Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE $35.90

[StoleMyOwnCar]

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/LmCFf7/arctic-p12-pst-563-cfm-120-mm-fans-5-pack-acfan00137a
They're only $30 for an entire 5 pack, or about $6 a fan. If these work, I'll just go return the Noctua fans I bought earlier, since these are a much better value. Worth a shot.

Yeah uh... no. They're loud. Not as bad as the stock fans, but they're loud at max RPM. I've heard that in every batch of 5, some of these regularly have bad fan bearings, so I could try another two in the batch, but so far they're definitely louder than the Noctuas reduxes I linked. They did move a lot of air, however. Temperature was a bit cooler on average, if only slightly.

 

[pendragon1]

so far they're definitely louder than the Noctuas reduxes I linked

almost all fans are, but youre getting 3-5 for them same price. there are trade offs....
i havent heard of this bad bearing thing but they all do "hum" at certain rpms.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

almost all fans are, but youre getting 3-5 for them same price. there are trade offs....
i havent heard of this bad bearing thing but they all do "hum" at certain rpms.

Well, I'm comparing them to these:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VN...0-pwm-708-cfm-120mm-fan-nf-p12-redux-1700-pwm
So it's not quite apples to apples to begin with. These Noctua reduxes run about 150-250 RPM lower. The Arctics are supposed to be competing with:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zxx2FT/noctua-nf-a12x25-pwm-601-cfm-120mm-fan-nf-a12x25-pwm
The Reduxes are $16 each, so it's about 2.5 of them per one of the Reduxes. Still a lot of savings for sure. A lot of people online just acted like it was a "free lunch", so I wanted to test all of these empirically, since I have pretty sensitive ears (and I did try another batch of 2, no difference).

My conclusion so far is that the only no-fuss solution is the Noctua reduxes (those grey 1700RPM ones), at least for the 7800X3D on the Phantom Spirit. They're definitely still audible at max RPM, but it's quite nearly below the sound of the rest of the components in the case, and it's far less annoying of a noise than either the Arctics or the stock. The cooling difference is nearly imperceptible. Otherwise, I would just keep the stock fans and modify the fan curve so they don't top out, since every other solution seems like it's going to require modifying the fan curve anyway, so why bother spending more money? I think that's about all the testing I'm gonna do, I don't feel like dropping $65 or whatever to try out the A12X25.

I also grabbed this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXB9H647
And dabbed some on the bottom of both of them to act as an anti-vibration layer between the radiator and the fans, but it honestly did very very little lol. I just felt like experimenting either way since this is a hobby.

As for the arctics, I grabbed some of these rubber fan mounts and I'm just gonna throw them into other cases I have:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4LVBY2

I wanna know wtf MSI is using as a fan in its Suprim X Liquid radiator. These fans are really high quality, but I don't know what the brand is.

 

[pendragon1]

My conclusion so far is that the only no-fuss solution is the Noctua reduxes......I wanna know wtf MSI is using as a fan in its Suprim X Liquid radiator.

for you.
every one has different tastes and tolerances.
im fine with my artic fans, i just make them jump past the "noisy" point.
take one off and get the model?

 

[hititnquitit]

Personally, I can't stand the redux 1700s. My experience with them has been the opposite. I picked up 3 for a build (front mounted) and immediately removed them due to the awful racket they created at anything over 8-900rpm. Added some noctua anti-vibes I had leftover from my ippc 2000s but they didn't help. Had a pair of old bequiet! pure wings 2 in the same case (up top) that I initially thought had to have been the noise makers. Nope, they were their typically silent selves. They don't push as much air but they are quiet even at max rpm. Bought 3 more of the pure wings @ $8ea and tossed the 1700s in the old giant box o fans. The 1700s move alot of air @1700 but they are just too loud. May be they are designed to work best as hs/rad fans rather than case fans or maybe mine are just junk.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

for you.
every one has different tastes and tolerances.
im fine with my artic fans, i just make them jump past the "noisy" point.
take one off and get the model?

Well, I said "no fuss". If you're tweaking the fan curve, I think you could make the stock fans work fine, too. To keep it relevant to the topic, this is solely about for use with this heatsink. Side note, where do you think the "noisy point" is with these Arctics, for you? Just curious.

As far as the MSI fans, they're apparently the Silent Gale P12's according to reddit. There's an in depth review about them:
https://www.hwcooling.net/en/msi-meg-silent-gale-p12-a-dominant-all-rounder-for-a-price/42/
They don't seem to be in stock anymore, and were quite expensive at release. Which actually makes the Surpim X Liquid's price kind of impressive, in hindsight.

Personally, I can't stand the redux 1700s. My experience with them has been the opposite. I picked up 3 for a build (front mounted) and immediately removed them due to the awful racket they created at anything over 8-900rpm. Added some noctua anti-vibes I had leftover from my ippc 2000s but they didn't help. Had a pair of old bequiet! pure wings 2 in the same case (up top) that I initially thought had to have been the noise makers. Nope, they were their typically silent selves. They don't push as much air but they are quiet even at max rpm. Bought 3 more of the pure wings @ $8ea and tossed the 1700s in the old giant box o fans. The 1700s move alot of air @1700 but they are just too loud. May be they are designed to work best as hs/rad fans rather than case fans or maybe mine are just junk.

Oh no, this was solely for use with the heatsink as I said above. For case fans they're pretty bad. I tried one of them as a case fan and it was causing a weird resonant humming that was incredibly annoying. If you want, try these rubber fan mounts instead of normal fan screws:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4LVBY2
I have some Noctua rubber fan mounts lying around, too, and haven't tried them with these fans yet.

 

[pendragon1]

Side note, where do you think the "noisy point" is with these Arctics, for you? Just curious.

~1100

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

~1100

That's what I've read, but that was the default idling point for me with these fans while doing SD stuff anyway. I didn't really hear them (again, on the heatsink). When they're maxed out (at least as high as the 7800X3D would do so) on the Phantom Spirit, it was around 1850RPM according to HWINFO.

They made an incredibly annoying and relatively high pitched motor sound. Meanwhile the Noctuas reach their highest RPM and make a mostly low pitched noise that's much more easily ignored. And at lower RPMs they are more or less silent throughout the range. Unless 4/5 of the Arctic fans that I got in this 5 pack are defective, they all seem to do that at this 1830RPM range. So, just with this heatsink, I haven't really found anything better than the 1700RPM Noctua Reduxes yet, at a somewhat reasonable price point. If anyone knows of any, feel free to speak up, but like you said we all have different ears so... yeah. My friends often can't hear a lot of the sounds I find annoying lol. My case is also sitting a good 3-4 feet away from me.