Turn down the fan, I can't hear you!

[Guest]

I was cruising through <A HREF="http://www.sidewindercomputers.com" target="_new">Sidewinder Computers</A> website, going "gaga" over some of the neat gadgets they have there and picked up a few items I hadn't originally planned on getting. Sort of like the "Costco phenomenon" where you go in for a couple of items and come out with a palette load of stuff that you couldn't live without. I got some rounded cables to improve airflow in my case and a RPM cable and a rheostat. What I'm wanting some opinions on is the RPM/rheostat combo.

What this is supposed to do is route your high speed cooling fans power source directly from the power supply to protect your fan headers on your motherboard, which apparently can become fried if you hook your high speed fans directly to them. This also lets you still be able to monitor fan speed since it is still connected to the fan header, it just doesn't draw power from the header. I am also putting a rheostat on this RPM "header bypass" cable to enable me to turn down the fan speed when the noise becomes unbearable (I'm going to use a SwifTech MC-462, supposedly a noisy thing) and I'm not doing anything that requires really high speed cooling, like when my CPU is idling when I'm not using the computer.

My question then: has anyone tried this combo out (RPM cable with rheostat)? How has it worked for you?

Regards,

Prowler

 

[Guest]

I know, I know. You say, "Why don't you just turn off the computer when you are not using it if the noise bothers you that much?" But then, how much fun would that be? ;-)

Prowler

 

[Guest]

go check out "Digidoc5" its ment to be the best hardware monitoring device.

 

[Guest]

yeah i tried it out and it does a fairly good job at it. with my mc-462 it is quite loud (but not annoyingly though). what i remember (i don't have it this pc) is that the fan was spinning around 4600 rpm and when i decreased the fan speed it droped around a 1000 rpm and the sound is reduced to a lower pitch i can't really say the fan is whining anymore hehehe. but yes i think it worked very well for me. mostly at night just pop the side case out and turn the knob and pop the case back in and sleep! ehehh.

one more note is to be carefull with the fan, its powerful enough to give me a bloody thumb in fact it took a little chunk of me and some blood. i'd go look for a fan grill and some longer screws. oh yeah if you're meticulous i would suggest handling your mc-462 with latex gloves cuz when the copper base gets in contact with the oils on your skin it tends to tarnish and its a pain to get off( i only have so many lemons on my tree) becuase of the i way i cleaned it i ended up getting pulp in between the pins its a pain to get out. oh yeah one more thing you might want to clean up the base with some rubbing alcohol beore you mount it, it was a little dirty when i got mine from sidewinders but everything else was perfect.

well hope it helps....

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by zbuddah on 08/09/01 08:38 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[killall]

turning your box off... especially if youre using windows... is wasteful of your time though saves you electricity... my box is idling a dozen hours a day when im not working on it... wait a second... no its not... ive got seti on 24/7

if in doubt blame microsoft...

 

[Schmide]

I had a Rheostat (Potentiometer) on my system but it burned out. I probably didn’t have a high enough rated one or something. Anyways. I’m sure the one your getting is good enough quality to get the job done. I ended up just soldering a switch to transfer the red line 5v to the yellow line 12v and put all my fans on that cable. That way when I want to run quiet not under load, I just switch to the red line. There is still plenty of airflow and or brisk San Francisco summer days 65f (19c) I don’t need the extra juice.

Schmide