Fans, fans, fans...

[lazydawg]

I just mounted two old power supply fans on the right side of my case. I'm sure others have done this, but I've never seen it.

They are mounted on the MB side of the case, on the outside shell. Of course I had to hack up the plate the MB mounts to but is a small (ATX?) MB so there was plenty of room. I did this for two reasons: 1) it provides plenty of cool air into the case, and 2) that cool air has to blow over/around/through the HD's and CD's first. As since my previous HD died I'm a bit paranoid. Seems to work well. With just the one fan running the system temp was around 75F. Once I got the second fan going it dropped to 70F (my house is cool around 62F, and the PC wasn't doing much). So I'm guessing that I got about 10F drop. You can also feel the air coming out around the drives, the back the case, etc... It may not be the best way to cool a case, but it seems to lesson 2 problems in on shot.

Anyway, impressed as I am with this, those old PS fans are noisy, especially the one that took 15 minutes to get running (it squeaks and whines and the same time).

Where can I get some quite running 80MM fans with the 3 pin MB connection? Can two fans run off one connector? (I think it can). And do the MB's actually control the speed of the fan, or just monitor them? Also is there any good freeware/share ware to monitor the MB's temperature, fan speeds, etc? The "via monitor" that came with my MB (ABIT VA6) is OK, but I'd like one that I can shrink to just a few vital stats, or maybe get a graph or two.

Thanks
Lazydawg.

[marcusbateman]

Get SANDRA, it's great for monitoring your whole system. You can get it from any download/freeware site.

Try www.overclockers.com (http://www.overclockers.com) for fans.

[voogru]

what type of connectors does the PS have a regular 4 pin connector? or a 2 wire setup? i know of a comp that they have about 200 Damaged PS and they all have working fans and i could really use em!

thanks

-voogru

[the_deacon]

i got 2 ps fans in my system as well. right now i use one as an exhaust fan while the other is an intake fan. and yes you are right it is noisy but not that much noisier from the bigger more expensive fans i've seen. i got them from a friend who sells computers and fixes as well. so everytime he has a client who upgrades, they give him his old case. so we just winkle out the fans fromt the dead power supply and connect them to a 4-pin connector although it is a 2 wire setup, no problems at all. i'm planning to add 1 or 2 more fans, move the positions of the fans and hack at the side of the case opposite of the mb so one could be positioned right infront of the hdd, cd, floppy and the other facing all the pci slots.

this is not a very elegant solution but it is definitely cheap and effective. i'll go with cheap and effective any time.

[Axel]

A PC fan is one of the cheapest components on a system - yet it helps protect the most expensive component in the computer -

Collect and recycle a few more beer cans and actually go buy NEW fans - for pete's sake.....

I'm almost always amused by people trying to save $3 on a $1500.00 computer.......

I'm also of the opinion that if you have trouble with the fan noise of your system - buy better ~ louder speakers.....