PC Case Fans

DMBillies

DMBillies

Active member
I'm wanting to blow some fans on the T5's I'm going to be installing over the new 270.

I'm thinking about making a row of 4 x 120mm fans lined up to blow along the T5 bulbs (with maybe two as exhaust fans in the top of the hood). I'm hoping I can make this tank run a lot quieter than the current one and the first step in that is reducing the noise coming off of the fans which was actually louder than any of my pumps or returns.

I'm thinking they'll need to be pretty low RPM (~1000) since I'm willing to sacrifice airflow for a lower noise level (I'm thinking definitely under 20dB each and hopefully moving around 45 CFM...obviously if the dB's can be kept down I'd go for more airflow).

I found these at what I consider a pretty good price but shipping is significant... so if I can find something similar locally I'd prefer that.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999099

If anyone else needs fans, let me know and maybe we can get a little group order together to split shipping (assuming local options are as lacking as I think they are from stopping in at a couple of chain stores).
 
I've used Vantec Stealths and had great results. If you get a variable voltage DC converter, you can dial up or down the flow / noise of the fans. I run my fans at 9v and they are silent. Sometimes in the summer I crank the adapter up to 12v to get more flow/cooling.

I have heard SilenX iXtrema fans are very quiet but I don't have any experience with them.
 
Jack - I already have a variable voltage converter. So, I can easily dial them back, but I want to be certain that I get fans that are built with quiet operation in mind (specifically with good bearings). Where did you get yours?
 
I got mine from fry's electronics. I think newegg sells them too. C_stowers got some for his 120 when he was setting it up. He might chime in on what he thinks of them. I think a setup like you describe (4 blowing in with 2 blowing out) would make for a good setup that would be very quiet.
 
be careful with newegg though....sometimes its not always in the same distribution center...so they'll have to ship some items seperately from the other DCs.......but if you're strictly going with one type of fan...then it should be fine......but different fans on the same order can cause some problems
 
Alright, Brian... being a studio guy, a quiet PC is a must. So in doing a bit of homework, this is what I found to be the best value. :)

Here is a GREAT review for fans, including samples recorded and put on the site (these guys are obsessed :) ).

I went with the OEM version of the Nexus, which is EXTREMELY quiet (I can't hear it under my desk and its not even in the case... its outside of my case blowing in because I have my sides off). The reason I suggest these is that you could get four of them for $26 shipped. And if you'd like to try one out before you buy, I have an extra I could bring to the meeting. :) I doubt you could find a fan this quiet for this price! The Stealths are great, but a little pricey.

Here is where to get them for so cheap. It says $8 each, but you can do a best offer. I offered them $6.50 each for two shipped and they took it! You might be able to ask for $6 for 4 shipped. GREAT deal. I absolutely love these fans and will be ordering more when I do my full hood. :)

If you want to borrow that one, just let me know. It may do magnet stirrer duty eventually, but not for now and you're more than welcome to try it.

Brandon
 
Brandon - Fan review was very helpful. And looking at the ebay site you gave me, even if I buy them at $8 a piece, the free shipping brings these guys in quite a bit under what I can get a similar fan for elsewhere. Newegg wanted $10 for shipping. I can easily eat the $10 when I'm ordering $100, but $10 shipping on $30 worth of parts makes a pretty significant dent in the bottom line.

Shopping online is great, but it seems more recently retailers are nailing you for shipping (and handling?) at a rate that far exceeds the savings you get from not paying taxes and the rate that FedEx or UPS actually charges. It's slightly more convenient in that I don't have to go to a store, but I do have to wait for them, so in my mind that offsets the "value" of that. It is a large pet peeve of mine that companies try to bury their packaging charges as handling fees instead of including it in the price of the item as just one more cost of doing business. It would be like walking into a Target and getting charged a shelf stocking fee for each item you buy...

Once I get these things installed and everything up and running, I have a feeling that the Gen-X PCX40 is going to be the main culprit noise-wise... unless the Dart is worse, but I've heard good things about their noise levels and can't recall hearing it in Angela's set-up.
 
and dont forget...newegg also charges tax for TN since one of their DCs is in memphis....but still heckofalot cheaper than purchasing from one of the big chains out there
 
Glad that was helpful, Brian. :) Those fans are extremely hard to beat. They are quiet and inexpensive! I've had one of mine running since around September with no problems at all.

I always find my stuff at Newegg and then buy it at ZipZoomFly after Newegg started charging tax about 3 or 4 years ago. :D Sometimes even with tax, Newegg will have a cheaper price. Just depends.

Brandon
 
Yeah, I got the Yate-Loon fans you suggested from another E-bay listing (they didn't take any of my offers). I found a place that was relatively cheap on shipping (didn't nail me for adding additional items) and bought 5 of them.

I mounted 3 of them on some acrylic last night and I'll be installing that tonight to blow across the bulbs and surface of the tank (on with lights on and controlled in case temp gets high at night). I'll be installing each of the other two to blow out from behind the stand and hood (always on to help reduce humidity build-up in hood and stand). I also mounted a larger standard house fan over the sump to come on if the temperature gets even higher. I'm hoping that fan will not actually need to come on once the other fans are running. I may buy 2 more of the smaller fans to replace that, but I actually like being able to hear if that fan is running so that I know when the tank temperature is trying to push a bit high.
 
Brian, do you have the genx?

I just had my iwaki go out, and borrowed a friends genx pump. It was like sitting in an airplane. Had to be the loudest pump I've ever heard. I replaced it with a panworld, which is super quiet.
 
Chuck- Yes I have it and I installed it on the new CL. They are a bit loud, but mine has quieted down quite a lot since it has broken in. I do predict, since the new fans are ultra quiet and I've killed a lot of the trickle noise I was getting from my overflows, that it will be the loudest part of the tank (which it probably would be with any pump). I'll also be lining parts of my stand with some foam bed padding (kills noise, keeps any salt spray and dripping hands from getting on various equipment outside of the sump). The pump has a very low tone to it, so I don't find it as annoying as other sources of noise. It also can't really be heard right now over top of the fans I have blowing on the sump and lights... so I wouldn't say it is THAT loud.

I may upgrade in the future, but it has been a solid pump and spending money on a non-essential right now is hard to justify (at least until someone buys these tanks sitting here :) )
 
Very cool, man. Keep us updated on how it goes. :)

How close are you guys to finishing all of the hardware? Can't wait to see this tank!

Brandon
 
Hmmm...

Must mount fan set-up and wire the remaining two. I'm trying to keep my hood so I can get it off easily, which means keeping the number of cords down and making sure I don't run anything through the hood that can't come off with it (pumps). That requires a little more funky than usual electrical set-up in the hood. Frankly though, I'll have to take the hood off to do certain maintenance (I simply cannot reach the bottom of this tank because it has no sand), so I want it to be relatively painless.

Had to return an American DJ strip because one of the outlets wasn't working, so I had to undo almost all of my beautiful wiring... and I'll have to redo it all again in a week or so when I get the strip (looks like NASA under there, I have crap EVERYWHERE). Imagine Brian cursing at his fate... (no offense) but I hope I didn't inherit Angela's luck with this tank. I know I sure didn't inherit magical SPS keeping capability from fishdoc when I got his old tank...

One of my cheapo GFCI's keeps tripping in the middle of the day... I'm guessing when the ACjr. kicks on the last set of lights. I don't think it is a safety issue since I've had this happen a couple of other times with other tanks. Anyway, I'm wanting to wire in a couple of GFCI outlets and/or put in a GFCI breaker which I think will take care of the problem. Unfortunately, I'm not technically qualified to do such things (even though I'm confident I could) so I'll have to talk to our maintenance dude about doing it. Any licensed electricians in the house? Will work for frags?

And speaking of tripping breakers, I need to install battery operated air pumps that come on for a power outage. Which reminds me of another piece of equipment I might need to invest in at some point... a generator. Anyone have advice on buying them? Other (hopefully cheaper) power outage solutions (like interruptible power supplies)?

Thinking about setting up a manifold off of a Mag 5 to feed two phosban reactors (for carbon and whatever else I might deem necessary) and to give me an outlet for pumping water out of the sump for water changes (anyone know of a good quick disconnect that will work under reef conditions?). I'm tired of siphoning and I don't really like having to set a pump up every time I do it. Any other thoughts on good ways to set-up for semi-automated water changes?

I still need to break a lot of my plumbing back apart to fix the ocean's motions. This isn't too bad, but I'll have some water to contend with because of the way I had to run the plumbing. I was smart enough to isolate the tank water from the plumbing underneath, so it will just be maybe a gallon that hangs in the plumbing. If I take it apart smart, little to worry about. That said, everything I've done with this tank has taken 2-3x as long as I thought... so my expectations are slowly changing.

We eventually want to get a cabinet made for next to the tank (for a bigger skimmer and/or the auto top off) and get a rimless cube for the top to replace our nano. We need to figure out good dimensions for getting the equipment in that we want but still keeping it small enough that it isn't totally ridiculous. We'll plumb the nano into the current system and then I'll only have 2 bodies of water in my house to worry about (frag tank and main system) instead of the 4 we had previously.

Once the fans are in, I'll feel like I'm comfortably at that place where I can definitely let things go for a night or two and stop making my fish tank my entire life (you know, only half...) without unnecessarily endangering the life in the tank. I'll be tinkering with this thing endlessly... so I'm not deluded about that.
 
Wow, man. Still got your hands full! :)

As far as the wires in tha hood, what I'm planning on doing (if I ever get my hood built :D ) is wiring things to a "panel" of sorts on the back of the hood. There, I will have 2.1mm Power Connectors that will go to my fans and moonlights if I have them and two IEC inlets (like on your computer) for my lights. This way, everything electrical can be quickly disconnected and reconnected if I need to take my hood all the way off.

Plus, I just like all things electrical and I have these two on hand, so why not? :)

I need to get some of those battery bubblers, too. I've been meaning to since I setup my tank. One day... one day. :)

I'm not 100% sure on the generators as Julie won't let me get one... :lol: but I was looking at an el-cheapo ($125 I think) from Northern Tool Supply.

It seems to me to mainly depend on how much power you need. There's definitely a cross over point at a certain size where a generator becomes cheaper than a UPS, but I think its after they get pretty big.

Thats a really cool idea on the rimless and the side cabinet. Would you be placing the rimless on top of the cabinet?

Oh, and going back to half is always good. I think I linger at 2/3's. :D

And tinkering is 3/4 of reefing and what makes it fun, most of the time.

Brandon
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12639151#post12639151 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
Hmmm...


Thinking about setting up a manifold off of a Mag 5 to feed two phosban reactors (for carbon and whatever else I might deem necessary) and to give me an outlet for pumping water out of the sump for water changes (anyone know of a good quick disconnect that will work under reef conditions?). I'm tired of siphoning and I don't really like having to set a pump up every time I do it. Any other thoughts on good ways to set-up for semi-automated water changes?
Click to expand...

Brian here is a picture of the one I made, it is a little large, but it is in another room from my tank, so it works for me, I can control up to four items and could even expand it. It is not used at all for my water changes only for chiller, phosban, carbon and calcium reactor, using a mag9 for the flow.

P5290011.jpg
[/IMG]

Norman
 
Norm- That's basically what I had in mind except I was thinking one of them could have a quick disconnect, so I just jam my water change hose in there, flip the ball valve, and presto chang-o. Still can siphon crud out of the slow parts of the sump and out from under a few rocks, but it will keep me from having to make 6 trips with a 5 gallon bucket.

Also, please tell me that the other room you have your manifold in is not your bathroom... because my hunch is saying yes :)
 
Yea, it's my "guest" bathroom :) of course I don't have many guests that stay over night:) hmmmm ...been wondering why, I think I've figured it out now ha..ha..

Norman
 
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