coolermaster r4's anyone?

Superior airflow and High air pressure

Noise Level 19~34
Air Flow 99.6CFM at 2,4000RPM

Sounds good to me. Might have to check one out. It does appear that they use sleeve bearings though :(

timta2Noise Level 19~34
Air Flow 99.6CFM at 2,4000RPM

Sounds good to me. Might have to check one out. It does appear that they use sleeve bearings though :(

phanbuey was right, these look exactly like CM R4's. Spire is known for rebranding products that are already out on the market. Take their Spire TherMax Eclipse II for example, there are like 4 variations of them on the market.

If it's the same fan and its cheaper more power to them

AthlonX2If it's the same fan and its cheaper more power to them

its exactly the same price. it does have PWM tho... so its the same fan just with PWM.

timta2Noise Level 19~34
Air Flow 99.6CFM at 2,4000RPM

Sounds good to me. Might have to check one out. It does appear that they use sleeve bearings though :(

Sleeve bearings are easy for maintenance. When you open them, all you have to do is to clean the internals and fill the lubricant chamber with new oil. Ball bearing based are a bit more problematic to repair. You have to open them, clean internals and especially bearings.
In general, the bearings are almost fully closed so dust isn't the problem as much as dry bearings. You have to submerge the entire bearing into oil and move it around violently to force oil to go inside through holes in the bearing housing. Take them out, rotate them a bit and repeat the process few times. Then you have to clean excessive oil from the housing and especially the part where the rotor goes through to prevent "sleeve bearing" effect inside the ball bearing as they are not attached together in a fixed way but the rotor still moves freely inside even if you block the ball bearing rotation. After doing that it's recommended to run such repaired fan for few minutes on lower RPM's (800-1000RPM) to let oil evenly spread inside. Much longer process than for sleeve bearings but from my experience it fixed a 7 years old stock AMD fan nearly perfectly from a noisy bastard to a silent fan again. At a cost of some oil. Not bad eh :) Haven't fixed any rifle bearing or fluid dynamic bearings yet...

RejZoRSleeve bearings are easy for maintenance. When you open them, all you have to do is to clean the internals and fill the lubricant chamber with new oil. Ball bearing based are a bit more problematic to repair. You have to open them, clean internals and especially bearings.
In general, the bearings are almost fully closed so dust isn't the problem as much as dry bearings. You have to submerge the entire bearing into oil and move it around violently to force oil to go inside through holes in the bearing housing. Take them out, rotate them a bit and repeat the process few times. Then you have to clean excessive oil from the housing and especially the part where the rotor goes through to prevent "sleeve bearing" effect inside the ball bearing as they are not attached together in a fixed way but the rotor still moves freely inside even if you block the ball bearing rotation. After doing that it's recommended to run such repaired fan for few minutes on lower RPM's (800-1000RPM) to let oil evenly spread inside. Much longer process than for sleeve bearings but from my experience it fixed a 7 years old stock AMD fan nearly perfectly from a noisy bastard to a silent fan again. At a cost of some oil. Not bad eh :) Haven't fixed any rifle bearing or fluid dynamic bearings yet...

You, my good sir, deserve a round of applause!!! :respect::respect::respect:
I will find a way to try this myself, since I have quite a few fans in a closet that could use some maintenance.

Thanks a gazillion! I would put this exact post somewhere as a sticky, if I wuz mod... :ohwell:

RejZoRSleeve bearings are easy for maintenance. When you open them, all you have to do is to clean the internals and fill the lubricant chamber with new oil. Ball bearing based are a bit more problematic to repair. You have to open them, clean internals and especially bearings.
In general, the bearings are almost fully closed so dust isn't the problem as much as dry bearings. You have to submerge the entire bearing into oil and move it around violently to force oil to go inside through holes in the bearing housing. Take them out, rotate them a bit and repeat the process few times. Then you have to clean excessive oil from the housing and especially the part where the rotor goes through to prevent "sleeve bearing" effect inside the ball bearing as they are not attached together in a fixed way but the rotor still moves freely inside even if you block the ball bearing rotation. After doing that it's recommended to run such repaired fan for few minutes on lower RPM's (800-1000RPM) to let oil evenly spread inside. Much longer process than for sleeve bearings but from my experience it fixed a 7 years old stock AMD fan nearly perfectly from a noisy bastard to a silent fan again. At a cost of some oil. Not bad eh :) Haven't fixed any rifle bearing or fluid dynamic bearings yet...

sleeve bearings still arent as good as ball bearing fans. most sleeve bearing fans are built poorly and perform pretty mediocre. Also when undervolting comes into play with fans most sleeve bearing fans will start to click(Ultra Kazes) unlike ball bearings which get really quiet even if they were already pretty quiet before

I'll probably write about fan repairing on my blog soon. Sleeve bearing and ball bearing types for now.

@nvidiaintelftw
It all depends. I've seen dead silent sleeve bearing fans and ball bearing fans that were making awful grinding noise (new of course, not used). I've also had one Xigmatek fan with rifle bearings that was grinding like a mill.
But i've also had dead silent ball bearings and noisy sleeves. It's all down to design and overall quality. But as i said, sleeve bearings are the easiest to maintain. There is just one important thing about almost all types of bearings. You can use them for 10 years easily if you maintain them before they go noisy (lets say every 2 years). If you leave sleeve bearing chamber dry for too long you'll wear the rotor space and it won't run as smooth anymore even if you fix it later. It will be light years better but not perfect. Similar problem is with ball bearings. The balls will wear out if they run dry inside the bearing rings. The problem is that most ppl just run them forever. I've got several systems that were ridiculously noisy, but that did not bother their users.
But they were all surprised how silent systems were when they got them back from me.

Given a choice I'd take a mag lev fan anyday

RejZoRI'll probably write about fan repairing on my blog soon. Sleeve bearing and ball bearing types for now.

@nvidiaintelftw
It all depends. I've seen dead silent sleeve bearing fans and ball bearing fans that were making awful grinding noise (new of course, not used). I've also had one Xigmatek fan with rifle bearings that was grinding like a mill.
But i've also had dead silent ball bearings and noisy sleeves. It's all down to design and overall quality. But as i said, sleeve bearings are the easiest to maintain. There is just one important thing about almost all types of bearings. You can use them for 10 years easily if you maintain them before they go noisy (lets say every 2 years). If you leave sleeve bearing chamber dry for too long you'll wear the rotor space and it won't run as smooth anymore even if you fix it later. It will be light years better but not perfect. Similar problem is with ball bearings. The balls will wear out if they run dry inside the bearing rings. The problem is that most ppl just run them forever. I've got several systems that were ridiculously noisy, but that did not bother their users.
But they were all surprised how silent systems were when they got them back from me.

Im surprised that you would go through all of that effort and setup to repair the bearings. I mean most fans cost around $10 and last a few years. I just throw them away and get brand new fans than bother to fix them.

^ I think its a shame that so many people nowadays tend to just go for a new one because "its not worth the effort" or "a new one cost only xx dollars". This is with almost any consumables. I almost always try to fix things before going for a new one. Maybe I cant fix it, but at least I get a better idea of how the thing works, when disassembling it.

Meizuman^ I think its a shame that so many people nowadays tend to just go for a new one because "its not worth the effort" or "a new one cost only xx dollars". This is with almost any consumables. I almost always try to fix things before going for a new one. Maybe I cant fix it, but at least I get a better idea of how the thing works, when disassembling it.

call me a stooge but I do the same thing fix before buying new or recycle case in point the fan on my HD5770 went south the other day and well I did try to pull it apart but it fell apart fins broke off the base snapped in two it was a total nightmare:eek:. So a quick rummage through the stockpile finds me a nice low current draw PSU fan and a bit of Ghetto modding:pimp: and wayhey it works better than the original ;)

Meizuman^ I think its a shame that so many people nowadays tend to just go for a new one because "its not worth the effort" or "a new one cost only xx dollars". This is with almost any consumables. I almost always try to fix things before going for a new one. Maybe I cant fix it, but at least I get a better idea of how the thing works, when disassembling it.

But ask WHY is it not worth the effort? It is a calculation of what is my time is worth: What else do i need to buy to fix it? Is an hour or more of your time (including the time to go and BUY the necessary tools) and the money to buy the grease and w/e other tools you might need worth it?

Are you going to fix EVERY little consumer good that breaks on you and is easily replaced?

I dig the whole "Im not lazy or wasteful" attitude, but when are you gonna spend time with your gf/wife/kids/friends/doing something that makes more money or makes you happier?

I mean, honestly... if you have time to be fixing $10 fans for the sake of frugality, you have some serious time on your hands.

the above took me approximately 10mins to do all the while my sons sitting right next to me asking questions I figure if he wants to know then who am i to stop him learning he an me enjoy it and he learns that not everything needs to thrown out

Athlonitethe above took me approximately 10mins to do all the while my sons sitting right next to me asking questions I figure if he wants to know then who am i to stop him learning he an me enjoy it and he learns that not everything needs to thrown out

You took a working fan that you had in a box and strapped it to a 5770 to replace a broken fan. You didnt try to re-glue the 5770 fan and fix the bearing and re-solder whatever made it go south after it fell apart and your initial try failed. So if anything you threw away a broken fan and replaced it with another one.

I dont see how that's not the same as throwing away a broken part and replacing it with a good part.

actually I had to de-solder the broken fans wires and resolder them to the other fan as the other fans wires were to short to reach, so yes i did do a bit of work to get it running it wasn't just a straight swap