Corsair SP or AF for front intake?

[FreyrGauti]

Hi, I have a CM Silencio 550 and plan to upgrade my casefans to Corsair Air series fans. Now I have a pretty full hdd cage, five slots in use out of seven, and was wondering if I should get AirFlow or StaticPressure optimised fans in the front of the case?

 

[Calibretto]

Pressure for fans that have to drag air through a dust filter. So SP for the front of your case.

 

[ChrisGlobe]

I thought it was the other way around? SP for static pressure through radiators and heatsinks, AF for maximum airflow through the case

 

[FOX91]

^^ True but as FreyrGauti has multiple obstructions in the way of airflow on top of it being a silencio 550 case with quite restrictive air intakes, he'll probably be better off with SP fans.

 

[Calibretto]

You're right about the airflow thing ChrisGlobe, but af Fox points out, airflow oriented fans don't always do so well with obstructions like dust filters, hard drive cages, front bezels and so on. Not only will the fans in front of a case have to struggle with those things, but in the case of the Silencio 550's very closed design the AF fans might also be starved for air.

 

[airdeano]

the corsair SP120 would be the better choice as the others have pointed out the issues and
weaknesses. can not get air through a labrynith if it can't get through a filter first. secondly,
any obstructions are also damaging air-flow. to "push" the air you need pressure or force and
the SP fans were designed for the pressure aspect.

airdeano

 

[ChrisGlobe]

Gotcha, thanks all

 

[FreyrGauti]

Thx alot for the advice guys, now just to get the local computerstore to order in some Corsair fans

 

[kaney]

Hi FreyrGauti,

I am almost through my current build using a 600T SE case, I have replaced my stock fans with Corsair 120mm SP and AF fans.

I am with ChrisGlobe on this for my setup and my basic understanding of the laws of Physics on what air can and will do, but these setups are all different and here to be tried so both iterations are worth a look.

For the front of the case I have replaced the front stock 200mm fan with a 'BitFenix Spectre PRO 200mm' It is not a Corsair which I would have preferred as most of my rig is BUT I couldn't really find a decent 200mm replacement up for the job, with a little bit of research and always a lot of very useful advice on here this was my preferred choice. So far good.

I may even get my dremel out yet to cut away and modify the front of my case to accommodate x2 120mm Corsair Fans IF I don't think I am getting the right airflow. So I may end up potentially with x2 120mm SPs hopefully doing a better job !?

I must mention to help with the airflow I am not running the usual HD configuration so really there is nothing in the way of my front case fan, I am just running SSD's, the actual x2 housings to accommodate your Internal Hard Disks within my case I could remove and fitted just one these housing units deeper into the case and lower down thus leaving a bigger space cavity for my FRONT AF Fan to push more air in.

This setup seems to work best for me at the moment, but as you know all rigs are different its just finding that best combination, hope any of this information helps and good luck !

KANEY

 

[FreyrGauti]

Well a very late update...finally got around to buying fans.
I now have two SP's in the front, one SP on the CPU heatsink and one AF for the back exhaust, all quiet editions.
I've noticed that the rig is a little bit louder than before, even when running the front fans with the included voltage reducers, but HDD temps went down 2-3 degrees.
All in all I'm happy but would have liked them to be a little bit more quiet.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Should have put AF's in the front. Thats what they are designed for.........

 

[FreyrGauti]

Well you say that but when you read what corsair say on their site they recommend SP's in front of drive cages.

To quote Corsair...
"Air Series AF fan models perform best in unrestricted spaces with at least 3cm of clearance, and they’re ideal for mounting at the rear or top of your PC case as exhaust fans for your PC’s motherboard and CPU, graphics accelerators, and other components that fill the case with heat. They work equally well as unrestricted intake fans for areas like side panels or bottom intakes.
For high restriction areas like hard drive cages or in other tight spaces where there’s less air volume, check out our Air Series SP models of high static pressure fans."

 

[SpinalTap]

Just want to hijack thread quickly. I have four HDD slots free at front of my case at the top and was going to pose the question of what would be the best to do with those slots. Was thinking blue led fan intake but any advice on what is out there to buy would be great.

 

[Billys]

Hello there...which fans to choose for push pull in megahalems?sp or af?I think sp will do the job...right?

thank you..

 

[TAWN]

True that af's should be in the front and sp's on rad's or tight squeezes. I am only using sp where i should be using af as quieter is better for me...