Lowering the noise level of the Antminer S5.
I've been running miners in a 1 bedroom condo, that I share with my girlfriend. I've placed them on top of our refrigerator, in the center of the condo. She works at home during the day, so it's important that they are not too loud.
When I hooked up the S5, I heard the loud whining sound that some people had posted about and knew I had to do something about it. I already had ordered 2 Delta fans off of Amazon, but they had yet to arrive. The were $22 each and are, Delta afb1212she-pwm 120mm x 38mm 4pin pwm+tac sensor extreme hi-speed 3700 rpm 151cfm case fan.
I had seen a post from ckolivas, where they found that the flow divider was the cause for much of the noise and found great improvement in using S3 fans instead of S5 fans. I removed the pull fans from 2 of my S3s and used them to replace the noisy fans on my 2 S5s. So now I have 2 S3s and 2 S5s all with only 1 S3 fan each in the push position. The S3 fan wire connector was not long enough, so I had to cut the end off of the S5 fan, strip the wire ends, and insert them into the S3 fan connector to make it work.
Results on the S3 are, the push fan runs a little faster, but overall quitter, and the machines are only 1 or 2 degrees warmer.
On the S5s, I down-clocked to 300mhz to keep the temps at or below 60C. The fans ran at about 3200RPM but were so much quitter that the stock fans. I was able to run the 2 S3s and the 2 S5s with a noise level that is bearable. Oh and as others have said, the pull fans don't seem to accomplish much as far as cooling, but definitely drive up the noise level.
When the delta fans got here, I tried them on the S5s instead of the S3 fans. The connector is 4 pin and the fans do self speed adjust, but I had to make a slight mod to the connector end to make it fit just right.
Results, 1 of the above delta fans on a S5 is slightly quitter than the S3 fan on the S5. It cools better and can run at a lower fan speed 2880RPM @ 300mhz, compared to 3200RPM @ 300mhz. You can use this delta fan to go back up to the 350mhz stock frequency and still stay at or below 60C in a room temperature room, with about the same noise as the S3 fan @ 300mhz.
So far I'm happy with the following setup.
1 - S5 with 1 of the above Delta fan in push position running at 300hmz mining at approx. 980-990gh/s
1 - S5 with 1 of the above Delta fan in push position running at 300hmz mining at approx. 980-990gh/s
1 - S3 with 1 S3 fan in push position running at 250mhz at approx. 500gh/s
1 - S3 with 1 S3 fan in push position running at 212.5mhz at approx. 425gh/s
1. see highlighted. You meant that you clip off one or both of the rails?
2. Did you try delta at 350 mhz on S5? If you did, I am not sure what the result was as far as dB is concerned (there are free android and iphone apps that measure this). I am already at 1000GH (337.5 mhz) with quiet (46 dB) Noctua/Scythe combo, so for me it wouldn't make sense to try Delta unless i can go to 350mhz or above.
Guess I'll take the plunge. Thanks !