Do I need fan upgrades?

[Dunkan77]

Hello guys,

Until now (it's been 7 months) I have used the fans that came with th  my Corsair H100i V2 and I have to say they have this very annoying loud whiny tone to them past 1300 RPM or so and at that speed, as they're my only exhaust, I cannot properly cool down my case so I have to deal with a whiny PC and couple that with my Jet turbine of a GPU (evga's ACX 2.0 cooler) and you have a PC that does both extreme ends of the spectrum. I can't hear it from where I sit when idling yet, people from a few rooms across can when gaming.

 

I wondered if an upgrade to two 10mm EKWB Vardar fans would yield better performance for me and if it's even worth 60 $. I want more air displacement but less noise. So  The Vardar fans have a slightly lower static pressure rating with 3.16 mmH2O (albeit at 2200 RPM whereas the corsair fans go up to 2400 RPM and produce a whopping 4.65 mmH2O of static pressure). And then the airflow is much better on the Vardar fans even at a lower RPM with 77 CMF versus 70.7 CFM. The main spec is noise though: apparently a 10 dB increase is peceived as twice as loud (don't quote me on that as I'm really not sure) but I do know that 37.7 dB is much louder than 33.5 dB

 

My question is do I need to upgrade? If not, would upgrading make me achieve what I wanted? Thanks for answers

[Moonzy]

what's your current case and fan config?

i would suggest adding fans rather than replacing if possible

and run them at lower rpms so they stop whining

[Dunkan77]

To clarify, I'm looking at the EK Vardar F4-120ER 2200 RPM and the stock corsair fans which are said to be SP120L which aren't listed on their website as you only get those when buying a 120mm or 240mm AIO it seems like. They have quite higher stats than the SP120 found on the site, even the Performance version of those fans with the same max RPM. They claim a massive 1.5 mmH2O improvement comparing the SP120L's to the regular SP120s

[Dunkan77]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

what's your current case and fan config?

i would suggest adding fans rather than replacing if possible

and run them at lower rpms so they stop whining

There are 2 Static pressure 120mm fans up top as exhaust, I cannot add an airflow fan at the back since it would be deprived of air with the 2 SP fans sucking it all. I previousl had one in this sopt but it was barely doing anything as it was so starved so I moved it to the front where I now have 3 140mm intakes. I would add a SP fan at the back but then lots of turbulent air near the rad area would possibly affect temps.

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

There are 2 Static pressure 120mm fans up top as exhaust, I cannot add an airflow fan at the back since it would be deprived of air with the 2 SP fans sucking it all. I previousl had one in this sopt but it was barely doing anything as it was so starved so I moved it to the front where I now have 3 140mm intakes. I would add a SP fan at the back but then lots of turbulent air near the rad area would possibly affect temps.

so, 3x140mm intake and 2x120mm(with rad) as exhaust?

i dont see how would a rear exhaust fan be deprived of air

 

tried cleaning your pc? dust filters etc etc

and maybe remove any restrictions(if any) from the intake/exhaust fans

[Dunkan77]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

so, 3x140mm intake and 2x120mm(with rad) as exhaust?

i dont see how would a rear exhaust fan be deprived of air

I was putting my hand at the back I can tell you there wasn't much air coming out and I had to run that fan quite fast to feel any warm air out the back. It;s because that fan (a 140mm one) was an airflow fan whereas the 2 exhausts are static pressure fans.

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

tried cleaning your pc? dust filters etc etc

and maybe remove any restrictions(if any) from the intake/exhaust fans

Yup I did all of this and my fan filters weren't so dirty that they were restricting flow. And by the way, after 7 months of never cleaning the back fan, there was no dust on the blades at all. If that doesn't speak for how little air it was moving then little else will. My rad fans and intake fans all had some deposit on the blades' leading edges 

[Dunkan77]

6 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

120mm fans eww

Well if the rad is the only exhaust, you can abuse internal air pressure to shove air through the rad without having to run the rad fans at high rpm.

Just add more intake fans, preferably 140mm static pressure ones. Corsair fans are not the best with regards to silence. Also sealing off areas where air can leak out may help.

People with blower graphics cards experience the same phenomenon when they flip their rear exhaust fan to intake.

I would need to replace my 3 airflow intake 140mm fans with sp ones and that's changing out 3 fans instead of 2.

Now another exhaust at the back would be good but it creates slightly negative pressure with my testing. I borrowed my 212EVO's fan and stuck it at the back for this

[knightslugger]

air will always find a way out of the case. generally out the grates and holes in the back of the case and PCI covers that are generally perforated. There is no such thing as positive air pressure in a CPU case.

[Dunkan77]

So should I just put that fan back where it was but only as an intake? Will this solve some of the temperature problems? If it does then I can run my CPU fans quieter and that's what I wanted. However I will be taking air from an unfiltered fan mount... isn't that gonna be a problem?