:i wont. I just got the Noctua NF-R8 and will swap with this....I'll keep you updated. How can I check temps before and after ?

There's no easy way to check the temperature of the PSU, not by software anyway. If you have a digital thermometer with a probe you can check the before/after temp of the PSU exhaust, that's about it.

What you really should take notice of is how quiet the system is after the fan swap.

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:21 pm

Wel well - put in the Noctua NF-R8 in my Earthwatts380 as a replacement for the Adda stock fan.....and what do you think the result was ?

Near silence is best way to describe it. Noise is always an individual thing - but for me this Noctua fan (at 800rpm's) is a real gem.

It is commected to the mobo - NOT the 2 pin in the PSU. This means that my stock AMD cooler will have to ne run without a fan, just the small fanless bit under it.

So while I'm waiting for my Ninja Rev.B AMD cooler I'll reverse the 120mm case fan to get some air in the case, and put the tricool fan on low - which is just bearly acceptable for me to listen to. I'll swith this with the Scythe that comes with the Ninja - and run it the right way....

Comments ? Questions ?

I have pics if you are interested.

Shaman · Post by **Shaman** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:12 pm

So you do have the stock 380W Earthwatts afterall... in a post above you mentioned 450W, so I thought you had swapped PSU's and that's why it was so noisy. It's strange that the fan of the 380W was bothering you that much, since in the SPCR review it was rated as 'fairly quiet', quieter than the Tricool on Low anyway.

And oh yeah, pics are always nice, if only just to see if you soft-mounted the fan without the wire grill or not.

NoMoreNoise · Post by **NoMoreNoise** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:29 am

Shaman wrote:So you do have the stock 380W Earthwatts afterall... in a post above you mentioned 450W, so I thought you had swapped PSU's and that's why it was so noisy. It's strange that the fan of the 380W was bothering you that much, since in the SPCR review it was rated as 'fairly quiet', quieter than the Tricool on Low anyway.

And oh yeah, pics are always nice, if only just to see if you soft-mounted the fan without the wire grill or not.

My mistake entirely, I'll update the thread above. Apologize for this.

Anyway, for ME, the stock Adda fan in the Earthwatts 380w makes too much noise. Noise is subjective, always, and could quite possibly be good enough for others.

Again I would like to thank everyone for their input - it is highly appreciated.

Antec nsk3480 case fan too noisy ! Result !

Antec nsk3480 case fan too noisy ! Result !

RESULT !