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Which fan is better?

A

Aelfgeft

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
2,343
Going to need a 92mm fan and while I've heard a lot about Panaflos, I also found a Vantec on Newegg that moves almost 120CFM!

COMPLETELY disregarding noise, since I already have high velocity fans running, which would be the better cooler?

The Vantec?

or...

this Panaflo?
 
"Best" is an elusive quanity, however from the critera you mentioned its no contest, not even close, at rated speeds the Vantec will move a LOT more air.
 
That's what I figured, but I guess what I'm trying to confirm is that CFM is a "real" statistic and not something that's kind of a useless benchmark, like RPM.

Thanks!
 
ahhh GOOD ! You smart cookie. I was lazy, to really do it right go the the manufactures web site and look at the tech data for the fans.

It should include a PQ curve - pressure vs flow.

look at the CFM flow rate at the same pressure for each fan, that is an apples to apples comparison.


Well everyone measures everything slightly differntly and we can get into a big can of worms but with info readily available thats about all we got.
 
Even physically -- the Vantec has the edge because it is 38mm tall, versus 25mm. Thicker fins makes for more airflow.
 
Okay so I found these graphs...do I want less pressure per CFM or more?

Vantec:

vantec.gif


Panaflo:

panaflo.gif
 
damn damn damn had how ot read the graps all typed up and lost it. give me a few. I really appreicate you wanting to know how to do this right.
 
ok couple of things first, we really dont know what pressure (think of it as back pressure, a blowhole with no slots, just an 92mm clear hole will offer almost no "back pressure" the fan has to work against. In a nice rad with shroud some of the air will hit the rad face and bounce around and the air has to work its way thru the fins, might be medium back pressure. the crap stamped in tiny holes in a grid some cheap cases uses can be considered high back pressure. ) so we just have to guess and even then we can compare one fan against another if we just pick values.

The other thing is these fans are sooo mismatched (the no contest part) its almost hard to compare them as we will see.

KK basicly you pick a pressure on the left read across till you hit the fan curve of the fan then down to read what CFM the fan will do at that pressure.

lets start at .40 for the vantec starting at .40 on the left vertical scale and looing right till we hit the curve and going down we find a cfm value of about 60 CFM .

now yo wont even see .40 on the panaflow scale, if it was there it would be way up at the top and going right it would not hit the curve for any of the panalflow models. this means the fan cant even trun against that much pressure. game over. but lets pick another value for grins.

Looks like the ticks on the vantec graph are about .08 per tick (5 ticks = .40 ) on the pressure scale. so the first tick is .08 and the panaflow has .07 on its graph and they are close enough to do a dirty comparison.

so, Vantec, first tick on y axis on the left, over to the right to the curve them direclty down gives us about 110 CFM (have to guesstimate a bit, no harm.)

so, panasonic starting at the .07 on left going right hit curve for low and medium speed fan and going down gives us somewhere around 10CFM !!! the high speed version (-H) give us about 25CFM.

again no contest. the vantec just blows the panaflow away.

Please keep in mind there are two differnt designs here, the vantec is designed to be a howling beast of a fan and compated to the panaflow it certainly is. The panaflows are designed to be quiet and dependable. totally differnt beastie.


anyway, this proves what you already know, its just no contest, the vantec is a monster of a fan compared to these panaflows. Panaflow makes a 38mm thick fan (not sure its 92 mm) that would look better in the comparison.

I love panaflows and use the 120 mm 38mm thick ones all the time. awesome powerfull quiet fans.

This comparison was like putting a cub scout in the ring with Mike Tyson. After Tyson bit the kid he killed him with one punch.
 
the vantec will kill the panaflo in performance and your ears. The panaflo will give good performance and won't hurt your ears :)
 
All that is very good info. The problem is so far the “use” hasn’t been mentioned. At some point you have to factor that part in, right?
 
Thanks for the explanation wwparrish. Very informative, just the kind of stuff I like coming to hardforums for. :)

Bill what do you mean by use? I do intend to overclock eventually, and the apartment I live in also heats up like a mother. Cooling is a critical issue in my case.
 
Aelfgeft said:
Thanks for the explanation wwparrish. Very informative, just the kind of stuff I like coming to hardforums for. :)

Bill what do you mean by use? I do intend to overclock eventually, and the apartment I live in also heats up like a mother. Cooling is a critical issue in my case.
Click to expand...

I was, am, unclear if you are using the fan for case cooling or HSF cooling or Rad cooling. As has been pointed out, different fans with different specs do things differently ;)
 
Thanks for the tips everyone. I've decided to stay with the Vantec. Air movement is going to be key for me, besides which it should helps circulate air a little better and cut down on dust, since I am a total lazy ass when it comes to cleaning. :)
 
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