Akitio Thunder 2 and Thunder 3 - fan noise level reduction  

I use a 60mm Noctua and yes, it is significantly quieter than the stock fan. I know that some GPUs have a fan header, allowing you to connect another fan to them. Lacking that, you can use a tiny fan controller (or a purpose built resistor) to achieve a similar effect by dropping the voltage to the fan, with the end result being a slower rotation speed.

I'm using a 60mm Noctua fan as well. Very quiet!

I wanted to switch the fan, but the Noctua is 25mm and doesn't fit with the EVGA 1060. The original one is 20mm. I couldn't find any quieter fan with 20mm thickness.

Thank you all for the feedback.

@dsaul: good point with the +5mm thickness of the noctua,
same problem with my KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 Gamer OC - no space for the noctua.
I'm thinking about a mod for the inner housing.

Posted by: dsaul

 

I wanted to switch the fan, but the Noctua is 25mm and doesn't fit with the EVGA 1060. The original one is 20mm. I couldn't find any quieter fan with 20mm thickness.

   

I'm using Noctua with EVGA GTX 1060 😛
It's tight but it works.

with the gtx 970 there is a 2-3mm gap between GPU and original fan.
I was thinking about this:

You can add thermal sensor for silencing the frontal fan when the card is cold. It will start to blow hot air away when app are demanding gfx power.

http://www.ebay.it/itm/271967755577?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&clk_rvr_id=1172705321656&rmvSB=true

very interesting idea.
where would you suggest to place the thermal sensor?

Posted by: noler

 

Posted by: dsaul

 

I wanted to switch the fan, but the Noctua is 25mm and doesn't fit with the EVGA 1060. The original one is 20mm. I couldn't find any quieter fan with 20mm thickness.

   

I'm using Noctua with EVGA GTX 1060 😛
It's tight but it works.

   

Does it really fit? It looks so tight with the original fan, doesn't look like will fit extra 5mm. 

Can you take a pic?? Thanks!

Did you cut your EVGA plastic part by any chance? Will give a shot if anything I return.

Didn't cut anything. : )

Posted by: deplomb

 

very interesting idea.
where would you suggest to place the thermal sensor?

   

On the Akitio bottom will be fine 🙂 

@noler great close pictures, we waiting for your own thread when you ready with Thunder3 / 1060 Case mod! 🙂

@noler great close pictures, we waiting for your own thread when you ready with Thunder3 / 1060 Case mod! 🙂

@noler: tight fit, very nice.

@enjoy: thanks for the thermal sensor reply. this is a very reasonable way to get silent.

I'll go for the Noctua as well. Unfortunately with the 970 there is no space to mount it simply instead the original.
So I have to go with the mod as shown above. Images will be posted when ready.

In germany we have a great company for front panels and custom housings / housing parts:
schaeffer housings
I have worked on another project with them. I'll order the mounting plate for the Noctua there.
They have an app for windows and mac to desing panels and check pricing. Highly recommended.

It actually might be a considerable option for all who want to go down the custom housing path.

Update:

what about a dual noctua front fan at lower speed?
It would probably limit unwanted build-up of heat in the head area at heavy gpu load.

Found these pics on the internet.

just read the post. he wired the noctua power from the akitio connector and the pwm from the gpu.
would it be possible to use an Y cable from the gpu connector to power the gpu and the noctua fans?
meaning can the speed controller of the gpu handle 4 instead of 2 fans?

does anyone know?

Dual noctua fans and thermal senzor is the best mod tbh! If you make it you must show us step by step 🙂

I have the same idea for my future project Akitio Core with Zotac GTX 1080 Mini :)))))

I will use Akitio Thunder 3 motherboard and Thunder2 Front (i like it black) and I will make custom metal cover to fit 1080 (Card Length 211mm x 125mm) size but i will start the project when the Macbook release better laptop... maybe next year, now I'am fine with Akitio Thunder2 and 1060 even on my Macbook Retina mid-2012 - I can play all games on my Internal Display with Ultra settings 1680x1050 and FULL HD on external monitor so no need to upgrade at the moment! 

@enjoy

very interesting project!

You may want to check the schaeffer housing profiles for your custom case.
A danish video hardware company has made these tutorials:
Schaeffer Housing Tutorial

I have one question:
is it possible to run the internal display of my 15" macbook pro from the eGPU?
the specs:
- mid 2012 Unibody with 2,3ghz Core i7
- and Nvidia GeForce GT 650 512 MB
As far as I understood there is a Problem if you have the GT650 build in.
I would like to run the internal display mainly in windows.

At present I have the eGPU running in OSX and windows (Bootcamp) but with external monitor.

@deplomb Yes, i always play only on my Retina Internal Display 🙂 - you can find all info in my thread -  https://egpu.io/forums/builds/2012-15-mbpr-gt650m-gtx106010gbps-tb1-akitio-thunder2-win10-enjoy/

About my future project i will make and paint the case cover - i have a friend that can do it with great quality!

@enjoy
thank you for the link,
very clever thinking with the fake display and the dual monitor app 🙂

with your custom build did you think about an internal power supply?
there are these industial 12V PSUs available, that might fit in quite nicely.

No i want to make it small as i can i will use again DA-2 220W (i hide them under my desks) - i have 2 of them one in work and one at home , so i just move my eGPU work<->home<->work when i want to play games at home, i have own business so yes i can play games at work 🙂

Here is another design i must build and front panel too for this project, i will use apple metal logo from ebay, i have idea to buy apple metal logo soon for my current eGPU soon to replace Akitio logo too!

It looks like a brillant solution. Very stylish!
I was actually doing some research for the original akitio housing profile as raw material,
but no luck so far, not even at alibaba and other platforms.

I will let you know in case I find some manufacturer.

News about the dual front fan:

the holes in the original Akitio front plate (when closing the case) add up to a surface of about 1850 sqmm.
this matches the surface of one circle with a diameter of 48,5mm.
Two 60mm fans add up to a surface of about 5000 sqmm

So two fans running at full speed simply do not make sense concerning the bottleneck, the front plate is posing
I will have the two Noctua fans running at lower speed and check GPU temps at high load.
Any feedback from specialists in aerodynamics is appreciated!

Building the mod will take a few weeks, I have very limited time to work on it at present.
Just ordered the Noctua mounting plate:

I bought this fan "Nanoxia Deep Silence 3-Pin PC Case Fan 60mm 2000rpm" and it did not fit the akitio thunder 3 with the EGVA GTX 1060 SC. It's 60x25mm as opposed to original one that is 60x20mm.

Although didn't fit and won't be able to use, it's very silent fan, really liked it.

I'm planning to try Noctua now, as Noler posted a pic with that fitting, although still 60x25mm.

Update for the dual Noctua mod:
The frontplate from Schaeffer and the fans arrived.

The fans will be controlled from the GPU PWM.
I used one of the Noctua extension cables, cutted off the plug and soldered the open ends to the GTX 970.
The fan power is soldered to the Power inlet of the GPU, the PWM and tacho wire to the solder pads.

Dual Noctua Mod Update

Dual Noctua Fan Mod finished:

Finally my Akitio thunder 2 went quiet.
It is a tight fit, and some drilling and cutting is involved
because the fans are literally replacing much of the front plate of the inner case.
There is even a little more space than with the original 20mm siren.

The result is exactly what I was looking for. The Box is absolutely quiet, when not under GPU load.
The GPU temperature went down under heavy load and the GPU fan speed dropped as well.

The Noctua fans are so quiet that I'm thinking about replacing the GPU fans as well.

 

Dual Noctua Fan Mod:
I want to share some solutions for problems I ran into when cutting the case

there are two welding spots I cutted away.
This in combination with the massive loss of material and the 4 holes for the new front plate
lead to a significant instability in the front peace of the original inner case, that also holds the front cover with the akitio logo.
Solution with 2 screws in the images below.

most of the holes I planned originally as through holes with bolt and nut.
Due to the very limited space around the opening there is no room for nuts inside the casing.
Luckily I discovered that before drilling and could insert M3 threads into the metal of the case.

I drilled a 3mm hole at the bottom of the carrying plate of the fans to hold the LED of the Akitio case.

The Fans are mounted with the rubber feet Noctua is sending with them.
This is helping a lot when fiddeling around with fans and cables when inserting the whole new front into the cutout of the actual case. (see images)
The fan mounting holes in the new front plate were designed with 3,2mm in diameter, I drilled them to 4mm which made inserting the rubber feet easier.

The fans are blowing hot air out and are running with the low noise adapters provided by noctua.
Full speed does not make sense when using the original Akitio front plate (see above post about surface of the opening)

Hi there,

I am planning to use the Akitio Thunder PCIe case with an Intel 750 SSD. However, loud fan noise is not my thing...

Hence, I am also planning to replace the stock fan with the Noctua fan being mentioned here in this thread. What is the actual model number of this fan? Is it 4 Pin? Is there an adapter I can use for connecting it to the internal 2 Pin connector.

Would be really nice if someone could help me out on this.

Sorry for my pigeon English...

Chris

... would the linked fan and adaper work in the akitio thunder?

https://www.caseking.de/luefter-adapterkabel-2-pin-zu-3-pin-molex-zuad-176.html

https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Nanoxia-Deep-Silence-60x60x25mm-2000-U-min-12-dB-A--schwarz-gruen_911259.html

Posted by: ix400

 

... would the linked fan and adaper work in the akitio thunder?

https://www.caseking.de/luefter-adapterkabel-2-pin-zu-3-pin-molex-zuad-176.html

https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Nanoxia-Deep-Silence-60x60x25mm-2000-U-min-12-dB-A--schwarz-gruen_911259.html

 

   

I suggest this all in one soluction:
https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-60x25mm-Blades-Bearing-Premium/dp/B009NQMESS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494839382&sr=8-1&keywords=noctua+60+mm

Yes it works it is the same used in noctuas kit

... is this the 5V version you have linked? In germany I can only find this kit as 5V version. 

... see here: It is stated as 5V version on the geman Amazon web page, as conpared to the link you have posted 

https://www.amazon.de/Noctua-NF-A6-x-25-5-V-3000-Umdrehungen-schwarz/dp/B01G20CHX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1494840809&sr=8-3&keywords=NF-A6x25

Posted by: ix400

 

... see here: It is stated as 5V version on the geman Amazon web page, as conpared to the link you have posted 

https://www.amazon.de/Noctua-NF-A6-x-25-5-V-3000-Umdrehungen-schwarz/dp/B01G20CHX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1494840809&sr=8-3&keywords=NF-A6x25

   

nf-a6x25-flx, this is the product code for 12V version