Newbie: silent fans

Associate
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Hi guys.

Still a bit of a newbie when it comes to pc components even after building my last two rigs. however my last build doesn't run as quiet as I thought it would. It's running with the cosair liquid cooled CPU block (100i) or something I believe. And standard fans.

However even before I get Into gaming it's quite noisy and I'm looking to quieten it down. And I'm looking for recommendations for cheapest way to do it and I'm guessing replacing the 3 stock 120 fans on water block and front 140mm fan would greatly reduce the running noise?

So recommend away my knowledgeable friends and thank you ..
 
Soldato
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No fan is quiet if run at high speed and many AIOs use high speed fans not comparable to fans commonly used by quality heatpipe coolers.
(radiator use with lots of obstruction to airflow needs pressure, something higher fan speed gives)
And for same speed control setting from motherboard or fan controller high speed fans run at higher speed than low speed fans.
Even minimum speed might be too high to be really quiet.
And Corsair H100i seems to have very high speed 2700RPM fans.
So simply controlling fans might not be enough.

But if starting from cheapest ways trying to control speed of existing fans is first thing to try.
Though unless you have case capable to muffling noise of components instead of leaking all noise directly out that might not be enough.

Anyway what components you have currently?
Though at least all above low end motherboards should nowadays have some kind fan controls.
 
Soldato
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Corsair MLs are very quiet even at higher speeds, I've got two on my front radiator and another one on the case at the back and I don't hear them unless I ramp them up.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2011
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8,632
Hi guys.

Still a bit of a newbie when it comes to pc components even after building my last two rigs. however my last build doesn't run as quiet as I thought it would. It's running with the cosair liquid cooled CPU block (100i) or something I believe. And standard fans.

However even before I get Into gaming it's quite noisy and I'm looking to quieten it down. And I'm looking for recommendations for cheapest way to do it and I'm guessing replacing the 3 stock 120 fans on water block and front 140mm fan would greatly reduce the running noise?

So recommend away my knowledgeable friends and thank you ..
Cheapest way is to get a good air cooler and maybe use your CLC fans at lower speed as case intake fans.
OcUK has Phanteks PH_TC14PE on special for £49.99 .. one of the best coolers out there. for about 66% what other cost.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-ph-tc14pe-cpu-cooler-black-hs-009-pt.html

Is this your sig rig? If not tell us what you have so we can determine what will fit.
 
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Corsair MLs are very quiet even at higher speeds, I've got two on my front radiator and another one on the case at the back and I don't hear them unless I ramp them up.

I don't know what you consider a higher speed. The ML's are very good, I've got 9 on my system on my rads on an open chassis (Core P3), but I can certainly hear them clearly if above about 1200rpm (although at the same speed they may be less noisy than some other fans). I keep them at just under 1000rpm for virtually silent operation.
 
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Soldato
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The older H100i had SP120 fans which are noisy at any speed really. Make a racket near full speed of over 2000RPM.

the more recent H100i has ML fans I think which are better. MLs are black with transparent white blades. SP120s have grey blades.
 
Associate
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Another vote for corsair ML fans, got 10 running in my rig all nicely PWM temperature controlled. With an RPM range between 400 - 2000 RPM you can choose the noise to performance ratio you want, and with no hub motor noise due to frictionless mag lev they are very very quiet at low RPM's.
 
Soldato
Joined
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8,632
I know Barron 2110 is asking about 120mm fans but while I've heard good things about ML120, the ML140 are not as well liked.
 
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