Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods > Is a case / chassis fan really worth the noise?

Is a case / chassis fan really worth the noise?

Forum CPU & Components : Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods - Is a case / chassis fan really worth the noise?

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Innuendo   08-30-2009 at 03:51:16 PM

Hello, community.
I've had several PC's before, but none of them ever had a case fan.
Including my current, wich is well overclocked (E6400 form 2.13 to 3.20 Ghz on air), and still no case fan of any.

I'm about to buy a new PC, with core I7 940, intend to overclock it.

Question: Should I really buy a case fan this time ? I'm quite sensitive about noise, so I try to keep things as quiet as possible...

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Sean1234   08-30-2009 at 04:20:45 PM
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Yes If you want to reduce noise. Legitimately case funs are used to keep PC's cool and quiet. And if you want to overlock then I reccomend getting some. They are cheap as well around $5-10$ depending where you live.

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Innuendo   08-30-2009 at 04:43:24 PM
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Keep quiet ? How can adding more fans make things quieter ?

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Silver CPUs badge JohnnyLucky   08-30-2009 at 05:41:29 PM
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Well, I know there are silent pc's that do not have case fans for extra cooling. I also know there are some pc's that do not have cpu heatsink fans or power supply fans either. I'm not sure if it would be appropriate for a new Intel Core i7 system and serious overclocking. In fact, I'm not even sure if it can be done.


Message edited by JohnnyLucky on 08-30-2009 at 05:43:34 PM
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Bronze CPUs badge jsc   08-30-2009 at 08:42:26 PM
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You can always build it without case fans. Just watch your temps. Then if you need fans, add them.

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Devastator_uk   08-30-2009 at 09:52:02 PM
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Adding a quiet fan, even with low rpm in the case and help extract the hot air from within the case, thus causing the internal CPU/PSU fans to slow down, meaning that the whole thing can make less noise with the extra fan than without.

------------------------------ CPU: PhenomII X4 955 BE ; RAM: 8GiB
OS: BSD, Linux, Solaris & Windows (use VirtualBox)
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LePhuronn   08-31-2009 at 01:26:30 AM
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There's plenty of fans out there designed to shift a lot of air without making too much noise. Scythe Gentle Typhoon springs to mind.

To be honest though if you're looking at overclocking a Core i7 system then you're just going to have to make some noise unless you watercool everything - you need to shift the heat these things produce, and fans are the only way of doing it.

And as a little aside, don't bother with the i7 940 - every i7 other than the 920 is a waste of cash because the 920, especially the D0 stepping, just overclocks like a motherbitch and you can match, if not outperform even the Extreme Editions.

If you want to go faster than 2.7GHz without overclocking then go for the 950 instead - it's D0 stepping as opposed to the 940's C0 so marginally easier on the power and heat fronts and costs a touch less too. But honestly you can whack a 920 D0 up to 3.8GHz with a lapped TRUE or Megahalem with some 1200RPM fans and cool without making too much of a racket. Assist the case air flow with some high-volume, low RPM big fans (180mm and up if your case allows it) and you should be OK.

Message quoted 1 times
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Innuendo   08-31-2009 at 09:42:25 AM
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LePhuronn wrote :

There's plenty of fans out there designed to shift a lot of air without making too much noise. Scythe Gentle Typhoon springs to mind.

 

To be honest though if you're looking at overclocking a Core i7 system then you're just going to have to make some noise unless you watercool everything - you need to shift the heat these things produce, and fans are the only way of doing it.

 

And as a little aside, don't bother with the i7 940 - every i7 other than the 920 is a waste of cash because the 920, especially the D0 stepping, just overclocks like a motherbitch and you can match, if not outperform even the Extreme Editions.

 

If you want to go faster than 2.7GHz without overclocking then go for the 950 instead - it's D0 stepping as opposed to the 940's C0 so marginally easier on the power and heat fronts and costs a touch less too. But honestly you can whack a 920 D0 up to 3.8GHz with a lapped TRUE or Megahalem with some 1200RPM fans and cool without making too much of a racket. Assist the case air flow with some high-volume, low RPM big fans (180mm and up if your case allows it) and you should be OK.

 

Thank you LePhuronn :)
Actually, I already bought a Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer 120mm for the cpu, I wonder what you opinion on that would be ? It cannot be lapped because of its special design but they say it still performs wonderfully. I plan to lap the cpu though.

 

So you say that there's no difference in how high I could get the clock , between 920 and 940 ?

 

BTW, how can I be sure that what I get from our provider is a D0 specimen ?


Message edited by Innuendo on 08-31-2009 at 09:44:24 AM
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chunkymonster   08-31-2009 at 05:29:01 PM
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There are a number of cases out there that have plenty of fans are are still almost inaudible. I recently built a machine using the CoolerMaster HAF 932 which has 3 - 230mm and 1 - 140mm case fans and it is barely a hush even with it 2.5 feet from me sitting on my desktop.

Quote :

BTW, how can I be sure that what I get from our provider is a D0 specimen ?

Not sure there is a way to request a D0 stepping, that may depend on the retailer. However, the i7 920 I ordered from Newegg at the end of July was/is a d) stepping. I would imagine at this point almost all i7's sold are D0.

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mindless728   08-31-2009 at 06:00:37 PM
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if you do get a C0 consider yourself unlucky, those should be out of stock by now

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Silver CPUs badge JohnnyLucky   08-31-2009 at 09:17:29 PM
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Check out this article about passive cooling - no cpu heatsink fan:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/t [...] ,7995.html

Reply to JohnnyLucky
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