Douglas A. McNeill wrote:
> Guys,
>
> I'm very pleased that so many of us happily use our PowerComputing
> puters. I stopped when I had problems and got a used iMac 450 with dvd,
> which I love especially for it's quiet operation. What have all of you
> done with the loud fan on the PowerComputers? I still have my PTP 180
> and it works great with 8.1, and I have upgraded nothing. Just more
> ram. But it's so loud I rarely use it.
>
> Are all of you on the PowerWatch site, too?
>
> Have a great day!
>
> Doug McNeill
>
>
Here are some replies to the loud fan problem that I've copied from the
list over time. Sorry to the original posters that I didn't copy the
complete names.
Robert Baucom
FAN REPLACEMENT PCP 240
I recently replaced the noisy/vibrating fans in my PCP240 and wanted to
share for anyone annoyed by their PowerComputing Box.
There are two fans in this box, one 60mm fan over the processor daughter
card and one 80mm fan on the back of the box. By unplugging each fan and
running the machine I found that the processor fan contributed the most
noise. I attribute that to the plastic bracket that holds the processor fan
which is in turn mounted to a cross bar thingy (tech term). The fan just
vibrates the whole works. I had tried foam pads, tightening screws and
of course duct tape all with minor success. The back fan is securely
mounted
directly to the box which removes all that vibration noise.
So after five years with this box I finally decided to do something serious
about it. After pulling the fans (Nidec brand) and getting what specs I
could off the tags and doing a bit of net research I went with new Panaflo
L1A fans which were said to be some of the quietest fans with low power
usage and good CFM flow. Panaflo has a higher CFM fan series (H1A) if needed
more cooling power, but a higher noise rating as well. (BTW I found that
outside the Mac World we/I live in, fans and cases and such are a big part
of the PeeCee world while I have hardly heard any Mac discussion of fans
outside of side comments on the noise. Never about replacing, adding or
upgrading)
The 60mm Panaflo fans compared to the Nidec was
L1A Nidec
Airflow 14.1 CFM 0.5 m3/min (roughly equivalent)
Noise 25 dB-A 35 dB-A (log 10 scale, so 10x as loud!?)
Power 1.32 watts 2.14 watts (38% less power used)
Putting them in was pretty easy with the just the normal precautions and
pray not to drop a screw on the motherboard. The only hack was the
connectors to the the motherboard. One fan came with just bare wires, so I
snipped off the connector from the old fan and twisted and taped it on to
the new fan. The other fan came with a slightly different connector that I
was able to scrape off a small part that didn't fit to get it to go on to
the MB connector.
Result is a much quieter system which really makes a difference. I didn't
realize how nagging and nerve racking it was until it was gone and don't
have to hit the box to try to get it to be quiet. Anyway, hope this helps
someone out and would like to hear if anyone else has been messing with fan
noise. -Jay
FAN ORDER TO Quieten my two PTP
systems by replacing the three original "case" fans (in each system).
Jack had gotten his "Silencer 80mm" fans from http://www.power-on.com.
But the
ones they sell come with the wrong connectors for this particular system
so all
the leads had to be cut and then joined to the new fan leads. While I
*can* use
a soldering iron, I didn't really remember where I last had seen mine. I
saw on
Power-On's site that the fans are manufactured by PC Power and Cooling so I
went looking for their web-presence and found the matching fan at
http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/alarmandaccesories/silencerfan/index.htm
They are cheaper than Power-On and have price breaks based on quantity.
But the
most endearing thing is that they sell the fan with one of two connectors:
4-pin or 3-pin. The 3-pin is *exactly* the same as those on the original PTP
fans (*). This means no soldering or cutting! I ordered them and found
during
order checkout that ground shipping was free. This was getting better by the
minute.
They arrived from the west coast to the east coast on Friday (ordered on the
previous Saturday and shipped on Monday). It took about 1.5 hours to replace
the first three because of the care I took and the case cleaning I did
while it
was open. By far the hardest one was in the power supply. That's where
the "*"
from above comes into play too: the connector for the fan in the power
supply
is only 2 pins *and* in both my systems was stuck in place with "goop"
pretty
hard. I figured out how to break the old connector free and then slid
the new
3-pin connector over the 2 leads, with the unused position of the connector,
well, unused. It sounds weird but if you get in there you'll see what I mean
(see below). This same fan ends up with a longer lead than necessary so
I just
turned the fan a partial rotation to sorta "spool" the lead on the
outside of
the fan to take up the slack. The original lead has an additional plastic
sleeve around it but I believe that is most likely for heat since the
original
lead rests right on a towering heatsink. I just routed my new leads far away
from that.
+===+
|*|*| connector to old fan
+---+
The "===" is actually plastic fixed to the circuit board, I had
to pry
the "===" portion away from the connector with a small
screwdriver to
break the "goop" and release the old connector
+--===+
| |*|*| connector to new fan
+-----+
* * pins for connector
The sound difference is amazing! Each system is so quiet now that I can
actually hear the disk drive seeking sometimes. And since there are two of
these now quieter systems in the same room the reduction is quite
dramatic. The
fan's output is noticeably less volume and warmer (particularly from the
power
supply) but doesn't seem too high. My systems don't have all the PCI
slots or
drive bays filled so that could be a factor for others.
All in all, I spent $51.30 and a little over two hours of my time on my two
systems. I wish I'd done this a long time ago. Thanks Jack for your
encouragement and my wife thanks you too!
Marty
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