new build SO loud! fan controller suggestions please

panyan · 10 Apr 2011 at 17:26

right then, i am curently typing this from my newly completed machine ive just finished building today

ive got fans:

2x on the noctua d-14
2x antec tri-cool
3*120mm thermalright TR-FDB-12-2000

the machine literally sounds like a hoover!

i i'd like a cheap (no mre than £20) fan controller to go in a 5.35" bay to control the speeds and PLEASE not covered in LED's and preferably black

thanks guys - youve been priceless so far

EDIT: for those of you intersted, the machine is idling at 29 degrees and the temperature today is 21.5 in my room

Nyoron · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:03

The tri-cool fans come with a 3 speed switch iirc, have you tried switching it to low?

Baldbloke · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:15

By default the GD65 sets all fans at 100%. If you browse through the bios you will find an option to control the fans normal operating speed. You can also choose the temperature you want the cpu fan to begin increasing speed.

Using the bios settings, my gd65 is very quiet indeed.

If you can't find the settings I'll have a look and post a menu path.

Edit: There is no real need for a fan controller unless you prefer to use one.

Terminator1612 · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:25

Baldbloke said:
By default the GD65 sets all fans at 100%. If you browse through the bios you will find an option to control the fans normal operating speed. You can also choose the temperature you want the cpu fan to begin increasing speed.

Using the bios settings, my gd65 is very quiet indeed.

If you can't find the settings I'll have a look and post a menu path.

Edit: There is no real need for a fan controller unless you prefer to use one.

I was about to say myself that the motherboard should provide some way to regulate the fan speeds. I use the Q-Fan on my Asus Crosshair IV to lower my Zaward fan speeds by half, and it still stays cool inside the case, but minus the annoyance of full speed fan noise. Makes it much better to work on when it's quiet.

kristmace · 10 Apr 2011 at 22:51

My Asrock mobo came with a tool to adjust fan speeds from within windows. I used this to find out which were the really loud fans, then just turned them down in the BIOS.

Ubergeek · 11 Apr 2011 at 19:38

The more machines I build, the more I tend to think that noise is mostly the result of Sympathetic Resonance. That is, fans vibrating at around the same frequency, each multiplying the noise caused by the others by a factor of N.
The result is that a "quiet" case can become terribly noisy. Likewise, fans that are out of sync with each other can cancel out each other's noise - a recent build into a Zalman Z9 (supposedly a noisy case) was almost inaudible at idle & was still unobtrusive at full stretch, despite having a total of 6 fans running.
The answer, as suggested above, is to reduce the speed of some fans, though you may have to juggle with their relative speeds to find the sweet spot.