New Cooling Fan in Axe II

joe1871

joe1871

Inspired
Hi,

I am sure this has been discussed and hashed out many times, but I wanted to let you all know a good way to quiet down your Axe II. I know the only moving part in the whole thing is the cooling fan, so I decided to upgrade the very cheesy fan that came with the Axe to this model:

Amazon.com: Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe M8-S1 80mm x 25mm Ultra Silent Fan - 1200 RPM - 6 dBA: Computers & Accessories

That fan has a tremendous rubberized housing and is essentially noiseless. I am sure it is making a noise, but I can't hear it. It makes a huge difference in my studio. My PC and now my Axe both have these noiseless fans. It makes sitting in there much nicer... I don't know about warranty voiding or whatever, but I couldn't live with that rattle any longer. I am also in the porocess of moving everything off of my PC to my new Mac laptop - it is the new 15" MabBook retina with SSD. It is also just about completely noiseless. Shhhhh.... I also work from home in this room, so I will be falling asleep much easier now,..


Just an FYI in case you were considering it. As I said, I don' know about the warranty, but it definitely quiets it down.

Joe
 
Interesting…
Where you suffering from a noticeable noise, was it that loud ?
My AxeII is in a rack-bag on top of my cabs, something like 2m from where I sit in my studio, I never felt or noticed its fan noise that much.
Maybe too much distortion lately made me deaf :D
 
Roadrunner said:
Interesting…
Where you suffering from a noticeable noise, was it that loud ?
My AxeII is in a rack-bag on top of my cabs, something like 2m from where I sit in my studio, I never felt or noticed its fan noise that much.
Maybe too much distortion lately made me deaf :D
Click to expand...

Yeah I dont notice mine at all...
 
Roadrunner said:
Interesting…
Where you suffering from a noticeable noise, was it that loud ?
My AxeII is in a rack-bag on top of my cabs, something like 2m from where I sit in my studio, I never felt or noticed its fan noise that much.
Maybe too much distortion lately made me deaf :D
Click to expand...


yeah - I was getting a lot of fan noise. I had the box sitting on a desktop. You could really hear a difference when I turned it off, especially after having been in the room all day. I have all my gear except my power amps on a single switch. Normally I just turn everything on - leave the switch on the device in the on position and just use the rack switch. It was really something when I turned off the Axe prior to the fan upgrade. Now you cant hear it at all. I got the idea from this board. There is a pretty significant history of this being an issue.

Joe
 
tomc3084 said:
Yeah I dont notice mine at all...
Click to expand...

The 'older' Axe II fans were really noisy. The newer ones (not sure from which year/month) are much more quiet. Had mine replaced a year ago or so. Send for free by G66.
Think all Axe II's are shipped for a year or so with the newer style quiet fans. Not sure though.
 
Bodde said:
The 'older' Axe II fans were really noisy. The newer ones (not sure from which year/month) are much more quiet. Had mine replaced a year ago or so. Send for free by G66.
Think all Axe II's are shipped for a year or so with the newer style quiet fans. Not sure though.
Click to expand...

I got mine in mid-December 2012 from FAS and it was really noisy. The fan was pretty low quality. I didn't do an air flow comparison - don't have any spec on the old one, but side by side you can see the difference. THe new fan moves a lot more air.

JB
 
Everything is relative. When the Matrix GT1500 power amp is turned off here, the silence seems deafening, can't hear the Axe.

If anyone has suggestions for quieter fans for the Matrix amps...
 
symphx said:
does it meet the correct cooling power, whatever the tech terms are?
Click to expand...
That fan doesn't really cool the board....its mounted close to the top metal plate and just circulates air in the box......its not like on a computer where "fresh" air is sucked in the tower.
My Axe bought in December 2012 is quite noisy, enough to hear the difference when its on.....I will probably look at that fan too, Thank you!
 
When I first got mine in Sept '12, I had it on the desk. It was noisy. There was some vibration from the AXE case.

I replaced the fan with another from Fractal. That made a difference, but the biggest difference is when I put the AXE in a case.

::Greg
 
saturate68 said:
That fan doesn't really cool the board....its mounted close to the top metal plate and just circulates air in the box......its not like on a computer where "fresh" air is sucked in the tower.
My Axe bought in December 2012 is quite noisy, enough to hear the difference when its on.....I will probably look at that fan too, Thank you!
Click to expand...

Hey Saturate68,

First, you are very welcome. I put up the post for exactly this reason - to help anybody who was experiencing the same issue. The replacement makes an enormous difference. If you can grab the exact model in the link I posted above, it ia a direct drop in. The fan is oddly located. It sits directly above the two CPU chips on the main board, but it has no input vents of any kind. It basically just takes whatever air it can move using the small gap between it and the case top. I would have expected some type of venting. Regardless, it is four lock nuts and a direct swap. The new unit's frame is made of highly durable rubber of some type, and allows you to compress the mounting nuts a little further, giving even more space to get its input air. And of course it is whisper quiet. A big improvement!

I hope you can find a source for the fan on the continent. Bonne chance!

Joe
 
Sounds like a good idea.
Do you know how the specs (CFM) compare to the original.
Also, does this fan replacement void the warranty?

And yes, I'm in a studio and you can definitely hear it.
 
joe1871 said:
yeah - I was getting a lot of fan noise. I had the box sitting on a desktop. You could really hear a difference when I turned it off, especially after having been in the room all day. I have all my gear except my power amps on a single switch. Normally I just turn everything on - leave the switch on the device in the on position and just use the rack switch. It was really something when I turned off the Axe prior to the fan upgrade. Now you cant hear it at all. I got the idea from this board. There is a pretty significant history of this being an issue.

Joe
Click to expand...

The Axe's fan noise both from I and II has been always been an issue for me. It was the loudest device in my studio. Had to turn it off when listening to playback. I initially swapped mine out with a Silenz Ixtrema 60 (8dba/10 cfm) and don't much care whether it generates enough airflow or voids warranty. It was quiet and did not draw attention to itself and thats all that matters. Only problem is the reliability of the fan was poor. Mine started flaking after about 6 months with intermittent chattering indicating it was dieing so I just took off the top. I've left mine with the top off in the rack for weeks with no fan and it hardly heats up at all. Certainly nothing like a x86! Makes me wonder what the deal is with having a fan at all except perhaps when both dsps are maxed out for sustained periods and its in a rack with a power amp etc. Otherwise it looks like over engineering. I will probably look into the one suggested and put top back on. ;)
 
About the warranty...

I asked Tech Support about that, and they stated it was ok since they had a record of a replacement fan being sent to me. I would check with Fractal TS to be sure.
 
saturate68 said:
That fan doesn't really cool the board....its mounted close to the top metal plate and just circulates air in the box......
Click to expand...
No, it really does cool the board—specifically, it cools the CPU.


saturate68 said:
...its not like on a computer where "fresh" air is sucked in the tower.
Click to expand...
That's true: there is no air sucked into the cabinet. But there doesn't need to be. The fan pulls the heat off the chip and puts it into the air in the case. The case itself is large enough to dissipate that heat out into the world without vents. As Cliff said, you blow on your soup to cool it off. You don't need to open the window for that to work.


If you replace the fan, it's not just the airflow (CFM) you need to worry about; it's also the air velocity. A 6-inch fan rated at 20 CFM won't blow nearly as fast as a 1-inch fan with the same rating.
 
Just a heads up on this. The early AxeFXII's used a 60mm fan. That was a really noisy sucker and the later versions used an 80mm fan which is much quieter even though it's not quite silent. My point is that you need to make sure you know which one you have before you go to swap it out because an 80mm fan will not fit in the older one without some modifications.
 
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