• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Reducing fan noise

W

wonSR4

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
1,588
Hey guys.

Recently I replaced the stock fans and a couple of other fans in my Black Pearl. As of now, I have two fans in the bottom compartment (HDD area), one in the upper compartment as rear intake, and the top two fans also has intake. I replaced all the fans with Scythe GTs (1450rpm). I noticed that the top two fans make a little bit more noise (audible enough to annoy me and running at 1080 rpm due to fan controller) compared to the other 3. When the top fans are flipped to be exhaust, they don't make any noise at all. It also seems that the closer the top two fans are screwed into the case, the more noise they make. So as of now, they're loosely screwed in leaving a little bit of a gap between the fan and the top of the case which has reduced the noise a little bit. Is there any way to reduce the noise?

Thanks.
 
Have you tried adding rubber washers/fan gaskets between the case and the fans? That could reduce your vibration noises.
 
As you've noticed, having something in close proximity to the fan blades creates turbulence, and thus increased noise.

I space my fans (using a ducted shroud - a gutted 25mm thickness fan) from all intake/exhaust openings for this reason. Neglecting to duct the fan by simply spacing it apart from the opening will result in wasted airflow.

Other than that, you can try to prevent transmitting vibration from the fan to the case. I don't hard-mount my fans - I use a rubber tape gasket instead. However scythe GTs are amongst the most efficient fans around; they consume very little power, and don't transmit much vibration, so I think a rubber grommet would suffice even when hard-mounted.

Edit: http://www.overclock.net/faqs/122205-how-make-any-sized-shroud-2-a.html - here is the OG fan-shroud guide, and the cheapest 120x25mm fans I know of are the Yate Loons at Jab-tech, which are $3.60 each, or $2.95 each in bulk.
 
Probably would have to go with the fan gasket or rubber washers route. Know of where to get those on the cheap? I don't have a problem with increased noise with exhaust fans although all the other 3 fans don't have something close to the blades.

Hmm actually I guess I could use leftover rubber grommets that are supposed to be used for the hard drives for those fans. And thanks for the suggestion Archmage. That's too OG for me haha.
 
Last edited:
Why do you have so many fans set to intake? There won't be good air flow through the case unless the amount of intake & exhaust are somewhat close to each other. Since heat rises, it makes more sense to set both top fans to exhaust.
 
Ah well I was trying something different and experimenting with the airflow in the case. There's also the huge mesh window that I have to deal with.
 
wonSR4 said:
Ah well I was trying something different and experimenting with the airflow in the case. There's also the huge mesh window that I have to deal with.
Click to expand...

Get rid of the mesh window.. or cut holes that size of the fans so the mesh will no longer horribly reduce airflow.
 
Hm well I could just reverse the top fans as exhaust, leaving one intake from the rear and tape up the mesh window. I don't do mods like cutting up stuff.
 
wonSR4 said:
Hm well I could just reverse the top fans as exhaust, leaving one intake from the rear and tape up the mesh window. I don't do mods like cutting up stuff.
Click to expand...

I was thinking you were saying that the top fans had a mesh window... but fron actully looking at the pics on the newegg site, the whole top half of the side cover has the mesh window.... not very good for propery directed airflow.

The same still goes for the axhaust fans though.. remove those air restricting grill things and the fans will become a lot quieter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top