fan speed and noise reduction

Charles

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I am running an AMD Athlon XP 2000+
I think it is running at either 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz

In an effort to reduce noise, I removed the
factory fan/heatsink and replaced it with a
"Cooler Master X Dream II" which claims to
have less than 24dBA of noise.
I want to reduce the noise from my fan a
bit further.

The Zalman CMSP7000 is attractive and
cheap and quiet, but my CPU sits only two
inches below my power supply.

The fan on my CPU has three wires.
1. +5v
2. +12v
3. gnd

My question...
If I add a resistor in series with the +12v line,
would that reduce the fan speed?

Anybody know for certain?
Tnx,
Charles
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd (More info?)

Often, the fan does not need to run at full speed. If you board support fan
speed control, you can use http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. If your board
is an MSI, you can use PC Alert 4 that reduces significantly the processor
heat. It calls the HALT processor instruction that reduces power
consumption. While you don't use CPU intensive application, the processor
will stay cool, which is the case in email and Internet browsing. As for the
resistor, I suggest using a variable resistor since it is not obvious to
know for a specific resistor which speed the fan will run.





Sylvain.


"Charles" <charles97@dunjas.com> wrote in message
news:423F27D4.63D087BD@dunjas.com...
>I am running an AMD Athlon XP 2000+
> I think it is running at either 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz
>
> In an effort to reduce noise, I removed the
> factory fan/heatsink and replaced it with a
> "Cooler Master X Dream II" which claims to
> have less than 24dBA of noise.
> I want to reduce the noise from my fan a
> bit further.
>
> The Zalman CMSP7000 is attractive and
> cheap and quiet, but my CPU sits only two
> inches below my power supply.
>
> The fan on my CPU has three wires.
> 1. +5v
> 2. +12v
> 3. gnd
>
> My question...
> If I add a resistor in series with the +12v line,
> would that reduce the fan speed?
>
> Anybody know for certain?
> Tnx,
> Charles
>
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 14:00:20 -0600, Charles wrote:

> The fan on my CPU has three wires.
> 1. +5v
> 2. +12v
> 3. gnd
>
It has 3 wires, but it doesn't have +5v. The third wire is for the fan
speed.

> My question...
> If I add a resistor in series with the +12v line, would that reduce the
> fan speed?
>
Yes.

> Anybody know for certain?

Yes.

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
Verizon server http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.htm
 

Charles

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Wes Newell wrote:

> > Anybody know for certain?
>
> Yes.

Wes,
Can you guess the milliampere range.
If I know the approximate milliamperes,
I could guess a starting value for a resistor.

umm... I suppose. If I am going to cut wires anyway,
I should just put a milliamp meter in the circuit.
(but I sometimes display the indications of laziness)
Charles

OBTW: I pulled the CPU fan connector one day
to see if got warm. It took about 20 minutes for it
to become warm to the touch.
 
G

Guest

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"Charles" <charles97@dunjas.com> wrote
> Wes,
> Can you guess the milliampere range.
Should be on the fan.


--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
uce@ftc.gov
Thanks, robots.
 

Dave

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"Charles" <charles97@dunjas.com> wrote in message
news:423F8EFA.B3DF392D@dunjas.com...
> Wes Newell wrote:
>
>> > Anybody know for certain?
>>
>> Yes.
>
> Wes,
> Can you guess the milliampere range.
> If I know the approximate milliamperes,
> I could guess a starting value for a resistor.
>
> umm... I suppose. If I am going to cut wires anyway,
> I should just put a milliamp meter in the circuit.
> (but I sometimes display the indications of laziness)
> Charles
>
> OBTW: I pulled the CPU fan connector one day
> to see if got warm. It took about 20 minutes for it
> to become warm to the touch.

Or you could buy a rotary switch and some 1 amp diodes and use it to make a
controller. I made one using 8 diodes and a 12 position rotary switch. The
diodes were soldered in series to the output points on the switch and one
end was hooked up to the 12V rail and the other to the fan. By rotating the
switch, more diodes were added to the load and the voltage to the fan
dropped as each of the diodes has about 0.75V drop.

Diode switch output
\ \
--------|---|<----|----|<----|----|<----|----|<----|----
| | | | |
0 0 0 0 0
| \
| rotary switch outer
poles
0
/
rotary switch centre pole

The above diagram should help. Imagine the line with the diodes is
circular. I hooked it up with a wire from the centre pole of the rotary
switch to the fan and the power wire to one end of the diode bus, depending
if you cut the 12volt wire or the 0volt wire and insert it. If it doesn't
work with the input wire on one end, attach it to the other. I've only
shown 4 diodes but you can add more.

I used a Molex y-adapter power cable and cut either the 12V (yellow) or the
0V (black) wire (can't remember and am to lazy to work it out).

It cost less than $5.00 all up.

Dave
 

Charles

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Dave wrote:

> Or you could buy a rotary switch and some 1 amp diodes and use it to make a
> controller.

Dave,
I like it.
Tnx,
Charles
 

rms

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Directron.com sells an inline adjustable fanspeed controller by Zalman for
$4. Just get that, it works great.

rms
 
G

Guest

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rms wrote:
>
> Directron.com sells an inline adjustable fanspeed controller by Zalman for
> $4. Just get that, it works great.

They also have one you can put in an empty pci cutout -- so you can
adjust the volume externally via the back of the computer. If you want
to plug it into a three pin, you'll have to get 4 to 3 pin converters,
and so on, but it's a mighty spiffy solution if you don't mind the extra
money -- prolly run around 40 or 50 bucks all said and done.

Bryan

> rms
 

Charles

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rms wrote:

> Directron.com sells an inline adjustable fanspeed controller by Zalman for
> $4. Just get that, it works great.
>
> rms

rms,
Cool alias. I once worked next to Robert L. Carrol.

I found the Zalman at Fry's.
I got DOUBLE lucky.
They had it on sale for $3.90 !!!
Anyway, I will try it.

Plus...
One more thing...
Most of the fans that have current listed on the box
fall in the range between .1 amp and .15 amp.

Tnx,
charles
 

Charles

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Charles wrote:

> I am running an AMD Athlon XP 2000+
> I think it is running at either 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz
>
> In an effort to reduce noise, I removed the
> factory fan/heatsink and replaced it with a
> "Cooler Master X Dream II" which claims to
> have less than 24dBA of noise.
> I want to reduce the noise from my fan a
> bit further.
>
> The Zalman CMSP7000 is attractive and
> cheap and quiet, but my CPU sits only two
> inches below my power supply.
>
> The fan on my CPU has three wires.
> 1. +5v
> 2. +12v
> 3. gnd
>
> My question...
> If I add a resistor in series with the +12v line,
> would that reduce the fan speed?
>
> Anybody know for certain?
> Tnx,
> Charles

I stuck a pencil in each of the cpu and power supply fans.
Guess where the major noise is coming from?
The hard drive.
All this time I thought it was the fans.
Now I have to find a way to quiet the hard drive.
Thanks to everybody for their suggestions.
Charles
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd (More info?)

A variable resistor (or a rheostat) is all that the Thermaltake fans
use... that might be an idea... but you'll want to monitor your system
temp as you trade off fan speed for silence... is that Cooler Master X
Dream II a copper or aluminum heat sink?

I've got a Zalman 7000Cu on my PVR machine @ home and I love it... but I
also have a Thermaltake Silent Boost ($30 Cdn, or about $20-25 US
probably) on my regular tower... being a full copper heat sink it
doesn't need as much of a fan to dissipate the heat; the copper does a
much better job than aluminum....

anyways, hope you find a solution!
jb

Sylvain wrote:
> Often, the fan does not need to run at full speed. If you board support fan
> speed control, you can use http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. If your board
> is an MSI, you can use PC Alert 4 that reduces significantly the processor
> heat. It calls the HALT processor instruction that reduces power
> consumption. While you don't use CPU intensive application, the processor
> will stay cool, which is the case in email and Internet browsing. As for the
> resistor, I suggest using a variable resistor since it is not obvious to
> know for a specific resistor which speed the fan will run.
>
>
>
>
>
> Sylvain.
>
>
> "Charles" <charles97@dunjas.com> wrote in message
> news:423F27D4.63D087BD@dunjas.com...
>
>>I am running an AMD Athlon XP 2000+
>>I think it is running at either 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz
>>
>>In an effort to reduce noise, I removed the
>>factory fan/heatsink and replaced it with a
>>"Cooler Master X Dream II" which claims to
>>have less than 24dBA of noise.
>>I want to reduce the noise from my fan a
>>bit further.
>>
>>The Zalman CMSP7000 is attractive and
>>cheap and quiet, but my CPU sits only two
>>inches below my power supply.
>>
>>The fan on my CPU has three wires.
>>1. +5v
>>2. +12v
>>3. gnd
>>
>>My question...
>>If I add a resistor in series with the +12v line,
>>would that reduce the fan speed?
>>
>>Anybody know for certain?
>>Tnx,
>>Charles
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd (More info?)

If you're serious about silencing your hard drives I'd recommend the
SilenX Luxurae HD Silencing System. Reviews @

http://www.auphanonline.com/articles/view.php?article_id=1471
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1177/

SilenX's website (where you can order it direct from them if you can't
find it locally):

http://www.silenxusa.com/productcart/pc/configureprd_z.asp?idcategory=17&idproduct=46

It's $39.95 US, plus another $13.95 if you buy their silent fan add-on
(SilenX's silent fans are truly silent too; very sweet). Well worth the
price though IMHO if you want a silent system...

For a cheaper solution you could probably also check out this site:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/scan/st=db/co=yes/rf=%2A/fi=products/sf=category/op=eq/se=Hard%20Drive%20Enclosures.html

The Nexus vibration dampeners might help... only $19.95 US, but I doubt
they'd do anything nearly close to what the silenx hdss does...

Anyways, good luck in the quest for silence... I've found that the more
I spend trying to silence things, the lower my tolerance gets for any
noise... doubt I'll ever be happy ;-)

JB

Charles wrote:
> Charles wrote:
>
>
>>I am running an AMD Athlon XP 2000+
>>I think it is running at either 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz
>>
>>In an effort to reduce noise, I removed the
>>factory fan/heatsink and replaced it with a
>>"Cooler Master X Dream II" which claims to
>>have less than 24dBA of noise.
>>I want to reduce the noise from my fan a
>>bit further.
>>
>>The Zalman CMSP7000 is attractive and
>>cheap and quiet, but my CPU sits only two
>>inches below my power supply.
>>
>>The fan on my CPU has three wires.
>>1. +5v
>>2. +12v
>>3. gnd
>>
>>My question...
>>If I add a resistor in series with the +12v line,
>>would that reduce the fan speed?
>>
>>Anybody know for certain?
>>Tnx,
>>Charles
>
>
> I stuck a pencil in each of the cpu and power supply fans.
> Guess where the major noise is coming from?
> The hard drive.
> All this time I thought it was the fans.
> Now I have to find a way to quiet the hard drive.
> Thanks to everybody for their suggestions.
> Charles
>
>