Quieting my Sanyo Denkis...

johan851 · Aug 20, 2005

Bearing noise with Sanyo Denkis and some pressure questions

I have a heatercore setup with two Chevette cores in parallel, and 4 Sanyo Denki 120x38mm (the famous ones) doing push/pull on each core. Currently all four are running at 5v, but I'm still getting an annoying growling noise from the bearings on each. It's sort of a low buzz...no problems with airflow (whoosh) noise, but too much bearing noise for me. I'm going for a pretty silent rig, so I was wondering...what can I do to quiet these down? Do I have bad bearings, or do I just need to find a fan with quieter bearings? I know these fans are some of the best quality out there, but I'm wondering if there's something that would work better in my scenario.

I was thinking about using the Yate Loon 120x25mm orange fans, which are supposed to be great for noise, but I don't think they'd provide enough static pressure.

blackhawk397 · Aug 20, 2005

Go With Delta!!!! They have some good fans that are virtually noiseless, and are very powerful.

Cap'n Pedro · Aug 20, 2005

Have you tried oiling them?

johan851 · Aug 20, 2005

I tried using some lightweight oil on one...didn't seem to do much. Would using softer mountings help? I already have rubber grommets on one side, but maybe I should use some on the other side of the bolt?

Vulcan · Aug 20, 2005

johan851 said:
I have a heatercore setup with two Chevette cores in parallel, and 4 Sanyo Denki 120x38mm (the famous ones) doing push/pull on each core. Currently all four are running at 5v, but I'm still getting an annoying growling noise from the bearings on each. It's sort of a low buzz...no problems with airflow (whoosh) noise, but too much bearing noise for me. I'm going for a pretty silent rig, so I was wondering...what can I do to quiet these down? Do I have bad bearings, or do I just need to find a fan with quieter bearings? I know these fans are some of the best quality out there, but I'm wondering if there's something that would work better in my scenario.

I was thinking about using the Yate Loon 120x25mm orange fans, which are supposed to be great for noise, but I don't think they'd provide enough static pressure.

Isolating the fans will certinly help, but if you are going for a truely quiet rig I think the right direction would be using Yate Loon D12SL-12 or D12SM-12 fans like you were thinking. I don't see static pressure being a problem considering you are using a push/pull configuration.

I'm not sure why your fans have so much bear noise. It is certinly present in the ones I have but once you move a foot and half away I no longer hear it at all.

Vulcan · Aug 20, 2005

blackhawk397 said:
Go With Delta!!!! They have some good fans that are virtually noiseless, and are very powerful.

Delta fans are usualy not considered 'quiet' fans. Anyway, its bad to generalize about a certain manufacturer, how quiet a fan is very much depends on its design, speed, size, etc.

The key here is that 'quiet' is a relative term, what one person considers to be a quiet fan another person might consider to be a loud fan.

sunrunner20 · Aug 20, 2005

My Sanyo's are dead silent. Well, I can't hear them over my Northbridge HSF anyway... :bang head

However, I don't rember any beraing noise when I was testing them for science fair this Christmas.

Vulcan · Aug 20, 2005

sunrunner20 said:
My Sanyo's are dead silent. Well, I can't hear them over my Northbridge HSF anyway...
However, I don't rember any beraing noise when I was testing them for science fair this Christmas.

You have to undervolt them to around 7V to hear it, and even then you have to be within a foot or so to hear it.

johan851 · Aug 20, 2005

You have to undervolt them to around 7V to hear it, and even then you have to be within a foot or so to hear it.

It could have been partly because the lid was off of the box, making it echo a little more. I'll test a little more with each individual fan in an hour or so.

I'm trying to dig up static pressure specs on the Yate Loons, but I can't find anything...truly quiet would be wonderful if I can achieve it. I've already got all quiet case fans and a Seasonic 600w...I would hate to put all of that other effort to waste.

sunrunner20 · Aug 21, 2005

Vulcan said:
You have to undervolt them to around 7V to hear it, and even then you have to be within a foot or so to hear it.

I tested them down to 3.3 volts. And I have mine running at 6v right now, and 5v when its not summer.

Vulcan · Aug 21, 2005

sunrunner20 said:
I tested them down to 3.3 volts. And I have mine running at 6v right now, and 5v when its not summer.

Get closer then. You will definatly hear it if you get close enough.

johan851 · Aug 21, 2005

Does anyone else know if the Yate Loons would provide enough pressure?

voigts · Aug 21, 2005

I ran into this with Delta WFB1212m 120x38 mm fans. When I undervolted them, they made a very annoying bearing clicking noise. I switched to WFB1212 120x25mm fans and find them to be very quiet down to 5 volts without any noticeable bearing noise. Before I went to a car rad, I had a BIXIII with six of the WFB1212 fans at about 5 volts and they were very quiet.

I don't know the specs on the yate loons, but you should be fine as long as you are running push/pull.

Sneaky · Aug 21, 2005

what fan controller do you have? if its a PWM controller, then thats probably part of your problem, as a PWM controller pulses 12v at different rates to produce a lower voltage of sorts, but there are a few controllers that truly regulate the voltage instead of pulsing it (one being the sunbeam rheobus), which seems to make most fans quieter when undervolted when compared to my old vantec nexus which is a PWM controller

edit: but otherwise, for some nice 120mm fans that provide good static pressure, but are also quite quiet (at 12v), look at some delta WFB1212M's they're 120x120x25mm 78 CFM @ 35dba, or theres the WFB1212ME's which are 120x120x38mm 96 CFM @ 39dba

i personally use 6 WFB1212ME's on my thermochill 120.3 & 2 WFB1212M's as case fans in my crazy huge U2-UFO case :attn:

johan851 · Aug 21, 2005

I actually do have the Sunbeam rheobus, but right now I'm running the Sanyo Denkis straight from the 5v line - no controllers or anything. I don't plan on turning them up, so 5v is where they stay.

Here's the Yate Loons: http://www.case-mod.com/store/120mm....html?osCsid=22c4c26148533db07cce71e286574745

Specs:
1350 RPM @ 12V, 47 CFM, 28dB - Part Number: D12SL-12

They're a 7-blade design, so they should have decent pressure for their class. From what I can gather at SPCR, these are "the" quietest/best 120mm fans on the market.

I've isolated the Sanyo Denkis on both sides with rubber washers, and they're a little quieter - mostly air noise. In other news, my pump (Mag 3) just bit the dust after 2-2.5 years or so, and it's time for a replacement. The screw casings broke loose from the housing, and if I goop it I'll just sit around and worry. An MCP655 is going to cost me about $90 from Swiftnets, but at least I'll have quiet and a little less heat dump. :-/

A bit of a bummer, though.

Here's a preview of my setup...I plan to submit a "how to build a radbox" for the frontpage in a little bit.

JasonDTM · Aug 22, 2005

My denki's at 12v have a low, but bearable hum, way better than my 92mm Tornado that I used in the Socket A days. :/

johan851 · Aug 28, 2005

Well, it looks like I'm only happy with the noise level of these I have them at 3.3-4v or so. I guess that's not bad, but that's 30-35CFM at best. At this point would I be better off just using the Yate Loons, or would the lower pressure give me even worse airflow at the same noise level?

SewerBeing · Aug 28, 2005

johan851 said:
Well, it looks like I'm only happy with the noise level of these I have them at 3.3-4v or so. I guess that's not bad, but that's 30-35CFM at best. At this point would I be better off just using the Yate Loons, or would the lower pressure give me even worse airflow at the same noise level?

from your picture that looks like two chevette heatercores in there. Those are pretty restrictive to airflow so they need some pressure. also may I ask why you have the fans mounted away from the radiator like that without a shroud or anything?

kswaid · Aug 28, 2005

I like that radbox. I built something similar but instead of all self contained I did something different. I put two heatercores on the sides of the box and sat my computer on top with 3 Sanyo Denki's pulling through the bottom of the case. Pulls plenty of air through the heater cores and as an added bonus gives me great case airflow. (The air is not warmed much passing through the HC's) If you want, I could send a few pics for your article to use as an example of alternate designs.

johan851 · Aug 28, 2005

from your picture that looks like two chevette heatercores in there. Those are pretty restrictive to airflow so they need some pressure. also may I ask why you have the fans mounted away from the radiator like that without a shroud or anything?

Yes, they are Chevette cores. That's probably why I'm asking so much about pressure.

If you can see, there are two sets of fans. The fans that are shrouded are sucking air out of the cores, and the fans without shrouds are blowing air in. Since the box is virtually airtight (and I was out of shrouds...plus measuring and mounting would be a pain with them in) I went without.

I like that radbox. I built something similar but instead of all self contained I did something different. I put two heatercores on the sides of the box and sat my computer on top with 3 Sanyo Denki's pulling through the bottom of the case. Pulls plenty of air through the heater cores and as an added bonus gives me great case airflow. (The air is not warmed much passing through the HC's) If you want, I could send a few pics for your article to use as an example of alternate designs.

Please do. That method makes a pretty clean setup. In retrospect, that would have been a smart thing for me to do. However, I didn't want to hack up my case too much...I was hoping for it to be usable afterwards.

Quieting my Sanyo Denkis...

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