A really really really big fan.

Flareon

Flareon

Flareon

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Location
High Wycombe, UK
I have a watercooled rig. The radiator in the loop can only be described as "Ford Orion".
Just to settle any uncertainties there, it's a car radiator from a Ford Orion car, and it sits on my desk.

Anyway, the problem is that although it's extremely good at dissipating heat, it can't quite cope with the OCd 8800GTX and the E6600 @ 3ghz. On hot days I have a small desk fan pointed at it.

Basically I want to find a big fan that I can bolt to the front of it. the fan blades should be up to a diameter of 12 inches and the chassis shouldn't be much bigger.
This thing has to be QUIET! The whole idea is almost pointless if it isn't quiet. Bearing in mind this rig runs passively with the CPU/GPU at around 55C under full load, I need very little more than a light draft to be created.

The obvious choice is a car radiator fan (haha), but afaik they're quite noisy and I don't know how well one would work if undervolted.
I have no reservations regarding input voltage, that's easy to manipulate.

Cheers!
 
how about making a large shroud that seals a couple of large silent case fans to the rad? cfm will be low but you will get an even flow of air over all the fins of the rad so it should perform way better than it would when passivly cooling yet stay very quiet.
 
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Akasa 9" fans - Interesting, might opt for these in the lack of a better idea, thanks!

Shroud with case fans - The smaller the fan, the faster it must spin to provide any sensible amount of airflow, and the most noise comes from the bearings. A silent casefan designed to go inside a PC case gets a lot louder when you put it outside :)
I could make a shroud, but I don't have the materials or tools, and this is something in my living room. Right now it's black and manufactured so it doesn't look too bad, but I wouldn't be convinced if I started manufacturing extra bits.
Also, the radiator is against the wall for lack of a better place, so any air hitting it has to be able to bounce back off rather than pass through.
 
Bearing noise is an issue on large or old fans, free air or not most quality modern case fans are very silent when undervolted, whether they will provide sufficient airflow is the only question, probably not.

I must say that large Akasa fan does look promising, 95cfm at just 23dB is pretty dandy.

btw I liked the way you said a car radiator doesn't look too bad in your living room! I would never get away with that :D
 
Ask on the car side of this Forum. I know that aftermarket fans were available for my MR2 Turbo (to be fitted to the underside of the engine bay to dissipate more heat) but I have no idea how quiet they'll be.

Also, companies specialising in natural ventilation systems will definitely have low speed fans, but they may be encased.
 
Gepetto said:
Ask on the car side of this Forum. I know that aftermarket fans were available for my MR2 Turbo (to be fitted to the underside of the engine bay to dissipate more heat) but I have no idea how quiet they'll be.
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They'll be very expensive though I can imagine.

I think the 220mm fan listed earlier is the best idea.
 
Yeah, The aftermarket fans used on MR2 turbos etc.. are manufactured by companies like spal and kenlowe, basically there very high cfm high quality slimline replacement fans. The motors used are ridiculously powerful! I have twin 13" spal's on my motor and I had to rewire the old fan switch circuitry because each fan was capable of drawing 17A at 12v, two of them would have pretty much fried the standard fan switch relay. Pretty insanely loud to when both are at full chat, well they do kick out over 3500CFM combined!!:D

No, I really dont recommend using aftermarket car radiator fans.
 
Hesky82 said:
Yeah, The aftermarket fans used on MR2 turbos etc.. are manufactured by companies like spal and kenlowe, basically there very high cfm high quality slimline replacement fans. The motors used are ridiculously powerful! I have twin 13" spal's on my motor and I had to rewire the old fan switch circuitry because each fan was capable of drawing 17A at 12v, two of them would have pretty much fried the standard fan switch relay. Pretty insanely loud to when both are at full chat, well they do kick out over 3500CFM combined!!:D

No, I really dont recommend using aftermarket car radiator fans.
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Yup thats what I thought :p

Think I'll go for a couple of 220mm Akasas hooked up to a pot. Gonna wait till Age of Conan arrives at the end of the week though as I may end up chucking out my core system...
 
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