Fans and H100i question

[Feronix]

Hey guys!

I had a question regarding the H100i, some fans and airflow.
I want to use an H100i in my new build which will be mounted in the top of a 650D. I want to use the radiator as an intake, I know that warm air rises, but I need this to create positive air pressure.

I'd also like to use the fans in a pull set-up, so the rad is easier to clean (no need to take the fans off to clean the dust out of the rad). I heard that it doesn't really matter wether you use push or pull, temps wise?

Also, the build is really focussed on aesthetics and I don't really like the how the backside of the Corsair fans looks that come with it. It just wouldn't look right imo. I thought about getting some Silverstone Air Penetrators, they have a nice curved grill on the backside so I don't need to see the blades.

Problem is that:

1 - I don't know if the fans work as well on a rad as the Corsair Pressure ones that come with the H100i.

2- This is actually the main question:
From what I see they don't have all black fans, only LED ones. It's going to be an all black build so this would ruin the complete point of the "Black Beast". Would it be possible to use Corsairs actual fan (the blades) in the Silverstone housing? Anyone happen to know this?

Thanks in advance! ​

 

[S_I_N]

what ya need to do is look at the static pressure cfm and Dba for all the fans your looking at and compare it to the stock corsair fans. If they match then they will perform as well as the corsair ones.

 

[jamesriley94]

The fans will be fine for rads. Despite rated specs, I use them, and I think they're great
I'm getting an H100i at some point too and will be putting them on there too.

I'd personally leave them exhausting out the top. Not because it really makes much of a difference, but I just prefer the idea of hot air being exhausted out the top. Why not just have set every other fan in the case - front, rear, floor(is it has them in the floor?) as intakes, then you'll still have your positive pressure. I personally don't really think it makes a massive difference though. You have a good case, and it's well dust filtered, so I don't see the need to be worrying over the top about positive and negative pressure...

To answer questions though:
1) Possibly not as well as the stock fans, but they'll be a lot lot quieter.
2) No - you can't.

 

[Feronix]

Thanks guys, I checked and the Corsair ones have 77CFM where the AP121-L or AP121 only have 35.6 CFM. The Silverstone ones are quiter, but they only do 1500 RPM where the Corsairs can do 2700 o:

@James, thanks for clearing point 2 up. Really it's just about the looks though, and I think I'd prefer using the stock Corsair ones. Especially cause the AP121 are like €18,- each (add shipping to that and I'll pay €40,- for a set of fans :\ )

Do you think something like this would work? At least it's not a cheap looking grill and it does mask off the fan a fair bit without blocking airflow (it even improves it lol):
http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nexus-beamair-airguider.htm

About the airflow/pressure. I've given it a lot of thought but my room tends to get pretty dusty and I also have 2 dogs walking around there so I'd prefer to keep the positive pressure going. It only has 1 front intake fans and 1 rear exhaust fan, which I'll be replacing with low rpm fans (700 for the 200mm and 800 RPM for the 120) to keep the noise levels down as it will be sitting right beside me.

The CPU is watercooled by the H100i anyway so I don't think it matters much if the air in there is a bit warmer. There won't come an awful lot of heat from the GPU either as it's an EVGA GTX670 FTW which is designed to exhaust air out the case?

Would like your opinion on this once again, but now with this info
(I know I can be a bit stubborn, but I came here for good advice and I think yours is good ;D)

 

[jamesriley94]

I dunno really...
I just think with most things in PCs, and on forums is that people tend to massively over think things like positive pressure and CFM, and static pressure, when I don't really see it making much difference.
The stats you're looking at are with the fans running at max speeds, so I don't really think you can compare the H100i stock fans to anything else, because you'd be mad to run them at 2700rpm all the time anyway.

I personally just think aesthetics and noise and the more noticeable things, and so I care more about that in things that I buy.
For example, I changed the fans on my D14 from the standard noctua ones running at 7v, to the Silverstone fans running at 5v - and it made like 2 degrees difference in temps, whilst being a lot lot quieter.

I prefer to care about things that you actually notice such as aesthetics and noise, rather than 2 degrees difference here or there.

People on here seem to think that if you don't have high static pressure fans then it's going to make a billion degrees difference in temps, when for me, it made next to no difference at all.

 

[Feronix]

Too right mate, it's just that the pc will have all black internals (Z77 Sabertooth, H100i, Patriot Viper RAM, GTX670 with the green logo made black) and I'm assuming you know how well the colour black and dust go together

But yeah, I think that if it doesn't reaaally matter what fans I go with, I'll stick with the Corsairs. They are the colour I want and it would save me €40,- Will put some of these Nexus things on there (I really love that brand :3) and not have to deal with looking and the backs of fans.

Also had another question about the H100i itself. Can I plug the fan connectors into the mobo CPU headers instead of the CPU block? This will look much cleaner and the board will deal with what speed the fans runs at. I wouldn't need to do anything within the Corsair link think (except turning the LED off).

 

[jamesriley94]

You can do yeah.


I'd personally run them straight off molex with fan speed reducers however. It's up to you though.

 

[Feronix]

Thanks for the help!

One last question; Does the H100i come with the apropriate screws to screw the rad to the top of the case, and then the fans under the rad (screws would need to go through the entire fan into the rad). They'd need to be a tad long as I'll use the Nexus BeamAir things

 

[ccaution]

Yes it comes with both short (rad-to-case) and long (fan-to-rad) screws.

I hate to be the party pooper, but pulling air from a rad gives slightly worse temps, compered to push through one. I believe it's something to do with the fans buiding more pressure on the right side or something, I have tryed twice (Enermax & Be Quiet! fans), and I was getting rather reproducible results every time. In favor of pushing.

Push > Pull, in my experience.