Need new case fans?

simbady

simbady

simbady

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Hi just recently brought a Antec P182 which comes with 3 120mm Antec Tricool fans. Compared to cheap fans i have used in the past these rule but what are these like compared to high quailty fans like Yate Loons, Noctua and Sythes? The tricools are almost silent when on low but get really noisy on a high setting.

Low setting 870RPM 19 dBA@1m
Med setting 1430RPM 27 dBA@1m
High setting 1930RPM 36 dBA@1m
 
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The Yate Loons, even the so called quiet ones, really need volt modding or stuck on a fan controller as they are quite loud at full speed. I have no experience of the other two. I found the Tri-cool's to be noisy on anything but the lowest setting too.
 
I've had the Tri Cool fans and the Noctuas and the difference, to my ears, is astounding. Well worth the extra money in my opinion.
 
If you want a basic no frills one then the Akasa FC-06 is hard to beat on price at £9.19. It only controls 3 fans though. The Zalman ZM-MFC1 does 6 fans and is £19.54. If you want a all singing and dancing jobbie that shows temps and real-time power consumption as well as controlling 5 fans then the Zalman ZM-MFC2 is superb. OCUK wants a stupidly high £40 for it though so shop around if you want one.
 
Do any of the above fan controllers do auto-adjustment of fan speeds?

I want to add another fan to my case, but i don't have another 3pin header on my mb and like the fan throttling on my fans as it keeps it really quiet.
 
pastymuncher said:
If you want a basic no frills one then the Akasa FC-06 is hard to beat on price at £9.19. It only controls 3 fans though. The Zalman ZM-MFC1 does 6 fans and is £19.54. If you want a all singing and dancing jobbie that shows temps and real-time power consumption as well as controlling 5 fans then the Zalman ZM-MFC2 is superb. OCUK wants a stupidly high £40 for it though so shop around if you want one.
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Cheers for that think i will go for the Zalman ZM-MFC1
 
I ditched the Tricools on my P180 for Xilence Red Wings (44cfm/20.5dBA).
Whilst that's half way between the Tricools Low and Mid settings, the noise is 1/4 of the Tricool (remember dB is logarhythmic), however with 1 in the lower chamber, 1 front intake in the upper and both exhausts on the back I am getting good cooling without the noise.

I've recently bought 2x Noctua NF-S12 1200 for my HTPC which is 48cfm/17dBA.... 10% increase in throughput over the Xilences and half the noise again, I got these rather that the Noctua NF-P12 Vortex Control - 54cfm/19.8dBA. A shade quieter than the Xilence, but 25% more throughput..... I was happy with the cooling effort of the Xilence, so the 10% increase for half the noise was better for me than the near 25% increase in throughput for the same noise of the vortex control..... less noise is better for me as it's a HTPC. They are slightly more expensive - I think I paid about £12 each for the Nocs, but they are well worth it.

Not tried the Scythe's or Yate Loons, but I'll be looked at them come watercooling build time.
 
I just bought an Antec 900 and a ZM-MFC1. Then realised i had no 4 pin molex to 3 pin adapter cables meaning i couldn't actually regulate them with my fan controller. I have now ordered some adapter cables and until they arrive i am using some spare Akasa blue LED fans which i can regulate using the fan controller.

The akasa fans im using aren't as powerful as the TriCools even at full rpm but still shift over 55cfm (which is reasonable), have more powerful LEDs so make the case even brighter and more importantly even at full speed are quieter.

Basically my point is, if you're going to regulate your TriCools with a fan controller make sure you have the necessary cable adapters else have a backup. :)
 
pastymuncher said:
If you want a basic no frills one then the Akasa FC-06 is hard to beat on price at £9.19. It only controls 3 fans though. The Zalman ZM-MFC1 does 6 fans and is £19.54. If you want a all singing and dancing jobbie that shows temps and real-time power consumption as well as controlling 5 fans then the Zalman ZM-MFC2 is superb. OCUK wants a stupidly high £40 for it though so shop around if you want one.
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How do these fan controllers monitor fan speed against temperature? I ask as my Abit QuadGT has a problem in the BIOS where it won't lower the CPU fan from 2000RPM, I can't update he BIOS as if I do I get freezes using a 3870X2. I have three Sharkoon 120CM "Golf Ball" 2000's so they can ger pretty noisy at times...

If these controllers monitor core/cpu/sys temperatures I can turn off the BIOS fan monitoring and using the controller's, which would be pretty awesome for me :)
 
KillerDr3w said:
How do these fan controllers monitor fan speed against temperature? I ask as my Abit QuadGT has a problem in the BIOS where it won't lower the CPU fan from 2000RPM, I can't update he BIOS as if I do I get freezes using a 3870X2. I have three Sharkoon 120CM "Golf Ball" 2000's so they can ger pretty noisy at times...

If these controllers monitor core/cpu/sys temperatures I can turn off the BIOS fan monitoring and using the controller's, which would be pretty awesome for me :)
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It does'nt link them if that's what you were thinking. It comes with four temp probes that you fix in locations that you want to keep an eye on temps. Mine for instance have one on each hdd, one on the gpu vrm cooler and one on the motherboards mosfet cooler. They are long so you can stick them more or less anywhere.
 
I sold all the 120mm Antec Tri-Cool fans that came with a bunch of Antec 300 Chassis I purchased and replaced them all with 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagles 1000's, very nice and they come in either white golfball or Blue LED Golfball, approx £7.00 each.

Like the look of the Noctua fans but never managed to convince myself they were worth double the price of the sharkoons, I'm sure the Noctua's are good though! :cool:

I'd love to source a nice 3-pin 120mm 1000rpm-1200rpm fan that costs £5.00 or less, I'm sure they are out there but never found anything better than the Sharkoons for the money yet! :o
 
Looking at the spec for Sharkoons and Noctua's the noctuas do push more air and give out less noise but it is close.
 
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