Fan Upgrade/Replacment

Morning Hexus

At the weekend I totally stripped my system to give it a good clean.

After putting it back together as it was, except the exhaust is now in the roof instead of the back.

Booted my system and the fan is now making an awful racket. Looks like the bearing has gone. :(

I'm currently running Sharkoon Silent eagle "golf Ball" 2000's 2 intakes and 2 exhausts. which ive had for about 2-3 years.

Running 2 notua fans on my NH-UP12

I'm running my i7 860 @ 3.8 so that kicks out a little heat. My graphics card is a Gigabyte 460 which exhausts out of the case. So the heat from that isnt really an issue

Is it worth replacing all 4 of these with something like the gentle typhoons?

At some point I want to upgrade to water cooling but at the moment I cant afford it.

Any help would be great.

Have you checked for wires or other obstructions getting into the fan?
An errent wire being just cliped by a fan will cause a hellish racket all the way down to a quiet scrapeing, depending on contact.

Is it one fan?

Have you tried traceing down the noise?

Hi Pob

I've checked for loose wires which could be getting caught. I have also tried it in the vertical exhaust mount and it was still making the same noise.
This is how I have came to the conclusion its the fan bearing.

should have really included that.

Have you got a spare psu and a molex to 3pin fan header adaptor?
I find that's the best way to test a fan, jump start the psu with a paper clip and run it with just a fan plugged in.
Just holding the fan in your hand while it's running means you can twist it in any direction and feel for vibrations

But yes it does sound like the baring has gone. :(

Looks like the R2 only takes 120mm fans, so you've got a big choice but it does depend what you want from your fans.
The NZXT fans are decent for the cost http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...-braided-cable
Not silent at full speed but you can plug them into a fan controller or get some resistor adaptors, just knocking the voltage down slightly makes near silent http://www.scan.co.uk/products/shark...m-and-noise%29

Scan used to have the bitfenix fans which where great value, they are quiet and where under £5 on scan. :(
Amazon have the basic black ones for £6 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bitfenix-Spe.../dp/B004I2KGDM
Specialtech is out of stock of the black ones but have got the white and all the LED versions again for around £6 http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...g=bitfenix+120

On the scythe gentle typhoons, I've recently done some research on them, they are good on radiators esp above 1500rpm, below that they are not that great, not bad but not greatly different (esp on a rad)
They are a bit of an oddity, the blade shape means they generate a higher pitched sound than most fans, which means that while they are quiet, esp in terms of dB, they actually sound louder to the human ear at low rpm however at high rpm they sound quieter, mainly because over 1500rpm standard fans start getting far louder.
When used on a radiator esp with a fan controller is where the GT really starts to shine, but as a low rpm case fan they are not so good, not bad but not good enough to be worth the extra cost ether.

Pob you beast! :rockon::rockon:

Thanks for the detail. I currently have a Zalman MF3.

I'm really wanting the most airflow to be honest. As I can ramp the fans down to a very slow rpm when just browsing the net watching dvd's ect.

I'll test the fan when I get a chance.

I think the roof vents can take 140mm fans also.

The golf balls make a hell of a noise after about 1200 rpm so im sure anything will be an improvement

AFAIK the R3 used 140mm in the top the R2 only used 120mm

In for fans which are high air flow at full rpm the zalman ZM-f3 are decent http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...vibration-pins
Well they should be, I used to use sharkoon medium system fans, which where decent for a basic high air flow fan, at full 1700rpm they moved a heck lot of air but where rather noisy, I found my self rearly running them past the minimum setting on my fan controller, after which I moved to lower noise slower fans.
The yate-loon medium 1650rpm fans would be a good option as well http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...-pid-5116.html

Pob,

Thank you for taking the time to help me out.

Its much appreciated. Your info has by far been the best and with the most detail I have received when compared to other places I have asked.

I think I'm going to get one of the nzxt and a GT test them both see which is best for me then maybe replace the lot depending on my testing.

Cheers Dude :)

Hi, theres diff tech with sleeve bearings, some are supposed to work OK horizontal ie in roof of a PC. I put a Viper in top of PC, but it wasn't really happy. Ball bearing type are happy being horizontal, iv'e fitted a Gentle Typhoon & its well happy :) . Diff case (Hiper Anubis), fitted Viper to CPU HS, GT's front, back & roof & at mo using Gelid Tranquillo fan as a front fan as well ie 2 front fans. GT's not cheap, but nice fans.



Cheers BOB

Bearing type as above but you could always try oiling the the thing with some 3 in 1.