How to quiet noisy computer fan?

useless4

I have a datoptic RAID box that utilizes 8 smaller fans (like on the old school chip coolers for k6 or Pentium chips) and some of them are quite noisy at random. Anyone have a good idea how to make them quiet? if i push in the middle on one it quiets down for example but I can't screw it down anymore and another one gets quiet when i thump it.

Esh

Might be time to replace some fans.

zilo

Yup. Dusty bearings get louder and louder until all of a sudden they're silent as the grave. And so is your expensive RAID setup.

Look at the dB rating of replacement fans on NewEgg, quality bearings and motors can be a lot quieter than you'd think (OEM fans are almost always the cheapest crap they can mass-produce).

Foomy

if you can fit larger fans in where the smaller ones were that would also make the whole setup more silent.

generally larger fans are quieter than smaller(for the same cfm) because they can move the same amount of air at slower speeds and slower moving fans make less noise.

so if you can go from 8 small, to say 4 medium or 2 large that would help a lot.

useless4

Looking around it looks like it uses commodity parts in a unique configuration.


Here is exactly what it looks like. I just need to figure out what those wires connect to. Wife wanted to use the movies on the drive so I just skipped a set of slots and moved everything down until I can repair the fans.

What fan brand should I buy? Going to get some tomorrow

Foomy

just measure the size of the fan, and than buy the same size. other than that they look like standard case fans. 80 or 90mm if i had to guess from the scale. those wires will end in a little connecter that plugs into the control board for your raid box, just get fans that use 2 pin connectors. or if you can't find such a beast, than cut the wires and splice on the connectors from the old fans.

Midshipman

Foomy wrote:

just measure the size of the fan, and than buy the same size. other than that they look like standard case fans. 80 or 90mm if i had to guess from the scale. those wires will end in a little connecter that plugs into the control board for your raid box, just get fans that use 2 pin connectors. or if you can't find such a beast, than cut the wires and splice on the connectors from the old fans.

Those are sata power and data connectors right next to those fans. That would make them more like 35mm, maybe 40mm fans at the largest.

Foomy

ah you are right, didn't notice that on first look.

hate fans at that size, usually are noisy buggers and die quicker.

by nas box had one of that size for cooling, barely did it's job so I just dremeled out the back of it's case and slapped a 120mm on it, dropped the avg. hdd temps from 55c to 30c when in use. quieter overall too.

Effef

Those are definitely 35 or 40mm fans, and its hard to find quiet fans in that size. They have to spin really fast to move any air and sound like sirens.

Something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835221004

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119135

would be your best bet depending on what size they actually are.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

you might be able to pop the fans out of the case and clean their moving bits out with compressed air (depends how they are put together.)

but this is a temporary fix; fans eventually go bad

tsmvengy

Yep, fans that small will never be quiet. Depending on the construction of your box you could maybe custom-mod a 120mm fan on one of the sides?

Demerdar

You might want to consider using some rubber washers to mitigate a little bit of the vibration coming from the connection points (a.k.a where the screws are). If the vibration is coming from the fan bearing, then this will not work but it could help.

useless4

Ok, I am the master of ripping this thing apart and putting it back together. On the left are four large case fans and on the right are where the three cages slide in (2x40mm fans on each - the fans that were noisy).

Bought some of these to try out:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0274205

They are threaded stupid. Like factory mistake.
They are setup to mount with the sticker facing up and blowing out just like every other fan HOWEVER the screw holes are backwards, with the recession for the head on the bottom! Had to drill them out real quick. Annoying.

Thanks for all your help.

Effef

Thats a good choice, I was looking for them on newegg but couldn't find them.