Choosing a decent quiet fan

[thedons1983]

4 hours ago, unknownmiscreant said:

It is the GP-12. Its definitely getting 12v, as the fault occurs when connected directly to the motherboard on a PWM header, and when connected to a custom fan splitter I made, that is connected directly to the 12v line of the PSU. The fan cable is not faulty. I ruled that out first, and took the connector apart to make sure it wasn't just a dodgy connection. 

 

I am measuring the RPM using the motherboard fan controller. I have done this using both the direct connection to the board and the fan splitter (it has RPM-pass-through (if you will) to the motherboard.) The RPM measurements are accurate, as the fan speed can also be judged by listening to it and placing a finger in the middle of the blades to slow the fan down.

 

When the fan is placed near any metal parts, a fan grille, the side panel, or heck,even my desk leg, the RPM drops, and if left for an extended period of time, the fan motor warms up noticeably. The fan behaves fine in open air. 

 

The ML120s arrived this morning. They seem remarkably similar to the SP120 RGB fans i have. i didn't have time to test them at anything other than full speed, at which they were rather loud, but they looked pretty promising. I will do some more testing when I get home.

 

I totally get that choice, I like my 460x RGB, but I probably wouldn't buy it again. Its very tight on the inside. Cable management would've been nigh on impossible without a push pull 360 rad to hide cables in the front, and there is no space inside for my water pump, I've had to mount that externally. Luckily my desk hides it, and its really easy to top the loop up.

Corsair are borderline rip-off merchants, (cheeky sods fits them quite well actually.) Most of their stuff is mediocre, and the same price (or more!!) as downright good stuff elsewhere. I've heard a few people say that Corsair is only good value at the high end, that would fit with my experience of them.

 

I really don't know what to say, other than either your fan is defective, or the voltage supply going to it is defective, as there is no way a fan will slow down because of where it is placed or what it is placed against AFAIK... How else would CPU fans attached to coolers work?  The fans being Static Pressure optimised or Airflow optimised makes no difference either in that regard.  There is absolutely no way that placement is causing the fans to slow down IMO, so it is definitely its power source, in my mind, that is causing the problem.  The fan is clearly not receiving the voltage that you think it is.  There is no other explanation that I can think of, other than the fan is just broken (which I highly doubt).  

 

Are you sure that you're in the correct fan control mode... IE, the header in question should be in DC and not PWM mode, when controlling a DC fan.  Have you tried running the fan at a full 12V direct from the PSU when situated in the case?  If the fan does not slow down in this example, then the fan is definitely not to blame.  I have a feeling that your MB header is not running in the correct mode.  

 

Using software like Speedfan will give you more accurate control of your fans by the way, and is far better than MB control in my experience.  Asus Fan Xpert, in particular, is complete and utter crap from my experience.

 

Yeah the MLs do run at a higher RPM than the SPs, but they also have a much greater range, so you'll definitely want to slow them somewhat, otherwise they will be noisy.  At any RPM selected the MLs outperform the SPs, so just select an RPM you are happy with noise wise.

[thedons1983]

4 hours ago, unknownmiscreant said:

I totally get that choice, I like my 460x RGB, but I probably wouldn't buy it again. Its very tight on the inside. Cable management would've been nigh on impossible without a push pull 360 rad to hide cables in the front, and there is no space inside for my water pump, I've had to mount that externally. Luckily my desk hides it, and its really easy to top the loop up.

Corsair are borderline rip-off merchants, (cheeky sods fits them quite well actually.) Most of their stuff is mediocre, and the same price (or more!!) as downright good stuff elsewhere. I've heard a few people say that Corsair is only good value at the high end, that would fit with my experience of them.

Have you gone custom water cooling?  That's pretty badass!  Having to mount the pump outside the case is annoying though!  I did read that cable management wasn't always great in the 460x, but considering I got an S340 Elite which has quite a restrictive intake, there are always compromises to make... Unless you can afford something like a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX of course... Which is twice the price of the S340 in the UK!

[unknownmiscreant]

7 hours ago, thedons1983 said:

Have you gone custom water cooling?  That's pretty badass!  Having to mount the pump outside the case is annoying though!  I did read that cable management wasn't always great in the 460x, but considering I got an S340 Elite which has quite a restrictive intake, there are always compromises to make... Unless you can afford something like a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX of course... Which is twice the price of the S340 in the UK!

Yeah its custom water cooled, but only the CPU. I might get a water block for the GPU at a later date. Maybe once the blocks for pascal are getting sold off. I can send a pic if you want. Having the pump/res external is a nuisance, someday I might buy a shorter res tube and move it inside again, but that would hide either my RAM or IO cover and VRM cooling which both look nice atm. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the 460x, once everything is stacked and packed into it, it looks pretty sweet, but it is quite small and poky inside. I have under 10mm clearance between the video card and radiator fans. Getting everything in is somewhat a jigsaw . But I guess I can't complain, as the chassis I designed and built for my amplifier is far, far worse.

Cable management in the 460x is utterly <profanity> horrific. It would look terrible if I didn't have a fair bit of the mess resulting from some individually sleeved extensions I found on clearance for 75% off, GPU power cables (I couldn't resist ) , a fan splitter, spare SATA cables for working with other drives, temperature probes for the GPU and coolant, and the LED strips hidden behind the radiator and its push-pull fans. I also have the bulging rear side panel syndrome atm. But mind you, I'm running a decent, if not slightly excessive number of cables, due to 8+4 pin CPU power etc, 3 drives, 9 fans + pump and an arduino to provide aura sync compatibility for the corsair RGB fans and some individually addressable LED strip in the case, around the IO, and in my keyboard. (DW, its over 10 years old, and the original blue back lighting was useless, so upgrade time!!!)

 

NZXT cases look real slick, I probably would've bought one, if only they were available in NZ, atm theres just an ex-demo s340 compact. The phanteks enthoo evolv is just about the ultimate, but apparently it has very restrictive top and front intakes/exhausts, (according to a JayzTwoCents video about why he hasn't been using a ryzen system.) I also baulked at the price of it.... lol Although today I managed to find a Phanteks Eclipse P400 Tempered glass case on clearance for $80NZ off for my brother's build. I snapped that up for him pretty quick, as he liked everything but the price. It looks like it will have decent cable management etc, with the upside of a huge basement to hide the non-modular PSU mess.

 

I got the ML fans sorted out today, and they are really good. Running silently, just under 1000RPM, they pull a decent amount of air through the top dust filter. Thanks for the recommendation. I have all the fans running off coolant and GPU temperatures now, so that should help avert GPU overheating (it was starting to overheat after I overclocked it with the old fans,) and random fan speed changes.

 

 

The voltage source for the GP-12 is definitely not at fault. As stated above, the fan also displayed the fault when run directly off the PSU. In both tests I was measuring the RPM using a motherboard header, however, my fan splitter powers the fan directly from the 12v PSU line. I also measured the voltage on the exposed metal contacts of the fan connector. Its only steel surfaces that cause the fault, so it won't be a problem on CPU coolers, as they are aluminium/copper which is non-magnetic, and I have never encountered a fan with this issue before, ever.  I'd just like to know if all GP-12s have this fault, as then I know whether to buy another one for the case exhaust or not.

 

Even if the fan is faulty, is not really an issue, as I currently have it installed on my amplifier, where its all plastic and aluminium. Its completely silent, and I had forgotten what its like being able to listen to music without a damn jet engine going to keep the amp from overheating.

[unknownmiscreant]

@thedons1983 I have RMAed the faulty fan, the replacement arrived today and is working fine, however the fan motor is still attracted to steel surfaces.

 

Its a great fan and very quiet for how much air it moves. The numbers on the box also seem to be fairly accurate which is a pleasant surprise. I currently have another one on order.

Thanks for the recommendation