Lighting Lets talk Fanny! ... seriously now, LED fan upgrades!

Groff

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Ok so I opened this thread so I wouldn't "hijack" other people's.

In my constant combat to become uber stealth, and 'cause my girlfriend some nights cannot sleep over the fan noise, I decided that I would invest in some top notch fan upgrades. But I would very much appreciate the solid knowledge if anyone out there has some to share :bow:

A brief search in to silent PC upgrades and parts, I have discovered that there is in fact "many" companies dedicated to producing virtually noiseless fans. One thing is marketing mumbo-jumbo, another is real life experience. I also know that certain fan design are not advised for vertical vs horizontal mount, but can't find a definite answer.

From what I have gathered, here are a couple different types of common PC fans. There is

ball bearing,
dual ball bearing,
sleeve bearing
fluid dynamic bearing (no actual ball bearings inside) - DFB


Here is a tidbit I copied

* Sleeve bearings use two surfaces lubricated with oil or grease as a friction contact. They often use porous sintered sleeves to be self-lubricating, requiring only infrequent maintenance or replacement. Sleeve bearings are less durable at higher temperatures as the contact surfaces wear and the lubricant dries up, eventually leading to failure; however, lifetime is similar at relatively low ambient temperatures. Sleeve bearings may be more likely to fail at higher temperatures, and may perform poorly when mounted in any orientation other than horizontal. The lifespan of a sleeve-bearing fan may be around 40,000 hours at 50 �C. Fans that use sleeve bearings are generally cheaper than fans that use ball bearings, and are quieter at lower speeds early in their life, but can become noisy as they age.

* Rifle bearings are similar to sleeve bearings, but are quieter and have almost as much lifespan as ball bearings. The bearing has a spiral groove in it that pumps fluid from a reservoir. This allows them to be safely mounted with the shaft vertical (unlike sleeve bearings), since the fluid being pumped lubricates the top of the shaft. The pumping also ensures sufficient lubricant on the shaft, reducing noise, and increasing lifespan.

* Ball bearings: Though generally more expensive, ball bearing fans do not suffer the same orientation limitations as sleeve bearing fans, are more durable at higher temperatures, and are quieter than sleeve-bearing fans at higher rotation speeds. The lifespan of a ball bearing fan may be over 60,000 hours at 50 �C.

* Fluid bearings have the advantages of near-silent operation and high life expectancy (comparable to ball bearings), but tend to be the most expensive.

* Magnetic bearings or maglev bearings, in which the fan is repelled from the bearing by magnetism.
Generally, picking up bits and pieces here and there, it seem the brand Noctua is very reputed for having a very low noise indeed. I remember someone in this forum noting that this is also due to a significant decrease in CFM. But their online chart speak otherwise... In any case, I'm sure there are other options out there to compare.

So what we're looking here are options into horizontal, low noise, high CFM units. I think maybe DFB might be best, but what do I know... :shrug: ?

As soon as I feel brave enough I will crack open my LEDs to inspect the fans and try to find the CFM used in them.

Anyone welcome to jump in !!
 
Oh right, one thing I did manage to find out is that we do NOT need Pulse Width Modulation (PWM, or 4 pin connectors) - this is a tech used by the motherboard to control the fan's speed. That should shave off a few coins per unit...

But PWM is very cool 'cos you can tweak the fan's voltage in a fixed position, so you could but a super massive CFM fan, under-power it, obtain silence and still very high CFM.... just like I did with my exhaustion fan and a voltage controller.

Here are two articles;

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Fans

http://www.quietpc.com/120mmfans
 
Some brands to look at;

Noctua (great rep, considered expensive)
Cougar (great CFM, lower cost)
Noiseblocker
Scythe Gentle Typhoon
Zalman (very high CFM to noise ration in some products)
Be Quiet
Antec True Quiet
 
nothing i can add that u haven't covered
dont discredit yate loon fans either,very good fan for your buck,and some models are pretty quiet
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article739-page2.html
you mentioning PWM has my head awash with fan controller ideas,its safe to say i have a few fans around :)
4Xcorsair 200mm,2Xcorsair h100i fans,2 corsair Sp120's,5 coolermaster BC120's,and a few random coolermaster fans
ve9eve9u.jpg
 
Truly a great website!:Cool:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

With great articles on fans!


Anatomy of the Silent Fan

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article690-page1.html

If I look At my led panel, a GN Ms006 and you would ask me how to improve
the panel to make it more silent!
I would suggest!

stage 1

Replace the fans with more silent fans!

stage 2

Replace the heatsink with a bigger more surface having sink and make it out of copper, replace the fans with more silent fans!

stage 3

Cut out the top-plate and put bigger 140mm( or larger) fans in it because the bigger the fan the more silent it can get in comparison to a smaller fan!
Place temp-sensors so the fans only blow as fast as needed.

stage 4

Modify the led so you can put cooling blocks with heat-pipes on the leds this way the fans can be placed vertical and directly on the heat sinks! If the cooling block with the heat pipe tech is advanced enough you can leave the fan away, and make it passive:Cool:

stage 5

Put water-blocks on the led and let a silent waterpump cool the led, in the past (zalman had a passive water cooling system, never seen it in real time doh) But I believe Stage 4 would be the recommended!


:bump:
 
a few of those have occurred to me in some shape or form,the last being using closed loop water cooling...this thread plus a nice early harvest haze is dangerous
i have long considered integrating mini pc/android device into my grow cab for remote monitoring and fan control,but i had never taken as far as led fan optimisation
 
Hop digitylike if the title brought you here Hop digity
 
I can talk about fans all day me :five:
 
I didn't change my fans at all but this is the tradeoff. High cfm vs high noise. You wanna get the highest air flow possible with the lowest noise, and I honestly believe LazyLathe nailed it with the silenx effizio fans he used. They are 74 cfm (very close to the rating of the original fans) and 15 dba. Haven't seen any other fan brand pumping out that much airflow that comes anywhere close.
 
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