Change Fans in Syn 5050

[kolpt]

I´m new to the Synergy System and very impressed on the possibilities it offers and the sounds, live and recording.
The 5050 has a great sound too, but its impossible to record, when it is in the same room where the cabinets and the mics are.
I read in the fractal forum, that somebody had changed the fans in the 5050, but did not post the specs. just, that the brand is Noctura or noctua. Noctua will be correct, because they do high end fans.

did someone change the fans or is there a thread who is it described in the forum or another site? I did´t find anything yet.
Thanks for any help

 

[btownninja]

Super serious warning. If you aren't experienced with this kind of work, take it to a professional. Even unplugged, these things hold more than enough charge to kill you.

With that out of the way, it uses two 40x20mm fans. I believe 4-pin, so you'd want Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM. It's possible they are only 3-pin, so maybe buy both and return the ones you don't use?

Also a fair warning, one of them is a huge pain in the *** to replace. To get to the screws, you have to remove the mainboard which is time consuming.

Lastly, you'll get an improvement, but 40x20mm fans are just 'loud' in general. Very small surface area to work with which means they have to go pretty fast to be effective. It's the curse of 1u.

You can see them to the left and right of the tube assembly.

 

[kolpt]

Thank you for your answer. In the meantime I did some research about the Noctua Fan and the build in fans are just connected by two pins. Seems logical, because it runs all the time with no regulation of temperature. Your warning is absolutely right regarding high voltage. I already built some tubeamps so it might be no really problem for me to handle that, but in general its a very serious problem.
But I found some other things that changed my mind to try this. The Noctua fan has just 60 % of the sunon, and I believe to the genius of Steven Fryette, that he wouldn´t have build in something, that is not required. In the Studio this might work, but in a rack live maybe the full power is needed.
So I put it in a floor beside the recording room with some good cables connecting it and everything is fine.
Thank you and have a nice weekend.

 

[btownninja]

I'm pretty sure the fans are at least two speed. There's a low speed mode for idle/low load and a higher speed mode when it starts to get hot. Noctua also doesn't sell any 2 pin fans that I'm aware of, but it's possible you can use a 3/4 pin fan in a '2 pin mode' if that exists. it might just control speed with different amperage.

Either way, I'm going to try and attempt this at some point. I'll try and remember to update back with my experience. It will probably be a while as I moved and don't have a workbench yet

 

[kolpt]

When I opened the 5050, there were only a black and a red wire comming out of the fans. And I noticed no change in the noise that might suggest a different speed during time and increasing temperature. So I think, if there is no change in current, that maybe will regulate the speed, ist just an on / off situation. But I will not change the fans, until its clear, that the 15 m/3 of the sunon fan can be replaced with the 9,3 m/3 of the noctua without harm to the 5050 in a live situation. In my studio, I built it in a small room beside the recording room and so eliminated any noise.