scythe case fans - good or bad? recommend others?

[johns622]

So it turns out I should've done a little more research before I bought the fans I bought... I bought a Scythe 120mm slipstream fan (110cfm, 37dba) and it was defective. It put out a burning electric smell that made the entire upper floor of my parent's house smell horrible and it had a whining/whirring noise to it. The fan cost me $13, newegg charged me $9 to ship it back. So I figured, "okay, I just got unlucky and got a bad one" and decided to order 3 lower cfm/dba 120mm fans and 1 80mm fan.

Now I'm reading reviews on random Scythe fans (3 eggs or less) and it seems like 99% of the people complaining about them say they: 1. make a lot of noise (regardless of the cfm/dba) 2. dont move as much air as its rated to move 3. go bad fairly quickly (couple months for some, less than a year for others). Even the people that gave 4 eggs or more have said they are noisy (regardless of cfm/dba) and if they aren't, start making noise not too long after buying them and constantly using them.

Does anyone have any experience with Scythe fans? Are they as bad as most people are making them out to be? Or do people just love to complain? Oh and I think it's worse mentioning that I e-mailed Scythe last Thursday/Friday and I still haven't heard from them. I e-mailed newegg on Friday and they e-mailed me back on Saturday, telling me they would gladly replace it. I just went for the refund after realizing 110cfm was insanely loud. I don't need top of the line cooling. It's just that the stock fans that came with my rosewill case don't really move a lot of air. But hey, they've been working over 2 years and I use my computer on a daily basis and it's on for an average 8-12 hours so I can't complain about their life span.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

i have owned 3 scythe fans in 3 different sizes, still using one currently and ive never had a problem and theyve never been anything but quiet :shrug: you cant really trust reviews, newegg or elsewhere, exclusively as generally more people go there to complain than to praise. im sure youre soured on them anyways so shoot for a coolermaster.

 

[johns622]

Well even if they influenced my decision to get them, it's too late because they're supposed to arrive today .

But no, the reviews haven't greatly impacted my opinions towards Scythe. I'm just starting to become skeptical. I wanted to know if there was anyone on here that has had experience with them, good or bad, and to share their experiences. And it's one of those things where I've never owned a Scythe product, order one, turns out to be bad, contact the company directly, don't hear back from them, start reading all the reviews and start to become skeptical, hope my next order doesn't turn out defective again, etc.

For some reason, my computer has been getting really hot lately. It may just be that my dad has turned up the heat in the house because we have relatives visiting from out of the country (he normally keeps the house colder to save energy). But it just sounds like it's running harder and generating more heat. It's probably in my head.

 

[GhOsT1321]

For some reason, my computer has been getting really hot lately. It may just be that my dad has turned up the heat in the house because we have relatives visiting from out of the country (he normally keeps the house colder to save energy). But it just sounds like it's running harder and generating more heat. It's probably in my head.

Depending on how much he turned up the heat, you should not see much of a difference in the temperature. If it sounds like its running harder, then it could be your CPU, GPU, or PSU fan. All of those are temperature controlled (depending on the maker).
I have not had any experience with scythe fans, however I prefer medium-high airflow. And I don't mind noise too much, for example, I have 4 antec fans, all on high, plus my CPU fan at 100%, as well as my GPU fan at 100%. Most would not stand for this noise, but this noise bothers me little.
Buying case fans is easy if you don't mind a little noise.

Edit: Also, sleeve bearing fans should only be mounted vertically, and not horizontally. Sleeve bearing fans will most likely fail when mounted horizontally.

 

[Trotter]

The thing to remember about NewEgg's reviews (especially on mundane things like fans) is that only those who had a problem make them.

 

[johns622]

Depending on how much he turned up the heat, you should not see much of a difference in the temperature. If it sounds like its running harder, then it could be your CPU, GPU, or PSU fan. All of those are temperature controlled (depending on the maker).
I have not had any experience with scythe fans, however I prefer medium-high airflow. And I don't mind noise too much, for example, I have 4 antec fans, all on high, plus my CPU fan at 100%, as well as my GPU fan at 100%. Most would not stand for this noise, but this noise bothers me little.
Buying case fans is easy if you don't mind a little noise.

I don't know how to control my fans. I don't have an external fan controller. And there isn't anything in BIOS as far as I know. I use SpeedFan and I "turned up" the RPM for whatever fans the program let me edit but it didn't do anything when I clicked OK. They all stayed the same speed.

Is there a possibility that maybe the new Scythe fan read 1 of the settings I changed in SpeedFan and was working too hard? Maybe that's why it smelled so bad and whined? I just don't understand why the Scythe fan would read the setting and not the stock fans.

The thing to remember about NewEgg's reviews (especially on mundane things like fans) is that only those who had a problem make them.

Good point. I didn't used to but lately, I've been leaving reviews for everything I've been buying.

 

[GhOsT1321]

As I said, CPU, GPU, and PSU are temperature controlled (the majority). As heat increases, so does the fan speed. You cannot directly control this, the fan speed is adjusted automatically.
For speedfan to work, your fans need to be plugged into the motherboard using a 3 pin connector. If your fans are plugged in via molex and do not have some form of rheostat, then they are running at 100% which will not do any harm to the fan. The fan you received may have been defective from the start. The fan made a whining noise and produced a bad smell because the bearing was defective.

 

[johns622]

Ah gotcha.

Well I received all 4 fans today (3x 120mm slipstream and 1x 80mmx25mm) and they work beautifully. The computer is definitely louder than before but there's no smell. It smells a little but it's because they're new obviously. They smelled when I took them out of the box.

I'm just wondering now, the 3-4 pin connectors that they provided... Is it safe for me to use them as extensions? Like my PSU doesn't have enough connectors for all the fans so I just put in the 3-4 pin connectors and used them as "extension cords" essentially. Everything is plugged in, it's just that I added the 3-4 connector in between certain things to get power to my fans.

 

[Slaymate]

As I said, CPU, GPU, and PSU are temperature controlled (the majority). As heat increases, so does the fan speed. You cannot directly control this, the fan speed is adjusted automatically.

Unless your using a brand name computer like a Dell or HP the cpu fan speeds should be fairly easy to adjust, if your fans "are" temperature controlled (a PWM fan). You should have a Smart Fan option in your bios, if not you should be able to adjust the fan speed with software. Speedfan should work or the cd that came with your motherboard probably has a utility that will work. You can also cut the fan wire that reports the fan speed, if the speed isn't detected the fan should operate at 100%.

If your cpu fan is a fixed speed then then you'll need a fan controller or resistor wires to adjust the fan speed.

GPU fan speeds are easy to control with a program like EVGA Precision, MSI Afterburner or RivaTuner.

Power Supply fans are a little tricky, it involves removing the cover to access the insides of the power supply which is extremely dangerous. I'm not teaching that anytime soon.

 

[johns622]

Yeah I cranked my gpu fan up with rivatuner. 90% fixed. Much louder but it cooled down like 3-5 degrees.

Well ever since I put these 4 fans in, I've been dual boxing WoW for a few hours now and keeping SpeedFan open in the meantime. Temp 1, HD0, HD1, and Core have all been a red check mark or "cooler". Usually, they're all hot and temp1 is normally the flame icon. I haven't seen a flame icon at all in the past 4 hours. When I'm not playing any games and just surfing FireFox, all the previously mentioned temps are all a blue arrow pointing down. This is awesome! When I put my hand over the exhaust fan, the air is actually COOL and the case isn't warm anymore. Even better!! Glad I upgraded the cooling! I dunno what Temp2 and Temp3 are but they are ALWAYS flame icons (even when I first boot up the computer).

Is there a specific way to achieve maximum cooling? I have a front, 2 side (80mm and 120mm), 1 rear, 1 top (exhaust), and obviously the psu fan. I have everything blowing in except the exhaust on top the the psu obviously.