How to silence your d8b's PSU

[flup]

Hy guys,

I recently got my d8b from under the mothballs after 5 years of inactivity. I just had to reseat the ribbon connectors, install a new battery and it was ready to go.

In the old studio the PSU was tucked away in a cupboard, this helped with the noise. In my new place however this was hard to do. Mixing with the noisy beast next to me was just impossible, so how to tame the beast.

I opened the PSU and identified 3 noisy parts.

The CPU fan
The PSU fan
The HDD

I first replaced the 2 fans by these 2 models:

http://www.conrad.be/ce/nl/product/871058/NoiseBlocker-b-x-h-x-d-80-x-80-x-25-mm
http://www.conrad.be/ce/nl/product/1177187/NoiseBlocker-BlackSilent-XS1-b-x-h-x-d-50-x-50-x-10-mm

I had to mod the electrical connectors to the fans and had a little trouble with the screws that connect the fan to the CPU heatsink, but it took me less than 45' to change the fans.

The fans are nearly audible, great. That's when I discovered that the biggest boise maker is the HDD and not the 2 fans.

After reading up on the database on this site, I decided to change the HDD to a CF card.

I first ordered this CF IDE:

http://www.conrad.be/ce/nl/product/974515/CompactFlash-drive-IDESATA

This is a CF reader and can't be used as a boot master

I succeeded on the second try:

http://www.bol.com/nl/p/startech-com-cf-card-reader-to-ide-adapter/9200000014096684/

It took me longer to open up the case than to install it.

I did a free OS install and it booted on the first try. Completely silent PSU, OK not completely silent but the 2 fans make less noise than my Mac Pro on idle, good enough for me.

Installing the software was actually the hardest part. First getting the software on floppy disks. A USB floppy drive refused to write the bootable disks. I could format the disks as FAT, but when I tried to reformat them for the d8b OS, no go. I had to go find an old laptop with a floppy drive, running Windows 2000, success on the first go. Was it the OS (windows 2000 vs Windows 7) or the USB disk drive, no idea... Once installed I had to reactivate the V5 software. This isn't possible anymore apparently. I had to reinstall the old HDD, look up the activation code (I forgot how I did this, but I found the procedure somewhere on the forum) and then reinstall the CF.

I hope this information is useful to somebody.

And after all this work I have decided to sell my d8b in favour of an analogue console. So if someone is interested in a fully stocked d8b, with a silent PSU, there's one for sale in Belgium

regards,

Philippe

[pirasa]

Replacing the noisy components is the best and sure way of solving your problem. However if you are tight on your budget you could just simply do a cleanup. You could actually wash the fans with soap and water just be sure that it is fully dry before connecting it to a power supply. Then apply a drop of machine oil at the axle of the motor to lubricate it and keep it running silently.

[Boughman]

Hi,

Just curious if you have had any heat issues with your PSU? The specs for the fan you used show a quieter fan but less rpm's and less air movement from the original fan.

[vinylizor]

Here is a source of replacement fans for the CPU -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AVC-C5010T12LV-Fan-50mm-x-50mm-x-10mm-12VDC-0-15A-ball-bearing-OL0351/250930961927?_trksid=p2054502.c100227.m3827&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908103841%26meid%3Df0ef397b1cf74321adb95686508d9c2a%26pid%3D100227%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D9%26sd%3D250930961927

These are the exact size as the fitted one so snap right in place if you don't fancy doing any diy work.

[lyn69]

I have replaced both fans with the noise blocker brand and yes the revs are a bit slower, but have had no problems with them. I now have a new problem, which is I can now hear the fans on my mac and on my Kronos, which is annoying. I still can't understand that when Mackie first put these mixers out they didn't install silent fans considering the price tag when they first came out. Again a great desk just little niggles that lets it down from time to time.

[zetell]

Hi,

Just curious if you have had any heat issues with your PSU? The specs for the fan you used show a quieter fan but less rpm's and less air movement from the original fan.

I'm a little curious too.
I did replace both the CPU and PSU fan 5-6 years ago. Switched the old ones with two new ones from Noise Blocker mentioned earlier in this post.

Have not used the mixer a lot since then, but recently brought it back to life and also purchased an additional d8b for spares.
I noticed when I switched the mixer I bought that the fans (the original ones) are moving far more air than the Noise Blocker ones I installed 5-6 years ago.
Now I'm a little worried that it won't get enough cooling

Have anyone else changed the stock fans delivered with the mixer with, let's say the NoiseBlocker ones?
If not; what kind of fans does people use these days?

[Phil.c]

I have a digital LCD temperature guage built into the front of one of my CPU's, the running temp after abot 15 min is 32 deg normally.

[zetell]

So 32°C is an acceptable temperature for a PC over time? What kind of fans do you use?

[doktor1360]

So 32°C is an acceptable temperature for a PC over time? What kind of fans do you use?

Fractal Silent Series fans... dead quiet. I've had them in my D8B since the summer 2013 along with a CF drive assembly. I'll definitely have to agree, the IDE disk drive is anything but quiet. I just personally found them to be more of a PITA overall - once I switched over n upgraded to a CF boot drive, I rarely ever have any issues... nothing that can't be mitigated by pulling the A/C cable on the back of the CPU and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes (could be less, I haven't actually 'timed' anything), plugging it back in then booting... and we're off n running. It's more stable on an order of magnitude now than how/when it originally shipped OEM from Mackie (caveat, I'm not the original owner)...

The fans in my Marshall 9100 mono-block power amp are noisier than the D8B at this point, so I don't really get overly concerned regarding noise with the console/cpu...

[Phil.c]

So 32°C is an acceptable temperature for a PC over time? What kind of fans do you use?

I haven't checked but in the summer, I guess the temperature goes to around 34deg, I can't remember the make of the fan.