[SOLVED] It is possible to 5V/7V mod this fan?

[donutcoffee]

I have this fan inside a hard drive enclosure. It is very loud and I want it to be less loud. I was thinking of putting something inside to increase friction and decreasing the speed, but I realized it was a stupid idea because it would wear out the fan.

It is possible for me to make it less loud by 5V or 7V modding it down from 12V? How would I do that?

 

[Alabalcho]

Something like this

 

[Karadjgne]

Several ways, and it's not difficult. Noctua has low/ultra low noise adapters, you plug them in infront of the fan connection.

You could always swap fans to another 13-15mm fan, Noctua or Prolimatech or Cryorig are about as quiet as they get.

Solder one of These inline after cutting the red wire.

 

[donutcoffee]

Several ways, and it's not difficult. Noctua has low/ultra low noise adapters, you plug them in infront of the fan connection.

You could always swap fans to another 13-15mm fan, Noctua or Prolimatech or Cryorig are about as quiet as they get.

Solder one of These inline after cutting the red wire.

Thanks, this looks really promising. However I am a complete noob at this and I'm not sure what I'm doing, so I would really appreciate some more help

1. I looked up the low noise adapter, from what I understand you plug them between the fan connection on the board and the fan connector as you said and it reduced the RPM of the fan, thereby reducing the noise produced. Most of the noise is because of the RPM (the enclosure it's in causes the loud noise as air flows through it) so this is perfect. However it looks like I can find only 4 pin adapters but I need a 2 pin one (xh 2.5). Do you know of any 2 pin adapters?

2. I was thinking of swapping the fan as well. I will look into those brands. I guess because of what I said earlier I'm mainly looking for something with a low CFM flow rate so the air flowing through doesn't sound like it's swooshing a lot.

3. What do you mean by cutting the red wire? I may have missed that part!

 

[donutcoffee]

Something like this

Looks cool, thanks. Sadly it might just be better to get a new fan at that price 😛

 

[CountMike]

I have this fan inside a hard drive enclosure. It is very loud and I want it to be less loud. I was thinking of putting something inside to increase friction and decreasing the speed, but I realized it was a stupid idea because it would wear out the fan.

It is possible for me to make it less loud by 5V or 7V modding it down from 12V? How would I do that?

Except for adjustable controllers, most of those adapters just use a resistors to lower voltage which in turn lower motor output power and air resistance does further job slowing fan down. Those are mostly 8-12 Ohm resistors. couple of Watts.
If connected to Molex connector without any control, you can connect them differently, Black + Yellow is 12v, Red and Black is 5v and Red + Yellow is about 7.5-9v.

 

[donutcoffee]

Except for adjustable controllers, most of those adapters just use a resistors to lower voltage which in turn lower motor output power and air resistance does further job slowing fan down. Those are mostly 8-12 Ohm resistors. couple of Watts.
If connected to Molex connector without any control, you can connect them differently, Black + Yellow is 12v, Red and Black is 5v and Red + Yellow is about 7.5-9v.

Oh really? That quite interesting. I'm presuming you mean that the resistor is connected in series with the fan. That sounds like a great idea if I could make sure that I'm doing it right!

Also, about your comment about the Molex connect, I'm not sure. Since both the connectors on the motherboard and the fan connector is a two-pin connector (xh2.54 I believe), I only have black and red (or something like that)

 

[CountMike]

Oh really? That quite interesting. I'm presuming you mean that the resistor is connected in series with the fan. That sounds like a great idea if I could make sure that I'm doing it right!

Also, about your comment about the Molex connect, I'm not sure. Since both the connectors on the motherboard and the fan connector is a two-pin connector (xh2.54 I believe), I only have black and red (or something like that)

Yes in series of course, remember Ohm's laws ? If on black lead it vill drop both 5 and 12v. if on 12V than voltage drops only on that lead. You can also use linear potentioner (like one for sound) with 0- about 20 OHMs and have continuous adjustment of 0 to max RPM. Only problem is that most fans won't even start with less than 5v.
Black (-) and Red (+) on fans connected to Molex Black and Yellow (+12VDC) = 12VDC.
Black and Red on Molex connected to Black and red on a fan = 5VDC
Yellow and RED on Molex connected to Black and Red on a fan = 7.5 to 9v depending on the load as it doesn't have reference voltage from Black lead.

 

[donutcoffee]

Yes in series of course, remember Ohm's laws ? If on black lead it vill drop both 5 and 12v. if on 12V than voltage drops only on that lead. You can also use linear potentioner (like one for sound) with 0- about 20 OHMs and have continuous adjustment of 0 to max RPM. Only problem is that most fans won't even start with less than 5v.
Black (-) and Red (+) on fans connected to Molex Black and Yellow (+12VDC) = 12VDC.
Black and Red on Molex connected to Black and red on a fan = 5VDC
Yellow and RED on Molex connected to Black and Red on a fan = 7.5 to 9v depending on the load as it doesn't have reference voltage from Black lead.

Yes, series, sounds about right to me. And yeah, sounds good. I think 5V is definitely low enough for me, so I don't mind that.

I don't have a black and red, I have a black and gray, so I presume the gray takes place of the red here. However, sadly, I don't think I can connect them differently since my Molex probably doesn't have a yellow (having only two ports...). I'll add pictures just to be clear on this, although I know that you know this already.

So I guess my only hope right now is to use a resistor. I presume that as Karadjgne suggested I should cut the red (gray) wire and then solder the resistor on. My fan has V=12 I=0.18 so R=~67 ohm, and so a 40 ohm resistor as linked should do the trick. Except I have no access to a soldering board at the moment, might need to figure that one out...

Update: actually this $1 resistor will cost as much as a new fan to ship. I think I'd rather snag a resistor back at my uni (and also find a soldering board...) when I get back. And meanwhile I'll look into some lower CFM fan options. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[CountMike]

Yes, series, sounds about right to me. And yeah, sounds good. I think 5V is definitely low enough for me, so I don't mind that.

I don't have a black and red, I have a black and gray, so I presume the gray takes place of the red here. However, sadly, I don't think I can connect them differently since my Molex probably doesn't have a yellow (having only two ports...). I'll add pictures just to be clear on this, although I know that you know this already.

So I guess my only hope right now is to use a resistor. I presume that as Karadjgne suggested I should cut the red (gray) wire and then solder the resistor on. My fan has V=12 I=0.18 so R=~67 ohm, and so a 40 ohm resistor as linked should do the trick. Except I have no access to a soldering board at the moment, might need to figure that one out...

Update: actually this $1 resistor will cost as much as a new fan to ship. I think I'd rather snag a resistor back at my uni (and also find a soldering board...) when I get back. And meanwhile I'll look into some lower CFM fan options. Thanks for the help everyone!

What are those fans for ?

 

[donutcoffee]

What are those fans for ?

It's from the head of this hard drive bay

 

[donutcoffee]

Several ways, and it's not difficult. Noctua has low/ultra low noise adapters, you plug them in infront of the fan connection.

You could always swap fans to another 13-15mm fan, Noctua or Prolimatech or Cryorig are about as quiet as they get.

Solder one of These inline after cutting the red wire.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though Noctua doesn't have anything thinner than 25mm, and the others don't have 80mm sizes

 

[Karadjgne]

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Bearing-Computer-Coolers/dp/B005C31GIA

Noctua has a 120mm x15mm fan (A12x15, I own 2 of them in my pc), most of the 15mm fans to be found are 120mm.

You'll find it impossible to find a direct replacement other than from the manufacturer. The issue isn't the fan itself, but the fact it is 2 wire, it's designed to just run and be voltage controlled if controlled at all, yet has no rpm tach wire. So by necessity, any replacement fan will have to be modified. You'll need to cut/splice the old 2 pin connector to the 3 pin wiring of the new fan, ground to ground, hot to hot and ignore the 3rd wire which does nothing but tell a pc how fast it is running.

Most inline resistors you'll find are the ¼-½watt variety, you need something a little higher to handle the amperage .

While this is a relatively easy fix, cut the wires of both fans in half, strip and solder and tape, to change the connector, or if you have the manual dexterity just re-pin the connectors, it's going to be somewhat harder than plug and play.

All work to change must be done between fan and board, can't mess with the power inputs (like molex) as that affects the drive as well.

 

[CountMike]

It's from the head of this hard drive bay

Stock, OEM Intel cooler fans are mostly of that size and round so with a bit of cleaning of outer shel would fit easier than normal case fans with all those appendages for mounting. Have a look at these. https://www.google.com/search?q=int...BAgJEAE&biw=1280&bih=635#imgrc=nLik-V08FttypM

 

[donutcoffee]

Stock, OEM Intel cooler fans are mostly of that size and round so with a bit of cleaning of outer shel would fit easier than normal case fans with all those appendages for mounting. Have a look at these. https://www.google.com/search?q=intel+stock+cooler&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ALeKk037LLKP50CcnAWLF1F36lZ5yX2CZw:1609781362473&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=jsCxH31xTPkPVM%2CmSZ6wfGV1sXFtM%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSWKlmyi5eaRDUP59gvPrEdYFaiOA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAnpry5oLuAhVC_SoKHTqWCgUQ9QF6BAgJEAE&biw=1280&bih=635#imgrc=nLik-V08FttypM

Cool idea! It might keep the top up a bit but that's definitely a possibility. Thanks for the info.

 

[donutcoffee]

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Bearing-Computer-Coolers/dp/B005C31GIA

Noctua has a 120mm x15mm fan (A12x15, I own 2 of them in my pc), most of the 15mm fans to be found are 120mm.

You'll find it impossible to find a direct replacement other than from the manufacturer. The issue isn't the fan itself, but the fact it is 2 wire, it's designed to just run and be voltage controlled if controlled at all, yet has no rpm tach wire. So by necessity, any replacement fan will have to be modified. You'll need to cut/splice the old 2 pin connector to the 3 pin wiring of the new fan, ground to ground, hot to hot and ignore the 3rd wire which does nothing but tell a pc how fast it is running.

Most inline resistors you'll find are the ¼-½watt variety, you need something a little higher to handle the amperage .

While this is a relatively easy fix, cut the wires of both fans in half, strip and solder and tape, to change the connector, or if you have the manual dexterity just re-pin the connectors, it's going to be somewhat harder than plug and play.

All work to change must be done between fan and board, can't mess with the power inputs (like molex) as that affects the drive as well.

Thanks for all the information, my dude! I'll see if I can try this out sometime and see how it goes.