Fan upgrade recomendation

[vladecrni]

Hi all,

 

I have an opportunity to upgrade some fans in my PC for free, but not a lot of time for research, so I thought to ask for a quick recommendations here.

 

I have a Cooler Master Mastercase 5T and NZXT Kraken x52 AIO liquid cooler with all the fans that came with them.

 

Since money is not an issue, my idea was to "Noctua-up" my PC and replace stock coolers with 3 x 140 mm for the case and 2 x 120 mm for the radiator with A series fans.

 

Goal is to remain on the same temperature level and decrease the noise. My questions are:

1) Are there any better fans that would help me achieve my goal currently on the market?

2) Should I go fro PWM or DC fans? Why one compared to another? My case has integrated fan controller but only accepts 3-pins, and my motherboard has enough PWM headers to plug in directly.

3) Is A series good for radiators? Will I gain anything ifI replace stock fans? Will I loose ability to control fan speeds trough CAM software.

 

Thank you all in advance for help.

[Sorenson]

My favorite are the Corsair ML140s. They are the quietest fans I’ve ever used (including noctuas). I personally don’t like noctuas because their 4 pin connector is flimsy. I bought a Noctua NF-p12 for my most recent computer, but it started having issues in under a week from the fan connector. I swapped it out for a ML120 I had around and it runs quieter at the same temps.

[WoodenMarker]

What are your specs and temps? Which components are too noisy?

What rpm are your fans running at? Have you tried lowering them?

Budget?

 

Besides convenience of grouping up fans or whichever form of fan control you have access to, there isn't much difference between pwm and dc fans overall. There are more differences between individual fan models. 

[vladecrni]

On 11/27/2019 at 9:49 PM, WoodenMarker said:

What are your specs and temps? Which components are too noisy?

What rpm are your fans running at? Have you tried lowering them?

Budget?

 

Besides convenience of grouping up fans or whichever form of fan control you have access to, there isn't much difference between pwm and dc fans overall. There are more differences between individual fan models. 

Hey,

I have a 7700K and the specs are in my signature. Fans that I have currently are the ones that came with my Kraken/Master case:

They are not noisy, but I have an opportunity for a (free) upgrade, and wondering what to take.

[WoodenMarker]

16 hours ago, vladecrni said:

I have a 7700K and the specs are in my signature. Fans that I have currently are the ones that came with my Kraken/Master case:
They are not noisy, but I have an opportunity for a (free) upgrade, and wondering what to take.

If they're free, it doesn't get any better than NF-A12x25's and NF-A14's. Go for pwm for better rpm range. They can still be controlled with dc if you need to for some reason. 

[vladecrni]

On 12/3/2019 at 4:03 AM, WoodenMarker said:

If they're free, it doesn't get any better than NF-A12x25's and NF-A14's. Go for pwm for better rpm range. They can still be controlled with dc if you need to for some reason. 

AWsome, thanks for your recommendation  ! I was thinking about performance on the radiator vs for air intake, maybe some other Noctua ones could be better?

I pan to connect them all to NZXT Grid+ V3 (was also free  ). In this case, do I need to connect Low noise adapters, or will they go low as possible without them. And is it a good idea to connect radiator fans to it as well (for smoother speed control), or should I leave them where they are now?  

[WoodenMarker]

On 12/10/2019 at 1:46 PM, vladecrni said:

AWsome, thanks for your recommendation  ! I was thinking about performance on the radiator vs for air intake, maybe some other Noctua ones could be better?
I pan to connect them all to NZXT Grid+ V3 (was also free  ). In this case, do I need to connect Low noise adapters, or will they go low as possible without them. And is it a good idea to connect radiator fans to it as well (for smoother speed control), or should I leave them where they are now?  

The NF-A12x25's and NF-A14's are both very well rounded and are among the best options for many use cases including on rads and as case fans. 

The LNA's don't make them go any lower than they already can. They're mainly used when whatever the fans are being powered from doesn't have very good fan control options.

How you want to control the fans is up to you. If you don't have any particular preference for controlling groups of fans, you could just use a large splitter for everything. I personally connect them to the motherboard fan headers and use splitters only when necessary for cleaner cable routing. Many motherboards have pretty good fan control options available as well and I usually prefer that over the Grid+ V3. 

[vladecrni]

Well, I tried playing with custom curves a lot, but still there are erratic jumps in fan speeds.

 

Between NZXT Cue software, Asus Ai suite software, and BIOS, who knows what is actually controlling these fans when they are plugged into the board...

[WoodenMarker]

1 hour ago, vladecrni said:

Between NZXT Cue software, Asus Ai suite software, and BIOS, who knows what is actually controlling these fans when they are plugged into the board...

Only use one form of fan control / monitoring at a time if possible.