3 Silverstone AP121 = hell lot of noise?

[DeathAngelLST]

Did I get to be the lucky one and got some faulty fans, or do they make a lot of noise?

First setup on my haf922 with these was 1 intake to cool the HDDs, 2 exhaust on top. It was a bit noisy despite the intake one being controled by easytune (1k rpm).

The mobo chipset and the cpu were kinda hot idling at 46ºC and 40~42ºC, respectively. So I took one of the exhaust and made it intake; boy, did it make a TON of noise! It's on 7v right now, but still makes some noise.

I'm sitting about half a meter away from the case and can hear them all.

 

[Bobnova]

Just from looking at the specs, those really shouldn't make all that much noise.
It may be that something about that intake specifically is causing noise with that fan.

 

[SolidxSnake]

Are they in open air? Or are they right up against some sort of grille? The latter will cause significant noise (I took the mesh/grille of the side of my case to eliminate air-noise).

 

[DeathAngelLST]

Yea, there are grills... kinda... on the haf922. So using them as intake is a no no. Even at 7V it's very annoying. Guess I'll have to live with it 'cause the HDDs need some fresh air or they idle at 40~46ºC, and summer barely started. They are very quiet as exhaust tho.

 

[SolidxSnake]

Yea, there are grills... kinda... on the haf922. So using them as intake is a no no. Even at 7V it's very annoying. Guess I'll have to live with it 'cause the HDDs need some fresh air or they idle at 40~46ºC, and summer barely started. They are very quiet as exhaust tho.

Time to bust out the dremel!

 

[DeathAngelLST]

Time to bust out the dremel!

If only I had the skills...

There are roughly 3 grills on the haf922: one on the front panel, one that's part of the case and a removeable dust filter.

 

[SolidxSnake]

To be fair though, the grills on the HAF aren't particularly restrictive (thus they shouldn't cause too much excess noise).

If you pull the fans off the case and run them in open air, are they just as loud? I would expect them to be similar.

 

[DeathAngelLST]

If you pull the fans off the case and run them in open air, are they just as loud? I would expect them to be similar.

Didn't think of testing that. But as exhaust they are quiet.

 

[ssjwizard]

Thats weird. I have a pair of AP181s that are whisper quiet.

 

[Bobnova]

Flip it around and use it as an exhaust in the same spot. It still gives the HDDs airflow that way, and that is the important part.

Don't worry about the "hot air rises!" thing, it is absolutely irrelevant in the PC cooling setting, the amount of force put out by the kind of temperature differentials in air cooling are overpowered by even the weakest fan at the lowest RPM.

 

[mjw21a]

Sorry to be off topic DeathAngelLST, but what IS the plane you have as your avatar. Looks to be the amalgamation of the nose off an F/A-18, canards from a Eurofighter, forward swept wings from the experimental MIG 1.44 and tail from the experimental YF-23 although with regular F/A-18 exhaust nozzles....

Am I correct in guessing you took all you fav bits and integrated it into one picture?

 

[Bobnova]

Half X-29 half F18, it's an interesting concept alright.

 

[DeathAngelLST]

Flip it around and use it as an exhaust in the same spot. It still gives the HDDs airflow that way, and that is the important part.

I'll give it a try.

Sorry to be off topic DeathAngelLST, but what IS the plane you have as your avatar. Looks to be the amalgamation of the nose off an F/A-18, canards from a Eurofighter, forward swept wings from the experimental MIG 1.44 and tail from the experimental YF-23 although with regular F/A-18 exhaust nozzles....

Am I correct in guessing you took all you fav bits and integrated it into one picture?

It's the X-02 Wyvern from ace combat 4, 5, zero and X.

 

[DeathAngelLST]

So yeah... these 121s are way too loud, even at 7v. I've heard the scythe that's on my TRUE on 1k rpm and it's quieter than these things at 700~800rpm. It sucks not having any half decent fan reseller here.

 

[notarat]

So yeah... these 121s are way too loud, even at 7v. I've heard the scythe that's on my TRUE on 1k rpm and it's quieter than these things at 700~800rpm. It sucks not having any half decent fan reseller here.

I have a Corsair Obsidian 800D and it comes with a 120mm fan and a couple 140mm fans. I use a Corsair H70 with 2 Corsair fans on the radiator to cool the CPU

These fans were so loud that this computer, sitting in my bedroom 30 feet away from the living room couch, was louder than the Corsair Carbide 400R in my living room that is only 4ft from me.

I replaced all the 120mm fans in the 800D with Akasa Viper fans connected to an Akasa FC.6 Fan Controller. I even added 3 more Viper 120mm fans to the case, exhausting air from the top of the case

Now I can't even hear the 800D computer when I'm in the living room. I can sit next to it and it's still almost quiet enough for use as a HTPC.

I would replace the fans you currently have with either the Cougar CF-V12HP fans or with the Akasa Viper fans. (I use the Cougar fans in my Carbide 400R and they're the best fans I ever bought. The Akasa Vipers come in a very close second.

The Akasa Viper fans are pretty great.

 

[LennyRhys]

Silverstone fans are simply not good when it comes to noise and have a really bad rep for it... not to mention their spec sheets, which are about as solid as the stuff my son fills his nappies with.

Don't worry about the "hot air rises!" thing, it is absolutely irrelevant in the PC cooling setting, the amount of force put out by the kind of temperature differentials in air cooling are overpowered by even the weakest fan at the lowest RPM.

I wouldn't say absolutely irrelevant The way I see it, upward-facing exhaust fans facilitate convection rather than work against it, even though there isn't an awful lot to contend with lol. I'm not really a proponent of case airflow at all - I have two exhaust fans and that's it - but I'll always put exhausts at the top because I've found that that works best. After running Furmark for 10 mins I could scramble an egg on the roof of my case LOL

 

[inVain]

I'd rather Delta WFB1212H than those fancy silverstone

 

[SolidxSnake]

I wouldn't say absolutely irrelevant The way I see it, upward-facing exhaust fans facilitate convection rather than work against it, even though there isn't an awful lot to contend with lol. I'm not really a proponent of case airflow at all - I have two exhaust fans and that's it - but I'll always put exhausts at the top because I've found that that works best. After running Furmark for 10 mins I could scramble an egg on the roof of my case LOL

It's all about experimentation. The best airflow pattern for my setup is having the top, back and front as intake, and the sides as exhaust (bottom-side for radiators). This facilitates cooler case temps as well as cooler WC loop temps.