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trents

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Bought three of these for $6 apiece on ebay to push air through my 30 fins per inch water rad. They draw a little over 19W each but my Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme fan controller handles that easily. As you can imagine, these fans produce massive static pressure.

I was really surprised at how far I could throttle these fans down before they stall. Audible but certainly not annoyingly loud. I turn two of them off and throttle the third one way down unless I am stress testing with some linpack-based heater utility. Even video rendering doesn't drive the temps up to need any more fan power than the one throttled- down fan.

These fans have given me lower stress testing temps by 2-3c over the Switech Helix push/pull setup I had been using. Not a huge amount but the main reason I changed the fans was it makes it much easier to blow out the rad with compressed air without fans covering both faces of the radiator. At the same time I also did some other rearranging of water system components in my case to make it easier to get to things.

I see where these Delta fans have gone from $6 to $12 on ebay. Still a bargain. They are a four wire fan but use a 5 pin Dell server fan connector. I had to convert the connector to a three pin plug but with a little solder and heat shrink tubing it was easy to do and I already had the parts to be able to do the conversion DeltaFan.PNG .
 
The original 5 pin connector on the fans looked like this:
5 pin connector.jpeg
I just cut the wires in front of that connector and used only the 12v+ (red wire) and the ground wire (black). The other two wires used for tach and PWM would not be used since fan speed would be controlled by the Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme controller and I had no need to know the RPMs.

Then I took a 3 pin fan wire extension adapter and cut the female end off, leaving me with the male connector on the other end and a 12v+ (red), a ground (black) and the tach wire (yellow). The tach wire was not needed since I am using a fan speed controller. Only 12v+ and ground were needed. The male end would be used to connect to the Sunbeam fan speed controller.

3 pin.PNG

I stripped the insulation back from the red and black wires of both the fan and the 3 pin adapter extension about 3/4".

I then slipped heat sink tubing up over all the wires before twisting the power and ground wires together (red to red and black to black) and soldering the twisted joint.

After soldering the connections I laid the unused tach and PWM wires along side the soldered joint, slipped the shrink tube over all the wires and turned the heat gun on it to finish the job.

I now had the fans adapted to a three pin connector that was needed by the Sunbeam controller, though one of the three pins on the controller bus is a dummy.

When I turn those fans up to full speed she really howls and I feel this strong current of air in my lap coming from under the desktop.

IMG_1416.JPG
 
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Hmmm wonder how these compare to the yate loon highs I'm using in push config...
 
You converted PWM fans to voltage-controlled fans. Have you even tested one of them to see how low you could get them to go on PWM? PWM usually means you can do without a fan controller. People have been known to pay extra for PWM.
 
You converted PWM fans to voltage-controlled fans. Have you even tested one of them to see how low you could get them to go on PWM? PWM usually means you can do without a fan controller. People have been known to pay extra for PWM.

These fans draw too much amperage to plug into most motherboards PWM pin headers which are usually rated for a max of 1 amp. These fans draw 1.6 amps. I very much like the voltage control of the Sunbeam unit I am using. It gives me quiet when I need it and full bore when I need it. All at the turn of a knob. I have found PWM controls to be very difficult to dial in.
 
but you could just plug the PWM and RPM into the MB and power them from the PSU couldn't you?
 
Yeah, but why? The system I have now is simpler, neater and perfectly meets my needs. I already had the Sunbeam fan controller and it was installed. I know PWM is supposed to be able to eliminate the stall speed problem that controlling through voltage can have. But in this case with these fans I can voltage them down to quiet. Now, I have had fans that I could not say that for. And personally, I have found bios PWM controls to require a lot of experimentation to get an acceptable profile.
 
You can create a very simple (and effective) PWM fan controller using the guide on this very forum here. A few of us have built several of them and they are very effective. The 2-98% version is quite crude but works fine; I currently use a five channel 0-100% which can control up to ten fans, two per channel. I load tested it to almost 9 amps with 5x Delta PFC1212DE running at full power. (video here.) You will find that the AFC1212DE (I have a few of them) doesn't run anywhere near the stated 1.6A at full power; from memory I think it's roughly 1A. The current rating is for startup only, and even then it's an absolute max rating which will seldom be reached.

The main advantage of PWM control is that you don't waste any energy or generate any heat because the 12v supply is always at 12v, and the fan draws less current as it slows down. PWM won't make any difference to the inertia of the fan as it's the same motor driving the impeller and the same magnet holding it in place when powered off.

As an aside, I like the AFC1212DE a lot but I prefer Nidec's TA450DC - it's used for the same job as the Delta (Dell/HP server fan) and to my ears it is quieter. It also has a smaller hub, which I like, and it has a lower current rating too. Both fans are rated at 4000rpm but in actuality they max out at around 3800-3900. The thing I like most about the Nidec is the pitch of the impeller blades. They are SO STEEP!

o4gs.jpg

uo8i.jpg

3l6m.jpg

These fans regularly go for two a penny on ebay, and there are a lot of fans of this size/power rating to choose from. NMB-MAT have the 4715KL and Foxconn have the DSPF. I could go on, but I won't!
 
Well, I only paid $6 apiece for mine, brand new. How much are the ones you're recommending?
 
No idea - I always keep an eye out for 120mm server fans going cheap on ebay and recently picked up 5 used NMB fans for around $3 per fan. You did very well to get Deltas new for $6 as these are extremely high quality fans. One of my AFC1212DEs had a bad bearing which I replaced and it's now as good as new. To be honest, even older fans should work like new with a new set of bearings.

On a different note, I just picked up a box of 30 brand new San Ace 120s for less than $2 per fan. I plan to sleeve and heatshrink them, fit a plug, and sell them on. Ebay is a great place for bargains like these!
 
No idea - I always keep an eye out for 120mm server fans going cheap on ebay and recently picked up 5 used NMB fans for around $3 per fan. You did very well to get Deltas new for $6 as these are extremely high quality fans. One of my AFC1212DEs had a bad bearing which I replaced and it's now as good as new. To be honest, even older fans should work like new with a new set of bearings.

On a different note, I just picked up a box of 30 brand new San Ace 120s for less than $2 per fan. I plan to sleeve and heatshrink them, fit a plug, and sell them on. Ebay is a great place for bargains like these!
Did they come with plugs? And what model?
 
Nidec TA450DC: These are only 25mm thick. I'm guessing my AFC1212DE fans make more static pressure.

I should explain that my rad and fans are on top of the computer so I have not space constraints other than clearance to the underside of the desk which even that is not an issue unless I were to add pull fans maybe. I cut the top out of my case to be able to do this, that is, to be able to provide egress for the hoses to the inside of the case.
 
@trents, the TA450DC comes in different flavours; the ones I have are 38mm just like the Deltas and have pretty much the exact same spec, including static pressure, in the region of 100 Pa. Both the Nidec and Delta come in 25mm and 38mm variants.

@ehume, the San Ace model is 9S1212M4011, rated at 1850rpm and 130mA. Bare wire leads, and I'm going to be sleeving, heatshrinking and "plugging" all of them for resale! I'll probably keep five of them though, maybe more depending if I like them enough to use them!
 
@ehume, the San Ace model is 9S1212M4011, rated at 1850rpm and 130mA. Bare wire leads, and I'm going to be sleeving, heatshrinking and "plugging" all of them for resale! I'll probably keep five of them though, maybe more depending if I like them enough to use them!

Ooh! You beat me. I thought I was getting a deal a few years back when I got 8 for $100 + tax + shipping. I have used them for a variety of purposes. Great fans. If you are set up to crimp terminals and put on plugs, it's easy. Thirty for $2 each. They are in current production. You'll love the sound they make, and love more the sound they don't make.

Review pages here, and here.
 
Yeah I got them in the mail today and set one up as soon as I got home. Very nice fans indeed, and a pleasing sound even at full speed. They are faster than Gentle Typhoons (AP15) because they actually achieve their rated speed of 1850rpm whereas the Gentle Typhoons plateau at about 1750rpm with 12v (well, mine do!). I'm planning to control the speed with a DIY 5-11v controller. I tested briefly at various speeds and I find the fans almost inaudible at about 1100rpm with 6v and still very quiet even at 1200rpm with 7v.

It strikes me as strange that these fans should be so cheap, but the seller must have a lot of unwanted stock as he still has several hundred of them in boxes of 30 and they are priced at £39 inc. shipping per box, which is about $55. The code on the fan label says TP 051121P, so they have a manufacture date of 2011 (also says this on the box label) and they are definitely new. Bargain or what?! :D
 
Yeah I got them in the mail today and set one up as soon as I got home. Very nice fans indeed, and a pleasing sound even at full speed. They are faster than Gentle Typhoons (AP15) because they actually achieve their rated speed of 1850rpm whereas the Gentle Typhoons plateau at about 1750rpm with 12v (well, mine do!). I'm planning to control the speed with a DIY 5-11v controller. I tested briefly at various speeds and I find the fans almost inaudible at about 1100rpm with 6v and still very quiet even at 1200rpm with 7v.

It strikes me as strange that these fans should be so cheap, but the seller must have a lot of unwanted stock as he still has several hundred of them in boxes of 30 and they are priced at £39 inc. shipping per box, which is about $55. The code on the fan label says TP 051121P, so they have a manufacture date of 2011 (also says this on the box label) and they are definitely new. Bargain or what?! :D
Major bargain. But I run mine as PWM -- no fan controller needed. Try that. Once you've had PWM you won't go back to voltage.
 
Not true for me. I've used lots of fans with PWM but in some situations I prefer to use a controller.
 
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