Tutorial: Make Case Fans Quieter

F1N3ST

Posts: 593   +1
Tutorial: Make Case Fans Quieter Without Buying Anything!

Well, here is my tutorial to make case fans quieter while still moving a decent amount of air, not a 5 volt mod, that reduces air flow too much in my opinion, 7 volts is perfect for making your fans quieter and still moving air, I will also include a guide for 5v if you want super-quiet. I also included pictures for a dual fan mod (Both 5 and 7 volt)

First to move the pins from one hole to another, take some needle-nose pliers and grasp the pin push down with a moderate amount of force, and if you notice any metal pieces sticking out at the base holding it in, pinch those in and it will just pull out. Keep doing this until you have all the pins out that need to be moved, then just place them where they are supposed to be, then plug the molex's together and boot up, there will be a noticeable differance in sound without buying anything!

For the dual fan mods, solder the wires together at any point, and electrical tape around the joint. I wouldn't suggest too many fans on one molex, but thats just my opinion. Here are some screen shots of what the finished product should look like. If you don't know how to solder, strip the wire at any point, then strip the other wire at the end, twist the wires together, and electrical tape over the joint.

Single 7v Fan-


Single 5v Fan-


Dual 7v Fan-


Dual 5v Fan-


Written, made and tested my me! I notice a big difference in sound!
Thanks for the move to tutorials!
 
Ok not a bad tutorial but you have left out valuable information may i add it here.

: Reducing the voltage recieved by altering the wiring to the fans can and usually does put a lot more strain on your fan, therfore reducing life expectancy

: Breaking casing of wires and simply twisting together doesnt guarante an adaquit connection for operation properly and can damage the fan.
if you have to connect bare wires then simply LEARN TO SOLDER it is cheaper than frying your system because of faulty wiring !!

:It may mean you pay a little extra for your fan to be quieter or buy a speed controller but hey it all adds respect to your rig more so than electrical tape here there and everywhere!

No disrespect to you but for newbies that follow these tutorials without experience it can be costly mistakes for the sake of a simle warning first :D

but on the whole if you do take the step to self modify for a quiter fan you have a realy good diagram and explination here.
 
See, that voltage switching opinion is wrong, it reduces voltage which reduces speed which reduces wear and tear on the fan. I dont reccomend the wire twisting, but trust me it works unless you jerk the wires around, or insecurely tape them together. A better option to the electrical tape is heatshrink, just buy some wrap it around the wire and heat it up with a lighter or heat gun.

And a fan speed controller costs $ and adds wires and mess.

That is all fan speed controllers do is raise and lower the voltage, I fail to see how my method is destructive and theirs is perfectly fine.
 
nixxy said:
: Reducing the voltage recieved by altering the wiring to the fans can and usually does put a lot more strain on your fan, therfore reducing life expectancy
That is wrong.
nixxy said:
:It may mean you pay a little extra for your fan to be quieter or buy a speed controller but hey it all adds respect to your rig more so than electrical tape here there and everywhere!

No disrespect to you but for newbies that follow these tutorials without experience it can be costly mistakes for the sake of a simle warning first :D
How do you think the speed controller makes the fan run slower? These are DC fans where RPM is controlled by changing the voltage.

That newbies comment is unnecessary, espically coming from someone with 8 posts here. I know you can be an electrician and 8 posts isn't a reflection of your knowledge, but it is poor form to be new to a forum and mention the word newbie in reference to anyone but yourself.
 
I think we all agree reducing voltages doesn't put more strain on the fans :D

I'd like to point out that just twisting wires is not recommended, soldering is a far better option. You can twist the wires and get the system to work, but its a bad electrical connection. You cause fires that way, but a more probably scenario is your PSU malfunctions.

Also, running voltage past your -5V line will put strain on your PSU. If you're running a no-brand, el-cheapo PSU, forcing voltage through this line may cause your PSU to malfunction (or burn out).

Also, there are more ways of reducing the voltage than to run voltage through that -5V line. One is through putting another resistor in that electrical circuit. This is how its done in fan controllers: variable resistors in your electrical circuit. This doesn't put any strain on any line, and IMO, a much better option is you're going to do it.

Also, if you're going to post something and recommend people to do it, I'd suggest making sure its 100% safe. Twisting wires is no way safe, I'd at least recommend electrical tape around the junction...
 
Twisting them together and electrical taping them is pretty friggin safe, we are talking about low voltages low currents here in a stationary environment. You can't be a goon about it and just overlay them, wrap tape halfway around, and then hang wires off of that. Yes soldering is better, but twisting and taping them is going to work just fine too, which is what he said, but apparently you didn't read that part.
F1N3ST said:
If you don't know how to solder, strip the wire at any point, then strip the other wire at the end, twist the wires together, and electrical tape over the joint.

Adding a resistor yourself in line is going to be uglier, and a source of heat as you effectively generate heat to reduce the voltage.
 
I suppose taping it makes it safer, but it doesn't really solve the problems of cheap PSUs blowing up.

I wouldn't assume everyone runs cheap PSUs....


Adding resistors will be ugly, but at least its safe. The heat produced shouldn't be significant, and its what fan controllers do anyway. If you're handy enough, you'll find ways of hiding the resistor.
 
zzz.... you don't get the idea that not every system is the same, and there's a chance it'll happen.

Doing a short google to search for reported incidnces brought up another problem: the fan itself may not work, but here's a list of links:
http://www.omgili.com/preview/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5vY2ZvcnVtcy5jb20vc2hvd3RocmVhZC5waHA/dD00NTI0OTM=
http://www.hardforum.com/archive/index.php/t-719830.html (search for a post from jeev)
http://www.overclock.net/other-hardware-mods/26775-7v-mod-problem.html

There's tons of other posts on different forums. I'm sure its a small minority of people out there which run into problems, but its a large enough incidence to warrant a warning of some sort.

Here's a well written guide for the same thing:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips766/
Notice how he mentions the dangers of connecting the +5V line this way. A well written guide will warn of dangers, instead of insisting its safe from one working model... You might have something good giong on here, but from your posts, no offense intended, I'm sure your knowledge of electronics is far from adequate to vouch for the safety of your guide.

With any guide, safety should be the main priority. Even with 12V, sparks may be elicited from loose connections. However small the danger of these sparks setting something on fire, its there, and its not safe. However, electical taping you mentioned should cover that danger, but its something that should be mentioned.

If you're really interested in getting a good guide up, you should accept all reasonable criticisms, and edit the guide accordingly, instead of giving a sad single working example (if you've done this on 2000 machines, and none elicited the problem, its a different story...) and using that as a base to argue against numerous documented problems.

Just out of curiosity, your line of work does not involve any form of research at all, does it? The reason I say this is because any article written, made, and tested by the same article is usually full of biases, conflicts of interest, and tons of other problems which usually means this article garner much credit.

F1N3ST said:
Written, made and tested my me! I notice a big difference in sound!
 
I'll think I'll leave it alone, if anyone feels that they can trust your tutorial after everything thats been said, I think they ought to have decided they can live with the possible consequences.

I've backed up everything I said, so there shouldn't be any doubt about the validity of my statements, which is not something you can claim. Personally, I don't think you've graduated from high school yet, maybe you should before recommending anything.

Have a good day.
 
Seeing as its "occupants" cannot discuss properly, this thread is closed for now.
 
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