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thingsthatgobump · Apr 1, 2006, 06:40 AM

Hi!

I just aquired a G4 466mhz (digital audio?) and would like to use it as a fileserver. Unfortunatly it's too loud for my taste, so I need to silence it first. I do have quite alot of experience from modding pc's, but since my experience from apple is just using a powerbook I was wondering if anybody has experience from a project like this?

From a quick look in the interiour, it seems to have two fans. One 120mm fan used for silencing the case, and a 80mm fan for the powersupply. I have some silent leftover fans from other projects, mainly some Panaflo L1A (80mm) fans I could use in the powersupply, and Nexus 120mm fans that I could use for the case...

Has anyone changed the powersupplies fan? My main concern is if there is some kind of sensor that could stop the machine from booting with a differant fan.

Tenacious Dyl · Apr 1, 2006, 11:30 AM

Hey kamina,
I am pretty sure you don't have anything to worry about. The power supplies are pretty generic, and there is doubtfully any sort of sensor that will know if you swap the fan. I've swapped fans in a lot of (non-apple though) power supplies lately, and have yet to run into trouble. They just run 12 v, (and usually about .16 A for that size) and whatever you put on the connector, it tries to power.

If you have an issue, it won't be the power supply fan, it will be the case. However, I still suspect that you won't have problems at all. Considering my G5 has booted and run fine with even 1 or 2 of its case fans not installed, and my 6800GT runs great with a newer quieter fan installed.

I say go for it... the worst case scenario would be your computer not turning on, and you would just have to swap the fans back out. I seriously doubt this would be the case though... Hope I could help! Let us know how it works, and how the sound / temp is affected!

thingsthatgobump · Apr 1, 2006, 11:48 AM

Thanks!

One reason I believe it won't run very hot, is that I tried the heatsink after running it for a while, and it was not hot at all... This is the slowest processor this model was sold with, so I guess that would work in my behalf too.

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g4-133.shtml

mountainash · Apr 2, 2006, 02:41 PM

Yeah, the earlier sawtoothes (sawteeth?) and gigabit e machines were much quieter. I guess they made all the digital audios loud even though the 733, 667 and dual 533 probably needed the extra cooling more than the lowly 466 and single 533.

Probably could run the fans at a lower speed, maybe with one of those fan speed knobs in a PCI slot, or something.

You also need to consider the extra heat generated if you install more drives, or SCSI (some SCSI drives get _very_ hot).

But there are nicer fans available. Mod away!

kavka99 · Apr 2, 2006, 04:44 PM

This link might help:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G4ZONE/G4_fan_noise.html

thingsthatgobump · Apr 3, 2006, 03:17 AM

Originally Posted by dolawren

This link might help:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G4ZONE/G4_fan_noise.html

Great link, thanks!

I'm at home with my sick kid today, hopefully I get to go to the office tomorrow and can start testing what happens with the silent fans.

The computer does not have scsi-drives, just 3 ide drives.

ReggieX · Apr 7, 2006, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by dolawren

This link might help:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G4ZONE/G4_fan_noise.html

Ah, I was looking for that link a few weeks ago when I put in my new Radeon 8500, thinking of a way to silent this Sawtooth. Time to go get some foam!

kavka99 · Apr 8, 2006, 07:51 AM

Always glad to help.

Good luck

D

galarneau · Apr 23, 2006, 06:26 PM

Any follow-up on this project?

thingsthatgobump · 03:27 AM

Heh... I was a bit busy at work, but just started looking at it again today. I have a nexus 120mm and panaflo 80mm fan sitting on the desk next to me (no camera though).

edit:

Changed the 12cm fan and it made quite a differance. The powersupplies fan is still clearly audible so it must go too...

thingsthatgobump · May 16, 2006, 03:52 AM

Well, it's finally finished.

I have now replaced the 12cm fan with an orange Nexus, and the powersupplies fan with an 80mm Panaflo L1A and removed the metal grill on the powersupply. I'll be watching the temps for a while, since both fans provide quite a bit less airflow then before, but right now (here at the office) I can't hear anything from the machine when it's closed. By putting my air right on the powersupplies exaust I can hear an extremly silent sound.

Next thing is to figure out how to silence the hardisk. My system drive is a 74GB 10000rpm Maxtor SCSI which is not as loud as it could be, but seeks are clearly audible.

Zubir · May 18, 2006, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by kamina

Well, it's finally finished.

I have now replaced the 12cm fan with an orange Nexus, and the powersupplies fan with an 80mm Panaflo L1A and removed the metal grill on the powersupply. I'll be watching the temps for a while, since both fans provide quite a bit less airflow then before, but right now (here at the office) I can't hear anything from the machine when it's closed. By putting my air right on the powersupplies exaust I can hear an extremly silent sound.

Next thing is to figure out how to silence the hardisk. My system drive is a 74GB 10000rpm Maxtor SCSI which is not as loud as it could be, but seeks are clearly audible.

You may want to mount an exhaust fan in the top of the case, especially if you upgrade the processor in the future. I put a Sonnet 1.4 in my DA 533, and developed heat issues, as the case isn't really designed to handle the heat from processors 3x to 4x faster than the OEM processor. I put an Antec 120mm Tri-cool as a blowhole in my case, and it's barely audible at the lowest setting.

thingsthatgobump · May 29, 2006, 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by Zubir

You may want to mount an exhaust fan in the top of the case, especially if you upgrade the processor in the future. I put a Sonnet 1.4 in my DA 533, and developed heat issues, as the case isn't really designed to handle the heat from processors 3x to 4x faster than the OEM processor. I put an Antec 120mm Tri-cool as a blowhole in my case, and it's barely audible at the lowest setting.

Well I think there is big differances with perception of sound, and ofcourse people have differant standards in sound. I just sold my pc away this weekend, and won't be getting another windows machine (ever I hope).

The pc was built in an Antec P180 case which is considered to be one of the most silent PC cases existing. It comes with 3 Tri-cool fans, which I had set at the lowest speed, and I was cooling the processor with a Thermaltake Big Typhoon that comes with a 120mm Yate Loon fan (same as the nexus). Powersupply was the most silent one available now, the Seasonic S12. At the office where I put it togeather it seemed inaudible, but when I took it home it seemed loud to me. I removed all the fans, blocked the holes and put one Nexus 120mm fan as an exaust (same kind I used for the G4). At full speed (12v) the nexus was a bit more silent then the Tri-cool at low setting, but still far too loud for me. I slowed both the processors and case fan down to 5v, and the computer became inaudible, even being in front of it you had to look at the light to know it's running.

Now that I took the G4 home for the weekend, I have to say I'm disapointed. It's way louder then the old machine was, which is ofcourse to be expected since the Nexus is at full speed (12v). The problem is, that since the computer does not support thermal monitoring, I don't have an easy way to verify what temp it's running at if I slow down the fan. I did try the heatsink after running folding at home for about an hour and it was cool to the touch, hardisks where warm though.

Is there some app that would allow monitoring the temps of the hardisks? Especially the system disk since it's a 10000rpm SCSI drive...

Once I get home I'm going to try disconnecting the drives to make sure they are not adding alot to the noise. I will also try stopping the case fan to verify which one is causing more noise. I think I've spoilt my wife with the old computer being so silent, her first reaction to this one was that "that noisy box is not staying in the apartment"...

Maby a new imac then...

Madferret · May 29, 2006, 11:15 AM

The main problem is all the apple fans are temperature sensative. If you get replacement fans, make sure they push enough air otherwise you're going to overheat.

james3 · Jun 11, 2006, 06:04 PM

The G4 apple power supplies are very puny, once your upgrades pile up (video card, hard drives, fast cd roms...) they start to operate at the bleeding edge of their capacity, get hot and turn their fans into jet engines. MY QS was fairly quiet with one HD, and stock video; with a 9800p, dual layer, scsi & usb cards plus a couple of extra drives the PS fans screamed. The only solution was to replace it with a PC 500W ATX supply.