[digiology2]

Hi, I have a (noisy) Digital Audio G4 (dual 1Ghz) and the constant hum is annoying me. I'm told the fan on the power supply isn't worth the hastle but that the other one (one the side of the case facing towards the motherboard) is a standard 120mm fan.
Can I buy a quieter fan without having to worry about power usage and interfaces (ide cables ect), can I buy PC fans?

Thanks in advance...

[AC Rempt]

Try looking here.

G4 Noise

I recently switched out the fans on my Twin gig, and it has made a world of difference.

[digiology2]

Did you change the power supply fan or the other one? I hear the other fan is alot less trouble, I saw on a pc website that you could buy virtually silent power supplies, I wonder if these would work with my G4...

[Kenneth]

I replace my noisy stock Delta fan with a quieter Panasonic Panaflo M1A case fan.
The temperature is slightly higher (below 60C), but lots more quiet.

[Link]

Ok, here's what I say..

If you want to really quiet your machine, perhaps the quickest thing that will get rid of some of the howling noise is to get rid of the finger guards (on the 120mm and power supply fans) <-- heed caution with the power supply, what you do is get a pair of wire clippers and cut them off (simple enough)...

typically you remove the power supply and cut it off there, well partially remove it at least.. anyway that will get rid of a bit of noise since the plastic cover on the back of the case doesn't align with the built in PSU finger guard..

Having that done, you can hurt yourself by putting your fingers in the way of the 120mm fan when the machine's running.. but why would you want to do that in the first place?

Next step would be to get yourself a 60mm fan (preferably a papst fan) for the heatsink area.. you can remove the duct there by unscrewing the 2 screws on the back below the modem jack...

After that, well it's pretty straight forward. Once you get that in place, if all is well it will be considerably quieter. REMEMBER to be careful when getting a 120mm fan as one too big will render the ducting that the QS is supposed to use (pushes air out the back of the case) useless..

Another side rumor is that if you take the left side cover off (the one that isn't a door), and put some packaging tape over the vents there (there's vents in the back, and this IS a duct), that the air will all go out the back like it's supposed to and help make the cooling more efficient.

Regardless, I highly suggest you find yourself a computer thermometer kit (they sell these "compunurse" kits on places like pcmods.com), to monitor the temperature of your G4's heatsink. Dropping the temperature is good, while rising it can drastically shorten the lifespan of the machine.

You can find more info here:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/q...ver_noise.html

[digiology2]

Thanks for the replies, I think I'll stay away from the power supply and the heatsink. The 120mm fan looks like the easiest but ill check and see if removing it (temporarily) makes it quieter.
If anyone could take a look at these fans and tell me if they would do the trick I'd be gratefull:

http://heatsinkfactory.com/cgi-bin/H...talogno=CF-023
http://www.directron.com/120l1a.html

and also, I wonder if this may help?
http://www.directron.com/vdkfan.html

[AC Rempt]

The Panaflo 120mm is too big at 38mm. The stock fan is 25mm to create the space needed to get the air out of the case.

I replaced both the case fan and the CPU fan, and the difference is noticeable. I haven't tried cutting out the finger guards yet, and since the noise is much less than it was now, I probably won't.

And the easiest to switch out is the CPU fan, moreso than the case fan. The fan I use for the CPU is the Panaflo 60mm Low, but I have to use a pass-through adapter for the power since the standard fan uses some odd, two-pin configuration.

[stuffedmonkey]

I have a Nexus 120mmx25mm fan on order - it should get here tuesday. I'll tell you if it makes a decent difference on my Quicksilver 2002.

Also, you can see whick fans are causing the trouble by disconnecting them. Boot the machine, listen for about 10 seconds, then power the machine down and try a different fan.... You cant overheat the thing if it's not on too long, just long enough to check noise levels.

One more thing - on an old G4 450 I took the power supply fan out and replaced it with a really low noise Papst fan. I had to replace the old one, as that fan had the bearings go bad. It was really making the worst high pitch squeal. the new fan was almost 100% silent. I did not have any overheating problems, even after I upgraded the processor to a 800mhz

You can also mitigate some of the reduced airflow by using something like Artic Silver 3 on the processor. Its a thermal paste that goes between the processor and the heatsink, and it really lowers tempatures by passing a lot more heat on tto the heat sink. Just be careful when putting it on, because doing it wrong can cause overheating or shorting...

[digiology2]

What do you mean 'a pass-through adapter' Ac Rent? Do you mean you have a cable hanging out of your case or something? Or just some kind of adapter to connect a 3 pin to 2 pin input?

I might take a look at the cpu fan, what size fan do i need?
You mentioned the 'the Panaflo 60mm Low' that you used as if that was a standard model name, there are a couple of 60mm Panaflo fans around as far as I can see surely they won't all be the right one, whats the inner dimentions of the cpu fan (like 25mm for the case fan)?


Cheers

[digiology2]

Did you try out that fan yet stuffedmonkey?

[Link]

There are a few things I need to bring up, that will hopefully help, and keep you cautious:

1. The QS has NO form of thermal protection at all. Aside from the protection circuit in the power supply the machine itself will run even if the 2 main fans are unplugged. OTOH, the power supply should have it's own thermal protection.. but this still leaves lots of room to screw up majorly.

2. The stock CPU fan has a lower 'average' speed than most fans, meaning the heatsink will run hotter. However at max speed it is faster than quite a few fans out there (I remember seeing something like 5000rpm) so be sure you replace it with something that can REALLY kick in some airflow. Seriously.. I'd go for a powerful fan and stick a temp sensor on it (you can get passthrough temp sensors I'm sure) <- thermal controllers that is. If you've ever noticed, open the machine when it's running and try to feel the air coming off the heatsink. Half the time it likes to arc off the heatsink before it hits the end and this dosen't help much :| week airflow sucks.

3. temp sensors are your friend ^_^ I still highly suggest getting a compunerse one (they make ones with external boxes too). Even if it sits inside the machine you can quickly find out by a general rule what the temp is. If anything, stick it at the bottom of the heatsink (typically the hottest point) BEFORE you start modding, and then monitor it based on your stock temp.

A passthrough adapter/cable/whatever is simply a plug where you plug your fan or whatnot into the power supply and then there's another plug or the plug itself is 2 sided so you can plug yet another thing into IT. Don't worry, generally power supplies only come with enough plugs to get by.

I would generally say that on a computer, especially if you have a dual processor one, you want to be extremely careful of your temperatures. Most people turn around and say that they raised the temperature of their machine a little, but that's fine by them.. of course they realize that minor temperature raise perhaps at the least likely time something would happen anyway. Think of a 90 degree day, AC is down or you dont' have AC, have a big project to do.. you don't want your machine dying on you then do you?

The thing about having a small temperature rise at testing is that difference can grow exponentially as the temperature rises due to the CPUs running faster or heat building up. If the machine can't push out enough air the temperature only rises. <- so essentially you want your new cooling setup to be better than the old one Provided you get high CFM/RPM fans that have some sort of temp sensor

My apologies if I sound really ranty or something.. and good luck! Don't be worried, in general most systems are not that optimally setup to begin with, and most of the time some good work can make for MUCH better results

[stuffedmonkey]

Yes, I did try that fan.... sorry, I forgot to post it! The fan works great! It's an incredibly odd story actually - the mac's 120mm fan was pretty noisy to begin with, thats why I was ordering a replacement. Since I'm pretty cheap - I chose to have it shipped ground (from siliconacoustics.com) - about a 5 day wait. After 3 days the origional fan in my mac broke entirely - the plastic fan blade assembly had cracked, and came loose off it's mounting just enough to scrape the inside of the fan guard. It was incredibly loud - all at once - like banging something into an old radiator. Lucky enough I had a fan on order, but I couldn't use my computer for 3 days for fear of overheating.


Once i got the Nexux fan it was very easy to install. the hardest part of the entire thing was putting the assembly back - I kept dropping the little screws. The Nexus fan does not use the same power plug the mac's fan uses - it uses a plastic 4 pin connector like a hard dirve uses. Tat was easy enough to hook up. It's silent, and a slick orange color! I always test my mods by running them at 100% processor usage for 24 hours, so I fired up folding at home and let it run. No problems at all. I figured since I had already gotten a new hard drive and a 120mm fan, that I am going to replace the power supply fan and the Processor fan as well. I have two Papst fans on order - should get here wednesday. I'll try and remember to post that story on time

[digiology2]

Cheers stuffedmonkey, what site did you get that Nexus 120mm fan from? How did you handle the 4pin connector when the original fan had a different connector (some kind of adapter maybe?)


Thanks for the informative post Link, you have scared me away from going near the CPU fan, I'm going to remove the inner finger guards on the power supply fan and replace the 120mm fan.
I hope I'm happy with that afterwards!

[stuffedmonkey]

I got the fan from siliconacoustics.com - and I plugged it into one of the spare ide (aka molex) power connectors, not the small plug that was on the first fan.

Here is the fan in it's orange goodness: http://www.siliconacoustics.com/nexu...-case-fan.html



I was almost thinking of getting a LED fan for the power supply, but chickened out and got the quiet one instead...

[digiology2]

Last time I looked I didn't see any spare power cables lying around, I'll check again though....

[Link]

Originally posted by digiology2:
Cheers stuffedmonkey, what site did you get that Nexus 120mm fan from? How did you handle the 4pin connector when the original fan had a different connector (some kind of adapter maybe?)


Thanks for the informative post Link, you have scared me away from going near the CPU fan, I'm going to remove the inner finger guards on the power supply fan and replace the 120mm fan.
I hope I'm happy with that afterwards!

LOL don't be scared man, just keep an eye out for 60mm fans that have a good speed set.. I'm thinking the QS' fan runs between 2000 and 6000 rpm but have no way to prove that. Ever hear one go full blast?

[stuffedmonkey]

Ok. So I replaced both the PSU fan and the processor fan. The PSU for the quicksilver 2002 was much more of a pain then the one for the agp graphics one i had swapped fans on about a year ago - there is some sort of anti-interference ferrite bead glued to the side of the fan with this horrible white glue. It was a beast to get off - but i managed to do it without breaking it. I would definately say it was harrowing - but in the end the entire thing went back together properly, and seems to be working well. Very quiet. This isn't something I could recommend to everyone though, owing to the danger involved in cutting the bejeezus out of yourself getting the power supply out and apart, to shorting it, etc. But if you are very familliar with computer repair or just like dangerous things, you can quiet the thing down quite a bit.

Now for the processor fan - I thought this would be super easy. I removed the existing rubber thing with fan assemblt and put the new fan in it's place. To make the connector fit - I cut it off the first fan's connector, and spliced in place of the second fan's. My problem is that the new fan (a papst 60mmx25mm), while being quieter overall - made a high pitched whine that was worse overall then the louder, but lower pitched whoosh of the old fan. Drat. I let it run for a bit to see if it would wear in - but I ended up putting the old fan back. Perhaps I got a bad 60mm fan? I don't know. I can't return it since the wires are all spliced up, so I'll consider that 14$ donated to the interests of science.

To sum it up for all noise haters:

Replacing Hard drive - worth it - I put in a larger faster and quieter seagate

Replacing big 120mm fan - worth it - easy to do

Replacing power supply fan - I would avoid unless you have significant experience with electronics and know the risks you take.

Replacing cpu fan - Perhaps if a better fan can be found. Suggestions welcome.

[AC Rempt]

Try the Panaflo 60mm "Low" fan. It's a solid piece of fan that's nice and quiet. Just be prepared to get a molex adapter cuz it doesn't seem to wanna run off of the stock connector.

I am still toying with the power supply issue cuz i have just enough of a howl left that it bothers me every now and again. I was really thinking I would just take the back panel off and snip the guards with the supply in place. May still try.

Either way, with the two new fans, my QS is a lot quieter.

digiology2, what did you end up doing?

[Link]

It's hard to find a good CPU fan.. especially when you want your CPUs to be cold as the one there is rather good already.

As for popping the power supply out - it's RATHER easy. Just set the machine up on a table and be patient. You pull out the drive bays first and then the power supply but it takes a little time.

What sucks on my case is one of the screws on the box that holds in the 120mm fan is actually STRIPPED, totally..

[galarneau]

You might try this:

Go to http://www.mcmaster.com/

do a search for product # 5801K8

They sell elastomer fan mounts that can be used to isolate fan noise. They also don't require threads to hold them in.

Check out this thread on arstechnica forum for more info:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...5&r=1600974095

Originally posted by Link:
It's hard to find a good CPU fan.. especially when you want your CPUs to be cold as the one there is rather good already.

As for popping the power supply out - it's RATHER easy. Just set the machine up on a table and be patient. You pull out the drive bays first and then the power supply but it takes a little time.

What sucks on my case is one of the screws on the box that holds in the 120mm fan is actually STRIPPED, totally..

[digiology2]

Originally posted by AC Rempt:
Try the Panaflo 60mm "Low" fan. It's a solid piece of fan that's nice and quiet. Just be prepared to get a molex adapter cuz it doesn't seem to wanna run off of the stock connector.

So I need a 3 pin to 4 pin adapter like this one?
http://shopping.netledger.com/app/si...it.A/id.287/.f

Sorry, just have to make sure.

[TonyTNZ]

The quicksilver is probably different, but on both my G4s (one a AGP graphics, the other a digital audio) the 120mm fan blows air _into_ the case not out of it. So covering the holes in the side of the case is probably not a good idea for these models as thats where outside air gets sucked in, not blown out. I think the airflow design is that air comes in through the 120mm, swirls around the inside of the case, and is expelled by the psu fan and the cpu fan.

I replaced the 120mm fan with an Accoustifan which has a temperature sensor on it, and also the psu fan with an 80mm accoustifan. The 80mm flows less cfm than the old fan but from all I have been able to read that shouldnt be a problem. Result - a much quieter computer. I also went one stage further and removed the side panels and stuck some sound proofing material over them, along with some strategically placed sound proofing foam on the inside (mainly on the roof and front panel. Result - a virtually silent G4.

[geedubya]

There's a quick & easy way to eliminate about half the fan noise in a Quicksilver G4.

As described in this article at xlr8yourmac.com, at least one mounting screw for the QS's CPU fan presses against the heatsink, which effectively becomes a ringing aluminum resonator for certain rather grating frequencies.

Removing this screw will reduce the noise of your G4 QS considerably -- mine's well in the acceptable range now.

The only hard part is getting the heatsink off.

[rkadowns]

I have not had my case fan in operation for more than two years. I unplugged it when I realized that air is passed by the CPU by being pulled with the power supply. Its also been overclocked to 533Mhz and I have never had any problems with it or the PCI rage pro and AGP Radeon 9000 video cards.

Call me stupid, but I think in my case these fans are overkill and I have one quiet Mac.

Besides, if it does fry, it gives me a reason to purchase a new Mac.

[AC Rempt]

Originally posted by digiology2:
So I need a 3 pin to 4 pin adapter like this one?
http://shopping.netledger.com/app/si...it.A/id.287/.f

Sorry, just have to make sure.

Yep. Makes life a lot easier.

[Nivag]

Originally posted by geedubya:
There's a quick & easy way to eliminate about half the fan noise in a Quicksilver G4.

As described in this article at xlr8yourmac.com, at least one mounting screw for the QS's CPU fan presses against the heatsink, which effectively becomes a ringing aluminum resonator for certain rather grating frequencies.

Removing this screw will reduce the noise of your G4 QS considerably -- mine's well in the acceptable range now.

The only hard part is getting the heatsink off.

why didn't you just unscrew the fan from the outside then removed the offending screw holding the rubber casing. a hell of a lot easier than removing the heat sink.

[Eugene Fields]

Originally posted by AC Rempt:
Yep. Makes life a lot easier.

If you guys have the money just get the Verax Kits They are engineered for the Situation and work Best and are really Silent.

[Link]

They didn't make a verax kit for the quicksilver.

Anyway, you don't need to take the heatsink off to get to that duct o_O there's 2 screws on the back (as the other dude said).. I've done that many times heheh.

Honestly I've never had a problem with the screws causing "ringing" but YMMV. Anyway I was looking around and one of the more suitable 60mm fans I saw was on 3dcool.com -- called the Polaris 60mm fan.

It's temp sensing and goes between 15-38CFM... and many 80mm fans BARELY pass 38cfm.... Then again at that it hits about 44db (not much different than the g4's current fan) -- more airflow though

[mbanks]

I'd been looking for a lot of the info on this page for a long time, so kudos to whomever at macnn decided to put it on the front page a few days ago. (I have a loud Digital Audio dual 533).

I was wondering what kinds of fans that those of you who replaced the power supply fans you used. Are they 60mm fans?

I'm really close to ordering the SilenX 120mm fan and either a SilenX 60mm or the Polaris that Link mentioned in the above post at 3dcool.com. Has anyone actually used either of these fans by any chance? The SilenX ones seem to be amazing (other than their price, but we're not talking a huge investment here) from the specs.

The SilenX 60mm seems perfect, as long as 18cfm is enough for the procs. Opinions? The specs on the Polaris only say it goes up to like 30 cfm, not 38. Typo?

[swordfishx]

Hey all, I'm the guy that wrote this article;

http://www.g4noise.com/mods.php?ID=77&p=all

I did it because there are a lot of armchair quarterbacks out there that will tell what SHOULD work but have never done it. So this is the real deal.

NEW INFO:
SilentX is THE sh*t. I would definately recommend the 60mm high cfm version as a replacement for your CPU fan. They are the best option, and I've tried about 3 fans (Panaflo etc.).

The 60mm fan option is a tricky trial and error mounting job. I got the quietest result by only using 3 out of 4 screws. Results may vary...

--------------
For the 120mm, I've finally decided that the aluminum Evercool slowed down with a speed switch is the best (see the above article). It's quietest, with best case temp.

--------------
I've also tried this:

http://www.quietpc.ca/acb/showdetl.c...D=244&CATID=34

and my machine just ran hotter and not really quieter. No advantage. Don't do it.

--------------
And this stuff does make a small difference:

http://www.bigfootcomputers.com/Merc...egory_Code=335

What I did was pull the outside panels and line them with PaxMate, as well as lots of interior surfaces. It makes a little difference, but I'll warn you - the door side of the case requires you to pull the CPU to get at the panel clips in the middle. This can be a little scary. Make sure to use some thermal grease between the chip and heatsink when you replace.

--------------
What is useful is to use some kind of textured foam on the wall behind your computer - even that cheap stuff you use for camping or shipping will make a noticable difference. What you want to do is redirect and suck up some of that powersupply exhaust & noise.

ALSO:
Barracuda series Seagate drives are a great idea for lower noise. You may also want to get a fanless graphic card like the ATI 9000 Pro as well.
If you want to really go for it, use rubber spacers between every metal connector in the case - use them to mount the 120mm fan, between the fan bracket and the case wall. Small improvement, but maybe worth it to you.

NEXT:
I'm considering building a "baffle" to sit on the back end of the case. The idea is to make the air (and noise) take a couple turns after leaving the case. I'm considering using textured foam and acoustical ceiling panels. It should work(?)

- Sean

[AC Rempt]

Sean,

Thanks for writing the article, man. Made my machine a lot quieter.

[digiology2]

I found this link
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx...var1=82&var2=0

It would be easier to replace the whole power supply and those ones are quiet, what requirements would I need (RPM, power, size ect)? Anyone know if the ZM300A-APF would be suitable? Its only 20dB!

[fc_]

Originally posted by digiology2:
I found this link
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx...var1=82&var2=0

It would be easier to replace the whole power supply and those ones are quiet, what requirements would I need (RPM, power, size ect)? Anyone know if the ZM300A-APF would be suitable? Its only 20dB!

Nope, won't work. Macintosh Power Supplies are a much different beast than atx power supplies. The voltage and connectors would be plain wrong to work with your mac, not to mention you'd have to mod the case to even attempt to get it in.

[neoblanc]

Hi, I have G4 533 Dual/ 1.25G Ram / OS X.3.3
I want to replace all 3 fans inside my computer with the ones from
SilenX series, probably with their higher CFM version.
I was wondering if it's okay, on heat issues mostly.
swordfishx said 60mm for CPU fan is good. Can I safely use their
120mm and 80mm for case and PSU accordingly?
I don't know how much CFM is needed in order to safely run
computer without having crashes. SilenX fans do have very low, I think
lowest of all fans I have seen on the net, but their CFM numbers are
very low.
I have 5 internal HDs, so heat is an issue, but can't stand the noise
it has been creating recently. I think its mainly from the case fan,
but it would be cool to have very silent computer.
Anyways, any comment or help would be greatly appreciated.
I will for sure post my results after all is done.

[Link]

SilenX might be the ****, and I might be an armchair quarterback.. but 18cfm for a case fan where the other one does up to 30cfm... (10-30CFM at 20-44dBA)...

OTOH, that silenx fan is only 16dBA at 18cfm. The Polaris fan sorta takes off where the silenx took off, and this difference is REALLY only going to help you in say, a dual processor machine where the heat produced is much higher than in a single processor machine.

[digiology2]

Hi, I finally got around to changing my 120mm fan and cutting out the finger guards.
Its strange, there is an extra cable going from the fan (an alternative power interface maybe?) anyway I dont have it connected and it seems to be working fine.
It took ages to get to the finger guards on the power source and after all that my wire cutters wouldn't cut through them. Instead I cut the outside ones off (the plastic ones). This requires absolutely no effort. So anyone looking to reduce noise and is too lazy to mess around with the inside just cut off the outter finger guard.

Thanks for all the help, my machine is now a bit more tolerable.....

[mbanks]

I figured I'd wait a while before posting to make sure things were working without issue...

I bought SilenX fans and replaced all three internal fans on my 533DP Digital Audio G4 back in late August, and couldn't be happier. Yes, it was like $50 for the whole thing, but considering how much we still use this thing, its worth it. I got the most "powerful" fans - 120mm 14dBA, 80mm 14dBA, and 60mm 16dBA - that they made from 3dcool.com.

Installation wasn't really "easy" per se, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The power supply fan was by far the most difficult. That took me probably a half-hour. I also ended up powering the case 120mm and the 60mm proc fan off the molex connectors. I had a bunch of adapters, but none worked really well. However, after the initial disappointment of not having everything work perfectly, I'm quite happy with how well it works.

As to heat, well, that could be the bad news. The air coming out of the power supply is warm. Not hot, but warm. In a room that is 70�, I put a thermometer just next to the ps exhaust, and it's at 79�. In winter, that's not a big deal. However, in summer when I have this room at 76-78�, that could cause a problem. We'll see I guess.

The thing isn't really "silent", but it's SOOOO much better than it was. It makes about the same amount of noise as the Dell SC420 (yes, I know, I still feel like I need to shower a month after buying it, but if its any consolation, its running Solaris), which is typically considered to be a pretty quiet box in its own right. I have no way of measuring the noise, but its definitely quiet enough to sleep in this room now with the computer(s) on.

Oh, and for the record, I have two internal drives in addition to my LG Combo drive.

[Link]

Thought I might as well dump this on ya, I know I didn't see it, and it was before one of my other posts.. but on the QS and DA (I believe), the big fan exhausts, and the CPU fan is the only one that brings in air.

I tried reversing it, but all the air just hits the video card and does no good for anything. IN the older machines, that's where the processor heatsink was.

[Skip Breakfast]

While we're at it, is the 120mm fan on the Gigabit models an intake or exhaust?

[Link]

I think it depends on the machine. Generally on the ones with the processor (and heatsink) at the middleof the board, the fan is an intake -- on the ones with the processor at the top of the machine, the fan is an enhaust.

[IFLY2HIGH]

I have a dual 1.0 ghz g4 quicksilver. Upon my recent cleaning the dust out of the machine, I cut the fan guards on the PS off, didn't notice any sound difference, but I know it's gona help flow out more. I also removed both mounting brackets from the PS so only the 3 screws on the rear hold it in, no more entire dissasembly of the unit to clean out the PS unit. I also removed the bay carrage up front of the case, two screws under the case and then you can flop the cabes up and open more vents that lay along the back bottom of the case. You can also remove the middle bay carrage and open up some more vents. If your like me, your not using them anyway unless you have 4 drives in you computer, and with them removed you open some better air flow or at least vents that you could with batter fans suck cooler air inside.

I recently added a 300 gig drive and I watched my temps rise. I bought a long ata cable and mounted the 300 gig drive that ran constantly at 120 degrees " F " to the upper dual HD caddy, and then installed my other drive to the middle carrage, and use the longer ata cable routed around carefully. I dropped the temps to where when in full use the drive peaks out around 110 or so, but will tremdously drop in temp to even 80-90 now when sitting idel where it never droped below 105. You can get temp monitor software for your HD's as long as they have that S.M.A.R.T. stuff, most do now anyway I have a few that don't but you can read the temps at least.

On another note, has anyone tried removing the big 120 mm fan above the dual HD caddy and installed a slot fan in the lowest slot and block off the rear air holes to pull air from the front of the case where the cooling holes are, suck cooler air right in and around and out the back? I bet that would lower temps in itself overall, and the cooler air can get passed through the cpu sink as it's fan blow's it's air out the back. I personally don't see what that big 120 fan really does, but I havn't gotten my parts yet to try my other theory.

[mbanks]

I'm 99% sure that my DA (533DP) had the stock 120mm fan blowing IN. (I'm 100% sure my SilenX does now.) I wondered what the logic was on the 120mm fan being the way that it was, but it seems to make sense if that's where the procs formerly were located.

So, on mine, the proc and the CPU fan blow in. The 120mm could probably be reversed, but I remember thinking "huh, this blows in, that's weird." The video card does block air a bit, but the only thing its blocking is the processor heat sync, and that's all covered with the plastic airdam for the 60mm fan airflow. So I don't think there is any loss there. It does keep my hard drive just below the 120mm fan cool. Looking at the SMART readouts, my IBM drive there doesn't get much above 102� under full load whereas my Maxtor below the CD drive has gotten up to 110�. Sitting here idle, the IBM bounces back and forth between 98.6 and 100.4, whereas the Maxtor is going between 102 and 104. Both ranges are acceptable to me, so I'm not complaining.

So, maybe one of these days I'll switch the 120 just to see what happens, but as is, I'm good.

Originally posted by Link:
Thought I might as well dump this on ya, I know I didn't see it, and it was before one of my other posts.. but on the QS and DA (I believe), the big fan exhausts, and the CPU fan is the only one that brings in air.

I tried reversing it, but all the air just hits the video card and does no good for anything. IN the older machines, that's where the processor heatsink was.

[spiky_dog]

Originally posted by stuffedmonkey:
I got the fan from siliconacoustics.com - and I plugged it into one of the spare ide (aka molex) power connectors, not the small plug that was on the first fan.

Here is the fan in it's orange goodness: http://www.siliconacoustics.com/nexu...-case-fan.html

i just replaced the case fan in my quicksilver 2002 with the 120mm nexus model linked above. the swap, along with removing the two inside screws on the cpu fan shroud and cleaning all the garbage off of that fan (whose quiet replacement is in the mail), the heatsink, and the outside cpu grille, has made the noise of the hard drives noticeable. i already had cut off the grille for the 120mm and the outside grille of the power supply fan, and took the opportunity to snip through the plastic at the rear of the case fan duct today.

[digiology2]

Well i know this thread is a blast from the past but I decided to go and replace m the fan on the cpu with a panaflo "low" fan that Ac Rempt suggested. I found a site that has two different fans:
Panaflo 60mm LOW, and
Panaflo 60mm BX LOW

is this the right one?:
http://www.shoprbc.com/ca/shop/produ...d=7149&cid=329

spank you all!

[MORT A POTTY]

I've cut the metal grille off my PSU fan and that did make quite a bit of difference... but I have a dual 1.8Ghz CPU upgrade, so that really is moot right now cause this thing is LOUD! I've also replaced the 120mm fan w/ a very VERY quiet (near silent) fan that gets as good or better airflow than the delta (IIRC) fan that originally came installed.

really, nothing else is going to matter though because the two 40mm fans on the dual 1.8Ghz GigaDesigns upgrade are VERY loud. it's definitely worth it though for the performance.

I'll say this though. replace the 120mm fan and cut off the metal finger guard in a quicksilver though. those two will help a lot.

[danman]

I took off the 40mm fans on the dual 1.8 GD upgrade and replaced it with an 80mm fan. No noise at all now plus the fan covers the whole heatsink for better cooling.

The 40mm fans suck. They are just way too loud and don't cover enough of the heatsink.

[winterlandia]

Ok, after reading this thread I was interested in seeing if I could quiet down my QS so I started unhooking fans. WOW my cpu fan just HOWLS. The other fans do a nice whooshing sound but that is white noise so I'm not terribly worried about that. I really want to get rid of that horrible whine though. I tried all the home remedies like removing the screws and covering the 'hole' on the top of fan shroud to no avail. So I think I'm going to replace it. I want as quiet as possible so I'm going to try the same thing mbanks did and see if I can get the quietest silenx fans out there. Question to those who have already done this, is this all I need or do I need to get something to convert the power connectors?

from 3dcool:

Item # Product Qty Price Total
91-1003 SilenX iXtrema 60mm 8dBA Case Fan $14.95
94-1002 SilenX iXtrema 120mm 11dBA Case Fan $24.95
Subtotal: $39.90
(I'm sure other places sell these too although froogle didn't come up with many alternatives-- any suggestions?)

[bossep]

Originally Posted by winterlandia

Ok, after reading this thread I was interested in seeing if I could quiet down my QS so I started unhooking fans. WOW my cpu fan just HOWLS. The other fans do a nice whooshing sound but that is white noise so I'm not terribly worried about that. I really want to get rid of that horrible whine though. I tried all the home remedies like removing the screws and covering the 'hole' on the top of fan shroud to no avail. So I think I'm going to replace it. I want as quiet as possible so I'm going to try the same thing mbanks did and see if I can get the quietest silenx fans out there. Question to those who have already done this, is this all I need or do I need to get something to convert the power connectors?

from 3dcool:

Item # Product Qty Price Total
91-1003 SilenX iXtrema 60mm 8dBA Case Fan $14.95
94-1002 SilenX iXtrema 120mm 11dBA Case Fan $24.95
Subtotal: $39.90
(I'm sure other places sell these too although froogle didn't come up with many alternatives-- any suggestions?)

I decided to mod my newly bought G4 DA 466MHz. I started by upgrading the cpu to a Sonnet 1.2GHz and the graphics card to an ATI9800Pro. Encourage by my success, I continued with the fans, after installing the new cpu and the new graphics card, I was sure the machine made more noise? I have so far installed a Vantec Stealth 120mm case fan, and a Papst 80mm PSU-fan. I am not sure if the noise has been reduced? The temperature has gone up from 38°C to 48-51°C.
I am now thinking of replacing the stock fan on the ATI9800Pro by a Arctic Cooling. I have read and been told that AC is nearly silent and really works. I am also into replacing the stock fan on the CPU, perhaps a Papst 60mm? Any suggestions out from experience?
The big issue was to replace the PSU-fan. That was hell on earth!! =(=(
I was warned about how extremely dangerous it was due to high voltage. I am lucky to have small hands (and fingers), and used to build modell ships. The big problem was the power connector! My old fan was a 2 pin, and the new one is a 3 pin. I have temporarily solved it by connected it by a 3 pin to 4 pin adapter to the power supply for hard drives. I simply can't find any 2 pin to 3 pin adapter.

[powertrippin]

This seems like a good place for the questions:

G4 fan size. I have a quicksilver, and the big case fan is 120mm....but what about the fairly small 'intake' fa with the rubber surround? How big is that one? How big is the power supply fan?

[bossep]

Originally Posted by powertrippin

This seems like a good place for the questions:

G4 fan size. I have a quicksilver, and the big case fan is 120mm....but what about the fairly small 'intake' fa with the rubber surround? How big is that one? How big is the power supply fan?

I can't answer you, as my Digital Audio and your Quicksilver doesn't look the same, I think? My PSU-fan is 80mm. The replacement of that one was a hard one, what to keep my fingers away from, what really not get in contact with and so on. Next up is my ATI-fan. I may also replace my new Vantec case fan, as it doesn't seem to push much air in to the case.