Quieter fans or different case?

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Gabe3

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I've had this case for 10 years now. It's a corsair carbide 500R: https://www.newegg.com/black-white-corsair-carbide-series-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811139010

is this case loud cause of its design? like the mesh open sides? Or is it cause of the fans? I wouldn't mind getting a new case, one that has a window. I think the psu that's also 10 years old could use a better fan but I think I'm just going to get a new psu and sell this while it works. Also the front 2 fans people complained in the reviews they were loud. I unplugged the 200mm side fan to see if it was causing the noise the bulk of the noise, I don't think so. Its not the original. None of the fans sound like they are dying. I just want to get a quieter setup so I don't hear it much while sleeping. Maybe I'm wrong and its not that loud but a case that has less open areas surely would be quieter?
 
In my experience, the two noise makers are 1) fans and 2) spinning hard drives. Assuming you replaced all HDD with SDD (or super-quiet HDD), then the next step would be to have bigger, slower spinning fans.

Less open areas in a case does help the noise, but if the fans have to spin faster to keep things cool, that defeats the purpose. My current case Fractal Design 7 has 8 fans spinning less than 1000 RPM, and it's overall quieter than the 4 x 120mm fans in my prior Lian Li case.
 
try controlling the fans so they arent so noisy or look at bequiet! cases.
 
It sounds like you haven't figured out where the noise is coming from yet. Maybe do that first.
 
Most 200mm fans only spin up to 800rpm max so its probably your intake and exhaust fans that are irritating you.
 
JSHamlet234 said:
It sounds like you haven't figured out where the noise is coming from yet. Maybe do that first.
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its not a noise, its general loudness but I think the majority of it is either the psu fan or the front 2 fans. or just everything combined
 
Quick and cheap solution is to find a Rheobus and wire up all the fans to that. Then adjust the fan speed to a more tolerable noise level. I still use one that's almost 20years old.
 
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Gabe3 said:
its not a noise, its general loudness but I think the majority of it is either the psu fan or the front 2 fans. or just everything combined
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that is noise. figure it out and address is. we're just fucking guessing here....
 
The front 2 fans and side goto the case's fan controller which has a pretty much useless 3 speed adjustment, and a switch to turn the lights off which I like. So I guess I would loose the ability to turn the lights off if I plugged them into the motherboard.
 
Gabe3 said:
The front 2 fans and side goto the case's fan controller which has a pretty much useless 3 speed adjustment, and a switch to turn the lights off which I like. So I guess I would loose the ability to turn the lights off if I plugged them into the motherboard.
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First-world problems ;)
 
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unplug the fans or jam a stir-stick/zip-tie/pen in them, if the noise stops, there ya go. if the fans are to noisy, replace them. its not rocket surgery.
 
pendragon1 said:
unplug the fans or jam a stir-stick/zip-tie/pen in them, if the noise stops, there ya go. if the fans are to noisy, replace them. its not rocket surgery.
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yeah of course but I made the thread to see if my case's design was going to be noisier than newer cases that don't have as much open panels. replacing the fans with noctua fans that are $30 each would cost more than a new case.
 
Gabe3 said:
yeah of course but I made the thread to see if my case's design was going to be noisier than newer cases that don't have as much open panels. replacing the fans with noctua fans that are $30 each would cost more than a new case.
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time to figure it out.
 
I highly recommend the nidec servo gentle typhoon 120mm fans, they are incredibly quiet below 1200 rpm and incredibly powerful at 2100 rpm, they are the perfect fan! Plus dual ball bearing design. I’ve collected over 30 different fans over the years and the nidecs are the best in my opinion and it’s the oldest design by far (I think they came out in early 2000’s) even noctua thinks so cause their a12x25 is a copy of the nidec.
 
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pendragon1 said:
time to figure it out.
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I tried to plug the front 2 fans into the mobo but they have these weird plugs on the end for the case's controller
 

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Gabe3 said:
corsair fan, it has that plug on it for whatever reason for the case's fan controller

Just tested it, nope. its the damn psu fan causing I'd say 70% of the noise.
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Ahh the bearings must be starting to go out on the psu fan. One thing I have found out in my years of pc building is if you get a psu that’s rated for 2-3 times more power than your rig uses then the psu fan never turns on. Of course that is an expensive avenue to take so not worth it for many.

That or put a fan that you know is a quiet fan in front of the psu fan so that the psu stays cold enough not to turn on it’s built in fan. This worked for me once but every psu is built differently so can’t guarantee it’ll work for you
 
Gabe3 said:
is it normal for the psu fan to be the loudest during idle?
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if its old, yeah it can. pop it open and inspect the guts, if there is no sign of bad caps or overheating, you can probably just replace the fan.
 
DaeviousMax said:
Ahh the bearings must be starting to go out on the psu fan. One thing I have found out in my years of pc building is if you get a psu that’s rated for 2-3 times more power than your rig uses then the psu fan never turns on. Of course that is an expensive avenue to take so not worth it for many.

That or put a fan that you know is a quiet fan in front of the psu fan so that the psu stays cold enough not to turn on it’s built in fan. This worked for me once but every psu is built differently so can’t guarantee it’ll work for you
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From looking at specs on PSUs over the years, outside of SFF models which need to start the fan early because they don't have room for large heat sinks, avoiding the fan running isn't a factor of the percentage of power unused, but the absolute number of watts unused; because a reasonable 120mm fan can only provide so much cooling; so within a PSU family the fan curves will generally all line up if you place them so they all end with max load at the same point. eg if the 650W model is fanless to 350W, the 850W will be to 550; then the fans will ramp at roughly the same rate over the last 300W of range.
 
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DanNeely said:
From looking at specs on PSUs over the years, outside of SFF models which need to start the fan early because they don't have room for large heat sinks, avoiding the fan running isn't a factor of the percentage of power unused, but the absolute number of watts unused; because a reasonable 120mm fan can only provide so much cooling; so within a PSU family the fan curves will generally all line up if you place them so they all end with max load at the same point. eg if the 650W model is fanless to 350W, the 850W will be to 550; then the fans will ramp at roughly the same rate over the last 300W of range.
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I mean yes and no, if within the same family you are of course correct, but between different brands I’d say the percent of power used compared to total power works better as different brands will use different components and internal heatsinks.
 
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