Fan noise

Sangre · 19-12-2002 12:07am #1

Okay i have a time computer, AMD athlon 1800+.

I just wanna now if there is neway to silence my fan?
I would like to silence my fan and leave it d/l at night but its in my room and the loud fan keeps me awake!

CAn anyone help me?

RicardoSmith · 19-12-2002 12:39am

Either buy something from www.QuietPC.com or buy a big HS like an AX7 and stick a quiet (20dba or less) 80mm fan on it. I've done this on every PC I every had and it makes a big difference. That said if you've never removed and fitted a HSF to a AMD chip before think twice before doing it. As its easy to damage or fry the chip with out realising it.

Also the noise could also becoming from the case fan, the psu fan, the graphics card fan, the motherboard fan or even the hard disks. You may end up changing one of them or all of them to eliminate the noise.

Some links for you
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Silent-PC/
http://home.swipnet.se/tr/health.html

Sangre · 19-12-2002 8:45pm

Awww i was looking for a simple way out e.g click the turn off fan box.

Ahhh well ill just have to bear it unless anyone has some other suggestions

Thanks anyway, v.infromative

Celt · 19-12-2002 8:51pm

Isn't there a Zalman rheostat or something similar that allows you to lower the voltage(and thus rpm) of any fan in your pc?

RicardoSmith · 20-12-2002 1:04am

Its called a zalman fanmate. Quiet PC sell em.

Gerry · 22-12-2002 4:30pm

Or you could just buy a rheostat in peats or maplin, sure you'd have to wire it yourself, but you'd save loads of cash!

mackanz · 22-12-2002 10:09pm

You can easily mod your existing fan from 12V to 7V.

However, i do not recommend this on a already low-rate fan.
If you have a Delta Screamer or a loud Ysetech, the voltmod is brilliant. I dont have any link, but do a google and you´ll find lots a links.

Mac

halkar · 22-12-2002 10:40pm

Zalman's Fanmate is great but not sure where you can get one in Ireland on it's own. Peats has the heatsink fan combination that includes the fanmate Zalman Silent Flower Cooler but the price is heavy €58.00 inc. It also comes with a big heatsink for your chipset and the fan that comes with the kit mounted in a way to cool the graphics card, chipset and the cpu. My computer is very quite with this setup, highly recommend it.

yankinlk · 23-12-2002 12:09pm

I havent tried it yet, but read that if you use the yellow wire as positive and the red wire as ground you can go from 12 volt to 7. anyone tried this or endorse it?

halkar · 23-12-2002 12:17pm

Originally posted by yankinlk
I havent tried it yet, but read that if you use the yellow wire as positive and the red wire as ground you can go from 12 volt to 7. anyone tried this or endorse it?

You can get 7 volts even 5 volts here is a link shows how to do it

RicardoSmith · 23-12-2002 12:24pm

Well maplins sell the fanmate on its own. Bit pricy at 16 yoyos though. You can 7v or even 5v them if you like. I used to do this too, it a bit messy though. Maplins also sell premade cables that do this for you. Saves you wiring them up yourself. What I liked about the fanmate is that you can keep ajusting it till you find the quietest speed and leave it at that. I found that I could get a fan quieter using the fanmate than 5v or 7v the fan. I also had some fans that wouldn't start reliably at 5v or 7v. With the fan mate you can adjust it until you find a setting where the fan will start. Still wiring it yourself is a no cost option and if it doesn't work its no loss to yourself. Just be careful with any bare wires etc! Theres loads of quides on the web for doing the wiring modifications so just search for it and you'll be fine!

CH · 31-12-2002 4:26am

I haven’t tried it yet, but read that if you use the yellow wire as positive and the red wire as ground you can go from 12 volt to 7. anyone tried this or endorse it?

the 80mm fan for my cpu was very noisy... it runs off 12V via 3 pin connector to the mobo (the fan only uses 2 wires: +12V and gnd from the available: +12V, gnd, -12V).

I unplugged the 2 wires from the 3 pin connector and plugged them into the psu connectors to give me 7V... can't hear it at all now. (I first tired to use 5V but the fan wouldn't spin up)

My cpu is 800MHz, and there’s a hunk of an aluminium heat sink on top... no problems so far with the reduced fan speed.

The voltage variations are:

             ____
red     --- |    | ---  yellow  
            |    | ---  black
            |    | ---  black
black   --- |____| ---  red
              7V

             ____
red     --- |    | ---  yellow  
black   --- |    | ---  black
            |    | ---  black
            |____| ---  red
              12V

             ____
            |    | ---  yellow  
            |    | ---  black
black   --- |    | ---  black
red     --- |____| ---  red
              5V

[edit] I'm never going to try and draw anything out in lines again![/edit]

Buzz_Irl · 31-12-2002 8:56am

For a low tech no risk solution - try ear muffs !

yankinlk · 31-12-2002 9:45am

cheers for the drawing...appreciated. must have wrecked your head. how many times did you preview post?

longword · 31-12-2002 10:25am

Originally posted by CH
I unplugged the 2 wires from the 3 pin connector and plugged them into the psu connectors to give me 7V... can't hear it at all now.

I've gotta ask if that's a wise thing to do. PSUs tend to separate out their 12V circuitry from the 5V/3.3V stuff. In the back of my mind I can recall reading something about a nasty failure mode when you do what you're suggesting, but I can't for the life of me remember where I read it or exactly what it was about. It may have been something to do with what happens when the fan fails.

RicardoSmith · 31-12-2002 12:34pm

The third wire is used for monitoring fan speed/rpm and therefore also fan failure. So if you do this mod you lose that. Not such a problem on a case fan or even a P4. But on a AMD chip it could be problem. Whats that burning smell.....pzzzzzztff. Oh dear!

Gerry · 01-01-2003 7:38pm

I was suggesting buying a rheostat ( radio volume control in maplin ) 100 ohm. Will cost you about a euro as opposed to a "fanmate", and does the exact same thing.

WRT the 7v mod, I've never known it to cause a problem, and must have used it a few dozen times now. If a fan has molex connectors you can switch the pins of the molex connectors around for a no-mess wiring job.

When doing the 7v mod, its worth testing it out first. Some fans slow down dramatically on 7v ( I think this is what makanz was getting at ), to the point where they are barely spinning. 5v mod won't work on all fans, however it does work for me here, on 4 fans. The 2 cpu fans need slightly more voltage to start, so I have them on a rheostat.
Its worth noting that if you do go for 5v, that the starting voltage needed for a fan can go up over time, it got to the point where my old 120mm fan needed a push to start

Also, for a software solution, try www.almico.com/speedfan.php

It won't work on all boards, worth a shot though.

yankinlk · 01-01-2003 7:42pm

yeah, speedfan is the biz. i use it on my cpu fan, and my in and out fans...my pc is completely silent when im doing nothing, or just surfing...play counterstrike and the fans go up to 100 per cent.

Fan noise

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