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This is what the Laing D4 (DangerDen 12V) Pump sounds like

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Cathar

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2002
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Okay, this is what the pumps sound like. Now I have two pumps here, one is slightly louder than the other one. I used the quieter one for this test. The pumps/fans were sat atop vibration deadening foam in a quiet room. The microphone was positioned 10cm (4") from the thing making the noise.

http://www.employees.org/~slf/pumpfans.wav

Approximate times within the sound clip:

0-7.5s - Laing D4 (DD 12V) Pump at 12V
7.5-15s - Laing D4 (DD 12V) Pump at 16V
15-22.5s - Generic 3000RPM 80mm Axial Case Fan
22.5-30s - YSTech 4500RPM 60mm Axial Fan
30-38s - Papst 612NGML 60mm 2500RPM Axial Fan

Now I don't pretend that I have a noise floor much below 30dBA so you can get a good guage for the relative volumes by listening to the Papst fan (the last sound section) which is noticably audible in a quiet room from 1m (3') away, despite it carrying a 20dBA rating by the manufacturer.
 
Hrm, not THAT loud compared to the fans. The sound of the pitch seems really high and irritating though. And that's the quieter pump!? Do you run the pump in your external box Cathar? How noticeable (from distance) is the pump enclosed? I imagine it stands out because of the shriek :eek:
 
Soja said:
Hrm, not THAT loud compared to the fans. The sound of the pitch seems really high and irritating though. And that's the quieter pump!? Do you run the pump in your external box Cathar? How noticeable (from distance) is the pump enclosed? I imagine it stands out because of the shriek :eek:

That's what I've been saying. The pump is not hellishly loud - but has that annoying whine. That YSTech fan is (freaking) annoying even on a heatsink inside a closed case. I had it installed a while back on a second machine until I got watercooling organised for that machine, and I was extremely glad to be rid of it. Even the generic 80mm case-fan, which I do have running in my case, is the single most annoying piece of fan-based noise that is emitted from my entire setup.

Like I said in the other thread, the D4 is maybe 1/4-1/3 as noisy as the high-speed 60mm fans, but that still makes it quite noticable even when inside a closed metal case.

When inside the closed MDF radiator box it's quiet enough to not be too annoying, but it's still quite noticable. Now annoying is a matter of subjective/personal opinion. I've had people come by and ask me how I stand the noise, when to me it's bearable, and then I've had others who come around and marvel at how quiet my system is (while achieving 2800+MHz overclocks).
 
I can't here anything over my fans (not joking), can't wait to finish my WC setup!!

I have my Mag3 running on the kitchen counter and it's vibrating pretty good, but still sounds much better.
 
What? Not for submerged use? What a scam. I think my sound isn't turned up enough... That was much quieter than my other fans... But, a hum like that from a pump... That's just not right.
 
Thanks for doing all that work Cathar.

I ran that file through frequency analysis software and found these peaks and the SPL* of that frequency:

1) D4 12v: 870.8 Hz @ -73 dBA
2) D4 16v: 2.142 KHz @ -72 dBA
3) 80mm: 312.3 Hz @ -63 dBA
4) YStech: 518.4 Hz @ -63 dBA
5) Pabst: 245.3 Hz @ -75 dBA


The overall SPL* for each part of the file is this:

1) -49 dBA
2) -42 dBA
3) -46 dBA
4) -39 dBA
5) -48 dBA

*These SPL’s are relevant for this sound file only, and should NOT be used to compare against other published ratings.


The SPL levels were not constant; there was a fluctuation of about +/- 2 dBA. I simply randomly sampled each segment of the file to get these readings. The program I used was DesktopRTA (demo version) using the default FFT settings. I used the 1/12 Octave setting, and A-weighting on the dB scale.

Would it be possible to get a recording of a MCP600? I don’t think it would be possible to fairly compare to these recordings unless a) Cathar recorded it with the same setup; or b) the background noise was completely deleted from both files and the levels normalized. But it would still be interesting to hear it and see the frequency analysis for that pump.
 
why not just get an ehiem? It's silent after I did propellor mod. I guess if you need the higher pressures its not an option but I for one would like to thank all who have gone before me, and bothered to take the time to write about it. Dead silent at 3am in my room.
 
BeerHunter said:
why not just get an ehiem?

1) It's AC - I really want a DC pump and eliminate the relay from my system

2) It's very big.

I'm sure other people can think of other reasons, but those are mine.
:)
 
Well, there's raw strength, and there's pump heat, and there's also the DC power. Eheims seems to be really good quality, though. As time goes on, this pump looks worse and worse. If you do the calculations, the flow differences between pumps is really small, and the temperature differences from those is really small, and pump heat constitutes a small amount, due to high performance radiators, and low heat difference. This pump is also expensive, and sucks around 1.5 amps out of your PSU, and whiny to boot.
 
Ya there's plenty of reasons not to like it...but

1. They make DC model.
2. It's bigness helps it's quietness or should I say it's mass does.:)
 
kct2 said:
Thanks for doing all that work Cathar.

I ran that file through frequency analysis software and found these peaks and the SPL* of that frequency:

If you run it through Media Player, and select "Bars->Ocean Mist", I find that gives a really good visualisation of the pitch of the sounds across the spectrum range. It's quite obvious by looking at the output that anything in the left half of the visual output is just really low frequency background ambient noise, but the upper half is where the action is.
 
Yikes.

I couldn't stand having that in my system. One of the reasons I moved to water was for the near-silent, sub 35 dB noise levels. Makes it a lot easier to sleep without being messed up in the morning.

I wonder how Danger Den's sales of these are looking?

Personally, I'm quite partial to using a relay, and wouldn't consider buying this pump with the intention of running it off of my PSU. I don't like the idea of my pump drawing power from my PSU; the relay isn't too big a space waster, and certainly isn't a hassle for me.
 
BeerHunter said:
Ya there's plenty of reasons not to like it...but

1. They make DC model.
2. It's bigness helps it's quietness or should I say it's mass does.:)

I never said I didn't like it - It's definately perfect for certain implementations - just not mine.

- The only DC model I have seen is from Innovatek (here ) and therefore it includes an 8mm output, and it seems to be even bigger than a regular, AC, Eheim pump.

- There are other quiet pumps; it doesn't have to be big to be quiet. You're right, it does help, but not necessary.


Cathar said:


If you run it through Media Player, and select "Bars->Ocean Mist", I find that gives a really good visualisation of the pitch of the sounds across the spectrum range. It's quite obvious by looking at the output that anything in the left half of the visual output is just really low frequency background ambient noise, but the upper half is where the action is.

I found that too -but I liked being able to get actual number out of that other program...

felinusz said:

Personally, I'm quite partial to using a relay, and wouldn't consider buying this pump with the intention of running it off of my PSU. I don't like the idea of my pump drawing power from my PSU; the relay isn't too big a space waster, and certainly isn't a hassle for me.

I just don't like the relay, just something else to fail. Not likely with a solid state relay, but you never know...

With a high quality, high wattage power supply, I wouldn't be too concerned about overloading it with a DC pump. I don't know what the actual startup current is, but I'm willing to bet it isn't enough to cause a problem. Maybe I'm wrong, and DC pumps will cause PS failures due to high startup currents, but I doubt it.
 
Last edited:
kct2 said:


I never said I didn't like it - It's definately perfect for certain implementations - just not mine.

- The only DC model I have seen is from Innovatek (here ) and therefore it includes an 8mm output, and it seems to be even bigger than a regular, AC, Eheim pump.


pretty sure the 8mm output is just a screw in fitting - you can just replace it with a barb of your choice.....
 
anybody kno where i can get an innovatek pump since its sold out at the link provided by kct2
 
o u think that if i were to stick the pump in a wooden box lined with egg carton foam with 2 holes for the hoses that it would cut out a majority of that sound pressure
 
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