can I use air flow fans for my radiator?

[hodge22]

Hey everyone,

So i'm looking to upgrade my rig with some new fans, and have been looking at the Corsair SP and AF series. However Corsair doesn't seem to make any SP 140mm (non-LED) fans. How bad is the performance hit using 140 mm AF fans as opposed to 140 mm SP fans.

Thanks in advance,
Hodge

[Kaspertechgeek]

I think you can. I once saw a rad with three of those performance editions on it.

[AllHokage]

You can, but will it be good

 

No.

 

Will it be worthy of being call an upgrade

 

No.

 

Is it a downgrade

 

Most probably

[Sam Z Man]

Get yourself some noctua nf-a14

[hodge22]

How bad would the performance hit be exactly? And yeah I don't wanna spend that much for noctua's nor do I really like the aesthetics of them

[Bl00dgod]

if you dont like the beige-brown noctua you could easy go with the ltt edition in black-orange

or maybe scythe if you prefer some black themed fans

[Enderman]

yes you can use airflow fans on a radiator and they work fine

no, you shouldnt use corsair fans, their are very loud and have average performance

 

look for something from bequiet or noctua instead

fractal design makes some good 140mm fans too

[hodge22]

Yeah I still think noctua's are too expensive

However I've found that the SP fan makes 1.17mm/h2o @1440rpm @ 29.3dBA, while the the AF fan makes .84mm/h2o @ 1150rpm @ 24dBA

I really don't think it seems like that big of a hit granted the lower rpm and noise output. Thoughts??

[ThomasD]

Yeah I still think noctua's are too expensive

However I've found that the SP fan makes 1.17mm/h2o @1440rpm @ 29.3dBA, while the the AF fan makes .84mm/h2o @ 1150rpm @ 24dBA

I really don't think it seems like that big of a hit granted the lower rpm and noise output. Thoughts??

All specs are - at best - under some sort of idealized conditions.  A chief one of those being an absence of any real resistance to flow.  Add in any resistance and you can assume those numbers will change.

 

As another general principle you can assume that the fan with the higher SP rating will demonstrate less reduction in flow from any given resistance.

 

Practically speaking this means AF type fans, with their low SP ratings do not do much more than make noise when run directly against a radiator.

 

Other brands of fans to consider are Phanteks SPs or XPs, and Bitfenix Spectre Pros.

 

One other general rule - when evaluating the claims of fan manufacturers look at power consumption.  For safety reasons this is something they generally will not inflate, and since moving air requires work, it is a much better approximation of what the fan is actually going to do.

[WoodenMarker]

How bad would the performance hit be exactly? And yeah I don't wanna spend that much for noctua's nor do I really like the aesthetics of them

It would help to mention which fans you're replacing. 

[hodge22]

All specs are - at best - under some sort of idealized conditions.  A chief one of those being an absence of any real resistance to flow.  Add in any resistance and you can assume those numbers will change.

 

As another general principle you can assume that the fan with the higher SP rating will demonstrate less reduction in flow from any given resistance.

 

Practically speaking this means AF type fans, with their low SP ratings do not do much more than make noise when run directly against a radiator.

 

Other brands of fans to consider are Phanteks SPs or XPs, and Bitfenix Spectre Pros.

 

One other general rule - when evaluating the claims of fan manufacturers look at power consumption.  For safety reasons this is something they generally will not inflate, and since moving air requires work, it is a much better approximation of what the fan is actually going to do.

Yeah i think I've mostly decided that I'll use the Thermaltake riing fans (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31303) instead of the corsair fans on my radiator as they're SP fans as opposed to the AF 140 mm fans i was considering (they also look pretty cool)

EDIT: also thanks for the long and detailed post, helps a lot and it doesn't go unnoticed

It would help to mention which fans you're replacing. 

The fans i was replacing were just the stock fans on my NZXT Kraken x61... nothing wrong with the way they perform i just wanted to spice up the aesthetics of my pc a little

[FizzyFantom]

The fans i was replacing were just the stock fans on my NZXT Kraken x61... nothing wrong with the way they perform i just wanted to spice up the aesthetics of my pc a little

Well that's your answer right there. Look for some that fit the aesthetic you are going for and make sure they have decent performance.

 

As @Enderman said, you can use "airflow" fans with radiators. They might not perform quite as well as Nocuta "static pressure" fans, but the impact won't be particularly much.

 

What kind of fans do you want? What colour? Do you want LEDs or not? Tell us this and we can find some fans that you will like that also perform well

[hodge22]

Well that's your answer right there. Look for some that fit the aesthetic you are going for and make sure they have decent performance.

 

As @Enderman said, you can use "airflow" fans with radiators. They might not perform quite as well as Nocuta "static pressure" fans, but the impact won't be particularly much.

 

What kind of fans do you want? What colour? Do you want LEDs or not? Tell us this and we can find some fans that you will like that also perform well

Yeah I'm looking at getting some thermaltake riing white LED fans to go with my nzxt hue+, just not sure how the white LED's will look with the hue+ LED's... I've also considered the rgb riing fans, just not sure if it's worth it or not

[Goat]

Yes, as long as they are the same size of fans that the radiator supports but you should not use air flow fans for a radiator or heatsink as the fans aren't designed to move air through surfaces that cause a high air resistance. Use static pressure optimised fans instead.