Focus182

@Dschijn I think you misread my post. I said that i'd never run anywhere close to max speed. My point was that the difference in max RPM between the fans doesn't matter as i'd never even run the slower Vardar near its max anyway. @W-L I'm sure that's generally true but in this case it is extremely obvious. Since wildthing had the same issue i'm guessing EK's fans are quite hit and miss.

Well i'd never run the fans anywhere close to max speed so they're effectively the same speed in my case. And according to the Thermalbench website the Noctua's are behind the Vardars in airflow and noise at the same rpm and I can attest to this personally, having both. I've still just ordered another three NF-F12's to replace the Vardars though as I think i'd prefer a higher noise level over a quieter but annoying noise. Purely dB wise the Vardar clearly wins but i can't stand to listen to it.

@W-L I may give that a try thanks. As for damage/debris, it's all three fans and they're all brand new so I think it's a little unlikely. @Dschijn @wildthing I'm also a fan of the Noctua's. I have some NF-F12 2000 RPM IPPC's and NF-A14 2000 RPM IPPC's already and love the sound profile. I was also thinking about swapping them out for 3 x NF-F12's but my worry was the loss of cooling performance over the Vardar's but i suppose there's not too much of a point in a loop if it's acoustically annoying. Thanks for the recommendations.

Hi i was wondering if anyone has any 120mm Vardar F3 fans and could tell me about their experience with them as i recently built a new custom loop and the three i have are terrible. The main issue is that throughout the entire RPM range i can hear an extremely annoying grinding noise coming from the bearings that gets much more severe as the RPM's go up and makes it pretty much useless for it's purpose of making it a reasonably quiet build. It's bad enough that even at half of it's price i'd feel ripped off. The second issue is that while i was testing to see if how loose or tight they were to the rad made a difference to the grinding noise, a corner had partially snapped on TWO out of the three fans. I'm very aware of the importance of not over tightening.. I've been building for nearly two decades and have at least 40 or so fans just in storage right now that i haven't got around to giving away/selling yet from other builds. I've done it a thousand times before and never broken a single one, let alone two in one minute. I was shocked at how little these could be tightened before snapping. Has anyone else experienced issues with them? And if so was there a solution to the grinding noise at all? Thanks (Posted in water cooling section opposed to air cooling as they're fans generally used for rads)

Right ok, so i should be all fine with intake through the front rad and exhaust out the back then? And yeah i would leave the 120mm rads fan at the back but the top rad will block me slightly. A 15mm fan would fit there though.

Hi i was wondering if anyone could help me decide on what to do with my water cooling setup. I currently have the NZXT Noctis 450 case with a EK 360mm PE rad in the top of my case and a EK 120mm PE rad in the back with three fans in the front. I was thinking of getting rid of the 120mm at the back and putting in a 360mm of the same type at the front instead so i'd have dual 360mm's (120mm has to go because of space in this scenario and only a slim fan could possibly fit there) But i'm wondering if this would be beneficial at all seeing as i'd either be blowing warm radiator air through my case and into the second radiator or if i set both rads as exhaust or intake that i'd either be starving the fans of air or throwing all the rad heat into my case. If i could get any advice that'd be great Thanks.