Questions about fans for case/radiator

[Pachuca]

Question1: Is there a difference between a regular case fan and a radiator fan?

Question2: What is the best fan in terms of noise levels at higher and lower rpm?

Question3: What fan do you use in your system now?

 

These questions above are just some general questions for the forums. I hear good things being said about Noctua fans, but i'm not a fan of their noise level or ugly colors. Does anyone else have some suggestions. I'm using the stock fans that came with my Evolv enthoo case and the stock fans for my corsair H110i GTX. It sounds like the corsair fans make the most noise inside the case and I would like to get fans that are quieter if anyone has some suggestions, thanks.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Pachuca said:

-SNIP-

For fans you would on heatsinks and rads you want pressure optimized fans where they are force the air through the fin array compared to airflow fans which just move air. Some really good ones are the Noctua NF-F12 (LTT Edition) if you want black, but they are quite pricey. Other than those other good ones are Gentle Typhoons, EK Vardars, Fractal Design Venturi's which are all good options. 

[abhigyan001]

3 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

Question1: Is there a difference between a regular case fan and a radiator fan?

Question2: What is the best fan in terms of noise levels at higher and lower rpm?

Question3: What fan do you use in your system now?

 

These questions above are just some general questions for the forums. I hear good things being said about Noctua fans, but i'm not a fan of their noise level or ugly colors. Does anyone else have some suggestions. I'm using the stock fans that came with my Evolv enthoo case and the stock fans for my corsair H110i GTX. It sounds like the corsair fans make the most noise inside the case and I would like to get fans that are quieter if anyone has some suggestions, thanks.

I use all Corsair AF140/120 fans (7 of them).

 

Yes there is a difference in it, there are Static pressure, airflow and some other fans.

[Ayushjain199999]

yes there is a hell lot of difference between case fans and radiator fans.. using radiator fans would cool down  the beast significantly...

Today Noctua nf-f12,Corsair sp120, cm blade master are the cool...

For a cheap blueberry pinchy guy corsair af 120 is good

[WoodenMarker]

1. Not inherently, no. You can use fans that have very little static pressure on rads which may results in lower noise but also significantly higher temps. 

2. The answer will vary depending on the scenario but thr Noctua NF-S12A is a very likely candidate for the best airflow to noise ratio. 

3. I'm currently using pwm Noctua NF-A15's and a NF-S12A. 

 

Why would you not be a fan of Noctua's noise levels..? 

[Pachuca]

3 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

1. Not inherently, no. You can use fans that have very little static pressure on rads which may results in lower noise but also significantly higher temps. 

2. The answer will vary depending on the scenario but thr Noctua NF-S12A is a very likely candidate for the best airflow to noise ratio. 

3. I'm currently using pwm Noctua NF-A15's and a NF-S12A. 

 

Why would you not be a fan of Noctua's noise levels..? 

which of these is for radiator and which for a case?

 

I'm not a fan of the noise level at higher rpm because I would like something that is less noisy. I know at lower rpm they are very quiet, but at higher rpm they are more noisy than some other fans. The problem is that the other fans don't perform as well on lower rpm etc... so I'm not really sure if I should go for them plus that ugly brownish color, although, the black color fans they just started making are looking nice.

[WoodenMarker]

7 hours ago, Pachuca said:

which of these is for radiator and which for a case?

 

I'm not a fan of the noise level at higher rpm because I would like something that is less noisy. I know at lower rpm they are very quiet, but at higher rpm they are more noisy than some other fans. The problem is that the other fans don't perform as well on lower rpm etc... so I'm not really sure if I should go for them plus that ugly brownish color, although, the black color fans they just started making are looking nice.

RPM is arbitrary. Just run the fans at whatever speed with satisfactory noise levels and performance. 

 

In regards to your question: What are you referring to with 'these'? 

[Pachuca]

15 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

RPM is arbitrary. Just run the fans at whatever speed with satisfactory noise levels and performance. 

 

In regards to your question: What are you referring to with 'these'? 

It looks like these are both case fans. What about a radiator fan?

[WoodenMarker]

56 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

It looks like these are both case fans. What about a radiator fan?

Please clarify which fans you are referring to. 

Pretty much all radiator fans can be used as case fans and vice versa. 

[Pachuca]

2 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

Please clarify which fans you are referring to. 

Pretty much all radiator fans can be used as case fans and vice versa. 

not all fans are the same.

 

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Pachuca said:

not all fans are the same.

 

That would be the same as what was mentioned with the difference between airflow oriented and pressure oriented fans. If your wanting pressure fans based on the Noctua series the NF-F12 or NF-A14 are a good option for radiators and heatsinks. 

[Pachuca]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

 

That would be the same as what was mentioned with the difference between airflow oriented and pressure oriented fans. If your wanting pressure fans based on the Noctua series the NF-F12 or NF-A14 are a good option for radiators and heatsinks. 

yes, I need decent fans for a radiator. Also, what about airflow fans for a case? The NF-S12 would be good?

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Pachuca said:

yes, I need decent fans for a radiator. Also, what about airflow fans for a case? The NF-S12 would be good?

For Noctua as long as there isn't heavily filtered intakes or restrictions for the 120mm series the NF-S12A would be a good option followed closely by the NF-F12, however for the 140mm series the NF-A14 is the best for both pressure and airflow. 

[Pachuca]

1 hour ago, W-L said:

For Noctua as long as there isn't heavily filtered intakes or restrictions for the 120mm series the NF-S12A would be a good option followed closely by the NF-F12, however for the 140mm series the NF-A14 is the best for both pressure and airflow. 

cool, thanks. I'm looking for some 140mm fans too.

[Pachuca]

On 2/28/2016 at 7:51 PM, W-L said:

For Noctua as long as there isn't heavily filtered intakes or restrictions for the 120mm series the NF-S12A would be a good option followed closely by the NF-F12, however for the 140mm series the NF-A14 is the best for both pressure and airflow. 

Update: I went with the NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 IP67 PWM. It offers slightly better performance than the stock corsair fans on my h110. The H110i came with stock fans SP140L running about 3.99mm-H2O (static pressure) with a noise level of 43dB(A)... this is very loud for me. The Noctua on the other hand is actually running at 4.18mm-H2O with a noise level of 31dB(A). Although the NF-A14 is a good fan for noise and performance, I found it lacking in static pressure and I'm concerned this will lead to overheating my cpu. Plus these fans look much nicer in black than brown/tan. 

[W-L]

2 hours ago, Pachuca said:

Update: I went with the NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 IP67 PWM. It offers slightly better performance than the stock corsair fans on my h110. The H110i came with stock fans SP140L running about 3.99mm-H2O (static pressure) with a noise level of 43dB(A)... this is very loud for me. The Noctua on the other hand is actually running at 4.18mm-H2O with a noise level of 31dB(A). Although the NF-A14 is a good fan for noise and performance, I found it lacking in static pressure and I'm concerned this will lead to overheating my cpu. Plus these fans look much nicer in black than brown/tan. 

 

The NF-A14 will not lack static pressure in any possible way, they are really high static pressure fans, as long as you do not mind the noise levels as they are 2k RPM fans. 

[Pachuca]

1 hour ago, W-L said:

The NF-A14 will not lack static pressure in any possible way, they are really high static pressure fans, as long as you do not mind the noise levels as they are 2k RPM fans. 

No, I was referring to the standard NF-A14 not the IPPC version that runs at 2k rpm. The NF-A14 uses the standard fan where as the the IPPC version has tons of static pressure, I agree. That's why I purchased it instead of the normal NF-A14. I think the noise level will be a lot, but I don't see why I can't control the rpms from my mobo to have it run at the same speed and hopefully the same noise level as the standard NF-A14 that runs at 1.5k rpm. 

 

Edit: At least this way I will have the choice between lower rpm, lower noise, lower performance or max performance and still have it run quieter than the stock corsair fans. All around it's a huge improvement than what I'm using now. So thanks for your help.

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

No, I was referring to the standard NF-A14 not the IPPC version that runs at 2k rpm. The NF-A14 uses the standard fan where as the the IPPC version has tons of static pressure, I agree. That's why I purchased it instead of the normal NF-A14. I think the noise level will be a lot, but I don't see why I can't control the rpms from my mobo to have it run at the same speed and hopefully the same noise level as the standard NF-A14 that runs at 1.5k rpm. 

Edit: At least this way I will have the choice between lower rpm, lower noise, lower performance or max performance and still have it run quieter than the stock corsair fans. All around it's a huge improvement than what I'm using now. So thanks for your help.

You can control the speed of the IPPC version to a degree but even at the lowest they aren't dead silent like the regular NF-A14 and are still audible, but even the regular NF-A14's aren't bad as pressure fans and are a great performer for heatsinks and radiators. 

 

This should give an idea of the noise levels:

 

 

[Pachuca]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

You can control the speed of the IPPC version to a degree but even at the lowest they aren't dead silent like the regular NF-A14 and are still audible, but even the regular NF-A14's aren't bad as pressure fans and are a great performer for heatsinks and radiators. 

 

This should give an idea of the noise levels:

 

 

cool, thanks.

[Pachuca]

12 minutes ago, W-L said:

You can control the speed of the IPPC version to a degree but even at the lowest they aren't dead silent like the regular NF-A14 and are still audible, but even the regular NF-A14's aren't bad as pressure fans and are a great performer for heatsinks and radiators. 

 

This should give an idea of the noise levels:

 

 

that's going to be a lot quieter than the stock corsair fans. My pc case sounds like it has a leaf blower in there right now at full load lol.

[W-L]

5 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

that's going to be a lot quieter than the stock corsair fans. My pc case sounds like it has a leaf blower in there right now at full load lol.

Can you not turn down the current ones and yeah that would quite an improvement  

[Pachuca]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

Can you not turn down the current ones and yeah that would quite an improvement  

I could, but sometimes I need to run them at max speed during gaming or testing to avoid overheating. Plus they are noisy even at idle temps. The corsair fans are the nosiest component in my case right now. Even the phanteks stock fans that came with the case are very quiet since they are basically a noctua knock off lol. 

[WoodenMarker]

On 4/3/2016 at 10:57 AM, Pachuca said:

No, I was referring to the standard NF-A14 not the IPPC version that runs at 2k rpm. The NF-A14 uses the standard fan where as the the IPPC version has tons of static pressure, I agree. That's why I purchased it instead of the normal NF-A14. I think the noise level will be a lot, but I don't see why I can't control the rpms from my mobo to have it run at the same speed and hopefully the same noise level as the standard NF-A14 that runs at 1.5k rpm. 

 

Edit: At least this way I will have the choice between lower rpm, lower noise, lower performance or max performance and still have it run quieter than the stock corsair fans. All around it's a huge improvement than what I'm using now. So thanks for your help.

The static pressure of the NF-A14 is identical at the same rpm with all variants. Also, the specs aren't comparable between fans from different companies since there isn't a standardized testing method of measuring their performance. 

[Pachuca]

On 4/3/2016 at 2:03 PM, W-L said:

You can control the speed of the IPPC version to a degree but even at the lowest they aren't dead silent like the regular NF-A14 and are still audible, but even the regular NF-A14's aren't bad as pressure fans and are a great performer for heatsinks and radiators. 

 

This should give an idea of the noise levels:

 

 

Final result: My radiator was mounted right above my gtx 980 ti which was generating a lot of heat. I decided to move the radiator to the front of the case. I saw and instant reduction in temp and also fan noise since the stock fans didn't need to run at higher rpm. Turns out the gpu's back plate was making the air inside so hot that the fans were actually heating the radiator instead of cooling it off. Nevertheless I still made a purchase for the noctua fans and am happy that I did. They not only look nicer, but run almost silent at low rpm (600-1100) unlike the corsair fans which are noisy even at low rpm. At max rpm both fans are loud and the noise reduction from the noctua fans is marginal. I'll try out the standard nonindustrial NF-A14 later. I'll be looking for some 3x 120mm or 2x 140mm fans to be an exhaust at the top of the case to help with cooling the system because that gpu gets really really hot and I need to vent that hot air out. Thanks for your help guys!