Chassis fan experiment

[Colif]

Now this wasn't intentional but it seems that in the last few months, I have tried several different brands and found problems with both:
1st was Arctic 120mm RGB fans, that came attached to a 360mm AIO - they tended to cause a noise at over 900rpm so I always ran them below that.
I also had one die on me, and I had to replace it... just to find the other two on the radiator also needed to be replaced.

So next I got a 3 pack of Lian LI TL LCD Fans and put those on the AIO.
One month later the pump in the AIO died so I swapped to air cooling and put the 3 LIan LI fans on the front of the case

Start of the month I realised I could hear a noise in my PC, and after a few days investigation, I have zeroed it down to my Lian LI fans.
Research shows something I wish I had known 4 months ago, the fans have a habit of having bad bearings... its a common problem with them in fact.

It seems to be two of my three have the problem. I will return them for a refund since I don't like those odds

Its annoying as I had looked for better fans than my Arctic ones to avoid that exact problem.
Alternates I had looked at instead of the lian li:

1. I had rejected Noctua fans as they didn't allow passthrough cables for PWM so it would have been more cables (compared to lian li who only use one cable for 3 fans).
2. That was same reason I ignored Bequiet fans as well.
3. I rejected Corsair as they are expensive, not that good at cooling and most require Icue to run RGB.

Now I do have one alternative that I couldn't use on my 360mm radiator, 3 Noctua A14 140mm Chromax Black Swap fans. Had them for years, were my exhaust fans.

 

[mjs warlord]

along with 6 other types of fans my cpu cooling fan is a Noctua NH-D15S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler

Amazon.co.uk

If i did not few a few led strips on the front of my case i would not know my pc was on shhhhh !

 

[Colif]

I was just sitting here with PC off thinking, I wish it was this quiet with it on.

Mine will be better, I just need to wait on an RMA response and then I will swap the Noctuas in. I need to check if the fan hub for case is still plugged in, we may have removed it when we swapped to Lian li hub - a friend was helping, he did some of it.

this is what they sound like as quiet as I can make them
click click click
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nsmw2aHfunvkIOceUsC_QwgZafhsD9qI/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iw4GCHEGtWpIRWyTD2TIfUcL15vukAh0/view?usp=sharing

it only gets more noticeable if i speed them up.

And that is with only 6 screws holding them in place. Since they physically attach to each other, I only have top fan fully screwed in and top 2 screws of the middle fan - This was done after noise started, I only did it to see if it help. Nope. Will make it easier to remove them though. might unscrew them completely and leave them standing up inside case. I think them still being attached does make case vibrate a little.

quiet nights, I would prefer not to hear fans constantly. I want to ignore my pc, not constantly be thinking... is it this making that noise... its bad enough without PC actually making any.

Not sure I could get silence with it on as the PSU makes some noise, I think.

 

[Colif]

My next Noctua fans will be hovering above the case

rubber case spikes. No way they will vibrate.

 

[Colif]

So while I was waiting for the shop I bought lian li fans from, to reply, I still had the fans in my pc and they appeared to be working fine.
A little noisy but nothing i couldn't ignore. I had to be close to hear them.
But pc seemed warmer than normal so I wondered what speed they were running.
Upon opening the software that controls them, I found it couldn't see the fans and would show an error if I tried to link any.
Restarted pc and on startup Windows reported that a USB device wasn't responding.
Opened fan software and now only 2 tabs appear and neither are fan controls.
So the usb connection goes to the lian li hub. I can't run the fans off pwm directly so I am stuck.
Seems they decided to die on me.
Good thing shop replied today so just need to swap the new fans in on the weekend.

 

[Colif]

I can only tell its on cause the lights are showing

Before I installed the 3 Noctua 140mm fans, the chances of CPU package getting below 40c was slim, now I have calibrated the 3 intake fans it sits on 42c... a few days ago it was on 55c or more.

Had to slow chassis fans down a little as they creating a noise at rear of case. Now its really quiet again.

I may not need to run the GPU fans to keep its temp lower now

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Someone told me years ago to remove all the unused PCI-E slot covers. If you have good front to back airflow it lets more heated exhaust escape out the back of the case. Only a matter of a couple C on temps when I tested it but its easy to do and all helps.

 

[Colif]

Most new cases have perforated ones to allow the air to escape, I think that is what mine are

I needed to slow the intake fans down as I was getting wind noises at rear of case... so I might think about removing the few I do have. Its possibly some of the noises I hear now but PC so quiet my keyboard is louder. I can hear something but not sure if its wind still. Later when house is quiet I will see what I can do.

Creating unfiltered openings can lead to dust, depends on air pressure in case.
With 3 140mm intakes and no exhausts, mine is pretty clearly positive.
wonders if a rear fan on back of cooler counts as exhaust.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Most new cases have perforated ones to allow the air to escape, I think that is what mine are

I needed to slow the intake fans down as I was getting wind noises at rear of case... so I might think about removing the few I do have. Its possibly some of the noises I hear now but PC so quiet my keyboard is louder. I can hear something but not sure if its wind still. Later when house is quiet I will see what I can do.

Creating unfiltered openings can lead to dust, depends on air pressure in case.
With 3 140mm intakes and no exhausts, mine is pretty clearly positive.
wonders if a rear fan on back of cooler counts as exhaust.

Yes mine do as well, but if theres a honeycomb its still probably 50% restricted. If youve got positive pressure with air flowing mostly front to back you wont get any more dust coming in the back as long as the PC is on most of the time. Its just something I do as course now because it doesnt hurt anything and only takes a minute.

 

[Colif]

I can only hear a slight electrical noise from glass side of the case, and after playing with fan speeds, it doesn't seem to be caused by any of them. It could just as easily be a house noise too.

Fans aren't the source of any annoying noises right now. I feel I need to emphasize right now, as after the last few months I am not sure

edit: I had forgotten to put the filter into bottom of case that sits under PSU, seems to have helped with some noise.

 

[COLGeek]

I've never prescribed to the remove the covers thing. Airflow really hasn't been that kind of issue for decades (back in the '90s) because cases were designed so poorly (compared to today) then.

 

[Colif]

If I really wanted to make sure air got out of my case, I could remove the foam layer in the removable lid of my case, and then it would breathe more... but I also see falling dust as a reason to leave it in place. Someone suggested idea a few years ago and I listened but didn't use it.

My 5800x3d hardly creates a lot of heat so I don't think its really necessary.

I suspect only thing I can hear now is my PSU and I am not going to replace it, so just have to get used to noise levels. Its like looking for the slowest part in a PC, there will always be one.
Only way to get no noise is pure passive and the cases cost/weight too much

passive PSU exist, I saw one last year - https://www.coolermaster.com/en-au/products/x-silent-edge-platinum-850/
passive heatsinks - Noctua have one... massive.
GPU might be a problem. No, wait - https://www.anandtech.com/show/21491/asrock-launches-passively-cooled-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-and-xt

So could do it but I think I don't need that much... and the heat has to go somewhere. I assume you need good ambient temps.

Since getting PC in 2020, I have had all these combos in this case:

1. 2 x 120mm AIO as intake, 2 x 140mm fans as intake, 1 exhaust
2. 2 x 120mm AIO as intake, 3 x 140mm fans as exhaust
3. 2 x 120 mm AIO as intake, 2 x 140mm fans as exhaust
4. 3 x 120 mm AIO as intake, 2 x 140mm fans as exhaust
5. 3 x 120 mm AIO as intake, 1 x 140mm fan as exhaust
6. 3 x 120 fans as intake, 1 x 140/1 x 120mm on cooler, 1 140mm fan as exhaust
7. 3 x 120 fans as intake, 1 x 140/1 x 120mm on cooler
8. 3 x 140mm fans as intake, 1 x 140/1 x 120mm fans on cooler

I would like to say it was all intentional. Exhaust fans reduced over time as some caused conflicting wind noises, and in the case of last one, it wasn't really necessary since Deepcool Assassin 4 has an exhaust fan built in. Started as positive pressure, wandered around in middle and ended there again. Next case has 5 intake fans so its not going to change as much.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've never prescribed to the remove the covers thing. Airflow really hasn't been that kind of issue for decades (back in the '90s) because cases were designed so poorly (compared to today) then.

Eh sure its not huge but theyre all on thumbscrews now and dont serve any other purpose.

I did test it a few years ago, when I had much more time and used to do things like that and I recall it made a small difference with the fans on full running a full system stress test. One of those where using slightly better TIM, removing PCI covers, and using better quality fans all adds to be a decent chunk and lets you run the fans slightly lower while keeping temps better.

Most people arent going to notice without testing, but Colif seems to be quite sensitive to noise so maybe every fan % lower helps.

 

[Colif]

I think my reaction to odd noises is related to the 8 different fan set ups I have had. Many of the changes were caused by strange noises. Whether that be

1. Vibrations caused by PWM cable touching back of the case
2. Noctua fans being so perfect with their rpm values that running 2 or more as exhaust can cause noises from the fans running at same speed (not a problem if they are intakes)
3. two AIO dying also meant I would question every noise.

I need to stop. I was never like this before. I used to happily use a PC with 3 x 180mm fans in it, they weren't that quiet.

After the last few months I am anticipating the next problem now. I hope I am wrong, I don't have any clue what it could be.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Well, even if somehow the fans on your cooler both stop working the heatsink will do a decent job passively now so thats much less to worry about.

Ive had the annoying cable vibration noise before as well, luckily avoided the harmonic vibrations from fans.

 

[Colif]

It doesn't help that many of the times I thought I could hear something turned out to be a problem. If they were all false alarms I would probably be ignoring it all again.

I have been in the situation where all my fans are brand new and it still didn't solve anything... before. It was actually the situation I just exited. So all new everything isn't a guarantee you won't get problems.
I got the 3 Noctuas I am using now in December 2021, but they existed as exhausts for most of their active life. Only one of them has been in the case that entire time though. It didn't take long to realise I didn't need 3 of them.
The inital set up was a mistake, I didn't know that 2 of the top fans were intake.I only found that out after I swapped the case fans for Noctuas - had always been planned.
I spent the next 3 years using other fans as intakes.
I at least know the Noctuas should work fine, they had been in the past. They attached via 2 layers of rubber now so I won't hear any vibrations from them any time soon.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Sounds like youre fine now then. If youre not rendering or running demanding games 8 hours a day theres nothing to worry about.

If its small noises that are bugging you, then hopefully they stopped now. But tbh if I think about it just about every incarnation of my PC has had something that made weird noises somehow. Maybe you need 3 180mm 1500 RPM fans again to cover all that up

 

[Colif]

its currently so quiet I can only barely hear it over background noises of the house.

I left it on this afternoon when I had a sleep, didn't keep me awake at all. That could also be tied to fact I moved PC away from me. So quieter fans + distance added up.

I have been here before so hesitate to say anything

 

[ZedClampet]

You can never hear the fans on my Sager laptop. It has this ingenious system of getting rid of the heat through the keyboard. Of course, it made it hard to type and then some of the keys melted, and now the keyboard doesn't work at all, but at least you don't hear the fans.

On the other hand, my HP sounds like an F22 Raptor taking off (but only while running AI), but I prefer that to having to run cold water over my fingers and using the onscreen keyboard.

 

[Colif]

Only downside to seeing into case with lights on is you see a pwm cable that is hidden without a lamp pointing at case. All black case has its uses.

Had to clean glass as I couldn't see into the top left corner