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Project Three Mile Island - Revision D2

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Do you use a fan controller? If so which one? Do you (or the fan controller) just under-volt or use PWM? I've got one of the delta WFB1212M's and it whines like a baby using a PWM fan controller. Have you or anyone else found decent CFM fans for rads that can shut up when on a PWM controller? It seems like every fan I've tried makes some kind of noise that happens to be more annoying than the noise at full speed.
...
hmmm...
...
/rant on
Why does every new fan controller use PWM? They say its more efficient but where's the efficiency in spining the fans at lower speeds with more noise... Smack me upside the head and call me Sue but that just seems dumb to me. Yes thats right, anonymous person that makes fan controllers I think you are dumb. Did you bother to turn that damn thing on? Did you evey take those blasted ipod (don't get me going on ipod) ear buds out before running your test suite?!!? BTW running the test then going for lunch doesn't count.
/rant off

ok time to sleep it off..

k.
 
PWM controller = hunk of crap

get a sunbeam rheobus, yes they're under $10, but they used to cost over $20... best controller out, period (not to mention the only one thats not PWM)
 
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Agreed. The WFBs are all I've been using for the past 3 years for all the reasons you listed. They also can take quite a bit of abuse.
And for everyone else: The whole WFB series is comparatively quiet at pretty much any speed due to the sound output being entirely low frequency due to the complete lack of motor noise and the perfectly contoured blades.
 
Dont PWM controllers (like the NXP-201) become more efficient compared to variable resistant controllers (Im assuming that the Sunbeam Rheobus is based on VR circuitry)? As I understand it, PWM controllers send an inconstant flow of energy to the fan or electrical component to reduce the amount of energy being used by the fan. The variable resistance controllers use resistors to regulate the amount of energy coming to the fan/ec constantly. The fact that energy is being burned off by the resistor constantly makes the PWM more efficient, no?
 
Here's a cut-n-paste from a conversation I had with Brad over at Tailored PC. It came up in some conversations over some electronic mods that I didn't feel comfortable doing. Check them out at http://www.tailoredpc.com.


In the case of voltage regulator fan controllers, the pros and cons are:
PROS: Because the torque applied to the fans is steady, the life of the fan is not reduced. There are no noisy side effects, like the groaning. Also, the tachometer signal functions normally, so you can still monitor RPMs or fan failure.

CONS: Because fans have a minimum torque required to spin, you can't get extremely low speeds -- i.e., you need usually about 6V to get the fan going. In addition, since a fan pulls more current at lower voltages and the excess voltage (i.e., the difference between 12V and the voltage going to the fan) has to go somewhere and it is usually dissipated as heat through the voltage regulator (our fan controllers use good heat sinks to help this and allow for more powerful fans to be used).

In the case of PWM fan controllers, the pros and cons are:

PROS: Since the fan always gets 12V to spin, you can run it very slowly by having the pulses between 0V and 12V far apart. Also, the fan always uses constant current depending on the fan's current rating, so the heat dissipation issue is not there although there is still an overall wattage limitation to each channel.

CONS: The switching between 0V and 12V is hard on the fan's coils, so the fan's lifespan can be slightly shortened. As mentioned, at low speeds, fans can groan or whine. Finally, since there's no constant power going to the fan (it's switching on and off), the RPM signal can't be read or will be very erratic


Brad if you read this hope you don't mind the copy!

k.
 
Hey Sneaky side note on your hard drive selection. Why not 2 raptor 74's for main/boot and 3 raptor 150s raid 5 for backup/storage. This is the setup I'm considering. I have the 2 74's already and i'm looking into doing the 150's piecemeal . Trying to talk myself into the cost of the 10k 150. The angel is saying that my server's 4x200gb raid 5 isn't full and the devils saying thats not the point :).
 
because i already have a bag full of the neoprene washers, so i'm gonna use what i have for now :shrug:
 
specs changed for 4 of the new 74gb 16mb cache raptors instead of 2x 150gb's :)

still gonna use 2x WD caviars out of RAID for storage though
 
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so... this morning when i go to turn on my computer, on the intel ICH7R RAID boot screen... it says volume disk #2 has failed :(

i am so tired of these hitachis - they worked fine for a number of months, and all of my friends have been having problems with them after 2-3 months themselves... i guess it was my turn to get skullf***ed by my hard drives

RIP 500gb of data from the past year... atleast i have a 120gb with some of the stuff backed up... but the last backup i did was in may... so poop. :bang head
 
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ordered a pair of WD 74gb 16mb cache Raptors with cash I had in my savings acct. from tax refunds

should be here monday... or saturday if the UPS driver is feeling generous
 
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That's no fun - I've had two Hitachi Deskstar 160's for a while now (one over a year, one since Black Friday, however long ago that was), and neither have given me any issue. I should, however, backup my data - I have a lot of it.
 
yeah, i'd definitely suggest you backup your data - recently these hitachi SATA II drives have been living up to their old "deathstar" nickname :bang head


so while my rig is down, today I'm finishing up sleeving my zippy 700w PSU, and it should be up and running on monday when my two 74gb 16mb cache raptors come *rubs hands together*

I'm leaving the hitachis as-is right now without reformatting them to see if i can possibly salvage any data from the array
 
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alright, well over the weekend since my rig was down and because I finally got more black sleeving and heatshrink, I finished up sleeving my Zippy 700w PSU - I left the SATA power cables unsleeved for now because I plan to add snap-on SATA connectors when I have all 6 HDD's I plan to use and use one line to power all the drives, the connectors all evenly spaced between drives :)


but here's the final product after sleeving:

zippy_1.jpg




and today I got my two 74gb 16mb cache raptors in:

raptors_1.jpg




and did a minor wire management job compared to what it was before, and now have my rig running on the Intel D975XBX BadAxe I've had for a while but never used (rev. 302 board):

badaxe_1.jpg
 
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