No BS fan replacement suggestions for H80

StricKeN

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
110
Hi guys, long time lurker new member. I've got a 2500k rig I built in January. I'm cooling it with a Corsair H80, and it performs admirably though I may switch over to an H100 or something equivalent cooling power.

My issue is, though the stock Corsair fans push a good amount of air, they are noisy as hell. I've come to you for your suggestions on fans that can provide the same performance or better while producing less noise.

I currently run the unit on the medium setting, would like to step it to high and still yet reduce noise if that's not being a bit too naieve.

I come to you because newegg reviews are half retarded, and finding an apples to apples comparison is often tough.

Thanks
 
My opinion is that there is no greater radiator fan than the Scythe Gentle Typhoon series. Very good static pressure, sound profile doesn't blow your ears off and really very quiet for the air they move. I have two AP-15s in push-pull on an H50 and it's been a great boon.

Only downside? Expensive as hell. Worth it though. Quality costs.
 
If you cannot find the Typhoons in stock then the Noctua NF-P12 are a great fan for a RAD. High static pressure, low noise and great airflow. The only caveat. . . They are ugly. I have 8 of them in my case. all of which will soon be mounted on RADs in the custom loop I am building.
 
My opinion is that there is no greater radiator fan than the Scythe Gentle Typhoon series. Very good static pressure, sound profile doesn't blow your ears off and really very quiet for the air they move. I have two AP-15s in push-pull on an H50 and it's been a great boon.

Only downside? Expensive as hell. Worth it though. Quality costs.

What he said. I took delivery of my very first GT's a week ago and have two of them installed in my soon to be replaced H70 push/pull. I had previously been running two CoolerMaster A12025-20RB-3BN-F1 1730rpm fans.

Nite and day difference sound wise... the GT's make 1/3~1/4 the noise. It's shocking how much quieter they are. Temp wise it was a draw with the CM perhaps 1c cooler with my unscientific testing just a few minutes apart.

Until I find a better fan I'm not ever going to put anything but these in my system.

My2c.

BTW.. they are in stock here where I got mine:

Scythe Gentle Typhoon Fan 1850 rpm ( 120x120x25mm )
 
For the life of me I cannot figure out why everyone thinks the Gentle Typhoon fans are so great.

I ordered 4 of these as replacements for my H-60 and H-70s. They are quiet, cheaper, have TWICE the CFM the Gentle Typhoons have and work fine with my fan controller.
 
For the life of me I cannot figure out why everyone thinks the Gentle Typhoon fans are so great.

I ordered 4 of these as replacements for my H-60 and H-70s. They are quiet, cheaper, have TWICE the CFM the Gentle Typhoons have and work fine with my fan controller.

Have you done an actual side by side comparison? Most people that have actually done the side by side comparisons will tell you that the Gentle Typhoons will be much quieter for the same amount of cooling.

Also, you cannot trust the ratings. Manufacturers, especially Coolermaster, will inflate their ratings.

CFM means nothing when it comes to radiators. Static pressure means everything. Fans with low static pressure can lose more than 75% of their CFM rating on radiators, while high static pressure fans like the Gentle Typhoons lose maybe 50% or less in the same scenario.
 
I've read quite a few reviews and comparisons on fans and static pressure. At the end of the day I still want the fans with the highest CFM pushing through my radiator. With a big overclock on my 2600k, (4.8Ghz) my temps went from 76C down to 65C with spending $20 and switching out the stock fans for the ones I use now. You cannot tell me that a 57 CFM fan (Gentle Typhoon) vs the 103 CFM fans I have installed would do better.

Static pressure, while having some impact, probably has very little to do with the amount of air getting through a radiator. If you're blowing through a filter, case and radiator or something, it probably would lose 50% of its CFM, but not just through a rad. If you look at this comparison, you'll see that when blown thorugh a filter, most fans are within 15% of each other. Yes some do better then others, but when losing 20-30% of the air, I'd rather lose 20-30% of 103 CFM then 57CFM
 
I've read quite a few reviews and comparisons on fans and static pressure. At the end of the day I still want the fans with the highest CFM pushing through my radiator. With a big overclock on my 2600k, (4.8Ghz) my temps went from 76C down to 65C with spending $20 and switching out the stock fans for the ones I use now. You cannot tell me that a 57 CFM fan (Gentle Typhoon) vs the 103 CFM fans I have installed would do better.

Static pressure, while having some impact, probably has very little to do with the amount of air getting through a radiator. If you're blowing through a filter, case and radiator or something, it probably would lose 50% of its CFM, but not just through a rad. If you look at this comparison, you'll see that when blown thorugh a filter, most fans are within 15% of each other. Yes some do better then others, but when losing 20-30% of the air, I'd rather lose 20-30% of 103 CFM then 57CFM

Maybe you missed what I said about overrating fans. 2000 RPM is not enough for 103 CFM of airflow, and certainly nowhere near a 20% loss.

Comparison of fans on radiators. In this comparison, the Coolermaster R4 is closest to yours. It makes 52.3 dBA to push 35 CFM through the radiator, while the Gentle Typhoon makes 45.2 dBA. In layman terms, that means the Gentle Typhoon is half as loud as the R4. (10 dBA increase is twice as loud in perceived loudness).

Edit: Obviously you don't know much about fans if you don't think static pressure matters. It matters a great deal with radiators.
 
Last edited:
Thanks a million for the constructive replies my friends.

I actually had my eyes on those Cougars for a while now, but I just couldn't be sure what I needed especially considering CFM/noise ratio (which I can only learn about through word of mouth basically) and static pressure.

So I guess its the GT's vs Noctuas vs the Cougars. I run my 2500k at 4.5 on an ASUS Z68 Pro Gen3. I wish I had a local retailer I could visit to compare these damn things.

Thanks again,
Matt
 
While I have no first hand experience with the GT's, I do have both the Cougars and the Noctua NF-F12's. I have played around with both fans in push/pull on an Antec 620 cooler.

Both are PWM fans, and I have them set up to ramp up speed on increasing temp through the fan headers on an Asus P8Z68- V LX board. I have found the Noctua fans to be better with the radiator by 1-2 degrees C. With that being said, the final configuration is the Noctuas in push/pull on the rad, and the Cougars as exhaust fans on the top panel of a Corsair 400R case.

These Noctua fans are the F12's, and not the P-12's. Both are PWM fans, but the F-12's are focused flow, and Noctua's specs show them to have higher static pressure ratings (2.61 vs. 1.68 mm H2O).

I'm happy with the noise levels of both fans, even at full RPM.
 
Maybe you missed what I said about overrating fans. 2000 RPM is not enough for 103 CFM of airflow, and certainly nowhere near a 20% loss.

Comparison of fans on radiators. In this comparison, the Coolermaster R4 is closest to yours. It makes 52.3 dBA to push 35 CFM through the radiator, while the Gentle Typhoon makes 45.2 dBA. In layman terms, that means the Gentle Typhoon is half as loud as the R4. (10 dBA increase is twice as loud in perceived loudness).

Edit: Obviously you don't know much about fans if you don't think static pressure matters. It matters a great deal with radiators.

Am I missing something with this chart? I see nothing about the actual performance pushing through a radiator. There are no measurements other then sound?!? The actual sound doesn't mean shit. I don't see any readings in actual CFM taken before the rad and/or after the rad here. I applaud the guy for making an effort but this chart looks pretty useless to me, unless I'm missing something big here.

Ok so its not possible to get 103CFM from only 2000 rpm...this is what your saying?

Scythe has a Slipstream Fan that is 1600rpm and 88CFM....With that fan @2000 rpm, I'm quite sure it would make 100CFM+.

Just looking at fans on newegg there's a dozen that are 1700-2000rpm and 70-90cfm. I have no idea if the companies over-rate their fans, most probably do. At the end of the day they are probably within 10-15% with their ratings. I have yet to see a big study or comparison on case fans that's actually useful. I couldn't give a shit about the noise of the fans, only performance.

I never once called you an idiot or said your Gentle Typhoons we're shit, I just said I didn't know why everyone thought they we're so great. Again, I have seen nothing yet that makes me want to run out and buy them. I've seen the static pressure tests with them, yes they probably are losing LESS then most fans, but at the end of the day they are still blowing less air.
 
Am I missing something with this chart? I see nothing about the actual performance pushing through a radiator. There are no measurements other then sound?!? The actual sound doesn't mean shit. I don't see any readings in actual CFM taken before the rad and/or after the rad here. I applaud the guy for making an effort but this chart looks pretty useless to me, unless I'm missing something big here.

Ok so its not possible to get 103CFM from only 2000 rpm...this is what your saying?

Scythe has a Slipstream Fan that is 1600rpm and 88CFM....With that fan @2000 rpm, I'm quite sure it would make 100CFM+.

Just looking at fans on newegg there's a dozen that are 1700-2000rpm and 70-90cfm. I have no idea if the companies over-rate their fans, most probably do. At the end of the day they are probably within 10-15% with their ratings. I have yet to see a big study or comparison on case fans that's actually useful. I couldn't give a shit about the noise of the fans, only performance.

I never once called you an idiot or said your Gentle Typhoons we're shit, I just said I didn't know why everyone thought they we're so great. Again, I have seen nothing yet that makes me want to run out and buy them. I've seen the static pressure tests with them, yes they probably are losing LESS then most fans, but at the end of the day they are still blowing less air.

Less air in a free air environment? Maybe. But that matters little when you are dealing with HS and rad fans, its about air the fan pushs THROUGH the rad/HS that matters, total free air CFM has nothing to do with it, noise profile also has a large impact on fans. And if noise means nothing to you, then you still have the wrong fans, you should go buy some high rpm GT fans that claim to do over 150CFM or go all out and get some 38mm high rpm Delta/NMB fans, as many of them can push well over 200CFM. Also, as stated, MFG's fudge CFM numbers by not stating how and where the noise/CFM levels where taken and some just flat out make them up, even the slipstream fans are not right, the 88CFM fan you linked to only did 61CFM at SPCR. The GT line is top dog right now for a reason, and that's performance. They are very well made also, ask anyone who has held one, you can feel how much better they are made than other fans, and mine has out lasted other "high end" fans that started clicking or flat out died, the GT fans are the kind of fans I trust life span to like I would a Delta or NMB.
 
I wonder why they only got 1450rpm out of the Slipstream. I would bet that's why they only got 61cfm out of it.

I actually have several of the old 5500rpm Deltas. Back in the day it was popular to slap one on a TT Volcano 7 and made the thing sound like an aircraft engine but it cooled like a mofo.
 
Am I missing something with this chart? I see nothing about the actual performance pushing through a radiator. There are no measurements other then sound?!? The actual sound doesn't mean shit. I don't see any readings in actual CFM taken before the rad and/or after the rad here. I applaud the guy for making an effort but this chart looks pretty useless to me, unless I'm missing something big here.

Ok so its not possible to get 103CFM from only 2000 rpm...this is what your saying?

Scythe has a Slipstream Fan that is 1600rpm and 88CFM....With that fan @2000 rpm, I'm quite sure it would make 100CFM+.

Just looking at fans on newegg there's a dozen that are 1700-2000rpm and 70-90cfm. I have no idea if the companies over-rate their fans, most probably do. At the end of the day they are probably within 10-15% with their ratings. I have yet to see a big study or comparison on case fans that's actually useful. I couldn't give a shit about the noise of the fans, only performance.

I never once called you an idiot or said your Gentle Typhoons we're shit, I just said I didn't know why everyone thought they we're so great. Again, I have seen nothing yet that makes me want to run out and buy them. I've seen the static pressure tests with them, yes they probably are losing LESS then most fans, but at the end of the day they are still blowing less air.

/facepalm.

If you delved a bit deeper into the study, then you would have seen the RPM/CFM curves for each fan. Since noise is much more important to people than the RPM the fan is spinning at, that's why the chart lists fan noise created at each CFM level. The table also pretty much lists the maximum CFM for each fan.

The R4 maxes out at 2050 RPM, with a maximum of 37 CFM. The Gentle Typhoon maxes out at 1850 RPM, with a maximum of 36 CFM. Noise levels are much lower with the Gentle Typhoons, which are the most important point with most people.

Also, CoolerMaster claims the R4 makes only 19 dBA of noise. It makes 53 dBA in actual testing. I think this is enough proof of company blatantly lying in specs.

Where did I say you called me an idiot? Where did I say that you called Gentle Typhoons shit?

Edit: I think you overlooked something on the chart. At the top of the chart, it lists a bunch of CFM values. Then for each fan, they list the dBA levels required for that fan to push that amount of air.
 
Last edited:
I wonder why they only got 1450rpm out of the Slipstream. I would bet that's why they only got 61cfm out of it.

Because rating from MFG's are fluff, this includes RPM ratings. Also, 150RPM is not going to net you 27CFM, after a given speed/cfm you start getting diminished returns on top of that. And again, it's not free air CFM's that matter in a HS/rad setup, even if the slipstream did 88 cfm, they do poor in rad setups, they also get much louder with the back pressure than other fans, there are many tests and reviews you can look up where a fan with far lower cfm rating cools better than a SS on a rad, even though it might have almost twice the cfm.
 
Any idea on how much power the H80 pump/fan controller can supply? Those deltas above take 30W, I doubt it can supply that much but it would be nice to know what the limit is.
 
Any idea on how much power the H80 pump/fan controller can supply? Those deltas above take 30W, I doubt it can supply that much but it would be nice to know what the limit is.

Even if the H80 could handle it, it's a moot point, as most mobo headers top out at 1A, those fans pull 2A+ without a pump or anything else. They would need to be plugged into the PSU, as these fans are not meant for undervolting etc, if you didn't want that speed you would be getting something else. To control one you would need a really nice 50 watt rheostat or the like, it would burn out most fan controllers in a heartbeat. I am doubtful they are very friendly to undervolting to start with and would bet they have a pretty high starting voltage from the get go.
 
Edit: I think you overlooked something on the chart. At the top of the chart, it lists a bunch of CFM values. Then for each fan, they list the dBA levels required for that fan to push that amount of air.

Right, I see that. But no where does he measure the actual airflow going through a radiator. I assume this is HIS measured airflow, unrestricted, at the fan on low speed and high speed. Without a completely controlled environment, (which most companies probably use to get their readings), you cannot get good readings I would bet. His readings are very low for all the fans, hence I would bet they are pretty useless. What I was getting at is some fans are naturally louder then others due to blade design, motor design, bearings, ect.. and noise has no relative use as to how the fan performs.
 
Even if the H80 could handle it, it's a moot point, as most mobo headers top out at 1A, those fans pull 2A+ without a pump or anything else. They would need to be plugged into the PSU, as these fans are not meant for undervolting etc, if you didn't want that speed you would be getting something else. To control one you would need a really nice 50 watt rheostat or the like, it would burn out most fan controllers in a heartbeat. I am doubtful they are very friendly to undervolting to start with and would bet they have a pretty high starting voltage from the get go.

Yeah I wasn't considering using a delta on the H80 (BTW it gets power direct from PSU, not a mobo header) BUT I was more wondering what the max safe amount is for the H80. I'll have to look at the stock fans and see what they are rated at.

Anyways, I find that on medium speed the stock fans do a great job of cooling and don't really get that loud either, so I'll probably keep them for a while. They certainly are screamers on high speed, though.
 
Right, I see that. But no where does he measure the actual airflow going through a radiator. I assume this is HIS measured airflow, unrestricted, at the fan on low speed and high speed. Without a completely controlled environment, (which most companies probably use to get their readings), you cannot get good readings I would bet. His readings are very low for all the fans, hence I would bet they are pretty useless. What I was getting at is some fans are naturally louder then others due to blade design, motor design, bearings, ect.. and noise has no relative use as to how the fan performs.

Right, so you didn't even bother delving into the study at all.

This was a comparison of fans on a radiator, to determine the best performing radiator fans. Which is highly applicable in this situation, since we are talking about fans on radiators.

The study was done on a MCR120-QP, which is a relatively low FPI, moderately thin radiator. Meaning, the restriction on air isn't that high. Differences between the fans would only become more apparent with higher FPI and thicker radiators.

This was done in a controlled environment, varying the fan speeds with a fan controller. Equipment was set up to measure the air velocity through an area to determine CFM values. If you bothered to look at the videos in each of the individual fan tests, you would have seen how they were done.

Martin is a professional, well respected in the watercooling community, and as such, he does all his testing professionally. He did not gain all that respect by chance.

Yeah I wasn't considering using a delta on the H80 (BTW it gets power direct from PSU, not a mobo header) BUT I was more wondering what the max safe amount is for the H80. I'll have to look at the stock fans and see what they are rated at.

Anyways, I find that on medium speed the stock fans do a great job of cooling and don't really get that loud either, so I'll probably keep them for a while. They certainly are screamers on high speed, though.

The 2000 RPM Coolermaster R4 LED fan uses less than 3 watts at full speed. Since 2000 RPM is typically the maximum speed you find on most 120x25mm fans, it's a fairly safe bet that these fans will be using less than 4 watts (the R4 LEDs aren't that bright, so this is accounting for brighter LEDs). If the fan had no LEDs, it would use even less.

The Sanyo Denki 2500 RPM 120x25mm fan used 4.5 watts at its max speed, and it has no LEDs.
 
Last edited:
Right, I see that. But no where does he measure the actual airflow going through a radiator. I assume this is HIS measured airflow, unrestricted, at the fan on low speed and high speed. Without a completely controlled environment, (which most companies probably use to get their readings), you cannot get good readings I would bet. His readings are very low for all the fans, hence I would bet they are pretty useless. What I was getting at is some fans are naturally louder then others due to blade design, motor design, bearings, ect.. and noise has no relative use as to how the fan performs.

Most of the assumptions you made should be reversed. Time and time again reviews prove that most fan ratings are fluff, as they are always louder and push less CFM than rated, however, fans from real (and trusted) MFG's like Delta and NMB are always close to rated numbers. The fans that you listed, like most are not made by the name on the box, there are a few fan MFG's that make fans and everyone else slaps their sticker on them and resales. You can find fans made by the same MFG and same model, but have two different "brand name" stickers on the back with 2 completely different spec ratings.

Also, the chart is easy to read, the box listed as rad noise level, notice at the top it has numbers, those are dbA, the number in the box of that dbA column is the CFM rating. So, the #4 fan at 40CFM is 56.2dbA. He is also very well known for fan testing and has a nice controlled setup, you would see this if you watched the videos, you should check them out.
 
BUT I was more wondering what the max safe amount is for the H80. I'll have to look at the stock fans and see what they are rated at.

H80/H100 have a 2 amp per header or 4 amps total across all 2/4 (respectively) connectors on the control board. My nod is for the Noctua F12 fans if you want a good replacement fan for the H80 stock fans.
 
H80/H100 have a 2 amp per header or 4 amps total across all 2/4 (respectively) connectors on the control board. My nod is for the Noctua F12 fans if you want a good replacement fan for the H80 stock fans.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for :)

EDIT: I looked up those fans, and they look pretty good. PWM controlled even, I may have to pick some up some time. Pretty expensive from what I can see though (~$25 ea)
 
I read the entire post again and saw what I was missing. The CFM list he has is actually blowing though the rad already, so hes didn't add the actual CFM without the rad. All his readings are already blown though the rad, so it is somewhat helpful, (if you believe the listings the manufactures list with their fans). It is interesting to see though, that most of the high readings are from the higher CFM fans.

Martin also says this here:

Don't worry about static pressure. The real world spec would show the entire pressure vs flow curve but few fans do. In operation the fan performs somewhere between the static pressure point and Max air flow point but neither is very good at defining performance accurately. Besides that many use different test methods making any sort of comparison apples to oranges. I tested actual flow through a radiator which is more useful IMHO than any box spec.

That leads me to believe you'd want the highest CFM fan, not the highest static pressure you can get and/or stand to listen to for a rad/watercooling setup.
 
That leads me to believe you'd want the highest CFM fan, not the highest static pressure you can get and/or stand to listen to for a rad/watercooling setup.

No, because the CFM rating of fans can not be trusted, and as he said, its about the flow/pressure curve, he is saying the pressure ratings do not matter because he is giving real world reading of CFM through a rad. Notice the chart for 20CFM, the worst performing fan? It claims 85.6CFM, now look at the best, the GT AP-13, which claims 37CFM! Thats less than HALF the CFM and yet it performs better pushing the same CFM at less than HALF the noise level, if you can't understand that, there is really nothing we can say or do for you to understand that stated CFM has no impact on performance when used on a rad/HS.
 
Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for :)

EDIT: I looked up those fans, and they look pretty good. PWM controlled even, I may have to pick some up some time. Pretty expensive from what I can see though (~$25 ea)

I picked up the Noctua F-12's from Platinum Micro for around $17/18 per fan, and shipping was free. Great fans IMO.
 
No, you still want static pressure. However, the problem is that fan manufacturers fudge their specs so much, that the ratings essentially become useless.

If fan specs can be believed, then you want the highest static pressure fan you can find for a high FPI radiator, but not necessarily highest CFM. In low FPI and free air situations, you want maximized CFM. The best comparison is between the MCP655 which has high flow but lower head (pressure), and the MCP355 which has lower flow but higher head. At some point during the pressure/flow curve, the 355 will output more flow than the 655, and you want to choose the pump that would maximize flow for that particular loop restriction. But herein lies the problem, pressure ratings and CFM ratings can't be compared, due to differed methods of testing and outright lies. You want the fan with the proper CFM curve for your radiator, but there's no way to compare that.

Essentially, what Martin is saying, is disregard fan specs altogether. Use his testing to judge which fans would be best for use on radiators. And based on his testing, the best noise/CFM fan is the Gentle Typhoons at lower fan speeds, and the Deltas at high fan speeds. The Coolermaster Excalibur is a glaring example of a bad radiator fan. Every other fan performs so close to each other, you might as well get the cheapest ones, which are generally the Yate Loons for lower speeds, and San Aces for higher speeds.
 
I think I've been sold on the GT AP15s... Anyone know a few places with stock I can order from? That aquatuning website seems pretty good, but it says they charge another 10 bucks for orders under 75. Any alternatives or should I just eat a 10 dollar bill?
 
I think I've been sold on the GT AP15s... Anyone know a few places with stock I can order from? That aquatuning website seems pretty good, but it says they charge another 10 bucks for orders under 75. Any alternatives or should I just eat a 10 dollar bill?

If you are buying one, it might be worth hunting else where, but most places with them in stock want 24 bucks + for them (unless you get the AP-13 or less demanded ones), if you are getting more it can become really worth it to get them from AT.
 
Cool thanks for the advice. I want two for sure, but might just go ahead and grab four just in case I buy an H100...

Sounds like a plan
 
I think I want to use deltas. Infact I think I want to replace all of the 120mm fans in my case with these.
Delta AFC1212D-PWM -- they are really loud at full blast but they are PWM, and my mobo has a lot of PWM headers + the 2 on the H80 for the rad, so I figure if I setup profiles for the mobo ones to run ~2,000rpm max + leave the H80 on balanced/medium mode it should actually not be too loud. Plus the delta's have tons of static pressure.
 
I think I want to use deltas. Infact I think I want to replace all of the 120mm fans in my case with these.
Delta AFC1212D-PWM -- they are really loud at full blast but they are PWM, and my mobo has a lot of PWM headers + the 2 on the H80 for the rad, so I figure if I setup profiles for the mobo ones to run ~2,000rpm max + leave the H80 on balanced/medium mode it should actually not be too loud. Plus the delta's have tons of static pressure.

It doesn't work that way, buying a high RPM or high performance fan, then expecting to undervolt it and get the same performance doesn't work that way. Sure, the Delta, NMB, San Ace etc are great highspeed fans, that does not mean when undervolted it is the same story. The fans are made to run at those speeds, and often times when undervolted have bad motor ticking. They also tend to under perform at lower speeds as well. Notice the first and 2nd charts in the tests, which are the best performing ones? Again, the 1100 and 1800 GT fans, all the high powered ones being undervolted...Yep, middle to end of the pack.

To qoute Martin:

"MYTH - You can have it all, High Speed 38mm fans and smooth low speed using a fan controller--WRONG!!
I'm calling BS on this, I have yet to find a good strong 38mm fan that works acceptably good at low speeds. I've even made the mistake of trying medium speed panaflos back in my earlier days. I figured, what the heck, I may need a little more fan power, so I'll just plan on turning them down a bit with my fan controller. Well, after forking over the $$ for 6 new panaflo medium speed fans, I was sorely dissapointed when I undervolted. Sure they have great power, but they were also very ticky at low volts. This problem seems to be common to pretty much all 38mm thickness fans with the large fan hub and also to some extent with most higher speed 25mm fans. You simply can not have it all.

You can have a kick ass high speed fans with really crappy low speed sound quality or you can have a kick ass low speed fans with really good low speed sound quality, you simply can not have both."

I have done this myself with Delta/NMB fans, and the ticking drove me mad. Needless to say I have learned to build a cooling setup that runs off of AP-13's at full speed, I can still hear air movement, but the sound is smooth and clean and does not bother me.
 
Hrmm, interesting. I did a watercooling setup years ago with 4x120x38mm yate loon medium's on the rad and ran them fine on 7v.

I would really like some PWM fans though. (and with those Delta's being PWM fans they have to be designed for SOME range of use.....)

I dunno, I probably wont end up buying any fans any time soon as I would like to move into a different case and change over to a H100 or a custom setup again eventually, so those decisions would end up dictating what fans I'd end up needing. I have always been pretty tolerant of loud fans though, many years ago I ran a 6,000rpm delta 60mm fan on a socket A setup. Heh that was fun :p
 
Bleh, I cannot find GTs in stock on a Canadian website... Was going to order some from frozencpu then noticed 20+ dollar shipping. Ow.

So now I'm on newegg trying to figure out what the hell to get instead. Noctua, Cougar, Noiseblocker? le sigh..

edit: What about Scythe Slipstreams? How do they differ from GT series? Louder? Less/more airflow?
 
Last edited:
I would stay away from slipstreams for a radiator fan. I got 3 of them just to mess with and they don't have good static pressure. They move a lot of air but they are also noticeably louder then my other fans on full speed.

Check out the cougars, I keep hearing good things about them.
 
It doesn't work that way, buying a high RPM or high performance fan, then expecting to undervolt it and get the same performance doesn't work that way. Sure, the Delta, NMB, San Ace etc are great highspeed fans, that does not mean when undervolted it is the same story. The fans are made to run at those speeds, and often times when undervolted have bad motor ticking. They also tend to under perform at lower speeds as well. Notice the first and 2nd charts in the tests, which are the best performing ones? Again, the 1100 and 1800 GT fans, all the high powered ones being undervolted...Yep, middle to end of the pack.

To qoute Martin:

"MYTH - You can have it all, High Speed 38mm fans and smooth low speed using a fan controller--WRONG!!
I'm calling BS on this, I have yet to find a good strong 38mm fan that works acceptably good at low speeds. I've even made the mistake of trying medium speed panaflos back in my earlier days. I figured, what the heck, I may need a little more fan power, so I'll just plan on turning them down a bit with my fan controller. Well, after forking over the $$ for 6 new panaflo medium speed fans, I was sorely dissapointed when I undervolted. Sure they have great power, but they were also very ticky at low volts. This problem seems to be common to pretty much all 38mm thickness fans with the large fan hub and also to some extent with most higher speed 25mm fans. You simply can not have it all.

You can have a kick ass high speed fans with really crappy low speed sound quality or you can have a kick ass low speed fans with really good low speed sound quality, you simply can not have both."

I have done this myself with Delta/NMB fans, and the ticking drove me mad. Needless to say I have learned to build a cooling setup that runs off of AP-13's at full speed, I can still hear air movement, but the sound is smooth and clean and does not bother me.

Pwm negates the drawbacks of undervolting to a degree
 
Back
Top