Silverstone SST-AP121-RL

[Guest]

Hi

 

I am looking to replace the fans on my Corsair H80I, the ones currently installed are horrifically noisey, there is a constant droning noise from the fan motors so with that in mind I would like some replacement pressure optimized fans that will work well on a radiator, since my PC has a red theme to it I came across this, my question is, does anyone have experiance with these Silverstone fans and know if they will do the job nicely and quietly.

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-004-SV&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=4

 

[Theo]

I have these ( look below ) and they are quiet at 1000rpm and temps are pretty good ( Have them on the H80 ) 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverstone-SST-AP121-12cm-Air-Penetrator/dp/B003THXMQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368361949&sr=8-1&keywords=ap121

[Guest]

I have these ( look below ) and they are quiet at 1000rpm and temps are pretty good ( Have them on the H80 ) 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverstone-SST-AP121-12cm-Air-Penetrator/dp/B003THXMQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368361949&sr=8-1&keywords=ap121

Thank you for the response, they look quite good but I am not keen on the blue effect they have, my PC is red themed and I really want red fans to match which makes it a bit of a pain to find the right ones.

 

I would assume the ones I am looking at are a slightly different sku of that one on Amazon, so hopefully they'd be about the same in performance.

 

Ive never had much luck with fans, even when I buy brands like Noiseblocker and BeQuiet I seam to get the only ones ever made that are extremely loud despite all reviews and other people saying the ones they used are quiet, most silent fans I have used are the Enermax T.B Appolish 120mm RED but unfortunately they don't look too radiator optimized even though I have some free I could use.

[Theo]

If your pc is red themed i think you could get away with NF-F12's but dont quote me on that!

[Guest]

Yeah they could work, never quite understood the colour scheme of them fans though, are they silent?

[ShearMe]

NF-F12's are pretty darn silent, more so than silverstone APs for sure (personal experience).

[BeyondNight]

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12122/fan-791/Silverstone_Air_Penetrator_AP121-RL_120_x_120_x_25mm_Fan_-_Red_LED_SST-AP121-RL.html?tl=g36c331s518

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16044/fan-996/Corsair_Air_Series_SP120_Quiet_Edition_High_Static_Pressure_120mm_Fan_CO-9050005-WW.html?tl=g36c15s60

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/13534/fan-887/Phobya_120mm_x_25mm_Nano-2G_1500rpm_PWM_Fan_-_Red_LED.html?tl=g36c331s518#blank

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/13687/fan-896/Phobya_120mm_x_25mm_G-Silent_12_1500rpm_Fan_-_Red_LED.html?tl=g36c331s518

 

Here are some red Leds fans that will perform well, the 2 best performing will be the Silverstones and the Corsairs. but the Phobyas will not perform quite as good but still be as or more silent.

Also remember that ratings on boxes are a bunch of BS, Silverstone and Phobya are actually pretty close, company's like Noctua, Bitfenix, Enermax, Akasa ect... not so much, there DBA rating can be at 1/2 of the real world results.

[Brian]

Also remember that ratings on boxes are a bunch of BS, Silverstone and Phobya are actually pretty close, company's like Noctua, Bitfenix, Enermax, Akasa ect... not so much, there DBA rating can be at 1/2 of the real world results.

 

I'd say all companies are guilty of this, BUT some just do it to be deliberately misleading. *cough*CoolerMaster*cough*  To the best of my knowledge Noctua, BitFenix, and Enermax are MUCH closer to truth than the majority of other manufacturers.  At least as close as Phobya and Silverstone.  It's just too difficult and expensive for most companies to accurately test fans for noise.

 

The biggest thing to realize when looking at fans is that everyone hears things differently.  Some may think a particular model of fan is super quiet while others may find it's noise signature incredibly annoying.  Also different applications within the system can change the noise generated and overall acoustic profile of a fan drastically. This makes it virtually impossible to know if a given fan will work for you or not without actually trying it for yourself.  

 

I'm actually really lucky because my local PC shop will allow me to purchase a fan, try it out and return it in the original packaging if I don't like it.  This has been a blessing for sure as I have returned a fair few because their noise profile wasn't my cup of tea.

 

Back to the point:

 

... my PC is red themed and I really want red fans to match which makes it a bit of a pain to find the right ones...

 

...most silent fans I have used are the Enermax T.B Appolish 120mm RED but unfortunately they don't look too radiator optimized even though I have some free I could use.

 

In fact you CAN the use Enermax Batwing/Magma fans on your rad and they will work just fine and be red. If you don't want the horrible brown of Noctua interrupting your build, I'd recommend these in a heartbeat.  I personally use the red LED TB Silence 120mm as exhaust in my system, and they are pretty quiet and undervolt VERY well.

[BeyondNight]

I'd say all companies are guilty of this, BUT some just do it to be deliberately misleading. *cough*CoolerMaster*cough*  To the best of my knowledge Noctua, BitFenix, and Enermax are MUCH closer to truth than the majority of other manufacturers.  At least as close as Phobya and Silverstone.  It's just too difficult and expensive for most companies to accurately test fans for noise.

 

 

The biggest thing to realize when looking at fans is that everyone hears things differently.  Some may think a particular model of fan is super quiet while others may find it's noise signature incredibly annoying.  Also different applications within the system can change the noise generated and overall acoustic profile of a fan drastically. This makes it virtually impossible to know if a given fan will work for you or not without actually trying it for yourself.  

 

I'm actually really lucky because my local PC shop will allow me to purchase a fan, try it out and return it in the original packaging if I don't like it.  This has been a blessing for sure as I have returned a fair few because their noise profile wasn't my cup of tea.

 

 

 

Well, its true that a lot of a persons preception of what a reasonable noise is breaks down a lot to personal prefrence, but for the most part a lower frequency will be much less annoying to the human ear, because usually its less harsh of a sound, and other variations in sounds like barley audible clicking can be more annoying, the fun bit is you can measure sound and identify for the most part how tolorable it will be to the average person.

 

But with all that said about sound, theres another thing i kisu comment on,  im not buying the whole its to expensive to test ECT... There is no way in hell that any fan company isnt capable of that, they spend thousands on R & D and Engineers, some test fans blades for Optimal airflow design, and come up with bearing technology to make the fans last longer, yet they cant get some DB meters and Set up a test chamber to see how well there fans perform when it comes to sound ?

 

I can literally buy a Condenser mic for 60$ and a anometer for 30$ and give you accurate reading on a fans performance, which it seems Companies like silverstone have actually done properly, the problem isnt the cost, its the fact that whats on the packaging is better for marketing, and the fact that there is no standrd test and/or setting for said test for fans, meaning a Noctua may actually create 19 dB... 5 feet away,with the equipment calibrated they way Noctua see fit,in open air, and a sound dampening test chamber... because thats going to show how it will sound in real world use <_< :blink:

 

here take a look http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/331629-28-cooling-roundup-2012

 

The silverstone fans are right at there ratings, while companies like Noctua and Bitfenix are well off the mark.

 

 

 

 

[Brian]

But with all that said about sound, theres another thing i kisu comment on,  im not buying the whole its to expensive to test ECT... There is no way in hell that any fan company isnt capable of that, they spend thousands on R & D and Engineers, some test fans blades for Optimal airflow design, and come up with bearing technology to make the fans last longer, yet they cant get some DB meters and Set up a test chamber to see how well there fans perform when it comes to sound ?

 

I can literally buy a Condenser mic for 60$ and a anometer for 30$ and give you accurate reading on a fans performance, which it seems Companies like silverstone have actually done properly, the problem isnt the cost, its the fact that whats on the packaging is better for marketing, and the fact that there is no standrd test and/or setting for said test for fans, meaning a Noctua may actually create 19 dB... 5 feet away,with the equipment calibrated they way Noctua see fit,in open air, and a sound dampening test chamber... because thats going to show how it will sound in real world use <_< :blink:

 

here take a look http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/331629-28-cooling-roundup-2012

 

The silverstone fans are right at there ratings, while companies like Noctua and Bitfenix are well off the mark.

 

 

While you can buy the cheap equipment you listed it is nowhere close to accurate enough.  The human ear is orders of magnitude better at hearing and processing sounds than that cheap Chinese crap.  I can tell you that I've used spectrum analyzers that cost around $25k and that they run over a hundred thousand, and these are a little better than a $30 part. I can tell you that to make a room that has a low enough noise floor to test out these fans accurately is something like this: "comprised of 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and foot-thick concrete, which enables it to be 99.99 per cent sound absorbent" and is basically a bank vault.  Bank vaults are not cheap.  Add to this the cost to pay engineers and technologists to do the work and it's crazy expensive.

 

 All for a fan that they might make a few bucks on.  And it's not like they sell these to a majority of people. The margins are WAY too small to justify the insane cost of silence.  Why do you think Noctuas cost so damned much?  And as you have pointed out so diligently, even NOCTUA is allegedly off in their numbers. and they're not even trying to lie, it really is that hard to measure.  So basically, as I assume you'd agree, numbers don't mean much with fans.

[BeyondNight]

While you can buy the cheap equipment you listed it is nowhere close to accurate enough.  The human ear is orders of magnitude better at hearing and processing sounds than that cheap Chinese crap.  I can tell you that I've used spectrum analyzers that cost around $25k and that they run over a hundred thousand, and these are a little better than a $30 part. I can tell you that to make a room that has a low enough noise floor to test out these fans accurately is something like this: "comprised of 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and foot-thick concrete, which enables it to be 99.99 per cent sound absorbent" and is basically a bank vault.  Bank vaults are not cheap.  Add to this the cost to pay engineers and technologists to do the work and it's crazy expensive.

 

 All for a fan that they might make a few bucks on.  And it's not like they sell these to a majority of people. The margins are WAY too small to justify the insane cost of silence.  Why do you think Noctuas cost so damned much?  And as you have pointed out so diligently, even NOCTUA is allegedly off in their numbers. and they're not even trying to lie, it really is that hard to measure.  So basically, as I assume you'd agree, numbers don't mean much with fans.

Sure you could buy all of that equipment, but the "Cheap Chinese crap" is better than the lies they have on the boxes, and is sensitive enough to show you a descernable difference in noise between two fans, there is no fiberglass test chamber needed either, maybe a sound dampened room somewhere with low ambient noise levels, and that would be enough, because the mic IS actually sensitive enough and i have even looked at some tests and could hear the difference myself, in which i would say the Testing equipment used was pretty damn accurate, When your making fans that have a * marking on the specs telling you its +/- 10% on the ROM, you dont need crazy ammounts of equipment to analyze the sound the fans produce, Oh and Noctuas costs lots because

1) they have Brand Power

and

2) A lot of engineering goes into the fans design itself and the technologys in the fan that they either have to replicate or invent themselves, Noctua has several unique technologys implimented multiple times across multiple fans, this also costs a lot in Seperate manufacturing lines and well as the R & D as stated above.

[ShearMe]

Noctua fans cost more than most fans in the same class because they're manufactured in Europe instead of Asia.  :rolleyes:

[Brian]

Arguing this point isn't really a good way to spend our time.  The point is the numbers don't mean a lot one way or the other.  There is no standard to follow so it's all comparing apples to elephants.

 

From the Tom's article you linked earlier: "Note: Differences between a products rated db/a and measured db/a are not indicators of false advertising data, just indicators of the testing distance being different, some of the rated fan noise level measurements were stated they were taken at a 1 meter distance from the fan. The testing chamber was not large enough to match that measuring distance."

 

Not that I'd consider any of that testing really relevant as it was done using PVC pipe and an old subwoofer box.  He'd have been better off testing using a real system, like Linus does with his water cooling tests.

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for the help, in the end I brought a couple of the Silverstone fans and if they turn out to be ok I will probably buy some more, they seam to be running nicely shift a lot of air which is good.

 

Call me a geek but I really like the fact the LEDs on them are kinetic powered rather than just drawing straight from the power supply meaning it has to spin the fan and power the LEDs, with these it only needs to spin the fan and the motion of that powers the LEDs, again I know it makes me a total nerd for thinking thats awesome and sure it makes little difference but I think its cool.