How loud is the Tornado?

[PhobMX]

tornado's do definately pound out the cfm's better than any fan of it's size in cfm's, but the noise is starting to get to me, I am a loud fan lover but I just cannot handle the loudness of it anymore, I recently bought and modded a new case for my system, and to show it to people I had to build a shelf for it. Now the system is at ear level and it just drove me insane, I pulled the tornado out and replaced it with a 40cfm ys-tech 80mm fan to hold me over till monday so I can buy a rheobus to quiet the tornado when I don't need extreme cooling.

rheobus??

wtf is that?
how is it used??
where to get it??

 

[12am]

the simple way to think of a rheobus/rheostat is like this.

You ever seen the light switches that can dim the lights with a knob? that is a kind of rheostat, it cuts the voltage down a little when you turn the knob down, you use it for cranking the fan upto full speed when you need the cooling or you turn the dial down to reduce rpm's and noise when you don't need extreme cooling, you can make your own with parts from a hardware store or you can head on over to frozencpu.com's fan control section and they have a few models to choose from there, also the fan on the new Volcano 9 has a rheostat on it, I went out and purchased the volcano9 today so I could strip the fan from it and use it on my SLK-800, at Full tilt the fan puts out 75cfm@48db@4800rpm without an annoying whine, then you can tone the fan down from 4800rpm down to 1500rpm and it is absolutely silent! great idea if you ask me!

 

[TheDS]

The Tornado is LLOOOUUUDDD!!

And I got two of em!

Put that 80mm, 84 cfm monster on top of a SLK-800, and LOOKOUT! I'm getting temps around 26 degrees!! That's with dual XP1900's.

Having the cover on the case reduces the noise some. Putting it in an enclosure reduces it more, but be sure the front and back of the case have plenty of room to draw cool air from and blow hot air out. I am considering putting some thin foam inside the case to see if I can get it a little quieter.

As long as the door to the room is shut, you can't hear it elsewhere in the house. Open that door, and you can hear it anywhere, so long as the central air conditioning isn't running. But leaving the door shut makes the room get toasty. Great for winter, but this is summer!

If anyone is wondering, you can fit not only the SLK-800, but also 80mm fans on the Iwill MPX2 motherboard, but don't expect there to be much room for much else! The fans are sitting about 2mm apart.

Good luck dude!

 

[AlanSr]

Define loud.....

because after the first day or two your ears adjust to it and its like anything else.

I have the 92mm on my AX-7 and my temps are awesome.

The one good thing about "loud" is that I can hear if one of my fans is not working right, so I can shut my system down right away.

 

[12am]

I used to love loud fans also till I put my newly modded case at ear level and it took a toll on my ears so I went out and put the smartfan2 from the volcano9 on my slk-800 and it offers good cooling with average noise and adequate cooling with perfect silence.

 

[snyper1982]

just wondering, do you think i would get better performance from my mcx-462 with one of those tornados? just wondering.

 

[Illah]

Depends on what you have on the swift right now. If it's below 50 CFM you should see some improvements, not a drastic drop, but maybe 1-3 C. If it's 50 CFM or above it'll hardly make much of a difference, maybe 1 C if it's 50 CFM, if youre on a delta 68 it probably won't do anything or hardly anything at all.

--Illah

 

[AlanSr]

if your pushin 50-68cfm already and you WANT to upgrade I would go to the 92mm with 119CFM.
if you went to 80mm I think you would waste your money.
is there a big difference between 68 and 84CFM??? or even 50 and 84.....I personally don't think so.

 

[OnDborder]

I can tell you from experience that there is not that great of difference between the delta 68cfm and the tornado 84cfm on my ax-7. Maybe 1 or 2 degrees decrease at the most..

 

[TheDS]

Define loud.....

because after the first day or two your ears adjust to it and its like anything else.

Okay, I'll try...

Definitely not as loud as a vacuum cleaner or jet engine.

Louder than a quiet dishwasher, but a little quieter than a loud dishwasher.

Loud enough that I can't hear my ears ringing unless I really concentrate on it.

Loud enough that I can't hear my K6-3 system running.

Not loud enough that I can't hear my monitor click when I change resolutions (via KVM switch).

Louder than the FOP-32 I put on the T-bird system.

Not so loud that it went through the door and bothered me or my mom or dad while we were trying to sleep.

Loud enough that I have to turn the music volume up a little when it's turned on.

You can hear it over the phone.

Not as loud as most central air conditioning units, but as loud or louder than really quiet units. Definitely not as loud as a window-mounted a/c unit.

But I can't give you a quantity like dBa, because I don't have anything to measure it. Some people don't like loud stuff. It's not causing my ears to ring or anything, and it doesn't bother ME that much, but it might bother you. I hope one or two of the examples I've given will be of use to you in making your decision.

 

[12am]

I've found the tornado to be louder than my window a/c unit.

 

[Mekks]

lmfao, i never relized how loud my tornado fans where untill i wint to my cusions house and he turnd his pc on and it didnt make a sound i was like u shure its on? maby its time to water cool

 

[JudgeDredd]

For those that are on the computer a lot, and have their computer on the desk, wouldn't that really affect your hearing? I'm serious, listening to it that much you'd think it'd really damage your ears...

 

[TheDS]

Previously, I slept in a different room than this thing. I built it in MS, but I live in IN, and now that I'm back, I have it in my bedroom (networked with the other 2). I left it on overnight last night because I needed to defrag and virus check it, and it took me a little while to get to sleep. I shoulda turned on some music...

Anyway, I'll eventually have it on other nights (maybe tonight, who knows?) and I can forsee that as long as I'm really tired, it won't bother me, but if I'm not tired (will definitely be off on school nights), then it will definitely keep me awake.

I guess the ship's air conditioning unit, the ballast pumps, harriers taking off, and all those idiots making noise near my rack weren't as loud as this thing... or maybe I'm no longer acclimated to it; it HAS been 1 year (YIPPIEE!!) since I got out....

I'd go out and get drunk celebrating, but I got better things to do with my braincells.

 

[Penguin4x4]

In The Navy! Hehe, My dad and granddad were Navymen, Why not try a 7v TDS?

 

[12am]

For those that are on the computer a lot, and have their computer on the desk, wouldn't that really affect your hearing? I'm serious, listening to it that much you'd think it'd really damage your ears...

It has damaged my hearing, I had my pc in my room and it was never more than 7 feet away from me at all times, I used the tornado for about 3 months until I couldn't take it anymore, now my left ear is all messed up, damn thing was even louder than the 10,000 btu air conditioner I have in my window.

 

[wildfrogman]

well, my delta 68 to me is too much as it is...got spoiled with the silence of my old rig..K6-3+ OC'd to 575 with large socket a heatsink "NO fan" didnt need it and stayed under 40C load~25 30 case, a little ducting and a panaflow as an exhaust under the PS. Heheh that thing was SOOOO quite that the delta 68 sounds like a vacuume cleaner in my room so i think the 80ish cfm fans..if the room your in is small and or computer is close to you..you should really get some ear protection. I found target pratice ear protection works ok the headphone kinds...working on modding one so it really is a set of headphones, getting little speakers and all to fit is a bit hard though.

 

[Drone]

I figured out why they call it the tornado. it sounds like its about to erupt. yuo wont be able to talk to the person next to you or go to sleep when the comp is on. but the there is always ear pluggs.

 

[badvector]

I just put one of these in last night. It will no longer be in there after tonight. Once I get the time, I'll add a pot and try it again. My computer sits about 4 feet from my head and it gave me a headache. It was loud enough that I am yearning to hear the quiet whisper of my Volcano 7+ on high

 

[Tismedt]

The tornado is very loud, louder then the delta. I ran the tornado for about two months and changed back to the delta. Temps did not change a bit. If you put a pot on it for when you are cruising it is a great fan. Crank it up and be warned you will get a slight ringing in your ears after a couple of hours. Its the whine i think.