Worth upgrading fans?

[Arevera1]

Currently have 6 Corsair SP 120 fans on my case(3 input front via Corsair AIO, 1 output back, 2 Output top). They have been good enough, but are a bit loud and I am not 100% sure that they are ideal. I am looking to upgrade to 3 Noctua NF-F12s on the front with AIO as input. For output, upgrading to an NF-12SA on back and two NF-A14 ULN on the top.

 

For reference, my Case is a Corsair 4000D, my GPU is a Zotac Twin Edge 3070, and my CPU is currently a Ryzen 7 3700x but I am upgrading to a 5800X3D soon. AIO is an h150i elite capellix.

 

When running Cinebench CPU hovered just under 60 Celcius with spikes to 70 when starting a new render.

 

GPU peaked at 70 degrees avg (83 degrees at hot spot) on Superposition benchmark, 1080 Extreme.

[dizmo]

I don't think the Noctuas are particularly quiet, though I haven't really looked at any fan reviews lately so I'm not the best source. Check out Hardware Canucks, they do superb fan shootouts; on par with something you'd see from GamersNexus, but you won't fall asleep halfway through the video.

 

I personally went with Arctic F12s (I think, I can check later) on my EVGA AIO, and it was a night and day difference. Went from a jet fighter taking off to me wondering if my PC is even on half the time. They're also 1/4 of the price of the Noctua units, if not less.

 

Welcome to the forum.

[Electronics Wizardy]

I'd just set the fans to spin slower if noise if the problem. 

 

The better fans will provide a tiny improvement in cooling for a given noise level, so spin the slower if you want quieter. Those temps are fine and you have some headroom.

 

 

[johnt]

Noctua fans are better and quieter than Corsair fans. You will notice a difference if you replace all your fans with Noctua, especially at idle. Your system will be dead silent after the initial start. If you can handle the higher temps, using silent profile on your MB will also keep them very quiet under load. I do that in the winter because I want the heat, but in summer I set the MB to normal operations. 
 

But the reality here is the Noctua fans make noise as they spin faster. They are not 100% silent. I will admit I am shocked at how quiet my system operates while gaming, but it was a huge premium. If I turn my fans to full speed, they sound smoother than Corsair but they are definitely loud. And they are prone to the same problems, like the vibrations from being too close to a metal surface.

 

I second watching the Hardware Cunucks videos and pick your best option. For me Amazon had all the Noctua fans that I wanted in stock and delivered quickly.

[venomtail]

I had stock & AIO NZXT fans, trying to cool my 5800X3D they just couldn't keep up. Upgrade to Silent wings 4 Pro's and my system is whisper quiet. Go to buy as I have a 280AIO at the front cooling the CPU as well as needing to deliver enough fresh air for my GPU. Have a look:

 

TLDR: for simple airflow at acceptable noise levels Noctua is a consideration but the moment you add radiators into the mix BeQuiet takes strides.

[venomtail]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd just set the fans to spin slower if noise if the problem. 

 

The better fans will provide a tiny improvement in cooling for a given noise level, so spin the slower if you want quieter. Those temps are fine and you have some headroom.

 

 

Noise only starts becoming a problem because parts aren't cool enough as they already are. If fans are set any lower there will be lost performance as CPU or GPU starts throttling.

[Electronics Wizardy]

9 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Noise only starts becoming a problem because parts aren't cool enough as they already are. If fans are set any lower there will be lost performance as CPU or GPU starts throttling.

From the temps the OP has posted, there seems to be pretty reasonable thermal headroom to spin the fans slower and raise temps for lower noise. 

 

The other thing is those SP fans are already pretty decent fans, so upgrading to noctuas won't be a big(or likely noticeable) increase

[Whatisthis]

If you have room get Phanteks T30 fans. They are superior to any other 120mm fan in every way, but they are 30mm thick so you need to make sure the extra 5mm is not an issue.

 

I replaced a Noctua A12 on my cpu cooler and it is way better with basically zero noise.

[venomtail]

5 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

From the temps the OP has posted, there seems to be pretty reasonable thermal headroom to spin the fans slower and raise temps for lower noise. 

 

The other thing is those SP fans are already pretty decent fans, so upgrading to noctuas won't be a big(or likely noticeable) increase

But that is with his current 3700X, yea he has thermal headroom but he plans to upgrade to a 5800X3D just like me. And exactly like me my 2700X under all core load never went past 65°C. I actually don't ever recall the fans ramping up to the point where before I upgraded to my 5800X3D I was worried that maybe I should check the AIO incase the motor has seised up or grown full for basically running at the same low speed for like 3~ non stop and I would never notice cause if that was the case.

 

He'll have a bit of a better time than me by having a bigger AIO and better case aiflow than me but personally someone who's walked a similar upgrade path to him, I was suprised how included AIO fans weren't up for the task and how quiet expensive fans are in addition to their performance.

[Arevera1]

Appreciate the feedback everybody! I think my plan is going to be to upgrade to 5800X3D next fiscal month and run testing with current fans. Then if need be, upgrade to Phanteks as I have enough clearance, but probably only on AIO radiator due to cost. Might even setup current fans as a push-pull on rad but that is a future project. Thanks everyone for input!!

[TeraSeraph]

I currently use Iceberg Thermal IceGALE 140mm fans rather than A14. They're louder in some ways but the pressure performance difference makes up for this. So when noise normalized the IceGALE fans come out on top despite being louder. The angular design is not for everyone but I haven't come across a better 140mm blade design.

[thrasher_565]

from ok fans to the so called best fan is like maybe like 3-4c dose that really make up for the cost of all thows fans...

temps are fine as is. posable is the fan curves setup? i mean a 1080 well a good card is getting dated so even if it ran hotter most likely it will be replaced soon anyway. not say that lower temps make it last longer nore dose a bit hotter make it not last as long.

 

[RevGAM]

18 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

From the temps the OP has posted, there seems to be pretty reasonable thermal headroom to spin the fans slower and raise temps for lower noise. 

 

The other thing is those SP fans are already pretty decent fans, so upgrading to noctuas won't be a big(or likely noticeable) increase

Unless those are not the standard sp120 RGB Elite, I disagree. Moving to any high performance fan will net an improvement of up to several degrees. I tested them against the Phanteks T30, Corsair ML120, Noctua A12x25 and a few others. The SP120 was one of the worst.