emusonacid!

Hi all,

This afternoon I was thinking how I could reduce the noise my sampler makes. Below you'll see the results:

To mount the 80mmfan, I had to remove the metal part which separated the powersupply from the rest and drill two holes in the lefthandside of the chassis. I dont know how high the expansion ROMs are, but I want to use it as a sampler and not as a rompler.

The 40Gb WD harddrive is put in a Molex SilentDrive enclosure, four holes were made in the righthandside to make sure all was secure. You see this blocks any future expansions, but those aren't on my list anyway.



cheers
Ronald

For a larger picture:
http://www.studio-sl19.com/public/music/emu/overview_large.jpg

im building this new room and the loudest thing in it will be my platinum. Your story has inspired me to take action but i have little expireince within the belly of the beast. What kind of fan would you recomend and how would i power it properly? Did your modifications make a big diffrence?

thanks for your time

Hi automatikal,

When you look close at the picture, you'll notice that the fan is powered by the original pins on the mainboard, I added an extra zalman resistor pack for the 80mm Coolermaster fan. I'll replace this with a Zalman fan soon, which is already quiet, the resistor pack is the finishing touch Another option would be to power the fan (at full rotation speed then) from the HD powercable, but my solution is what I prefer. No-one sees the drilled holes and the cover still fits, there's space between the metal chassis and the actual cover plate, since the screws kinda "sink" into the cover.

If you need any advice or help, let me know.


Ronald

excellent im going to try this. i cant really make out the resister pack as i do not know what it looks like. whats it for? thanks a for the info.
peace

automatikal wrote:excellent im going to try this. i cant really make out the resister pack as i do not know what it looks like. whats it for? thanks a for the info.
peace

The resistor pack (see yellow arrow in the next photo) reduces the current to the fan,
therefore lowering the rpm, which make it even more quiet



cheers
Ronald

ok this is brilliant i have disabled the hard drive temporarily just to see how quiet it can be in an ideal world and its totally silent. unfortunatley i think my model will only power a fan that has the 4 pin connection. the little three pin connector thats shown in your photo would not power the 80mm fan that i got. does it read Fan Power on your 6400? mine reads ADAT, i have one that reads Fan Power but its got the 4pin buisness. any suggestions? im definatley into sorting this out now that i know the potential.

Hi Automatikal,

no probs regarding the fan's powerlead, if you check the wires, you'll see that only the two in the middle are used. I was lazy and left the third wire in place. I believe the two outer wires aren't connected.

This should be the pin configuration:

o - + o

leave the blue (outer) pins not connected and only use the two middle pins[/b]


cheers
Ronald

Forgot to mention, I take no responsibilty for any problems that might arrise when doing this

top post roonsmits, greate pictures...might have to do the same soon, mine is really noisy all of a sudden, just at start up for about 10 mins and then becomes quiet....very strange....

ezman wrote:top post roonsmits, greate pictures...might have to do the same soon, mine is really noisy all of a sudden, just at start up for about 10 mins and then becomes quiet....very strange....

Thanks Ezman
I noticed that the fan is (in 9 out of 10 times) causing most of the noises. When the bearings get to running temperature (read warmer, therefore running smoother), it can become more quiet. Bearings can also wear out, then they are running in a marginaly bigger space and will start to rumble, thus are becoming louder, this noise won't go when time passes, it will only become worse.

Small fans need to rotate fast to move large amounts of cooling air. when you replace it with a larger (say 80mm) it will suffice to run slower, that's why I used that resistor.

let me know if you need more info.
Ronald

hi!
i was thinking of disconnectiong the fan, since i have no internal harddrive...
that shouldn?t be a problem right?
i did this with my scsi-cd-drive that connects the e6400ultra and the hd which is stored outside the room... -without any problems.

The fan is for the power supply so i wouldn't recommend disconnecting it.
hardrives don't normally get very hot

thanks!
then i guess i should also get a bigger and quieter fan...

(maybe you saved my emu, mookid - thanks )

mookid wrote:The fan is for the power supply so i wouldn't recommend disconnecting it.
hardrives don't normally get very hot

Spot on Mookid, the PS needs cooling indeed.

PS, how can I tell if mine is not capable of providing enough juice?
I read that older powersupplies aren't upto the job and get fried quickly when adding a RFX card.

Ronald

You need to meter the watts you are burning at the mains end, which is something best left to an expert. don't try this with a multimeter probe! You can get a special meter probe that fits between the plug and the wall probe with a digital wattage reading, but I haven't seen one in years - try RS or Maplins. if the reading is close to the peak rating of the psu, you are pushing it.

If it is a problem, i'm not sure what to do as i doubt you well get a psu upgrade from e-mu now.

Final point; whether you know what you are doing or not, kEEP AWAY FROM MAINS ELECTRICITY it's really fooking dangerous at the best of times. those internal PSU covers are there for a good reason, to keep your fingers out.

remember kids -- it's the amps that kill not the volts -- stay safe!!!

mookid wrote:
remember kids -- it's the amps that kill not the volts -- stay safe!!!

Yeah, thanks for the warning.
I like lightning and sparks

Who was that guy with his kite and key
Ben Franklin or some other dude ?

History isn't my strongest point

Ronald