Best Radiator Fans

[Nick980]

I have been running my setup for awhile now, Evolv X with 2 360mm rads one in front and one up top with 3 Corsair ML120 fans on each and a Phanteks 140mm in the rear. I'm not overly impressed with the level of sound coming from the system even when idle. From what I have read recently the ML120's get poor reviews, what would people recommend as a good replacement or would swapping them out give negligible results? I know the standard wisdom is that the Noctua A12x25 are the best around but as far as I can tell they only come in the standard Noctua colour scheme and not the chromax variant.

[DailyProcrastinator]

18 minutes ago, Nick980 said:

I have been running my setup for awhile now, Evolv X with 2 360mm rads one in front and one up top with 3 Corsair ML120 fans on each and a Phanteks 140mm in the rear. I'm not overly impressed with the level of sound coming from the system even when idle. From what I have read recently the ML120's get poor reviews, what would people recommend as a good replacement or would swapping them out give negligible results? I know the standard wisdom is that the Noctua A12x25 are the best around but as far as I can tell they only come in the standard Noctua colour scheme and not the chromax variant.

ML Pros are one of my personal favs, that said do you have any custom fan curves set? No fan is quiet at higher RPM. 

 

EDIT: Something like a Noctua NF F12 is a good rad fan but they are honestly nearly identical to ML's. I own both, audibly they are the same IMO. Performance across the chart is pretty well identical as well. 

[LIGISTX]

16 minutes ago, Nick980 said:

I have been running my setup for awhile now, Evolv X with 2 360mm rads one in front and one up top with 3 Corsair ML120 fans on each and a Phanteks 140mm in the rear. I'm not overly impressed with the level of sound coming from the system even when idle. From what I have read recently the ML120's get poor reviews, what would people recommend as a good replacement or would swapping them out give negligible results? I know the standard wisdom is that the Noctua A12x25 are the best around but as far as I can tell they only come in the standard Noctua colour scheme and not the chromax variant.

What RPM are they running..? I have all of my fans then off at idle, and only turn on after my GPU hits 45c. Can’t even hear it at idle since only my top 420rad fans are spinning - at 650 rpm.

 

In games, now that it’s summer, I have them all ramp up to ~1000-1100 rpm, GPU stays at 52 or less, CPU high 60’s. Sounds like you have about as much rad space? Mine are pretty thick bois tho. 

[airborne spoon]

I use EK vardar fans for the last 3 years and they work good.

[unholy_walrus]

If you don't want to spend a whole lot of money, Noctua's NF-P12 redux fans are shockingly good for rad use considering the price, at 500-1k rpm. Their performance tends to drop off at higher rpm's compared to NF-F12 and especially NF-A12x25, however I don't think you should ever run fans much faster than that or it sort of defeats the whole idea of watercooling. I could never afford the NF-A12x25 or NF-F12 for my rads, however even if I could, I'd still go with the NF-P12 redux for that use case. If I have to run fans on a custom loop at 1k+ rpm, I've done something wrong or I have a very small case.

 

My own testing was very much limited and flawed, but based on the tests we did on my friend's NF-A12x25 fans the performance was pretty underwhelming at sub 1000 rpm in rad use. It got consistently beaten by the NF-P12 redux until at around 1100 rpm, and then at 1200+ rpm it was finally both more quiet and performed better. At 1300+ rpm the performance was great, better than anything else, but the noise was already too much for me, despite being impressive for the airflow. The higher the rpm, the more impressive the performance. For the NF-P12 the exact opposite was true, performance at 1100+ rpm wasn't great.

[Nick980]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have tinkered around with the fan curves but at low rpm they just don't seem to move enough air to keep things cool, at higher around 1200rpm they move enough air but the noise is too much. The fan curve is based off the water temperature rather than the cpu or gpu as I think that works better.

Might have a look at the redux P12's.

[SolarNova]

I personally use the NF-A12x25, they are as quiet as u have read.

 

With 8 of them running

At 1000rpm they are dead silent.

At 1300rpm you start to hear them, barely

At 1500rpm they are audible but not overly noisy

 

Above that they are to noisy for me but i run them 'idle' at 1000rpm and have them ramp up to 1300rpm at load and thats all i need from them.

At and below 1300rpm the nosiest thing in my system is the hum of the pump. (D5 vario at max speed)

[HM-2]

Another vote for NF-P12 Redux. In terms of performance per £ they're very hard to beat if you pride quiet too.

 

The 12x25 are probably the best outright radiator fans on the market, but they're not three times as good as the P12s though they're triple the price. 

 

Which ML120s are you using? The Pros are supposed to very good but if the earlier SP and AF range are anything to go buy the RGB versions of the Corsair fans seem to perform significantly worse.

[Nick980]

13 hours ago, HM-2 said:

Another vote for NF-P12 Redux. In terms of performance per £ they're very hard to beat if you pride quiet too.

 

The 12x25 are probably the best outright radiator fans on the market, but they're not three times as good as the P12s though they're triple the price. 

 

Which ML120s are you using? The Pros are supposed to very good but if the earlier SP and AF range are anything to go buy the RGB versions of the Corsair fans seem to perform significantly worse.

I believe they are the original non pro ML120 fans, no rubber corners or anything like that

[HM-2]

21 minutes ago, Nick980 said:

I believe they are the original non pro ML120 fans, no rubber corners or anything like that

Ah so these ones- https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Fans/Magnetic-Levitation-Fans/ml-config/p/CO-9050039-WW?

 

The ML series did used to be pretty highly regarded and offer a decent balance of performance and volume. What sort of fan curves are you running?

[Maticks]

I have ML's in my system in a 011 Dynamic XL. I set the bottom and top at 1200RPM.

In Summer in increase the top to 1300RPM which makes a little bit of noise but its not that loud.

But it does draw in some cool air through the rear fan spot that fresh cooler air seems to help the top radiator exhaust the heat drops the loop temp really quick in games.

The issue with most double rad cases is the top radiator is sucking in hot air from the bottom radiator has thrown in the case.

You already have a temp disadvantage with hot air going through a hot radiator.

 

I tried having a rear fan installed pushing air out creating negative pressure in the case but i found my temps were spiking and also the top fans seem to make more noise.

That could be the issue for you ML Fans seem to make more noise when they are trying to push air our of a negative pressure case.

 

I found pulling that rear fan and letting a bit of cool air in let me lower the RPM, but the down side a little bit of dust appears on the top of my GPU.

 

[SolarNova]

'Ideally' u want ur rads to have fresh air while also not pushing hot air onto other components or re-using warmed air.

 

This means, 'ideally', you want to have your rads set to exhaust and have a high case airflow setup.

Unfortunately this requires a lot of fan space, as ull need an appropriate filtered set of intake fans and then additionally enough room to also have multiple rads placed in suitable 'exhaust' locations.

 

The new Phanteks Entho Pro II is a ideal case for such a setup.

For example:

480mm side mounted + 360mm Top mounted rads (exhaust). Thats more than enough cooling capacity for any setup.

Front 4x 140mm Intake

Bottom 3x 120mm Intake.

 

 

The Evolv X unfortunately just doesnt have enough space to run anything similar to this.

 

An alternative to this is to run a small aesthetically chosen case with 'basic' airflow and have an external radiator stand.

[BTGbullseye]

Why is nobody even considering suggesting the Arctic P12 and P14? They are some of the best pressure optimized fans, (better than the Noctuas at the same sound level) and they're inexpensive compared to the rest of the suggested. Should be able to find them at around $9 per fan for the 120mm, ($13 for the ball bearing, constant operation version) and $10 for the 140mm. ($16 for the constant operation version)

 

If you need more airflow, and don't mind the same noise as the Noctua A12's, then the Arctic Bionix P120 would be better.

[fonzz1e]

i'm using thse:

3x arctic p12 pwm pst

3x noctua nf-p12 pwm 1700

2x noctua nf-p14s pwm 1500

 

in hindsight, i should've just went with all arctic

[Mortis Angelus]

On 8/30/2020 at 2:32 AM, Nick980 said:

I have been running my setup for awhile now, Evolv X with 2 360mm rads one in front and one up top with 3 Corsair ML120 fans on each and a Phanteks 140mm in the rear. I'm not overly impressed with the level of sound coming from the system even when idle. From what I have read recently the ML120's get poor reviews, what would people recommend as a good replacement or would swapping them out give negligible results? I know the standard wisdom is that the Noctua A12x25 are the best around but as far as I can tell they only come in the standard Noctua colour scheme and not the chromax variant.

[Guest]

When I had my loop set up, I was running Delta AFC1212DE 1.6a fans. 

A fan controller is a must have. Custom 12" whips, I purchased some years back from an OC forum. 

 

Cooling the loop wasn't an issue, it was when the PC was hovering off the table from the CFMs I got concerned. 

That and wearing ear plugs lol.