Best fan to choose for water cooling

[Kushiro]

Hi everyone,

I know my question has been asked many times, however unfortunately all of the ones suggested are unavailable in my country (Australia).

Anyways I currently have the following fans
2x Bitfenix Spectre Pro blue led 140mm (Hardware labs GTX 420 RAD)
1xNZXT 140mm stock fans (Hardware labs GTX 420 RAD)
2xNZXT 140mm stock fans (HDD Ventilation)
2xNexus Real Silent blue led 120mm (XSPC RX240 RAD)
2xXSPC 1850RPM 120mm (XSPC RX240 RAD)
3xXigmatech white led 140mm (2 intake, 1 exhaust)

The above pretty much sums up what I currently have, however even though they are advertised as silent/quest will low rated DB, they are still incredibly audible and it is very distracting when I am trying to concentrate. So I have decided to buy a new set of fans.

Below is a list I have compiled:

Arctic Cooling 140mm F14 PWM Fan
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_598&products_id=20988


BitFenix Spectre Pro 140mm Black Tinted Blue LED Fan
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_598&products_id=19108


Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition Blue LED Fan
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_598&products_id=25408

Nexus Real Silent 140mm Case Fan
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_598&products_id=23884

NZXT FZ 140mm Blue LED Fan
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_598&products_id=24572

The fans will be connected to either a NZXT Sentry Mix 2 fan controller or a Bitfenix Hydra fan controller.

I am open to any suggestions other than the ones that I have already compiled, as I have only read reviews of a few of them, so have minimal knowledge of their performance. The same goes for the fan controllers, I just picked the two, as they seemed the most suitable.

Anyways sorry for the extremely long OP and thank you in advance for anyone who contributes.

 

[S_I_N]

I run Spectre pros in push pull on both my rads. Never been an issue. Keep them on low with my NZXT Sentry mesh controller for normal everyday use bump them to a tad under medium for gaming if needed. They work very well and are relatively quiet unti they hit 100% where you can here them but they dont drown anything out.

 

[Kushiro]

I see, thanks for that, though I find that mine dont seem to pushing much air when restricted to 7v. Do you have this problem? Not to mention the fact that I will need an additional 8 of them for my system, which will cost over $200... How much did you pay a piece for yours?

Also hows the Ethoo Primo case? Might get one myself the next time I decided to do a tear down.

 

[tinytomlogan]

^^^Spectre pro's are actually shit on rads IMHO

SP120's are awesome - the quiet edditions are wicked with or without the fan speed reducers too

 

[Kushiro]

May I ask why spectre pros are so bad on rads? As I noticed them in quite a few water cooling builds and their CFM seemed reasonable enough for my rad. Just a bit confused sorry.

 

[S_I_N]

Also hows the Ethoo Primo case? Might get one myself the next time I decided to do a tear down.

I'm quite fond of it (just wish i knew a white version was coming) Beats the 810 by a long shot in my opinion and the 810 is an awesome case to boot.

^^^Spectre pro's are actually shit on rads IMHO

SP120's are awesome - the quiet editions are wicked with or without the fan speed reducers too

mine are doing superb on my rads. Keep in mind were talking the 140mm flavor here not 120mm.

In my dual loop I've run prime95 for 45mins+ and never broke 62c on the hottest core. 4.5Ghz oc on 1.36vcore. 420mm UT60 rad push pull might be worth mentioning the rez is shared with gpus which are on a 280mm UT60 push pull so the DI mixes but after 45mins water temp should be stabilized between the 2. Gaming (hard session BF3 or 4) CPU doesn't break 53c and gpus hit mid 40's without turning the fans up from low on my sentry mesh. If I bump it to medium speed for the fans I can shave off 3-5c off each unit.

I need to rerun prime95 with this new case and see whats what as I'm using the PWM controlled fan hub on the case. man I love it takes non pwm fans and gives the mobo control over them. Not powering them just speed control it gets its power from a 4pin molex connector.

 

[Kushiro]

hmm I have had a look at the sp's that were mentioned and I do not quite like them. Has anyone ever used the ARCTIC F14? as they are relatively affordable.

Also that buyers regret that your having, I feel the same after almost every purchase.

Also those temps that you are getting. are you sure those are correct? what is the ambient?
As my CPU (i7 2600K as well) doesnt even break past the 60C point, well maybe 61C. But it is OC'd to 5.2Ghz on 1.42Vcore, not to mention the graphics cards, I have an AMD 290x OC'd to 1250Mhz Core and 5250Mhz MEM and I rarely break past the 40C point. Those temps are after an overnight stress test/benchmark. (then again there are 2 7970 so... does it make that much of a difference, TDP250W or something)

 

[Kushiro]

And that 5.3GHZ OC in your sig.. That voltage is crazy lol even going past 1.4v is scaring me haha

 

[tinytomlogan]

And that 5.3GHZ OC in your sig.. That voltage is crazy lol even going past 1.4v is scaring me haha

Please do not double post - use the edit button

Other fans for rads are Scythe GT's

 

[Kushiro]

OK, thanks for the suggestion, however unfortunately the scythes are unavailable locally so it currently isnt an option for me. Anyways I will keep looking around.

 

[S_I_N]

And that 5.3GHZ OC in your sig.. That voltage is crazy lol even going past 1.4v is scaring me haha

it was for a single bench run only to verify stability. I booted into windows ran pcmark vantage grabbed my screenie of cpu validation after wards and immediately dropped back to my 4.5 @1.36

want to know the scary part??? I did that on a Noctua D-14. i havent tried again since going water lol.

 

[Kushiro]

sorry, I didnt mean to offend you. it was just my personal preferences, I like to keep my things for a long time , so I never go beyond 1.45v for my CPU's as I am afraid of degrading.

Anyways thank you for your help.

 

[NRG!]

expensive, but my favourites:
http://www.blacknoise.com/en/products/it/8