Performance fans?

[Ttaskmaster]

Heya,

I'm looking for some fan recommendations, please...

I need to replace the 120mm H100 fans with something that gets below 45db on an idle rig and am considering both 120 and 140mm. Budget not an issue.

I'd like a decent balance of high static pressure, along with a fair degree of quietness, but I'm not expecting complete silence. Preferably PWM, LEDs unimportant, though anything not blue or white is still a winner. I also don't mind looks, so Noctuas will not be sniffed at.

What's out there that fits the bill, do you reckon?

[herulach]

I have akasa venom vipers on my rad. Silent at 30% cycle, lots of air higher up

[Macadee]

Noctuas are allegedly the best all rounder (though I haven't tried them as I'm allergic to beige)

I currently have on my radiator, and can recommend Corsair SP Quiet edition PWM fans, not a good overall as my previous Gentle Typhoon AP15 fans, but the GTs are not available in PWM

[Noxvayl]

I am using some Akasa Viper 140mm fans and Noctua NF-F12 120mm fans on my radiators. Both great fans with the Akasa being better in terms of raw performance and price. The Akasa Vipers blow an insane amount of air but at high speeds are loud, they do get silent below 40% so are great PWM controlled fans.

The Noctuas have great performance and low noise even at full speed. They come with extension cables, Y cables and a Low Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.) that reduces voltage so works on all fans. The fans have rubberised corners and rubber mounting pins for reduced noise which ever mounting you choose to use. My current rig couldn't do without the Y cables and my HTPC uses the L.N.A. to great effect so the Noctuas were well worth it for me. I would also say the tone of the Noctuas at high speed is more pleasant.

I would buy both fans again given the choice but I will definitely choose the Noctuas over others for the accessories and extra warranty if 120mm is required, their 140mm fans aren't quite as good performance wise which was why I got the Akasa Vipers.

[polosistealth]

scythe are the best imho
this
SY1225SL12SH Scythe "SLIP STREAM" 120x25mm Case Fan" 1900 rpm

or if u dont care about noise so much you can go with: D1225C12B9AP-30 Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120 mm by Nidec Servo Corp. - 4250 RPM Speed

[Ttaskmaster]

Sigh... after all that help, I just learned that PWM is not what I thought it was... and that my rig is only geared around 3-pin fans off the Molex anyway!!

Okay, what are the decent quiet fans for each high static pressure (for the cooling rad) and high air flow (for the general case)?
Are 140s less effective than 120s as many reviews seem to suggest?

[aidanjt]

If you have room for 14cm fans, Noctua NF-A14 FLX's all the way. They include RPM limiting wires you can attach between your fan and system/molex as well.

[Pob255]

If you've bought PWM fans they can still be used off of 3pin headers, just will not have PWM control.

You can always get a PWM splitter cable, we talked about them in another thread.
http://forums.hexus.net/psus/317249-...-pwm-fans.html
A basic Y splitter will let you run two fans off a single header, but add in an additional power cable and you can run quite a few.

I've not seen any reviews that say 140mm fans are less effective than 120mm fans, but it does depend on what and how you use them.
If you're just using them as case fans then a 140mm fan will be better than a 120mm fan, if the fan mounting/vent can take a 140mm fan.
The problems come when you try to use a 140mm fan in a space only designed for a 120mm fan, this can be doubly so for radiators.

For high pressure fans the scythe Gentle Typhoon is rated as one of the best, it's a high pressure design and isn't as loud as other fans at higher rpm.
The down side of these is that at lower RPM they can sound louder, this is down to the noise they make being a slightly higher pitch than most fans, which can make them more noticeable to the human ear at lower levels.
Need to be careful which ones you get because they come in a range of RPM

The Akasa Viper or Apache fans are good, viper run faster, so more noise but also more air flow (they are actaully made by Scythe btw, or at least they where) I still personally rate these as some of the best all round PWM fans, although without the PWM control I'd be less inclined to use them.

The Noctua NF-F12 are supposed to be very good for radiators, not as much power as some (down to the lower rpm again) however the fin arrangement behind the blades increases the gap between fan blades and radiator (when on push) in theory this creates a high pressure air pocket to help with a more evenly distributed air flow through the radiator.

Others to look at would be the corsair SP series (the new fans are far better than the original H100 fans), Noctua NF-P12, Silverstone FQ series

[Ttaskmaster]

Cor, this really does get complicated, doesn't it...!!

OK, so my mobo's CPU_Fan and Sys_Fan 1 headers are *definitely* 4-pin, but the Sys_Fan 2 (rear exhaust port) is only 3-pin...
The H100 is Molex-powered and connects to CPU_Fan, but only uses 3 of the 4 pins. Stock fans for H100 are also 3-pin, yet the four fan headers on the H100 pump unit are 4-pin!!
The H100 only uses the Ground, +12V and Sensor pins on the CPU_Fan header, but not the 4th Control pin... yet somehow still alters the radiator fans up and down. I'm guessing it checks the CPU temp and just bumps up the revs for a bit?

I'm wondering if I could/should chuck some 4-pin PWMs into the H100 or not...?

Either way, I'm thinking 2 pair static pressure fans - 2 below to push air up and 2 higher pressure ones to pull up through the rad and exhaust out the top.
How does that sound?


The Carbide 500R front panel has a low-med-high switch and two cables for 3-pin fans, powered from the PSU by Molex. However, Corsair put flippin' proprietary connectors on everything!!
Unlike some other cases, these cables don't unplug fron the front panel either...

So... I'm now thinking I'd be best using some 3-pin high airflow case fans running off a fan controller (I really like the Lamptron FC models), so I can simply drop the volume when needed or bump them up if the rig starts warming up.

I had been following that PWM Splitter thread, but given that my mobo (MSI 970A-G46) has a reputation for being finicky, I'm a bit wary of putting more than one fan on a header unless they draw their power from Molex.
And yet, it sounds like I could put a 4-pin PWM on a 3-pin header (perhaps even into a fan controller) and just run them like 3-pins?
Just about every fan point in my case can take either 120 or 140, so I could feasibly choose anything I liked... and it's then down to just reading all the stats on all the fans, deciding between positive/negative pressure and choosing which fans I want?


Does any of that make sense?

[herulach]

Easy then, PWM fans on the h100 on a simple splitter connected to CPU Fan. Everything else on Sys 1 with a PWM splitter that draws power from molex. That way you get separate CPU & Chassis speed control,

[Pob255]

On the H100 there are 4x pin fan headers on the block/pump unit.
The block pump unit has a wire coming out that breaks into a 3pin fan plug with only one wire and a 4pin molex with only Two wires.

This is because the H100 block/pump also contains a fan controller, it's actually a block+pump+fan controller

The way this works is that you plug the molex in for power, both the pump and the fan controller for the 4x 4pin headers on it.
The fan cable can be connected to any motherboard header or just left off, the one wire it has is the TAC wire, the pump runs at a fixed speed, you cannot reduce it.
The reason for this being here is that many motherboard will not be happy if they don't receive a TAC signal to the cpu header, it's a basic security feature when you boot up the BIOS checks for cpu fan to make sure it's working and may automatically shut down if it receives no tac signal.

Fan control of anything plugged into the headers on the block is done automatically by the built in controller.
It's got a built in temperature sensor that monitors the fluid temperature and adjusts the fans relatively to the speed setting (pressing on the top of the block cycles through the 3 settings)

It's would be nice to know the actual voltages corsair, you can work it out roughly as 2700rpm would be 12v, 1100rpm should be about 5v so it's probably dipping around 4.5-4.7v on quiet setting when the fluid is below 28c

Please note that's internal fluid temperature not cpu temperature.

AFAIK the built in fan controller works via voltage regulation not PWM, the PWM is there for if you use the Corsair Link commander http://www.corsair.com/en/corsair-link-cooling-kit this is a USB control system that overrides the built in fan controller for direct PWM or Voltage control depending on what type of fans you have plugged in.

So yes PWM fans will work on the headers of the block, although they'll not work in PWM mode they'll act just like normal 3pin fans, which also work.
You'll not be able to monitor or adjust the fan speed without spending the extra money on the Link Commander.

The other alternative for PWM fans is to not use the fan headers on the pump, plug the fans into the cpu header via a slitter cable (splitter cable for 4 PWM fans should have a separate power connector, molex or sata, it's only the PWM control signal that's shared) the H100 block/pump TAC plug can be put into a different motherboard header as it's only there to make sure the pump is still running.

[Ttaskmaster]

This is because the H100 block/pump also contains a fan controller, it's actually a block+pump+fan controller

Oh right. I did wonder...

The reason for this being here is that many motherboard will not be happy if they don't receive a TAC signal to the cpu header,

Ahhhh, I see....

It's got a built in temperature sensor that monitors the fluid temperature and adjusts the fans relatively to the speed setting

Right. Gotcha...
You've been very helpful and I appreciate it!

It's would be nice to know the actual voltages

I could connect a volt meter in between the molex plug and the H100 plug - Would that be accurate enough?

Please note that's internal fluid temperature not cpu temperature.

For CPU temps, I have my *wildly inaccurate* MSI mobo sensor... currently 3ºC apparently, ha ha!!

You'll not be able to monitor or adjust the fan speed without spending the extra money on the Link Commander.

Ain't gonna happen, as I'll run out of case space. I bought a sealed unit for a reason*. I'm happy with the job the H100 does... just not the noise. Reads 45db on idle and drowns out my bike at full chat!! Speeds are more important on the louder case fans.

So PWMs direct into H100 is a bit of a waste.
No probs. I'll use 3-pin, to keep the extra cabling minimal.

What about the case fans - I'm still leaning toward 3-pins on a fan controller... Is there any glaring reason I'd want split PWMs instead of that?



*Two reasons actually - Minimal hassle and very low price for some great CPU cooling. Plus my case was designed for it anyway!

[Pob255]

Ok first things first have you tried to set the H100 fan controller to it's lowest setting? ie push the top until it's only 1 bar lit
From reports the temperature difference between lowest and highest setting is about 5-6c but the noise difference is a lot more.

I hadn't noticed that the Carbide 500R fan controller and front fans
That's a bit of a shame

The rear fan and side panel 200mm fan are standard 3pin connectors correct?

To get it quite start with find finding the main source of noise, run the front fans on the controller set to low, run the H100 fan off the H100 set to low, run the 200mm and rear 120mm off the motherboard or via molex adaptors, check to see what the worst offender.

Your best bet for replacement h100 fans currently would probably be a twin pack of the Corsair SP120 1450rpm version http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...-pin-twin-pack
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm would be good but they've stopped making them now so are very hard to get hold of.
Remember that the h100 is an automatic fan controller so you'll only hit a fan's top speed on it's 3 bar setting when you pc is under load, at idle or any lower setting then the fans will not reach full 12v speed.

[Ttaskmaster]

Ok first things first have you tried to set the H100 fan controller to it's lowest setting?

Yup.
On idle it's OK (52db), but it periodically spins up to speed and that's the noisy bit.

The rear fan and side panel 200mm fan are standard 3pin connectors correct?

The rear is standard and the noisiest thing on idle, so that one is definitely getting binned.
The side is proprietary.
Also, somewhere in the front panel, the front & side fans are connected to an on/off switch for their LEDs.

To get it quite start with find finding the main source of noise,

Actually, with all fans completely off, I think the loudest noise at idle now is either the pump itself, or possibly my graphics card...

I know SP fans work better than AF where there's limited clearance - Does that clearance refer to in front of the fan intake, behind it, or both?

[Ttaskmaster]

Managed to score a pair of NF-P12 fans for £7!
Not sure if they're the PWM or 3-pin Vortex versions, but at that price I'm not so bothered.

They only make 54CFM at 1300rpm, but that is under 20db.
By comparison, the stock H100 fans make 92CFM but at 2500rpm and is 39db (closer to 57 by my measurements).


So do I want these pushing up through the H100 Rad, or pulling?
Now wondering if I can quieten down that GPU too...

[herulach]

push/pull likly won't make much of a difference, you want it as an intake on your case, then do whichever makes the mounting easiest. Unless you can get push pull going, which will make a big difference. on my rad (3*120, ut quite an old restrictive one) I get not far off the same performance on push pull at lowest setting (IIRC 40% cycle) as I do on push or pull individually at full chat.