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Quiet water cooling question

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azhari

azhari

Member
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Joined
Aug 12, 2001
Location
Texas
Just got my Dangerden maze2 block and Eheim 1250 pump. Also got a SuperCube radiator. What I need next are the fans for cooling the radiator. Obviously 120mm fans are the way to go, but what I need to know is what type to get. I'm switching to water cooling to get rid of the noise, but at the same time I do want lower temps than with my air cooling (in my sig).

Also, is there a special way to mount the fans to reduce the noise from them? For example, should I use the silicone trick with a shroud, or just mount it on directly? Should I use 2 lower cfm fans, one on each end of the radiator, or go with one heavy duty one?

What would you cooling gurus do if you were starting from scratch with what I have here?
 
I'd use a pair of Panaflo L1A's (68 cfm, good 'n quiet). Sunon and Sanyo-Denki make some nice and quiet models too.

The push pull arrangement is a good idea too, as Hoot has proven on his rig, the two fans work together to keep good airflow without much noise.

And finally, being that the fans were still mounted to metal (which in turn is bolted to the case) I'd think the silicone trick would help keep down the 'vibes'.

Nice sounding setup really, have fun man!:beer:

*edit* if all else fails, you could add a rheostat to them to tune in the quiet cooling!
 
ok i did the push pull thing also. works well i must say. but is kinda loud. im gonna do a 7v mod on mine. ive been told i wont loose no performance just noise.useing 2 fans of course.

im using sunans 120mm and for the silicone i went for good ole wether striping. like 1/4 "x 3/4" is sticky on one side and works well with no mess. good luck man and you are just gonna be so happy once u added the h20!
 
I think if you have less than 1 cm distance from the radiator to the fan mount, make a shroud. I've read that they drastically reduce nosie and give higher airflow. Get some grommets for the fans too if you can find them. Panaflos are very quiet, and even better when you decrease their voltage. You can make them darn near silent at 7V or less.
 
Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I'll be ordering some Panaflos with some rheostats.

Can't wait to get rid of this noise in my room :)
 
What's this about the push pull??

my heatercore is just big enough for me to mount my 2 92mm panaflo's on one side.

is that the best way to do it?? the heatercore won't be in my case if that makes a difference.

if they practically cover the whole area of the heatercore should I bother with the shoud??

i want the setup to be quiet too.
thanks
 
I would imagine you would get more surface of the rad being cooled if you didn't have it butted right up to the core. I believe I would put a centimeter or two distance between the two with a bit of duct work.
 
Shrouds increase the area being cooled by decreasing the dead airspace in the radiator, and lessen the turbulence caused by the fan blades. Having them spaced from the fins of the radiator decreases the noise significantly.

Push pull with one fan on each side is the best way. An example is one train on each end of a bunch of cars. It's better than one in the front. Also, having fans stacked doesn't helps too much for total airflow because the fans are too close to ease the backpressure much. It's better to have one on either side of the radiator.
 
Don't they usually have a few locamotives in the front and maybe one in the back? I would think that it would be better to put two in the back, side by side, creating the most tubulance of the air. This would work the fans to there full potential. One in the front and one in the back would just lower the amp draw on them.
I would like to see someone use two 110vac fans in both ways and measure the amp draw. The more amps, the harder they are working, and the more air they are moving.
Personally I would still put one in the front, and one in the back with the 7 volt mod just to keep em quiet.
 
I'm gonna but them side by side blowing with an inch clearance and a shroud.
I think that'll be good for me.

oh yeah, and the 7v mod.
 
Skip the 7volt mod and go for the gusto!

I swear by my LM350 based voltage regulator. If you find that you can adequately cool at a votage that is less than the fan's startup voltage, you can use the setup I linked to to start the fans then turn them down. You can also put a switch into the system so you cna leave the pot at a position and leave it there.
 
if I was going for the gusto (I think buffering the output for a fan is really overkill) I'd probably add a transistor and another cap and another resistor and call it a cap-fan-controller. The cap would store enough power to 'start' the fan regardless of the speed setting. (in the old days attic fans (large/slow/quiet) would always have a huge cap attached to the motor to help it get going.
wj
 
I did the wiring this way:

I removed both black cables from both sides... I removed the inside pins...

On the male side I wired the red next to the yellow as the ground to the fans and the yellow as the positive...

on the female side I just removed the inside pins...
 
Should work. Can you post a pic? Just make the yellow connect to yellow and the black connect to red. The red being on the power wire end, not the fan wire end.
 
Another approach might be using a mini fridge to cool water. To make it look neat you could get let's say a small desktop case and attach it to the top of the fridge, or something, as long as you get fridge that can handle the cooling.
 
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