Which 420 radiator?

[devil_trigger]

Hey guys, I decided to finally update my case and went with the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, which means I need to get a new radiator. I currently have the Swiftech 480 4x120 and that won't fit so now I'm looking for a 420 3x140 radiator to replace it. Looking for bang for buck, and more towards low speed fans to cool it. I'm not too keen on 140mm fans so if you have any suggestions about those as well that would be great. This will be mounted vertically so the fans need to be able to be mounted that way and not have problems down the road like the CM sickeflows I have now.

 

[ebduncan]

I'm a fan of Alphacool stuff.

Fan wise the best radiator fans for 140mm are the XSPC 140mm radiator fans. Corsair is also making the SP140's now would be another option.

 

[Tsumi]

Alphacool UT60.

I use Aerocool Shark 140s, and they perform fine. My cousin likes his Cougar and Aerocool Dead Silence 140s. I want to try out the B-gears B-blaster 140mm fans, mostly because they're double ball bearing designs like the Gentle Typhoons.

I highly recommend getting a fan controller though. The ability to use medium-high speed fans and slow them down to practically silent is worth it IMO.

 

[devil_trigger]

Nice, thanks for the quick suggestions guys. I actually do have a fan controller, as well as the case having a built in PWM fan header. I'll look into those fans and decide which I'll go for. Does the Alphacool rads use the same barb threads as Swiftech?

 

[Tsumi]

Yes. Pretty much everything uses G1/4 thread. Only a few used G3/8 in the past.

 

[devil_trigger]

Ok cool, I remember that being a little confusing back when I built my original watercooling setup, good to see its a little more standardized.

Started looking at the fans and I noticed the Corsair 140s are actually a tad noisier, lower static pressure AND lower airflow compared to the 120mm counterpart...that doesn't make any sense lol.

I think I'm going to go with the XSPC fans, they are almost half the price and seem to have on par or better specs that the others, although I can't seem to find what type of bearing they use. I'm hoping they can be mounted horizontally just fine.

 

[devil_trigger]

Well I'm right in the middle of putting everything in my new case finally, and it turns out the UT60 I got is way too thick to fit in this case. I test fitted with fans and there's no way to get the mobo in. Now I need to see if I can return this rad for the slimmer version.

 

[Erasmus354]

That sucks to hear :/ Measure twice I guess.

What fans did you end up going with, and have you had a chance to turn them on and see how they sound yet?

 

[devil_trigger]

I actually never even measured once lol. Tsumi has helped me before and he said UT60 so I blindly purchased it without researching if it would fit in my case lol, thats my bad.

I ordered the ST30 along with new tubing and a couple more fittings and got it overnighted for like $23 more than standard shipping from FrozenCPU.

I ended up going with the XSPC fans and they are nice and quiet while pushing a nice amount of air. I'm no fan expert but they should do just fine, and for like $7 they are definitely worth it! One of them had the entire center snapped completely out of the frame, but FrozenCPU replaced it no problem!

I did manage to finish up the swap(not really a build since all I did was swap the case and rad, and add an SSD) just a little bit ago and its running nicely. I absolutely love this case! I'm coming from a about 6 or 7 year old Lian-Li G70, where I had to make everything single modification that is now standard in most cases, I cut all of my wire management holes and the hole for the rad, lots of work.

Crappy cellphone pic!


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