Need Help on SP and AF Fans and AIO System

[sotik]

I am looking to do a white/black/blue build with a phantek enthoo pro which can support a total of 6 140mm fans without a Radiator in it. With a radiator in it it supports up to 3 140mm fans. It also is able to support a 120mm up to a 420mm radiator. So here are my questions

 

1. Is SP necessary or can I get away with using all AF fans?

 

2. I am going to remove a harddrive tray and leave 1 in there, I know SP is good to put in front of the HD tray, but I can also mount a 120 behind it, do AF work well with something BEHIND them, or should I go with SP here too?

 

3. Considering I can use up to a 420mm radiator should I? I was thinking about going with this AIO system http://www.swiftech.com/h320x2prestige.aspx and putting 3 140mm fans on it.

 

4. I am also considering these fans http://www.aerocool.com.tw/en/cooling/dead-silent/ds-14cm. They don't have a lot of reviews, but I think they look pretty awesome and would like to try them out in my build, has anyone had bad experiences with them?

 

and lastly I promise

 

5. Push vs pull vs push/pull. What would be a better setup? I know with the swifteh I posted this is a moot point, but if I get a different AIO system then I can apply this to that.

 

[Schrodingers Kat]

1. Personally I use SP fans, as linus said in a video they're more versatile and don't suffer much on intake considering most intakes are through a filter, and a good filter will slow an AF fan noticeably.

2. SP in front and behind.

3. Thats a huge rad, I would recommend a smaller one purely for ease of use sake moving around the case and avoiding some problems with clearance when using something that big. For an AIO try the corsair h110i v2/gtx for a good large aio (there is many). Also SP fans for rads (obv). I'm not too well versed with custom loops so hopefully someone else can help you there if you want to try that avenue. 

4. Haven't used them, I use noctua NF-F12s and A14s personally for my case and cooler fans. They seem to be pretty good AF fans, low noise and pretty good output. For a good price they would be a good case fan, keeping in mind that they're not pwm. I would still use A14s with the LNA (low noise adapter) myself but each to their own.

5. For a radiator pull seems to be the better option, however with good SP fans it doesn't make a huge difference. Where the rad is located in the case is more important (eg used at the top of a case as an exhaust is better than the front as an intake, hot air leaving system > hot air entering system).

[sotik]

5 minutes ago, Schrodingers Kat said:

 

4. Haven't used them, I use noctua NF-F12s and A14s personally for my case and cooler fans. They seem to be pretty good AF fans, low noise and pretty good output. For a good price they would be a good case fan, keeping in mind that they're not pwm. I would still use A14s with the LNA (low noise adapter) myself but each to their own.

 

Thanks for the answer. I have thought about Noctua but they are so ugly to me. Not to mention they would clash horribly with my black/white/blue theme. I've thought about getting some and taking them apart and painting them black and white, but I am not sure if that will mess them up and/or make them less optimal. Any opinions on that? I've used Corsiar and have honestly thought about going with those with this case because they stood up to my standards so far, but those ones I posted, to me, look awesome especially when they are running.

[Schrodingers Kat]

Just now, sotik said:

Thanks for the answer. I have thought about Noctua but they are so ugly to me. Not to mention they would clash horrible with my black/white/blue theme. I've thought about getting some and taking them apart and painting them black and white, but I am not sure if that will mess them up and/or make them less optimal. Any opinions on that?

Yeah don't paint them. Noctua explicitly mentions to not paint them lol they ruin the balance of the blades, and the weight gain (while tiny) throws off the motor and lowers overall life. You could get the industrial versions of the fans which are black with just brown anti vibration pads. And you can even buy black anti vibration pads from noctua for its fans. I wouldn't get the industrial versions because they are too fast and loud for me,  but if you have a pwm header on your motherboard to control them they would be good. If you can't deal with the noctua colour scheme (i like it somehow) then i would just suggest using a different fan. The corsair lineup of SP and AF fans looks ok and aren't as expensive as noctua. Those dead silent fans are pretty good too and if you can deal with them being AF in a case should be fine. Just dont use them for rads

[sotik]

Yeah I figured the added weight of paint might cause problems. Okay, well I think you pretty much helped me make up my mind. I think I will buy two Corsair SP fans for my harddrive cage, put the dead silence ones in all the intake/exhaust slots that are visable and then just use the stock fans that come with the Corsair Hydro Series H110i. Last question and I think I will have made up my mind, which is honestly hard for me to do lol, but it has to do with fan control. Honestly in the past I use to just buy cheap fans and put them in my case, so all this fan stuff is new to me especially fan control options.

I was going to buy an external fan control that will fit into my front 5.25 optical drive slot just for the looks. However my MOBO does support PWM and my case has a PMW hub in it. I have also thought about using fan curve software. Which of those three would you suggest?

[Schrodingers Kat]

That setup sounds ok, just note that the stock fans ok the H110i gt/H115i are a little loud unless tamed, still the best aio that I'm aware of. Just FYI there are three variants of the H110 to take note of: H110i is the original/oldest one, H110i GT is the upgraded one and the H115i is the SAME as the H110i GT but with a slightly different bracket for mounting the block on mATX/ITX boards which isn't relevant to you so get the cheapest out of the last two mentioned. 

 

This is a funny one, your motherboard most likely has 2-3 proper PWM 4 Pin headers on it and a seperate 4 pin CPU header for the cpu cooler. These control the fan speeds via pwm (sounds obv but wait) in most cases. Then there is voltage regulation/adjusting as another method of changing the speed of a fan. Your pwm hub in your case is most likely 4-6 3 pin headers that control the fan speeds using the voltage method. This will still work on a 4 pin pwm fan but the 4th pin will be unused is all (providing that the header has room for the 4th unused pin next to it). An external controller can come in the 5.25in kind and the kind I have, a box that sits somewhere in your PC. These can use either 3 pin with voltage control, 4 pin with proper pwm control, or sometimes both (like 1 4 pin for the cpu fan and the rest 3 pin). I use the NZXT grid+ v2 and it has 6 3 pin voltage controlled headers, and it also gives you a couple Y splitters for connecting 2 fans into 1 header, giving me 8 total fan spots. Software support varies, for the motherboard fan headers the bios should include some ways of controlling the pwm fans and some oems even include some software for windows that allows you to make custom fan curves (eg ASUS AI suit). For your case pwm headers these are likely controlled by a physical switch on the case somewhere and do not have the ability to do custom fan curves. Then the third party options vary widely, but most will allow the box to plug into a usb 2.0 header on the mobo and allow tuning and custom fan curves from inside windows using they're own software (eg NZXT grid+ v2 uses the CAM software, works well btw). Another thing to note: when using the voltage control method most headers will have a limit to how low they can hold a fan rpm %wise. So for example my hub can't hold my fans any lower than 40% without losing power to them and then doing an annoying cycle of full speed, down to where i set it, then drop out and repeat. So pwm is the better overall control method if you really want to use that lowest 40% of the fans speeds (I personally find that 40% is a good idle speed so its my lowest on my own fan curves). 

 

That was long lol but I would recommend looking at your motherboard first and seeing if it can support all of your fans (some motherboards can use the voltage method with the 3 pin connectors). If not then try the case controller and see if the settings and amount of fans suit etc. Last method only because it costs money (if you have money to spend then do this IMO) get a controller like mine, the custom software makes me able to set the custom fan curve to either the cpu OR the gpu temps (which is cool) and i find the 40% limit not too bad. 

[sotik]

The mobo I am going with is the  Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard and I can't really seem to find anything on how many PWM it has. But I know the MOBO fan uses it, and my case PWM hub plugs into the CPU PWM so I am assuming it uses the MOBO PWM to control all of the fans through one hub. I should have a total of 6 fans in my case so  I most likely will be using splitters on my fans. Mind you I am building this all on PC Parts Picker, I haven't went through with buying it yet, but will once I make my mind up. Took me 3 days to decide on a case lol.

 

Also the more info the better, I know most people don't like to read today but I am willing to do so to insure I get the most information I can.

 

Okay so I did find a PDF and it does use my MOBO to control the PWM hub

 

" The PWM hub functions optimally when modulated by a PWM signal from the motherboard, which will allow the greatest control range. However, not all 4-pin motherboard connectors implement the PWM signal modulation."

So I am guessing, unless I buy PWM fans my best option is look for a PDF of my MOBO and see if it has headers that use voltage and get software like what Jayz uses, or get a fan control be it internal or external.

[Schrodingers Kat]

The Asus Z170 A has 3 or 4 pwm headers on it iirc so with two splitters you may well not even need to use the hub, but you can if you like to make things easier. A possible setup allowing for expansion could be to plug the cpu cooler into its own header, then plug the hub into a different pwm header on the motherboard and the case fans into the hub. Asus has pretty good software control in its ai suit for custom fan curves from within windows, and having the hub you should be able to view all your case fans as one fan and adjust it accordingly. Costs $0