Need recomendations for cheap and quiet 80cm fan for cocktail cab

[rackoon]

OK hears the deal. I have a cocktail cab that is going to have a 27" monitor and a car amp in it. Its going to make some heat so I drilled 1 1/2" holes all around the bottom recessed pedestal base (eight on each side) and drilled six 3" holes in various places to suck in and push out some air (similar to Whammocade's fan placement).

The thing is that my CPU fan is allready loud and my monitor makes a very slight hmmm and I can just imagine adding six fans to this. Does anybody know of a cheap 80cm case fan that is quite, cheap and maybe has a led on it? {I have looked around and seen some but I know nothing about the NOISE FACTOR of these things.} Also, I have noticed that they all have different bearings. Do these things fail or something?
 
Any advice such as type, brand, or where to get them would be great!

[Green Giant]

Any chance of having a bigger whole on the bottom of the cab out of site.  You could put a 9" or 10" fan pushing air out the bottom.  The bigger the fan, the lower the rpm's necessary to move air, the quieter. 

Another option is using some pots or resistors to slow down the fan speed and lower the db level.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Been a while since I looked for fans, but nobody's better at quiet/silent parts than Silent PC Review.  Here's their article for recommended fans:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page1.html

Like I said, it's been a while... but to my knowledge most quiet fans don't have leds.  GG also brings up a great point about slowing down normal fans; this is something that's really easy to do with the right parts, or cheap enough to just buy outright.

[tristan]

The 80 MM ones that are quiet don't move as much air, but a couple of them may do the job. Basically you want to look at the dbA rating, the higher the louder. These are rated at 13 which is very low for an 80mm fan:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999071

[shardian]

You could also use 120mm ball bearing fans and run them at 9 volts. Should be fairly quiet.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

The 80 MM ones that are quiet don't move as much air, but a couple of them may do the job. Basically you want to look at the dbA rating, the higher the louder. These are rated at 13 which is very low for an 80mm fan:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999071

Tristan, this is not a personal attack, but the manufacturer's noise level specs for fans are very often erroneous and misleading.

AFAIK, there's no such thing as a 13dBa 80mm fan.   Whatever measurement they based that claim on is useless in real application.  Again, afaik, 13dBa is below normal human hearing, which means this fan *would* be absolutely silent at less than one meter - which is more or less impossible.  Read the SPCR article linked above, as they have a particular methodology to measuring fan noise, which is very useful in actual application.

Edited: grammar, spelling, etc.

[tristan]

Yeah, but my experience with the fan and the reviews from others seem to indicate that it is pretty close (one guy says he could only hear it from about a foot away). I do agree that those ratings are not 100% accurate, but it is really all you have to go on unless you can test it out before purchasing.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Yeah, but my experience with the fan and the reviews from others seem to indicate that it is pretty close (one guy says he could only hear it from about a foot away). I do agree that those ratings are not 100% accurate, but it is really all you have to go on unless you can test it out before purchasing.

Without threadjacking too much: I don't agree that individual's experience-based opinions are "all you have to go on" in this case.  SPCR has a solid testing method that is applicable (and no I don't, nor have I ever worked for them. )  However, more importantly, I totally agree with you that in the end, it is the User's experience that matters.  Do some research, pick your product, if it satisfies you, great!

[Avrus]

I have an Antec case with 3 120mm fans and a 200mm fan in the top.

Even on max setting the 200mm is quieter than the 120mm on low setting and pushes well into the 130 cf of air.

So I ordered up a pair of 200mm for my cabinet.  One at the back for fresh air, one at the top for ventilation.

[rackoon]

Thanks for the input guys. It sounds like I need a fan controller to turn down the speed of these fans just a little to cut out the noise then even a moderate fan will be quite. I have seen some fan controllers at some PC sites but I am wondering if I couldn't just buy a pot at radio shack and  controll them that way. The only problem is I wouldn't know what ratings I would be looking for in a pot. There seem to be several kinds.

[Green Giant]

A linear 100k, 10k, or 1k pot should be fine.  The more turns it has the more accurately you can control the speed.  The pot is much cheaper than a fan controller and does the same thing.

[Buddabing]

OK hears the deal. I have a cocktail cab that is going to have a 27" monitor and a car amp in it. Its going to make some heat so I drilled 1 1/2" holes all around the bottom recessed pedestal base (eight on each side) and drilled six 3" holes in various places to suck in and push out some air (similar to Whammocade's fan placement).

The thing is that my CPU fan is allready loud and my monitor makes a very slight hmmm and I can just imagine adding six fans to this. Does anybody know of a cheap 80cm case fan that is quite, cheap and maybe has a led on it? {I have looked around and seen some but I know nothing about the NOISE FACTOR of these things.} Also, I have noticed that they all have different bearings. Do these things fail or something?
 
Any advice such as type, brand, or where to get them would be great!

80 centimeters? You're going to mod an oscillating floor fan or maybe a ceiling fan? 

Actually, I second the posters who direct you to SPCR's recommended fan section.

[rackoon]

So I can just daisy chain the six fans together and put the pot before the fans on the lead?

Yo greengiant whats the 100K 10k and 1k mean? 

[torez]

Put a big fan on the bottom to suck air in (not too low, so you don't create a vacuum cleaner  ).  The holes in the higher part of the cocktail table will let warm/hot air out, as hot air rises.  It will keep you warm in winter. 

[xmenxmen]

if not too late and you can make the hole bigger, here's 120mm quite fan.  I use them in all my pc and they are super quite and give about the same cfm as speedy 80mm.

http://www.xoxide.com/xoxide-120mm-silent-fan.html

Only only 3.99 each right now too...

As for 80mm quite fan, Panaflo are one of the quietest one if you can still fine them.

[Green Giant]

So I can just daisy chain the six fans together and put the pot before the fans on the lead?

Yo greengiant whats the 100K 10k and 1k mean? 

Those are the resistance values of the potentiometer, 100000 ohms, 10000 ohms, and 1000 ohms.  They are basically a variable resistor, so you could send full power to the fans or adjust them up to the value of the pot.  Essentially the same thing as a resistor, but you will be able to select the speed you want.  The number of turns is important because if you just want to supply 1500 ohms resistance using a 1000000 ohm pot, you will only want to turn it half way on a 25 turn pot.  Lots of them out there are only 1 to 5 turns.  Makes accurate adjustment very difficult.

However, daisy chaining the fans together would probably slow the speed down on them, but you might have better results if you connect them in parallel.  If you connect them in series, the last fan will spin slower than the first.  In parallel they should all spin at the same speed.  A pot in series before the fans should be able to control the speed.  Just hook them up and give it a try.  The fans should be pretty robust unlike led's.  If you are pulling the juice for them from the 5V line in your computer, you shouldn't have to worry about blowing them without a resistor/potentiometer hooked up.

[ARTIFACT]

(don't want to hijack thread ... but I have a very similar question)

if not too late and you can make the hole bigger, here's 120mm quite fan.  I use them in all my pc and they are super quite and give about the same cfm as speedy 80mm.
http://www.xoxide.com/xoxide-120mm-silent-fan.html
Only only 3.99 each right now too...
[/quote

That's excellent, thank you for posting this info.

Do you know if these guys also sell power extension cords with the same connectors (male > female)?
If I run 2 of these in my cab (behind/low to push cool air in, top to push hot air out), I'll need several feet of that kind of cable with connectors

right now I have HUGE openings in the back of my cab (including right above the TV, and next to the PC case, which are where most of the heat is) and am wondering if I even NEED fans at all

thanks