Quicksilver Thread!

[AlphaMac]

@refinery: Quiet out-of-the-box is one thing, how long it sustains at the same dBA level is another. The chart below compares the noise increase of Sunon's MagLev tech to general fans. Any new fan will sound great out of the box because it's balanced with minimal bearing friction. But after 10,000 hours it might be 50% than the original dBA rating due to mechanical erosion.

For someone like me that wants durability as opposed to the lowest noise reduction, what they want is sustainable anti-vibration.

[refinery]

well for what its worth, the noctuas in my hackintosh are at least 4 years old at this point and ive never noticed any noise increase in that time. whichever you end up choosing im sure it will be a great improvement over whats in there now.

[AlphaMac]

So for the case fan I decided to go with Noiseblocker's NB-eLoop B14-3 (140mmx29mm, 1400rpm, 104.9CFM, 28.5dBA).

Why I choose this fan..

Size: With a small mod to the fan case being lowered about 1/2", a 140mm fan can fit nicely in the steel case. Larger blades means more CFM and with the extra space available I figured 140mm was a better bet. I didn't want to substitute air flow for less noise. Also the specs above are rated at 13.8v (max) so at 12v I expect a CFM around the mid-to-lower 90s. With the extra CFM I can even add dust filters around the unit, which is really what kills the bearings on fans.

Anti-Vibration: One of the first things I noticed when studying the interior of my G4 was the transfer of noise and vibration. It was noticeably since my fans were worn and noisy. I knew right away that noise could greatly be reduced by using rubber materials. Noiseblocker fans are designed with a the right materials and mounts for reducing the transfer of vibration. If you listen to youtube vids comparing Noiseblocker to other fans, you'll notice less tabletop noise from the anti-vibration design.

I don't doubt the performance of any other premium fans. I choose this fan for my purpose being in a studio with lots of heat generated from vintage tube amps and other high-powered gear.

I had few errors on my spreadsheet. Below is the updated table. Next is the CPU and PSU fan.

[AlphaMac]

I got the Noiseblocker on the bench. This fan is moving quite a bit of air. Good quality. While I was tinkering around I noticed that if the suction side of the fan is obstructed (I used my hand) it creates more noise like a vacuum, whereas when it's obstructed on the blowing side the noise level stays the same or even dampens a bit. So I won't be installing it in the steel case mount. Just thought I'd share that for anyone considering this fan.

[AlphaMac]

Here she is installed. Just humming along nice and quiet. There's still wind noise though since this fan's CFM is fairly high compared to what many might choose, but a big difference from the old fan setup. That steel fan case has no purpose in these units other than a safety feature. It just adds suction noise. Take it out IMO.

[IIO]

Thanks Mardeec.

OWC is my first choice but now I need to know if a 250GB drive will work on my system, or at least read 120GB. I just want to make sure before I buy it. They've sold out of 120GB, yet the 250GB is around the same price. Seems like a waste of space to buy 250GB.

all 733s here in europe should only support 127 gb. but there might be other models which do have an 48 controller. (

similar issue with the dual 1.0, there is one series with and one series without)

using a bigger drive is not a problem. the rest will just not be used.

whats your budget? have you thought about SATA?

[DieHard]

Thanks for the pictures

That is one sexy looking fan and I may give it a try in one of my QS

From one of my previous posts:

My favorite Quicksilver PS fan replacement is an IXTREMA 80 Pro series, sku# IXP-54-14T by Silenx

It rates as super quiet (max 14db) and Pretty good CFM at 32cfm
Best airflow to noise ratio

Just in case one wants to try the PS also

[AlphaMac]

In reference to Reply#9: If you plan to drill out larger holes I suggest to only drill the side fan grill along with the holes on the bottom. That's all you need. Does it make a difference? From my observation yes. I'd say you'll get 15-20% more air flowing out. What's unique about the Noiseblocker is that it chops up the air so it disperses more diagonally as opposed to straight. It's very ideal for optimizing air outflow, but I wouldn't use it as a CPU/PSU fan. That's where Noctua's focused flow fans might be better, or SilenX.

Here's an image showing how it was mounted on the side. I had to line up and drill the holes.




And here's a little trick if you need to pop the side panel off frequently. Add a small hose clap on the center clip and adjust the tightness so you can clip it off easily by hand from inside. The thing was driving me nuts while testing the acoustics of the panel.




The NB-eLoop B14-3 (140mm) is pushing more air than I expected. I'm testing out different resistors on the negative terminal to slow it down. Right now it seems 20 ohms is the optimal resistance and it's running at about 8.7v.  I need some recommendations for the right resistor wattage and whether I should put a fuse in. Any recommendations?


With the resistor setting the 800mhz super quite now even with the panel off (the side panel isolates a lot of noise), yet when I feel the air flow with my hand compared side-by-side to the Sensflow in the 733mhz, it feels about 1.5-2 times greater. The key is the larger 140mm fan blades that push more air. By sizing up your fan you automatically get more air flow with less dBA.

I wouldn't suggest this size fan unless you plan to mod it with some resisters to slow it down to preference. If you want a plug and play fan try something else. If you want optimal air flow with the least noise, than consider it.

@DieHard I'm looking at the SilenX, but beforehand I want to figure out how to get the PSU dustproof while optimizing airflow. The excess airflow from NB-eLoop B14-3 might allow me to add dust filters in certain areas. 

@IIO I'd like to go SATA but it's hard to find the PCI cards. I'd prefer an internal/external card. I might go IDE until I find something.

[macStuff]

if u want a pci card for sata contact max1zz on this site and he can make you one from a sil3112 card
requires soldering a new rom chip on the card + flashing it

[AlphaMac]

I snipped out the steel grill on the PSU case. It creates a bit of noise and slows the fan down a bit. It's useless. The outer plastic grill is good enough.



@macStuff Thanks. I'll check it out. But I did read a post about it having some problems on 2001 QS.

[macStuff]

hmm ok you may be right there as i have a 2002 quicksilver i think, and mine has never had a problem with it but i do recall reading that some had an issue with it working properly on a QS.
mines a 933mhz. i have a number of the pci cards myself; and they do offer much improved performance over the built in disk controllers.
so much so that i would probably just circumvent by getting a different g4.  you could probably easily find a 2002 qs motherboard to replace the 2001 i would think?

[AlphaMac]

I purchased an OWC 250GB IDE-to-SSD for starters. I need a reliable setup right now and don't want to take any risks with a PCI card until I have it setup as a secondary drive and see it working properly.

Now I have to figure out how to migrate everything from HDD to SSD.

[AlphaMac]

Here's the OWC 250GB installed. It only sees 128GB. I'm not sure about the 'B' board theory. Unless I'm forgetting to do something.

It's a lot quieter and cooler now with the HDD out.

[DieHard]

You have to use the drive setup with 9.2.2 to get past 128GB

[AlphaMac]

@DieHard I'm on 9.2.2. I'm not sure what you mean by drive setup. Is it not just plug and play?

[DieHard]

Here she is. It's a B board. It was from a local seller. I drove as fast as I could when he told me it was a B board.

I just need to confirm if I can swap out this drive for my old drive. I read some posts online and it says this was only possible with OS9 as OSX and later versions need need to recognize hardware. Any thoughts

With the B Board and The apple Drive Setup version V2.1 (included with Mac OS 9.2.2) you should be able to see more than 128GB

[IIO]

Man that worked like a charm. I switched the drives and it fired right up with no problems.

Now I have to figure out what internal drives to install and whether to go PCI or IDE.

PCI would of course include an upgrade to a controller which can see bigger drives, with SATA up to 2TB.

[AlphaMac]

@DieHard It only sees 128GB. I'm running 9.2.2 and using Drive Setup V2.1. In the Apple System Profiler it reads size as 137.42GB and capacity at 128GB.

@IIO It's hard to find compatible PCI cards. I'll have to keep looking at snipe one where I can.

----

I went with the Noiseblocker M8-3 NB-Multiframe for the PSU fan. This fan met my criteria best and has a rubber frame to reduce noise/vibrations. I felt it was needed for where it mounts on the PSU. There isn't many options.

With that extra PSU I have -- I'm going to try mounting the fan on the outside rear case so that it pushes air forward and out the rear port. It might be just as effective and keep more wind noise inside the box.

-AlphaMac

[DieHard]

@DieHard It only sees 128GB. I'm running 9.2.2 and using Drive Setup V2.1. In the Apple System Profiler it reads size as 137.42GB and capacity at 128GB.

Please give us the firmware version of your board... something is not making sense

[AlphaMac]

@DieHard My specs..