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Weird fan noise - Thermaltake Smart Fan 2

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microfire

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2001
I have just got a Thermaltake P4 spark 7 and a Volcano 9 that are based on the smart fan 2.
On the box it says "Smart & Silent". Yeah its silent as far as air noise goes at low rpm but the bearing in the fan is anything far from silent. This fan makes a werrrrrr' ing sound thats louder than all the fans in my case put together even at the lowest setting.
I thought that I might of got a dud fan on the spark 7, but when I tryed the Volcano 9 this made this noise too. The spark 7 has a smaller fan but seems to make the loudest werrrrr' ing noise.

All the reviews I read about these heatsink/fans failed to mention this. I did not read anyone pointing this factor out in the forums.

If it weren't for this anouning noise this fan would of been good.

Do ALL Thermaltake smart fan 2's make this weird sound? It sounds like its the bearing making the noise or something.
 
It's probably vibration, my Tt Smartfan2 (the original, 80mm version) suffers from it. For me, the vibration sound is much lower pitch than the high pitched whine of the air moving through the fan. I put some fiber washers (that came with my heatsink) between the fan and the heatsink, and it helped somewhat. For some reason it vibrated much when the case was open. It wasn't just that the case muffled out the sound, either... because I have no sound insulation materials in the case and I could hear the vibration from outside my room with the door closed, standing about 5 feet away from the door. Once I put one side of the case back on (the "back" side of where the components are, I only need to open it for securing the CD and DVD drives), the vibrations are almost all gone. Even when I'm sitting right next to it, I can't hear that annoying sound anymore. It's really odd, and it shouldn't have worked... but that's what worked for me. I suppose you can try seeing if the fan is secured as best as you can, without overtightening the screws, and if that still doesn't work try putting some rubber washers.
 
my smart fan II does the same thing. can you imagine? i have 4 tornados in my case and the sf II has the most irritating sound out of all of them. luckily i have them on a rheo and i can prevent the smart fan from vibrating. i will still have to get down there to dampen the noise and resonating.
 
my replacement smart fan 2 i noticed does the same thing, makes a slight extra noise. My original one didnt have this problem, but i broke it after i stuck my thumb in it while it was on, and snap off a piece.
 
my SF2 is vrey quite when it is running at low speed its only when i turn it up that it starts to whine a bit. but i cant see the point in tuning it up unless im playing games or benchmarking as i have temps of 30C when it is on low with a 16C ambiant.
 
My Smart Fan 2 (used as rear exhasut fan) also makes a very noticeable bearing nosie at low RPM. As I bought this fan to help keep things quiet, it is coming out and a Papst going in.

Will give the Smart Fan to my mate who runs an Orb Dragon 3 over his cpu - he won't even notice the noise of the SF2 at full RPM!
 
i noticed that if that the SFIIs that are held in place by clips (not screws) in my antec case don't make that noise. The one that's on top of the SLK800 does/did make that noise, but using the rubber dampers solved it...
 
JimmyG said:
Hey Slater, is your ambient always 16C. That's cold. What are you a polar bear?


haha lol!
no my ambiant is a little higher than that normaly. depends wether i have the heater on i my room.

:D :) :cool:
 
Hmm, this is not the first time I've heard of people complaining of a wierd noise from the Smart Fan II. I personally have one that I use 24/7 at full RPMS, and it's only noise is the air it's moving.

I have had my fair share of fans that make odd noises though..

I would recommend taking the fan out, and pealing off the sticker in the middle. Place a little bit of machine oil, (the thin, transparent type), on the actual bearing. Fire her back up and see if it doesn't help. If not, then get some rubber washers to go between all the screws in the fan/hs assembly.

If that doesn't help, then it's definitely the way it's moving the air. In some configurations air gets moved across the heatsink, or even other parts of your computer in odd ways, creating noises much like an instrument. There isn't much of a fix for this, other than specifically finding the source of the noise and re-engineering your complete motherboard layout and case. ;)

Good luck!
 
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