Fan controller/Fan suggestions

[EndersShadow]

I apologize in advance for this being a long post. I am going to explain my current setup to hopefully help you understand what I am upgrading from and to give you all the info you need to help me.

Current Setup: (Little too loud for my tastes, and I dislike the side panel on the case)

I have a NXZT LX fan controller installed in my Thermaltake Armor case. It currently is being used to control 5 SilenX 120mm fans. Each channel of the controller is rated for up to 4 watts. 1 of the fans is a 120x25mm fan rated at 75 CFM @ 1500 rpm, while the others are all 120x38mm fans rated for 90 CFM @ 1400 rpm. For intakes I have a 38mm intake at the front bottom of the case, 2 38mm intakes at the bottom of the case (which is elevated off the floor using some old schoolbooks). For exhaust I have a 38mm exhaust at the rear of the case and a 25mm exhaust at the top of the case (in front of the PSU). I also have a 250mm side panel fan I flipped to be an exhaust but I have disconnected it. In order to help airflow I also removed the HDD cage entirely and have my HDD’s suspended in the 5 ½ bays via elastic. I leave the fan controller on Auto and normally it keeps the fan’s rpm’s between 1000rpm and 1400rpm.

Currently my case temps are in the low 90’s-100’s regardless of what I am doing, CPU Temps max out at 56 C and GPU temps are normally in the low 40’s at idle and high 60’s at load.

New setup: (hoping to be quieter without sacrificing temps too much)

I am purchasing a CoolerMaster ATCS 840 (and selling the Armour in the FSFT thread) on the 24th. I will be installing noise dampening material on just about everything (side panels, floor, mobo tray, etc). I am upgrading my CPU cooler from a Tuniq Tower (which makes too much noise for me, even with their fan controller attached) to a Noctuna CPU Cooler. Depending on CPU temps at load I may add another 120mm Noctuna fan to the back in a push pull config. I am elastically suspending my HDD’s in the 5 ½ bays and depending on the noise levels possibly getting Smart Drive enclosure (or something along those lines) for them at a later date.

I will be adding another graphics card in the next 3 months (I will need to drive 2 LCD’s and a Samsung HDTV). It will be an ATI Radeon 4xxx series of some sort as this is my main render machine/workhorse. I would like to go with another 4870x2 but think that’s overkill on both the budget and the card, so will probably go with a 1 gig 4870 card, but that’s later.

I am attaching two 120mm fans to the HDD cage (which will have all the plastic rails removed) to make sure I can get enough air to my current 4870x2 and whatever other graphics card I install. I may also install a 120mm fan in the optional location at the bottom of the case (which will block me from removing the PSU filter ) I hope to be able to set the GPU fan speed to 40% in CCC as that level is sufficient currently to keep them cool and not give me much noise.

I am up in the air on whether to replace the 2 240mm fans at the top with 3 120mm fans and so I do need opinions on that (how much temp diff, mount one as intake one as exhaust, etc). I cannot (without modification) replace the 240 at the front and am ok with that.

As I am replacing the case and CPU cooler, requiring me to rebuild the whole setup, now would be the perfect time to also consider replacing fans and/or the controller. I want this setup to be quiet to a point; however I want to ensure I don’t overheat anything.
I would prefer to keep the NXZT controller as it works quiet well with my current fans and lets be honest, its pretty cool eye candy, however am not against replacing it in order to get more wattage per channel (if needed or justifiable based on suggested fans).

So after reading all that (for which I thank you) here are my questions:

1. Should I keep my current fans and will the noise dampening material make enough of a difference that I won’t notice them as much or would you recommend I get new fans?

2. What fans would you recommend that are quiet (or quieter than my current SilenX fans)? I am open to either:

A. High rpm fans that under volt well (and come with connectors to do so)​

i. If no connectors, which do you recommend?​

B. Low rpm fans that have a decent CFM.​

**Note** If they are for use with my current fan controller they must be 3 pin fans as it will not accept 4 pin fans.​

3.What fan controller would you recommend?

A. I prefer a controller with LED’s that aren’t too insanely bright (i.e. Sunbeam controller) but as I have an LCD panel currently some light is ok. It MUST come in black and preferably fit in a 5 ½ bay. If you could control the amount/intensity of light that would be preferred​

B. I need to be able to power all the fans in the case either:​

i. Each connected to its own switch​

ii. Connected together in multiples (i.e. 2 120mm fans on the HDD cage together, or if I replace the 2 240mm fans with 3 120’s)​

1. If connected together what adaptor/splitter would you recommend?​

I appreciate any help I can get. Once I get started I will be creating a Worklog thread and while it won’t be nearly as awesome a build as Langer’s Prometheus (or many other of the Worklog builds), it’s only my second complete build so I am getting kinda stoked.

**Mod note** If this is not the right forum please move to appropriate one, just thought this would be the best place

 

[LibertySyclone]

As a fellow 840 owner I will say that the 240mm they ship with just dont move a ton of air but they are DEAD silent. I would at least try the 240's they ship with before you replace them.

I have a Triple Rad where they were and a double rad on the HDD cage all with "P" style Noctuas.

I would do a "S" Noctua on the rear and if you are replacing the top 240's with 120's then do P's there because of the restrictive mesh.

Personally I think you should take a dremel to the case mesh and do a less restrictive grill, which IMO reduces most of the noise.

Fan controllers are tough... I like the sunbeams but I agree they are to bright so I usually clip the LED's

 

[EndersShadow]

As a fellow 840 owner I will say that the 240mm they ship with just dont move a ton of air but they are DEAD silent. I would at least try the 240's they ship with before you replace them.

I have a Triple Rad where they were and a double rad on the HDD cage all with "P" style Noctuas.

I would do a "S" Noctua on the rear and if you are replacing the top 240's with 120's then do P's there because of the restrictive mesh.

Personally I think you should take a dremel to the case mesh and do a less restrictive grill, which IMO reduces most of the noise.

Fan controllers are tough... I like the sunbeams but I agree they are to bright so I usually clip the LED's

Yeah, I really really like the Sentry, I just dont think it would have enough juice to power the Noctuna fans.

Your rad's are why I am getting this case , that and I like that it looks profesional and sleek. I want to be able to later on upgrade to water (with exaclty the same setup as you have). I like Noctuna's was just wondering what other recomendations there were out there. If I go with the Noctuna's I then could reuse them when I go water as well, as SilenX fans are an issue with most radiators to my knowledge)

Do you have any grills you recomend? I don't own a dremel and would prefer not to remove the mesh (but it wouldnt kill me to either)

 

[LibertySyclone]

Buy a dremel, its really the best money you will ever spend.

a fan grill like these are fine, I have black ones, anyone like frozen or jabtech sidewinder they all have them. they are just so much quieter than the stock mesh http://www.bestbyteinc.com/FAN-WG-12B.html

Now on my case I did have to cut out under the HDD cage radiator to make the holes line up, i will take pics and throw them in my worklog some time.

This case is by far the best for water cooling I have ever used.

Becareful what controller you use with nocts as I found the Zalman ZM didnt work with them.