Questions about case fans, looking for suggestions

[Daemonicus819]

Hello, first of all, some context as to why I ask this.

 

My current case is the tempered glass version of the Phanteks P400. I bought it along with a Cryorig H7 Quad Lumi and Vengeance RGB RAM to bring my system into the "2017 age" and modernize it a bit. What I didn't think about was airflow, which, turned out to be god awful. Who would have guessed by looking at the front panel? Hmm... I put the two included fans in the top for exhaust and put two PWM Silent Wings 3 fans in the front. Currently, all fans are pegged at 100%, though the thing still gets to have a hotbox effect after maybe an hour of gaming. Lower temperatures are obviously appreciated, mostly due to the lower noise that comes with it. Silence is important to me, along with performance, though I realize I can't have the best of both. 

 

In an effort to help this noise, I decided to get a new case. The Aerocool P7-C1, or Project 7...or whatever Aerocool wants it to be called. I understand the mesh front will let more noise out than my current P400, hence why I'm looking at fans. Running them at 100%, my current 120mm Silent Wings 3's are noticeable when doing general browsing and light gaming. I looked at 140mm options, since I had a previous system that used 140mm pure wings 2 fans for the case which were dead silent. I think for noise, those would be my best option. The P7-C1 supports two 140mm fans in front or 3 120mm fans. If I got the two 140mm fans, I would be putting them in the middle, because having an uneven looking front isn't very appealing to me, and if I went with 120mm fans I would be using all 3 fan slots.

 

I'm sorry if i'm not being super clear. I find it difficult to make things straight to the point. It's easier to speak in my head than to speak with my mouth.

 

1. Would putting two 140mm fans in the middle of the front create problems due to having open space above and below the two fans?

2. If using 3 120mm fans is the desirable option, do you have any recommendations on which models to pick? Looking for silence with reasonable airflow. Noctua puke color is out of the question.

 

If I do end up getting the 140mm fans, I'll just re-purpose the current Silent Wings fans to exhaust

[Imbellis]

Personally, I'd go with the 2x140mm over the 3x120.

The space around the fans (covered by the filter) should be fine - but if for some reason aren't, you could slide a piece of black-cardboard or paper over it to "seal" it off.

 

2x140mm would get you 39,200mm² of intake area compared to  43,200mm² of the 3x120; however, since the radius of the 140mm fans is larger, the blades of the fan sweep a larger area more quickly than 120mm fans - making them more efficient.

 

For looking at PC fans, you can look at this google sheet.

If price is a major concern, looking at "total" scores will give better results. If price and sound aren't, look at the CFM column. (Use Ctrl+F to search for keywords)

This google sheet may be outdated on prices - so make sure to double check PCPartPicker for the current price.

 

I would recommend: Noctua's iPPC-3000PWM for maximum airflow; however Noctua's expensive and you'll need to control the fan speed through BIOS - the fans get quite loud.

I have also heard good things about NoiseBlocker and be quite!, but I've never bought from them.

[Daemonicus819]

Thank you for the answer, Imbellis. Very helpful, and more detailed than I was honestly expecting.

 

I have had quite a few Be Quiet! products and I would recommend their fans. My first system was in a Silent Base 800 with a Dark Rock Pro 3, 5 Pure Wings 2 140mm, and a 120mm Pure Wing in the back with a low noise adapter on it. When I turned it on I had to look inside to see if the fans were spinning because I thought it hadn't turned on. In general internet browsing the fan in the EVGA G2 was the loudest one in the system. With the exception of the cooler and the back fan, all were ran at 100%. And that was with a FX-8320 overclocked to 4.6 Ghz. That computer was the reason I bought the Silent Wings 3's I currently have in the front of my P400. Compared to Noctua's NF-15, the 140mm Pure Wings 2 only goes to 1000RPM vs 1200 on the Noctua, slightly less airflow, but at (an advertised) 16.5 DbA instead of Noctua's 19.2. Both would be silent, I think, but from my experience, I didn't even know the Pure Wings 140mm was even on when it was at full speed, and is half the cost right now. I suspect Noctua's Redux fans would be a better comparison price wise, but the Be Quiet! fans still are miles ahead in the looks department, imo.

[iono88]

I've been told that Noctua's chromax lineup of fans are set to launch next week. So these will be their mainstream fans (A15, A14, F12, S12A) but in black and with colored anti-vibration pads. So there's that if you want to go with Noctua but not their distinct color.

[Daemonicus819]

I'll look out for those, since the Aerocool is supposed to be here by next Friday. I suspect the Pure Wings will still be cheaper though. If the Noctuas are better airflow for maybe, $5 more than the Pure Wings then I will definitely consider them an option, but I have a feeling they will be very similarly priced to current non Redux Noctuas.

[MauriceCS]

Suggestion

I just got the cryorig qf120mm silent and the qf140mm silent fans both are 4pin pwm

Set them in exhaust in my s340 case to replace the stock fans

-Cost effective

-Super quiet

-Airflow is awesome 

-black frame white blades

-anti vibration

Over 10c drop in cpu thermals just by replacing my exhausts 

on my r5 1600x from 36 idle to 23 idle with my h100i v2 aio on quiet

 

There are other RPM versions available 3versions are silent balance & performance

 

Newegg

https://m.newegg.com/products/1YF-000U-00003

https://m.newegg.com/products/1YF-000U-00008

 

Official site

http://www.cryorig.com/qf120_us.php

http://www.cryorig.com/qf140.php

[Daemonicus819]

7 hours ago, MauriceCS said:

Suggestion

I just got the cryorig qf120mm silent and the qf140mm silent fans both are 4pin pwm

Set them in exhaust in my s340 case to replace the stock fans

-Cost effective

-Super quiet

-Airflow is awesome 

-black frame white blades

-anti vibration

Over 10c drop in cpu thermals just by replacing my exhausts 

on my r5 1600x from 36 idle to 23 idle with my h100i v2 aio on quiet

 

There are other RPM versions available 3versions are silent balance & performance

 

Newegg

https://m.newegg.com/products/1YF-000U-00003

https://m.newegg.com/products/1YF-000U-00008

 

Official site

http://www.cryorig.com/qf120_us.php

http://www.cryorig.com/qf140.php

I am aquainted with the QF120 series, the Quad Lumi uses a clear white LED version of the balanced QF120. It is the loudest fan in the system and it must be run at full speed, not just for temperatures, but because the fan is defective. At below maybe 80% the fan makes a rubbing noise and I can see the blades' edge physically weeble-wobbling left and right (from my point of view looking into the case.)  I'm fine with it at the moment since I had always left replacing the fan open as an option in case I didn't like the bright white lights in the fan. From what I've looked up, a 120mm pure wings 2 pushes slightly (1 CFM, lol) more air but is also quieter. I would just need to find some rubber pads to put between the fan and heatsink. 

 

Since creating this thread I wanted to see how bad the airflow really was in numbers. So I did a rather unscientific test of playing 1 round of 24 player team deathmatch in battlefield 1 with Cam's OSD active, and noting where temperatures mostly sat during the game. I tested with the case normal, the front panel removed, and the window removed. 

 

Normal configuration=68C on the CPU, 74C on the GPU

Front panel removed=57C on the CPU, 59C on the GPU

Window removed=57C on the CPU, 55C on the GPU

 

Needless to say, until I get to move my stuff to the new case, I do plan to remove the front panel while gaming, but leave it on during browsing and using my monitor's speakers to cut down on noise. At this point, as much as I care about the case, a vacuum chamber has more airflow than this thing.