Which fans are best for rads?...

Dawelio

Active member
Hey guys,

So quick question, I've been doing some research, watching youtube videos and so on... regarding best radiator fans (ie Pressure optimized fans).
I've come across 4 different fans so far, that get mixed and good reviews.

Noctua NF-F12 (Industrial)
Silverstone AP121
Corsair SP120
Gentle Typhoon

Now, I will be getting the Corsair Graphite 380T and I know it won't be the most quiet case ever. But that doesn't stop me from actually trying to find the best possible fans.

I'm obviously after what most people are as well... best performance, to the most silent operation possible.
And I'm also after as much of a "directed airflow", or what you want to call it, as possible. I know that the top 2 fans sort of has them, the bottom 2 I'm not so sure about.

Also, can/would/will it be a good idea to put something like this (Click) in between the rad and the fans and between the fan and the case itself?...

Thanks!
 
For pure airflow to noise ratio i'm sure the IndustrialPPC Noctua's are the class leaders but they are very expensive and unless price was not a big consideration I think one of the alternatives would be more appropriate. I've been using Corsair SP120's (the original style) for a long time and when you get the right one for the job they are fantastic, also they do generally look very good.


Having said that if your water cooling and running radiators the best way to achieve good cooling without it becoming too audible is to have an overkill amount of radiator space. If you think about it as well it's also really cheap. Any fan is going to be quiet at 400rpm, it probably won't move much air but if you've got loads of them who cares. So unless your trying to ram in four graphics cards or something ambitious I would just get any low RPM fan you like the look of and get an obscene amount of radiator space. There's no reason why your case won't be really quiet, I would concentrate on getting a decent fan controller.

I presumed you meant a custom loop and not an AIO, that may change things and if that was the case i'd run PWM fans so you get a huge RPM range.

JR
 
Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I also have the Corsair SP120, as well as Silverstone AP120 and the older Noctua's.

Actually, I've thought of getting a new Corsair H100i for the CPU. But after watch quite many of JayzTwoCents videos of his rig, watercooled etc, I might consider actually going for my first watercooled build in the Corsair 380T.
Although, that would mean ALOT of preparation for my part. As I'm one of those people who want to get down to every detail in their mind etc, try different configs out and theb buy all the parts that I know are good and work welll togheter and get a beast of a PC. In such a tiny case.

So, I know you've pretty much gave an answer already, but if I'd go for the H100i, what fans would you recommend me?...
And if I'd go for an custom loop, what fans then? (considering that the 380T doesn't have that whole lot of rad space. Could prob fit a 240 and a 120 rad in there or actually 2 x 120. Maybe an 140 in the front, or if it exists, which I doubt heavily that it does... a 200mm rad for my front 200mm BitFenix Spectre Pro fan?.

Thanks again for the reply!
 
I think I brain farted and thought you meat 780T but yeah 380T still seems legit :D

Finding decent Static Pressure 140mm fans is hard let alone 200mm so I really would run away from that idea tbh. A 140 and a 240 would be ideal for a power efficient CPU and GPU pairing, also you've got to leave some room to package the pump/res somewhere. It would be a hard build but something is definitely possible. It would add a lot of expense compared with an AIO though. A H105 and a pair of PWM SP120's would do a great job of cooling the CPU.

The annoying thing about Noctua at the moment is they don't have an IndustrialPPC static pressure 140mm otherwise they would be epic if you only need three. Still the air flow 140 and two 2000PWM's on an AIO would be good.

JR
 
the gentle typhoons are a good balance of performance and noise.
if yo have enough radiator space that you dont need to use stupid delta server fans then they are a good choice.
 
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it! :)

Ahh okay, yeah I know that it would cost quite alot more than a regular H100i.
The H105, isn't that dual 140's?... if not, what's the difference between that one and the H100i?...
And yes, it would be quite tight fitting it all in there and quite hard build. But I think it would look quite bad ass indeed. I really love JayzTwoCents watercooled PC, with the yellow water, thin and nicely bent tubing. Having something similar in the 380T, I think it would look quite nice actually. Having blue water and black fittings etc.

Anyone knows what kind of tubing he has used, what kind of pump and what kind of fittings?...

So, which ones would be best then?... Noctua's Industrial PWM 3000RPM (750-3000RPM) or Gentle Typhoons?...
Also, the Noctua's has rubber grommets on them, the others does not. Would it fit to put an silicone thing (which I've linked in the OP), between the rad/fan and fan/case?...

Thanks!
 
The H105 is just bit thicker than a H100i but the same radiator area. I've had a few of each and while the H105 definitely performs better I would say the H100i is a better product all round.

It looks like he used 10/13mm rigid acrylic and Primochill revolver fittings (similar to me ;)), honestly I don't think i'd be brave enough to try that in an ITX case, alright well I probably would now but if it's your first project flexible would be far more forgiving. I didn't look but I would assume he used Laing D5's which would be overkill for a little loop, a little DDC would be ideal. EK and Auqacomputer do some nice little res pump combo's that are only about 120mm tall and 60mm square.

Trust me 3000RPM is excessive! The 2'000RPM PWM variants of either the SP120 or the Industrial PPC's would be ideal. I have owned a lot of Gentle Typhoons and Corsair fans and can tell you there is nothing special about Scythes and I think they are difficult to get hold of now? If your only buying 3 and don't mind the colour get Noctua's otherwise Corsair SP120 PWM Performance Editions.

Personally I wouldn't bother with that gasket type thing but I have used M4 rubber washers in the past which look a little more discrete and work very well to prevent fans rattling but that was in an acrylic case, you can see them between the fans and radiator and infront of the front fans, they were necessary to stop the front face of the fan vibrating on the case. They are SP120 PWM's btw. It's not normally necessary in a steel framed case. I'm sure what Noctua do works perfectly and so would the gaskets, I just thought these looked far neater.

P1170550.JPG


JR
 
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Okay okay... so an H100i would be better for my needs then overall?...

Okay... so flexible, you mean like the ones that Linus used in his Prodigy watercooling build or?...
Watercooling has actually gotten me quite interested indeed!... but I'm not 100% sure if I'd like to mod an 780Ti or 980 to get the waterblock on it tbh.
I've always used the pre applies thermal compound on the H80 and H100i, I've never actually applied any myself and I have a little bit of fear regarding that to be honest :(

Yeah, 3000 is overkill... I just thought of the range, 750-3000. As I want to try and do some software controlling, to have it almost dead silent when idle and somewhat "okay" when under full load etc. Something like SpeedFan, from JayzTwoCents... if you get my idea here?.
So Noctua's 2000RPM PWM fans will be plenty for me then?...
Yes, I think that the industrial noctuas look pretty sweet indeed. If the Corsairs would have some kind of focused airflow technology, like noctuas and silverstones, then I might have opted to go with that.

Ahh okay, well I'm not entirely sure that the last part you wrote, were related to the image?... as I couldn't see it on the image, through my phone.
Will take a closer look on my PC, once I get home.
So you think that the rubber grommets on the Noctua fans are good enough then?, so won't need anything else?... when thinking putting between a rad and the steel bars that the 380T has, where you can mount a 240 rad?.
 
I think now we are discussing more than just fans it might be a good idea to post your complete planned specification, budget and needs. Just to get a better idea of what restrains there might be and exactly what needs to be cooled. To me it sounds like the 980's run so cool and collected it would be a bit pointless spend big money watercooling one. Similarly i5-4690k's are very well behaved whereas a 4770k might be a bigger consideration.

I would advise if you only have 2-3 PWM fans that you use your motherboard and it's BIOS to control the fan speeds. The included utilities with the recent Asus motherboards are fantastic and do a really good job, i'm sure their competitors do too but I don't have any personal experience's yet but i'm sure others will.

You'll see what I meant on your PC. ;)

JR
 
Hey again,

Thanks for the awesome replies, I really appreciate it! :)

I'd also like to apologize for the late reply, been pretty busy with work etc, working nights and so on...

So you asked for complete planned specifications, budget and needs. Well, budget I don't really have one, I am not more of just planning all the of the different parts etc and then getting a budget up and saving up for that. So yeah, but as cheap as possible, but yet getting as much performance and quality out of it as possible.
I know this is quite a cheeky way to say it, but the best way I can.

So the planned specs are as follows:

Case: Corsair Graphite 380T

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe (Already bhought and got it, it wasn't easy)

CPU: Either my current i7 2600K or throw that one in the TV PC later and get a 3770K for this build, to also utilize PCI-E 3.0.

RAM: 16GB Corsair (Not sure which ones yet, but probably Vengeance Pro black/blue)

GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX980 due to their blower style are better than AMD's). I've been running an HD 6950 for the last couple of years. And I couldn't find an GTX970 with blower style. Also, got recommend a 780Ti from Feronix, but since there's only an £50 price difference, it's almost nothing.
It was actually Feronix who adviced and recommended that I should go blower style cooler, for an ITX system.

PSU: Silverstone ST75F-GS 750W, the small one and also with the short cable kit.
(not 100% sure about the amount of wattage, maybe don't need this much?)

SSD: Corsair Force GS or Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB for OS.
HDD: 1 or 2 WD Black 2-4TB.

Needs:

This PC will act as my main PC, used for everything from gaming to video and picture editing (Sony Vegas, Photoshop CS6 Extended), to music listening, to chrome browsing, to movie streaming etc.

I'm also gonna buy new monitors later on for this PC, an ASUS 24" 144Hz for gaming and an ASUS 24" ProArt monitor for picture editing.

Questions:

Now, I've recently got quite interested in watercooling, although I don't know anything about tubing, fittings, rads, reservoirs, pumps etc... I pretty much only know the basic in how to put it togheter and sort of fill it etc.

I've used the Corsair H100i for a while now and I like the Corsair Link moinoring etc. But I've recently also started to look at the Swiftech H220-X.
Not sure if the H220-X's pump and reservoir would be enough and powerful enough for an entire system?...

Gotten my eye for the Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev. 2.... but again, not sure if you'd recommend me going watercooling anyway, as it might not be needed?....
Then maybe just an AIO CPU cooler will be enough.

Also, if recommending watercooling... keep in mind I want a black and blue theme in my build. Already gotten a 200m front blue led fan for the 380T.
So maybe blue tubing or, clear tubing but with blue fluid, like this for example?: Click Me



So there it is... sorry for the essay here, but I'm quite tired and wanted to get it most, if not hopefully, all, down for you though.

Thanks again for the replies and help dude, really appreciate it!
And thanks in advance for the reply and help in this matter... I really like reading your replies to be honest, find them VERY interesting! :)

Thanks!
 
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