Noisy San Ace fans

[hellcamino]

Am I the only one unlucky enough to get the San Ace fans that buzz obnoxiously when undervolted?

So far I am 4:4 San Ace fans that buzz at 7v and under, 2 San Ace are louder than 6 Panaflo ultra high speeds at 5v ( the San Ace are the only audible fans in my pc). Is this a fluke or the norm? Admittedly the San Ace fans do seem to move more air but with a buzz I can hear from across the room!

[slim142]

I hear a buzz when I undervolt them too. I have the Sunbeam Rheobux Extreme and anything lower than 11:30 on the knob will make them go off (from what I can remember). They need the knob to be between 12:00 and 1:00 to start, but at 12:00 is when I hear the buzz and anything higher than that is kinda loud.

I will give them one last chance when I start putting them in (4 of them) in my rad, if they prove to be loud from the distance Im going to be using the PC, I will just go get some Yates and sell my San Aces.

Btw, this is with 109H1212R1011

[Sadasius]

The reason for that is that they are not supposed to be undervolted to 5v. Their range is from 6v to 13v. Keep it in that range and the buzzing will go away. I don't find they undervolt that well without a buzzing myself. But they are awesome fans especially for rads and open air for a case. I would not recommend them however if you wish silence. They are made for performance.

[silverphoenix]

what were you guys using to undervolt? because I get some slight clicky sounds if I use my sunbeam rheobus which from what I remember uses an Op-Amp and PWM to control the fan. When I manually wire the fans up to 5V or 7V or use a real rheostat they are as smooth as silk.

[Gunlance]

I'm glad I'm not imagining things. I swear my medium speed panaflos undervolt better and are quiter than my new san aces. I have them on a sunbeam extreme. I'm going to a real rheostat and if that doesn't work then I will have very expensive fans sitting in a box.

[Hondacity]

anything mechanical will deteriorate...

just my two cents

[Vapor]

I've had my experience with a bad San Ace as well (an M102, but point still stands)....the noise a bad one can make is about as bad as any :shakes:

The majority of mine undervolt cleanly to 5V though, maybe I'm lucky :shrug:

[slim142]

I have two from Petras and two that I got from a user in here. I thought it was maybe defective fans or older models, but even the Petras fans give that annoying buzz sound.

Like I said, I will test them again soon (last test was done a month ago) and I will see.

[Vapor]

But to me they are without a doubt the most highly over rated fan in LC history.I totally agree...I still go with F3s, Yates, and S-Flex for my 24/7 systems. Even a good San Ace is only nominally better than another good fan, but much more expensive, much more fragile, and requires throttling to be noise levels I find acceptable.

Yes, I know it's my fault :(

[silverphoenix]

I totally agree...I still go with F3s, Yates, and S-Flex for my 24/7 systems. Even a good San Ace is only nominally better than another good fan, but much more expensive, much more fragile, and requires throttling to be noise levels I find acceptable.

Yes, I know it's my fault :(

lol it's had this weird built up hype recently, I've used san ace's for a while now(there used to be guys in [H] that would buy large batches and sell them) and I remember loving the way they undervolted when I first got them a few years ago. Then I scored a bunch from a member here for $10 shipped each. If it was more than that I probably would have gone with the F3's, yates.

All of mine can undervolt to 5V smoothly and can probably go lower too, the only other fans I've had that run perfectly smooth super low were a pair of deltas I had, but the 38mm san's are perfect for me, I love the extra pressure the thicker fans give and due to the ball bearings they use I can mount em any way I want.

-edit I think a big factor in here is that the majority of San Ace's are used from servers, and probably been used heavily.

[Adamantine]

All the Vantec Tornado's, Sunon, Panaflo's and Silverstone Super High speed fans (with the lowest dBA around 40 and up to like 55) that I used to use with air cooling would all make a weird buzzing sound when I'd undervolt them and they'd end up being louder than a normal low speed fan. With a very unscientific feel test, the air they'd push would feel about the same too. I don't remember if they could be heard from across the room though.

[babalouj]

I have owned many SA 1011 fans over the years. The only clicking I have every experienced came from PWM fan controllers. Traditional linear regulator controllers I built did not produce the clicking noise but suffer from low torque at lower voltages (~5V) so they stop spinning at a higher voltage than the PWM controllers. I was able to get my 1011s to a nice quiet speed while still pushing a good amount of air.

[hellcamino]

Well in my case I was wiring the fans manualy, performance was good but buzzing was bad. They still buzzed at 7v, they were bought new from Petra's and given to me by a friend as leftovers after I finished his build, inside his case, sandwiched between two feser rads the other two San Ace fans are nearly inaudible.

I wondered if I was the only one to get buzzing San Ace fans and now I know lol, I ordered another pair of Panaflo ultra high speeds to replace the noisy buggers.

[Utnorris]

I use San Ace fans and have so for about nine months. I have wired them in the past directly at 5v and now have them running through a Sunbeam rheobus 4 channel, in fact I have 3 of them wired up on one channel alone. I agree they are not extremely quiet compared to other fans, but they move way more air than other fans. I have not run into this "buzzing" issue some have spoken about. Of course, my fans were pulled from servers and had been running at 12v for a few years, maybe that is what the difference is, they need to be broken in, just a thought. Just run them at full blast for a few years and then see if they make a buzzing sound. :D

[hellcamino]

LOL! They sound like a wind tunnel at 12v! I don't know what I am going to do with them now, after I put the new Panaflo's on I will probably just chuck them in a box for a future build where running them at 12v is acceptable.

[hellcamino]

Yeah I would run mine in the garage for a week or so at 12v if I thought it would help but I think my neighbors would complain about the noise...

[Serpentarius]

if you don't mind, taking part of the fan .... you could dissamble it and apply some grease (or vaseline) to the joints ..
test and try ... when i was noob in pc .. i used to clean up the pc by wiping the fans clean .. including their grease! sweat;

[hellcamino]

if you don't mind, taking part of the fan .... you could dissamble it and apply some grease (or vaseline) to the joints ..
test and try ... when i was noob in pc .. i used to clean up the pc by wiping the fans clean .. including their grease! sweat;

If I was a nOOb I might have made the same mistake but as I am not ...I didn't. These are new fans from Petra's tech (not knocking Petra here they are my preferred place to buy from) that I removed from the packaging, test spun by hand to look/feel for any hitching in the bearing (orother obvious issues) and then installed on a radiator. I first ran them at 12v then 7v and finally 5v, they do get quieter at lower voltage but they buzz like a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:.

[Serpentarius]

i see .. then don't undervolt it to it's limit ...

i'm not sure bout electrics ... but i'll try to help
the buzzing sound is the sound of the electric buzzing .. normally occurs on the switching transformer winding where slight leakage occurs ..
i dont know if fans has switching current .. i cant read the electronic schematics

[ecidious]

Mine undervolt very well with a direct feed from the 5v line but I sent back the lamptron FC-2 which made the fans click horribly at anything other than full speed.

I think I'm going to piggyback a resistor on a switch to have the 12v line from my current switch be either 12v or 9v to give me some extra range on the fans.

[BDW88]

I got 6 of them running at 5v and no clicking sounds whatsoever, I also had them on a Lamptron FC-2 like Ecidious and the sound was horrible.

Sans+PWM equals a no go.

[Bobly]

+1 for ZM-F3's here, serious bang for the buck fans if Y/L aren't available, however I'll probably go with S-FLEX fans if I need some horizontally.

[0xdeadbeef]

They work great powered by a bigNG and miniNG. Completely silence at 5v. This works only with analogue power though, if I switch to PWM they click like crazy all they way up to 12v.

*edit* I got my San Aces from Petras, the shipment that arrived august last year.

[hellcamino]

Mine are from the most recent shipment to Petra's as well, 5-7v direct from the psu and they buzz, at 12v they just scream normally.

[Marin]

I got mine from Petras most recent shipment (I think it was November, around Thanksgiving). Anyways, all three of mine don't make any buzzing sound when undervolted, and I'm using them on a Sunbeam Rheobus. So, that's pretty weird imo.

[slim142]

Lucky then, I guess

[Petra]

what were you guys using to undervolt? because I get some slight clicky sounds if I use my sunbeam rheobus which from what I remember uses an Op-Amp and PWM to control the fan. When I manually wire the fans up to 5V or 7V or use a real rheostat they are as smooth as silk.

Further investigation into the rheobus: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3419673&postcount=62

Conclusions: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3420334&postcount=63

There's no PWM going on.

Anyway, the San Aces are powerful fans without being obscenely loud, yes... (the crown for obscenely loud is still held by Delta, as far as I'm concerned). However, they are far from quiet (or even pleasant) when undervolted or run at full speed. Those claiming these fans to be silent are either deaf or live at construction sites--this has always been the case. :rolleyes:

For reference, I consider a few Scythe S-Flex "F" fans (the 800RPM ones) in a case to be 'quiet' but certainly not silent.

[Sadasius]

I don't know what it is but I like my San Aces at full speed. They have some noise but it's the kind of noise that does not seem to bother me. Delta's on the other hand makes my skin want to crawl off. Only like to use those when I don't have a ride to work and can ride my computer in...:rofl: