Fan Noise!

Right. This gets on my nerves and the fan seems to be whirling louder than ever before, my 4k is old!
Has anyone replaced theirs? Or found an alternative that is quieter or even better silent!


Though, in the secret global page. You can set it to slow or fast, shame there's not an off and slower too
Access it by:
Global menu> Memory page(F2)> Then hold shift and press global again.

interesting eh!

I'm with you - the fan is noisy, way louder than the HD on my 4000!

I just purchased one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310230565535&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_3480wt_1141

It's 5db quieter than the stock one that's in the MPC and has the same flow rate, so it should be good.
Between the 5db drop on the new fan and the likelihood that the old fan is producing more noise due to age
I'm expecting a decent reduction in noise level.

I'll let you know what happens with it, but it's going to be a few weeks until I can put it in. I also have a 60mm
soft silicone gasket coming, that you use in between the fan and the metal case to quieten things even more.
You can get them from QuietPC.com

Reveal wrote:Right. This gets on my nerves and the fan seems to be whirling louder than ever before, my 4k is old!
Has anyone replaced theirs? Or found an alternative that is quieter or even better silent!


Though, in the secret global page. You can set it to slow or fast, shame there's not an off and slower too
Access it by:
Global menu> Memory page(F2)> Then hold shift and press global again.

interesting eh!

where did you get that info from!? does changing the setting affect perfomance in any way???? personally, the fan doesn't bother me, but if i can prolong the life of the fan, i'll set that joint to slow if it's not detrimental to the machine.

lol...if replacing fan..MAKE SURE MPC IS TURNED OFF

feline1 fried himself one time before doin this....is apparently quite tricky removing fan too....cos of non standard screws....

dunnno if this is any good...

http://www.mpcstuff.com/1a821374x.html

more info....

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=119742

Had mine replaced last year....had the screen fixed by VST instruments so I just had them replace it as well. Also, I replaced the harddrive as well. The machine is near silent now.

Though, in the secret global page. You can set it to slow or fast, shame there's not an off and slower too
Access it by:
Global menu> Memory page(F2)> Then hold shift and press global again.

wow.... never new about this one ..... any chance you´ve found the secret: ´´sex with the Japanese nurse page

nice link on the fan btw!!

I replaced mine with a pc fan supposedly to be extremely quiet ..had a picture of a stelth yet on the package and everything .. its quiet but not dead quiet...

Now that I am running my 4k with a compact flash drive, I am really happy to have a silenx fan installed.

Good times...



TSR

I still wanna know where you got that info from, quit holding out on me! Reveal! Reveal your resource!

My fan was loud and my HDD was giving me noise at start-up. I thought it was time to get inside the 4000. Sorry about not taking photos.

Tools and stuff:
SYBA SD-CF-IDE-A CF/IDE - $20
http://www.frys.com/product/4574977

Any CF card (I have a 16 gb memorex) $30

Double sided foam tape - $4

4 pin (female) to molex adapter (female) - ~$3

SilenX iXtrema Pro 60mm Case Fan IXP-34-08 - $11 (this model is 1" thick, same at the stock fan)
http://www.frys.com/product/5382988

Wire splicing and connectors. 2 male and female sets or electrical tape...

Phillips head screwdriver and needle nose pliers.

Optional: Can of air and a small vacuum
____________________________________________________________

UNPLUG THE 4000! If you do not, one brush against the internal power supply will remind you to do so. Also take the time to blow out or vacuum your 4000, it probably needs it.

After opening the 4000 I first installed the fan. It is held together by 4 - 1 1/2" machine screws that use a nut to secure the fan to the case. In my case Akai used a drop of solder on each nut to secure them in place. I used the needle nose pliers to snap off the solder and to secure the nut in place as I unscrewed the screw from the outside of the case.

Once the fan was free, I snipped the fan wires with enough lead that I could splice the new fan on and use the stock 4000 fan connector. Use the needle nose pliers to remove the power connector from the internal board. The SilenX fan has 3 wires; power, ground and a sensor. Locate the power and ground wires, snip the sensor wire as you will not need it, then splice the + to + and - to - using the original 4000 fan power connector. Replacement case fans do not have the same board connector. Please be sure to leave yourself with enough "error" wire on the original connector as the wires are pretty small and easy to break.

Once the fan is spliced and connected to the board again, follow the removal instructions in reverse. Now you have a very silent fan. I used bullet wire ends for splicing in case I need to do this again down the road.

Second, my HDD was ready to go. Every time I stared my 4000, the HDD made an odd beeping/crunching noise then started loading my programs. I took this as a sign to replace it before I lost everything.

This was easy. While the case was open, I removed the HDD and the tray it sits in. Unscrew the HDD and set it aside. Mount your IDE to CF converter board to the HDD tray with the double sided foam tape. Plug in the IDE cable to the new board/adapter. Use the 4 pin to molex adapter to hook the HDD power cable to the board. Plug in your CF card and close the case.

The 4000 immediately recognized new storage card as a CF card, no formatting needed. Now the noisiest component is the CD drive.

HEy Christfutura, thanks alot for that info I'm definately gonna follow those instructions.
Just not sure if I should go the CF or SSD hard drive route.

Does the CF load up /function just as good and fast as the old HD u had??

Also RE: the silenx fan u used.. can u hear the fan AT ALL when u turn the mpc on??-in a completely silent room tho (no computer noise etc)
I wanna be able to hear nothing, so wanna make sure I get the right fan .

Thanks

I haven't noticed any noise other than the CD drive spinning up at start up. Fan seems pretty transparent, as in not a sound. As for the load time from the CF, I really cannot say. I didn't move all my data from the HDD to the CF so it appears to load faster. I personally wouldn't spend the cash on an SSD unless I was using it in a PC where it would really benefit my workflow at start up and the loading of programs like Ableton, Photoshop, etc... After a project loads into ram, the storage (SSD, CF, HDD) is really out of the equation. I don't think there would be a true benefit other than capacity over a CF. Also, depending on how you mount the CF card to the tray, you can swap out cards easily as they become full or if they die.

Now, I may step on some toes here, but 16 GB is a lot of space even if you don't manage your files well. I have owned a 1000, 2000, 2000xl, 2500, mv8000 and this 4000 and have never run out of storage space. Memory is a different story altogether. I actually have a hard time justifying the large HDD in my 2500 as I keep my projects on the CF card for ease of backup and mobility.

Thats good news im definately going to buy that same fan now..

Re: CF adapter and card --> Im going to do this too. I agree the Storage doesnt have to be HUGE also, but if you really want to these CF cards can go to 100GB now ive seen..
Im guessing these cards have less chance of problems vs a hard drive too.


Good stuff man.. Appreciate the info.
Looking forward to the silence. :>
All the best.

Those 100Gb CF cards are pretty expensive, possibly more than a 128Gb SSD, but you guys are right about how much space you really need. 32Gb would probably be enough for me.

Once I get Aksys going properly I'll probably use that as the main storage area for all my stuff, and just take the MPC with only the data needed for a particular project.

I'm not sure about the reliability of CF cards, but only because there are CF cards and then there are other CF cards. You can pay $40 for a 1Gb card but it is ruggedised for industrial use and uses SLC nand chips instead of the cheaper MLC type.
The good thing is that the MPC will not be very demanding of the memory, unlike a PC which is constantly writing to the HD.
Stick to the decent brands, avoid the fakes and CF should be good IMO. Probably needs a minimum speed of 30Mb/sec.

I've got a 2Gb CF card being used as an external disk through the USB port at the moment in a IDE to USB convertor box and that's been working great with a 15Mb/sec Sandisk card.

@U3 - can you tell me where you get your Silenx fan, as I couldn't find anyone in Aus that sold them and a couple of US shops I tried didn't want to ship to me so I gave up and got a fan off ebay.

This is a good fan: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/produc ... ni-kaze-60

It only has the 2 wires you'll need so no cutting bits off. It doesn't fit the mpc connector seat properly so some splicing may be required. I have been using this for a while now, its a good fan, makes no noise at all.

The cf adaptors mentioned, are they self powered or do they require connection to the mpc4k power board?

MPCdawk wrote:@U3 - can you tell me where you get your Silenx fan, as I couldn't find anyone in Aus that sold them and a couple of US shops I tried didn't want to ship to me so I gave up and got a fan off ebay.

Yeah i have checked a couple local stores online but they didnt stock this fan too..
I was planning to just order it online from USA but i didnt think i'd have trouble getting it shipped either..

I found this on ebay though.. This is the exact one Christfutura put in:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SilenX-IXTRE ... 564479a228

They make another one that flows slightly more air though which is still 60mm, and im trying to find that one. I might contact this ebay seller and see if he sells it..
Reason i want to get it because i just did a search on these forums and FELINE1 did this mod too and this is what convinced me:

feline1 wrote:So - the original MPC4000 service manual specifies a fan with 0.44 cubic metres per minute of air moving...
that's about 15.5 cubic feet per minute.

the SilenX Fan Ixtrema Pro 60x60x25 12dBA 14CFM - ixp-34-12
does 14 ft^3/min, which strikes me as close enough to be within safety design tolerance,
and it offers 12dBA noise compared to the 24dBA of the original.

So I'm going for that.

Its this one:
http://www.silenx.com/ixtremaprofans.asp?sku=ixp-34-12

The one mentioned in this thread produces 10CFM..

U3