Axe-Fx II fan

i mean, is it REALLY REALLY necessary to change the fan on the 1st gen axe-fx II? I was told that the Mark II has a better fan so it did make me research this and see whether i'm fine with the stock (regardless of noise) or replace it with a new and better one for better air circulation. Again, is it REALLY REALLY necessary to change the fan?
 
I'm reluctant to spin this thread up again, but here goes...

When I received my AXE I noticed the unit was noisy. My wife even made a comment (without prompting). The sound was more of a vibration or a "drone". The lid (where the fan is mounted) vibrated. It was noticeable (and annoying) in my practice space. I ended up replacing the fan with another one from FAS and all is well. Mounting the AXE in a rack case helped too.

After reading the "noisy fan" threads, it looks like most of the people that have an issue with fan noise are recording in a home studio where the AXE is located. It doesn't appear live use is an issue, and I wouldn't expect it to be. YMMV.
 
I have a pretty noisy fan on mine. I actually investigated and took the top panel off and connected the fan to my computer. Absolutely no noise then but when I screw the panel back on it starts to make a grinding noise. I know it doesn't hit anything but it seems that either because it's upside down or because of the panel being screwed on, something is making noise. For the record the Axe-Fx Standard I had w/ G66 fan replacement was much less noisy.

Should probably look into changing it but the Axe-Fx 2 fan is a pretty thin one so can be harder to find.

That said the cooling on the Axe-Fx is kinda strange as there are no proper vents for air to get out (I'm guessing it just gets out from cracks in the panels and whatnot?) and the CPU heatsinks are miserably small. You'd think a bigger heatsink combined with a slow spinning fan with a vent to exhaust the air would've been a much better choice.
 
Grinding is a fan bearing issue. We see that alot on computers here at work, but not after many years of service.

The lack of vents was discussed in one of the other "fan" threads. I think the logic was to minimize dust accumulation inside the unit. If you've ever opened up a computer that has been sitting on the floor for a while, you know what I mean.

It's clear that Cliff has researched this entire topic, like everything else. I'll defer to his comments elsewhere on the forum.
 
DanielRigler said:
A question to all the fan-boys out there:
Is replacing the stock fan really that dangerous? I finally got hold of a US unit a few days ago, but the stock fan is way too loud for me. My gen1 unit was from G66, who replaced the stock one, so this loud noise is really bothering me. Currently I have a SilenX IXP-34-16 fan in my AxeII unit. It has a noticeably lower air-flow, but I wonder if it is sufficient to operate the unit in not-so-extreme conditions (at home). I understand that the official safe answer from FAS is a definite NO, but I would like to hear more opinions. Anybody measured the temperature of the DSPs using different fans? What temperature is too high? How does temperature affect the hardware? Can someone recommend me a quiet, but higher airflow fan instead of the SilenX?
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My stock fan became more and more noisy. G66 sent me a new silenX for replacement. What a difference !!! Excellent customer service :)
I too noticed that airflow seemed to be lower with the silenX than the stock fan....but G66 assured me it was ok.
The fan is actually not that close to the cpu's...not like a traditional PC cpu-cooler. So maybe not much cooling is required and the fan is mostly for preventing build-up of stagnant air just around the cpu's?
 
zander said:
The lack of vents was discussed in one of the other "fan" threads. I think the logic was to minimize dust accumulation inside the unit. If you've ever opened up a computer that has been sitting on the floor for a while, you know what I mean.
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My Axe-FX 2 is a year old. I recently opened it up to install a replacement fan and it's incredibly clean inside. I had no urge to blow the dust out like I do anytime I open my computer.

Terry.
 
Tone Seeker said:
My Axe-FX 2 is a year old. I recently opened it up to install a replacement fan and it's incredibly clean inside. I had no urge to blow the dust out like I do anytime I open my computer.

Terry.
Click to expand...

It's a thing of beauty isn't it?

I'm not a hardware guy but the layout looks very clean, with none of the external connections soldered direct to the main board. Nothing like the lower end Dell computers I've seen.
 
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