[TriLUG] Slightly OT: Are there Really Quiet Computer Case Fans?

[Joseph Moran]

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004, Sinner from the Prairy wrote:

> On Sat January 17 2004 21:4821pm, Scott Chilcote wrote:
> > My job has me working within a six feet of a dual Xeon server.  It
> > has at least five noisy fans, and sounds like a vacuum cleaner.
>
> I've seen fans that produce less noise than usual. They are more
> expensive than the regular fans. IIRC they aer "ball-bearing fans".

I think you meant the other way around, normal fans use ball bearings.
Many new quiet fan designs use fluid bearings, the idea being the same as
in quiet hard drives like Seagate's Barracuda IV (and V, I think) models.

> I read and have tested that 120mm fans are much quieter than the regular
> 80mm fans.

I've heard the same.  Larger size means you can move the same volume of
air at a lower RPM, thus lower windspeed over the fins, grills, etc.

I've found http://www.silentpcreview.com/ to be a helpful site for quieter
PCs, whether one is looking for readymade quiet components or making
custom mods.

> PCs. They recommended filtering the air intake and air exhaust with
> thin A/C filter material. Those filters, aside from trapping dust,
> help reduce the decibels. And padding the computer case with
> heat-resistant material, also helps quieting the noise.

The trick being not to overheat your system.  SilentPCReview and other
sites give pretty good coverage to the tradeoffs, but the bottom line is
yes, you can have fairly quiet PCs these days.

-jrm