Best fans + rads for silence ?

[iiNNeX]

So I need some help with picking out the best fans for silent operation, while still having good performance.

 

Silence is defined differently by everybody so to give you a range of what I am expecting speed wise, it would be between 600-1000rpm depending on how well the fan performs on lower RPM. Right now that's out the way here is what I have thought of so far:

 

Radiators: I am going to be going with 2x 420mm rads but I am not sure which or how thick yet. 

 

Fans: Either the NB-BlackSilent Pro 140mm or NB-eLoop® Series 140mm. I have Noctuas currently but want to try NBs and see how they perform. If they are not up to the job, I have 6x NF-A14s to put on there.

 

So my main questions are, what radiator should I look for, a thick one and do push pull with low rpm fans, or a thin one which performs well with low RPM in just either push or pull?  Any specific models you guys recommend?

 

And my other question of course is which fans, the Black Silent Pros or the Eloops? They will be the PWM variants btw.

 

The case will be the newly released be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 and my PC theme is monochrome (so grey/black and maybe a tad of white).

 

Thanks!

[Simon771]

Strugling with fan decision here also.

But for radiator it's simple. You want to have "fat" radiator.

Those have less pins per inch, so fans don't need to spin so fast to push air trough radiator.

 

I will be going with nzxt fn v2 fans, because I have 2 of them in my system and are dead silent at 800rpm.

 

But if you can spend more money, get corsair SP versions  

 

link: http://www.corsair.com/en/air-series-sp120-high-performance-edition-high-static-pressure-120mm-fan

 

 

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, Simon771 said:

Strugling with fan decision here also.

But for radiator it's simple. You want to have "fat" radiator.

Those have less pins per inch, so fans don't need to spin so fast to push air trough radiator.

 

I will be going with nzxt fn v2 fans, because I have 2 of them in my system and are dead silent at 800rpm.

 

But if you can spend more money, get corsair SP versions  

 

Surely a fat radiator will need push/pull to really shine? Or at least higher RPM fans to actually make it worth it over a thin radiator?

 

Having less FPI is true, but you can get slim radiators too with lower FPI so it's a tough call.. Maybe 45mm maximum for rad size?

 

And as far as fans, Corsair is terrible, used their AF and SP fans a few years ago never again. Waste of money.

 

NZXT make good fans but I don't' quite think it's on par with Noctua or NB. But I might be wrong, this is just what i've seen on various forums.

 

Which radiator did you opt to go  with by the way? and what size?

[Simon771]

2 minutes ago, iiNNeX said:

Surely a fat radiator will need push/pull to really shine? Or at least higher RPM fans to actually make it worth it over a thin radiator?

 

Having less FPI is true, but you can get slim radiators too with lower FPI so it's a tough call.. Maybe 45mm maximum for rad size?

 

And as far as fans, Corsair is terrible, used their AF and SP fans a few years ago never again. Waste of money.

 

NZXT make good fans but I don't' quite think it's on par with Noctua or NB. But I might be wrong, this is just what i've seen on various forums.

 

Which radiator did you opt to go  with by the way? and what size?

 

Well I went with 240mm slim EKWB rad, but will add additional 360mm rad next week. Will take that 45mm thick one from EKWB.

Still deciding about fans. Either buy 3x NZXT FN v2 fans, or buy 5 new ones ... but I don't wanna end up buying 5 fans for around 100€, and then realise that vibrations will cause noise or just noisy fan in general  

 

So I guess I can't help you much, since I'm strugling with same dilema lol

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, Simon771 said:

 

Well I went with 240mm slim EKWB rad, but will add additional 360mm rad next week. Will take that 45mm thick one from EKWB.

Still deciding about fans. Either buy 3x NZXT FN v2 fans, or buy 5 new ones ... but I don't wanna end up buying 5 fans for around 100€, and then realise that vibrations will cause noise or just noisy fan in general  

 

So I guess I can't help you much, since I'm strugling with same dilema lol

Both Noctua and NoiseBlocker have anti vibration mounts as well as rubber ends so you won't get any of that with those. I know Corsair SP fans have it too, but their noise to performance ratio sucks. Yeah I might go with 45mm on both rads tbh, that way i don't need push pull and 800rpm should suffice ? All I am going to cool is single cpu and gpu (along with motherboard VRMs), so its totally overkill but I want silence

[iiNNeX]

anyone have any radiator recommendations for these fans ?

 

Shall I stick to 420s or move down to 360 rads as the 120mm fans could be better ?

 

From a few benchmarks i've seen it looks like the Black Ice SR2 MP radiator, along with the Nemesis GTS (both in 360 form) are the top contenders with low FPI and optimized for low to medium speed fans. EK's XE series radiator only shines above 1300rpm which I think will be too loud for my needs.