Replacement fan for Axe-Fx II (original)

Brock

Brock

Experienced
I record in the same room my Axe is in and it's noisy enough that it disrupts recordings and is too loud even when I'm not recording. I know there are a lot of threads out there addressing this but everything I've seen seems to be old. I've build a high-powered PC that's just about dead silent (on par with my old nMP), so it seems to me this has to be possible.

What's the final verdict RE: replacing the noisy stock fan of the Axe-FX II? What's the best option for a replacement fan?
 
Depends on which fan they used in yours in the first place. I think they changed halfway through the Mark I? I've been meaning to crack mine for a while and look into a replacement. IIRC Fractal themselves can send a replacement out if you have the original loud fan.
 
The original Axe Fx II barely needed a fan in the first place - I think it's there more for insurance than anything else because the unit doesn't get hot. The main case isn't even ventilated, so it's questionable how much value a fan has in there anyway. In any event, if it were me (and I imagine at some point it will be), I'd be looking at the fans offered by Noctua. I can't remember what size the unit in the Axe is, but I think it's around 80mm, and if so this one should work. They're nice because they're quiet to the point where you could credibly call them 'silent', and use ceramic bearings so they have a MTBF of ~150,000 hours, which is over 17 years if you run them 24/7. Been using them in computers for years to good effect. They're more expensive than your typical muffin fans, but certainly not painfully so. I mean, we're talking maybe $15-$20 each as opposed the more usual $5.
 
Cagey said:
The original Axe Fx II barely needed a fan in the first place - I think it's there more for insurance than anything else because the unit doesn't get hot. The main case isn't even ventilated, so it's questionable how much value a fan has in there anyway. In any event, if it were me (and I imagine at some point it will be), I'd be looking at the fans offered by Noctua. I can't remember what size the unit in the Axe is, but I think it's around 80mm, and if so this one should work. They're nice because they're quiet to the point where you could credibly call them 'silent', and use ceramic bearings so they have a MTBF of ~150,000 hours, which is over 17 years if you run them 24/7. Been using them in computers for years to good effect. They're more expensive than your typical muffin fans, but certainly not painfully so. I mean, we're talking maybe $15-$20 each as opposed the more usual $5.
Click to expand...

I came here here wanting to see "Noctua" being mentioned, lol. I love their PC fans.
 
Cagey said:
The main case isn't even ventilated...
Click to expand...

I just had my MK-I apart to re-seat the LCD ribbon cable. The first thing I noticed was that there are no vents anywhere in the case. In my opinion, wouldn't that add to the noise of the fan? If the air has no where to go, the air pushing against the fan will make it work harder and make it louder.
 
No. And actually, while it sounds like fan motors are working harder when you seemingly add a load to them (block the intake of a vacuum cleaner, for instance), what you're really hearing is the fan speeding up because it's being unloaded. Pushing air is hard work. Get rid of the air, and the load is lightened. It's counter-intuitive to listen to, but that's what's happening.
 
I seem to recall people recommending against the Noctua fans in one of the older threads on this matter. I have beQuiet products in my PC and it's dead quiet. But these other threads are making it sound like it's rocket science to find a fan that will do an adequate job (and, who knows, maybe it is super complicated - that's why I'm asking!). But to me, like you guys are saying, since the unit isn't ventilated, I can't imagine it would make much of a difference. But, as to not derail this thread...

Who has changed the fan in their Axe-FX II (original, not Mark II, XL, XL+, etc.) successfully (meaning it's dead quiet and the unit hasn't broken down) and what fan/process did you use?
 
I haven't cracked my Axe II open yet but based on the images from Google it looks like just a standard PC fan. Should be a simple swap as I'm pretty sure just about any silent PC fan would work, and there are a ton on Amazon. I'd be hitting up Frys if it were me.
 
Sombody may have mentioned in another thread that Noctua fans, as many of the more quiet fans do, run a bit slower and so move less air than their noisier cousins. Less air movement theoretically means less cooling, so the concern is that you'd void the warranty on the unit. But, there are two things to consider in reference to that. First, since the thing doesn't even get warm and so clearly doesn't really need cooling to begin with, a little less cooling isn't going to hurt anything. Second, since there's no air exchange due to the lack of a ventilation path, there's no cooling taking place anyway. The fan is just moving slightly warmed air around. The temperature won't drop unless fresh, lower temp air is brought in to replace the warm air or the existing warm air is cooled via some other method of heat exchange.

If you're worried about it, the other thing you could do is put a larger fan in place of the existing one. It'll move as much or more air than is being done now even while running slower (and therefore quieter). That's one of the tricks the quieter PCs do. A slow 120mm unit can move more air than a 60mm or 80mm unit that's spinning like an air raid siren.
 
Note that the original Axe-Fx 2 MK I has a 60mm fan so it's going to be noisier than the 80mm found in the newer units. Also some fans might not work too well in the horizontal orientation and can become noisy or fail prematurely. After the one on my Axe 2 started failing I got a new one from G66 but to be honest it's not great. I can hear the motor on that one even though I can't hear the air moving so I'll probably replace it again.

Even though the Axe-Fx case has no vents it's not like it is sealed. Then fan should help push some heat away from components and out from any gaps in the case and even if the fan is mostly a precaution it's surely going to help in places that might not have ideal ventilation like studios where the Axe is in a rack.
 
>> making it sound like it's rocket science to find a fan that will do an adequate job (and, who knows, maybe it is super complicated

Hi,

depends how you define "adequate" job but it doesn't hurt to read the product's datasheet. Some Noctua fans are geared (literally - by the profile and angle of the blades) for low pressure / higher throughput, others are optimized exactly the other way around.
It's not "super complicated" but in engineering nothing is ever simple...
 
Search out some of my old posts. I've extensively researched lots of different fan models, and various sizes, as well as speed settings (Noctua fans for example have different resistors which change the RPM of the fan, and thus the CFM of air flow, but also the decibel level) and took heat gun readings as well as sound level measures.

Long story short, mod your existing lid (I've also posted how to do this) to fit an 80mm Noctua fan instead of the 60mm ones. Smaller are too noisy, larger fans, such as 120 and 140 don't move enough air directed over the heat sinks and are actually louder, and cool less well. Part of this is that you need the fan a distance from the lid to actually be able to draw in enough air. I even tried making an alt lid with air intakes and it didn't help with temps.

Acoustically uncouple the fan from the deck lid (this alone makes a huge difference) as well.

A 80mm Noctua with the middle resistor setting (forget the color of the cable) was the sweet spot. Fan kept the chips slightly cooler than the 60mm, spun slower and as a result, the dB level was about 16 dB with the lid off at about 1 foot. With the lid on, essentially silent. In my rack case its 100% inaudible to me, and no cooling/heat issues at all.

Last but not least, the case does not need vents. I got no performance advantage with vented lids I tried. The volume of the case is enough to where you don't need to "vent" excess heat. As Cliff once put it, you don't need to open the windows of your house when you blow on hot soup. You just need the localized air flow.

Cheers
 
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