Ah reminds me of the time when I was a kid and my PC would randomly crash and would not start for a while. Turns out the processor fan was janky and would not start occasionally requiring a push with a pen or something to get it going. So the POST process in my case had an extra step: "have human check CPU fan"!
More than you cared to know about PC fans
21–30 of 102 posts
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#22What a coincidence, 4x of the 120mm Noctua Redux fans just arrived this morning and are sitting on my living room table waiting to go into my rig. I love in-depth analysis of stuff like this.
How do y'all like to manage (chassis) fan speeds? I have been out of the PC world for so long that I forget all pieces of hardware need to be managed.
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#23What a coincidence, 4x of the 120mm Noctua Redux fans just arrived this morning and are sitting on my living room table waiting to go into my rig. I love in-depth analysis of stuff like this. How do y'all like to manage (chassis) fan speeds? I have been out of the PC world for so long that I forget all pieces of hardware need to be managed.
I use a Corsair commander with a copy of system information viewer
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#24Does anyone know if there are high-heat-resistant PC fans (and at what temperatures normal PC fans will melt)? The only fans I can find that claim to be heat-resistant are the Noctua Industrial PPC series which, aside from not being cheap at $33/piece are "only" heat-resistant up to 140C and the airflow isn't crazy high - subjectively the ones I've got feel like they move substantially less air than a standard diesel…
Why?
All he has is a hammer?
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#25What I want to know is how a ballbearing-less fan suddenly decides to go brrrrrrr. So far I've been lazy and just replacing them, but I'd be nice to know as they seem fine when I spin them manually.
Those kinds of fans typically use a bronze bushing rather than a bearing. These bushings are long-lived, but eventually wear. When the bearing hole enlarges as part of the wear process, the fan rotor shaft now has additional room for lateral movement in the bearing and can oscillate in the the bearing rapidly, causing the "brrrrr" noise you hear.
You can often extend the life of such bearings by adding a drop of light machine oil to the bearing (usually you have to pull off a sticker on the back of the fan to access the bearing).
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with that is when the fan would block the natural venting if it stops working. These devices are engineered to have the heat move the air through and out of the device, and though a fan will usually do a better job of that, it will ultimately fail. When it does, if the fan body is in the way then the intended convection is blocked and the entire unit shuts down or is damaged.
Cable modems are often placed in poorly ventilated spaces that overheat. So you can get the best of both worlds by including generally unneeded fans which enable the device to function in sub optimal conditions, but can also extend lifespan in better ventilated spaces. The alternative of passive cooling in such spaces is unreasonably expense because only a subset of devices are subjected to such conditions.
I have thought about adding a bathroom style vent fan to the closet that houses the network gear for the house. Exhaust near the top and have a cool air intake near the floor.
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#27Does anyone know if there are high-heat-resistant PC fans (and at what temperatures normal PC fans will melt)? The only fans I can find that claim to be heat-resistant are the Noctua Industrial PPC series which, aside from not being cheap at $33/piece are "only" heat-resistant up to 140C and the airflow isn't crazy high - subjectively the ones I've got feel like they move substantially less air than a standard diesel…
If $33 is not cheap then maybe not. But I buy my delta fans at mouser or digikey, and they have a wider range of specs than typical consumer websites. They come without connectors though so there's some crimping/soldering required. For our little rendering cluster I bought a bunch of 12.000 rpm fans to cool the rack mounted threadrippers. Worked fine, no watercooling in the rack needed and 4ghz on all cores under loa…
For some reason I got all opinionated about fans and settled on delta as my preferred brand. I think because delta actually had data sheets. The cool thing is that digikey has the exact fans I want, the downside is that the fans digikey sells have no plugs.
I tried once to terminate it myself but I was too cheap to buy the correct tools, so that did not go well. and am now a bit bummed about the whole thing, I found a vendor I can trust to sell me real delta fans.. and they have no plugs. sigh will probably stick with nocturna as a good second best.
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#28Does anyone know if there are high-heat-resistant PC fans (and at what temperatures normal PC fans will melt)? The only fans I can find that claim to be heat-resistant are the Noctua Industrial PPC series which, aside from not being cheap at $33/piece are "only" heat-resistant up to 140C and the airflow isn't crazy high - subjectively the ones I've got feel like they move substantially less air than a standard diesel…
If $33 is "not cheap" then you're not going to find anything lower. Perhaps an oven fan, but that's a different form-factor. The problem is that fans with integrated motors are limited by the temperature of the motor, and motors designed for high temperatures are also not cheap since special materials need to be used.
...and what's the reason behind needing such a fan?
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#29What a coincidence, 4x of the 120mm Noctua Redux fans just arrived this morning and are sitting on my living room table waiting to go into my rig. I love in-depth analysis of stuff like this. How do y'all like to manage (chassis) fan speeds? I have been out of the PC world for so long that I forget all pieces of hardware need to be managed.
FWIW I used to use software (Speedfan, and later something else I don't remember), but after upgrading to Noctua fans, I found whatever is built-in to the motherboard works just fine and gave up on the complication of software. I'm on my second system like this, and I've found they've both been a good temperature and nearly silent most of the time. Even maxed out, it still seems to be quieter and cooler than it would be with most (cheap) fans.
Re: More than you cared to know about PC fans
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cable modems are often placed in poorly ventilated spaces that overheat. So you can get the best of both worlds by including generally unneeded fans which enable the device to function in sub optimal conditions, but can also extend lifespan in better ventilated spaces. The alternative of passive cooling in such spaces is unreasonably expense because only a subset of devices are subjected to such conditions.
I have thought about adding a bathroom style vent fan to the closet that houses the network gear for the house. Exhaust near the top and have a cool air intake near the floor.
AC Infinity make fans specifically for this purpose:
https://acinfinity.com/closet-room-fan-systems/
Bathroom fans work too if you’re able to vent through the ceiling. I can recommend the Panasonic whisper fans (available under a variety of models with “whisper” in the name). I’m using one to exhaust the warm air from my home theater emitted by the projector. I think it’s this one:
https://na.panasonic.com/us/home-and-building-solutions/vent...