looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

hi ladies :P

I'm searching for a low noise fan for my PSU unit. I'm fed up of these hoover fans which run at 6000rpm and scream out so loud that I can't work. At first I tried to remove all the fans from my PS units and it was very silent indeed but it's now the 4th PSU that I fry in a few months and I'm starting to think that putting some sort of fan back should not be a that bad idea after all.

After rummaging around the net a bit, it looks like the NoiseBlocker series are very interesting. These fans range from very silent (S1) but not very efficient to middle silent (S4) and very capable of pushing liters of air in and out of the PC case (it's a wood case with not many ventilation holes) in an instant.

These fans seem very common for PC modders and I was wondering if any of you already has one, and if so I'd like to hear his advice :)

Noiseblocker, anyone ?

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

I just use the regular fan that comes with the psu and it works fine, and there's not much noise either. Do you have a special kind of PSU that needs serious cooling? If you have an old junk PC you can salvage the fan from it and lube it up with grease or oil (or a mixture of both) to make it quieter. Another thing you can try is putting in a smaller fan, for example use a cpu cooling fan, only concern is if it does not cool the thing enough. I had to do that with a 24 port 3COM switch. The thing sounded like a lawn mower even after lubercating the fans. It uses two high output fans which I replaced with two identical cpu cooling fans. So far it's been working for a month and makes almost no noise. Hope it lasts in the summer heat.

You could also try building a bigger box for you rmachine so it gets fully closed up, or build it using thick styrofoam as noise insulation instead of wood, or why not just buy a real case for it?

One final thing you can try, is suspending the fan in air using string or thread instead of having it attached to the case with screws, that'll prevent noise from vibrations. You can test it out by holding the fan while its running with your fingers and see if it quiets down or not.

.. or buy one of those silent fans :)

Good luck!

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

get a DELL fan they work with clone comps and there REALLY good not that loud

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

thanks guys... I've finally bought that fan and it does the job quite well. It comes with a potentiometer and when I slow it down to 2000 rpm it makes almost no noise... good thing :)

And botmeister, if I could show you how my wood PC looks like, you'd understand why I don't want to change it ;)

http://racc.bots-united.com/my_case.png

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

Looks like a homemade "luggable". You build it all yourself?

Back in the old CP/M days I once had a luggable.

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

yes, exactly... it's not that hard to make, and it has several advantages over a laptop. The main reason why I made it was LAN parties :)

It's a real computer inside, with standard stuff in it, and I can upgrade it when the hardware becomes outdated. It has a CD writer, a floppy drive, a hard disk, TV out, network, stereo sound, and a wireless mouse. The LCD screen was cannibalized from a commercial LCD panel, it's 1024x768 at 17', with really good LC timings that make it suitable for gaming. It's also less heavy and less large than a standard luggable, and it's almost as easy to carry around as a normal laptop. I can use it everywhere provided there is a wall socket which outputs 220V around.

It's a quick and dirty box, really, and externally it looks old and dusty... I took the keyboard from an ageless 80286 and the keys are so used they have turned yellow... when you see it you could imagine it's one of those old top secret machines that were used by the russian militaries in the cold war, and no need to say that when I take it to a LAN party it draws some interest indeed :D

It's easy to do, if you want perhaps I can post the dimensions and a constuction guide :)

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

PMB your ingenuity is legendary :)

If I learn anything new about making fans more silent I'll let you know.

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

I am with you.

I hate the noise PCs make. I found out I was more tired after a long day of coding because of the noise I had to bear with. What I did was to go out and get 25-foot mouse keyboard and video cables. I ran these into my closet, cut a hole through the wall and put my pcs in the garage! Now I am in PERFECT SILENCE.

WONDERFUL S-I-L-E-N-C-E! Totally quiet!

If you do this be sure to get the good video cables. You won’t see any difference in the quality of the screen.

I used the normal ps2 mouse and keyboard cables because I have a switcher hooked to 4 pcs so I can run all 4 PCs in my garage from this one keyboard and mouse. If you don’t need this go with one video cable and one usb cable and get a usb moue and keyboard. (you will need a repeater usb cable if you go over 15 feet.)

http://www.cablestogo.com/

http://www.cables.com

Re: looking for a silent fan (noiseblocker?)
 

yes, that's a nice solution ... I have a TSP power supply which is pretty silent, although it's getting a bit louder when it's 35°C outside :( ... normally my harddisks are the loudest items, although a 120gb barracuda isnt one of the loudest :D