120mm Fan Fog/Smoke Comparison UPDATE

TastyPC

TastyPC

TastyPC

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So this is part 2 of the smoke/fog comparison test:


I'm not happy with the quality of the test footage and hope to create something special in the next video inside my new Corsair 600T smoke test rig. Please treat this video as more of an update then a conclusive test. I will make sure the lighting and everything is perfect next time. I just wanted to get a video uploaded so people didn't think I'd disapeared.

In this video YouTube actually added in the background static. It's not here in the original file. I'll have to look into how I need to render the audio to avoid it happening next time.

It features the following fans supplied by OverclockersUK
1) Scythe AP-14 Gentle Typhoon 1450 RPM
2) Scythe AP-15 Gentle Typhoon 1850 RPM
3) Akasa AK-FN059 Venom Viper
4) Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black
5) Gelid Wing 12 UV Blue

Thanks to Steven for your help and support

It also incudes previously filmed fottage of the:
Noctua NF-F12
Silverstone AP121

I have a couple of questions for the upcoming video.

1) Should I cut out the metal grid/mesh in the roof of the 600T so the fans have unrestricted airflow or should I leave it there for more realistic results?

2) How should I have the fan mounted. Inside the case or out?

3) Would you like me to zoom out so you can see the smoke though the 600T's window or would that make it more difficult to compare the results?

As always, thanks for your help and support.
 
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Another excellent video, those Scythe GTs are definitely surprising, not at all what i expected. I dont know if doign the tests in a 600T would be your best bet as i found the grill in in is much more restrictive that normal. Perhaps cut the grill off the case, and then use it?
 
Roverno said:
Another excellent video, those Scythe GTs are definitely surprising, not at all what i expected. I dont know if doign the tests in a 600T would be your best bet as i found the grill in in is much more restrictive that normal. Perhaps cut the grill off the case, and then use it?
Click to expand...

That was one of my questions. Removing the grill would give the most accurate results but on the other hand, leaving it there would give more realistic real world results.

Leaving the grill there would be easier, but I'm open to both.

Thanks :)
 
Are you directing the air through a mesh/grill?
What I found with AP-14s(and Arctic F12s and some Noctua 120mm fans) is that they are not so good when there is some thing right in front of them, like a fan dust filter for example!
But if you give the fan some space to "breath" the air out put is much better.
 
Avathar77 said:
Are you directing the air through a mesh/grill?
What I found with AP-14s(and Arctic F12s and some Noctua 120mm fans) is that they are not so good when there is some thing right in front of them, like a fan dust filter for example!
But if you give the fan some space to "breath" the air out put is much better.
Click to expand...

The plan currently is either to keep the grill on and mount the fan outside the case (so the grill is on the intake side of the fan) or the cut the grill away.
I'm going to base the decision on the feedback here.
 
Would be great if you could compare 140mm and 200mm fans (against the stock Corsair 230mm fans) at some point, I'm looking at investing in some hopefully better performing fans.
 
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Some surprise results there - certainly going against everything that Bit-tech found in their fan review.

I do believe that the only meaningful analysis you can do should really be with the fans actually mounted as they intend to be used. After all, pretty much everyone who builds their own PC will have slight nuances differentiating the way that they are built.

For that reason, my answers are:

My answers to your OP are:

Cut hole - No
Where mount fans - Inside
Zoom out - Yes. But also a nice close up as you have done.

When are you putting up the next video?

Thanks for the excellent video to visualise the performance. I guess next will be to record smoke moving through a set of radiators...?
 
When I did a fan roundup here on ocuk last year the part I didn't put in the final post was the radiator testing. To test the airflow through my radiators I came up with a nice simple method of attaching a section of weighted paper across the back of the rads and then measuring the maximum distance that the fans were able to push the paper away from the horizontal.

Something that I see in your results that I also found was that indeed some fans push the air out around the sides away from the hub. Also some of the fans produced very jittery airflow bouncing the paper back and forth. It was the choppiness of some of the fans that forced me to abandon this method of testing. It is interesting that often the large hub fans perform best on heat-sinks and radiators despite the smaller airflow cross-section.

By using a larger hub and smaller blade area these fans are able to run at higher rpm than conventional designs and therefore produce more static pressure at the same(ish) dBA levels. This design works really well for heatsinks but perhaps it is a liability in the case fan environment.

I would imagine that combining smoke with paper would produce some really interesting results in the airflow characteristics that are not normally tested in reviews, and may also help distinguish the best heat-sink fans from the best case/airflow fans. Good work on the tests so far.
 
What fan at around 1,000-1,400 RPM would you guy's recommend for great airflow/noise levels? I've got 4 sharkoon silent eagles at the minute and I think they're doing a bad job I've got a new case a Silverstone FT03 and I can't even use my GPU anymore due to it overheating.

I like a silent-ish system and the Sharkoons run at 1,000 RPM.
 
Just saw your videos recently, they are great! We are very glad to see that more people are interested in finding out how fans perform under different conditions.

I think what you have planned for the upcoming video is a good test for finding the best exhaust case fans. But for intake case fan testing, it is not as practical because intake fans are usually mounted on the inside of the case drawing air in, meaning the air is sucked through case’s metal grille (high resistance on the intake side of the fan). A case exhaust fan is also mounted on the inside, but instead pushes air through the grille (high resistance on the exhaust side of the fan).

With that said, I like to delve more into the design of our Air Penetrator fan as it was designed primarily as a case intake fan. Contrary to what you said in part 2 of the smoke/fog comparison test, we found that having more focused airflow is better for majority of intake fan application. This is the reason why our RV02 and FT02 cases became the top air cooling cases when we upgraded them to Air Penetrator AP181 in 2010. There are of course exceptions such as when intake fans are mounted at an angle (in a FT03 case). But by and large, you want straighter and more focused airflow from intake fans to allow air to travel to a heat source within a case (CPU cooler or graphics card) that is situated at some distance away. If the airflow is spread out, then a lot of air is wasted traveling along the edge of the case.

Another aspect to having good design for intake fan is the ability for the fan to maintain airflow focus with resistance on the intake side. Besides overcoming the resistance from case’s metal grille, intake fans often times also need to pull air through fan filters. Normal fans loose airflow focus tremendously when fan filter is added and this is something that our Air Penetrator fans make the most difference. So if you ever decide to test fans for intake fan applications, be sure to add fan filter on the intake side of the fan!

We also have an article on our website that explains in a little more detail of what I said above with diagrams that you can check out:

http://silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?area=&tid=wh10_0061

Good luck with your videos!
 
Vegeta said:
What fan at around 1,000-1,400 RPM would you guy's recommend for great airflow/noise levels? I've got 4 sharkoon silent eagles at the minute and I think they're doing a bad job I've got a new case a Silverstone FT03 and I can't even use my GPU anymore due to it overheating.

I like a silent-ish system and the Sharkoons run at 1,000 RPM.
Click to expand...

Cougar Vortex fans 900-1400 rpm silent and 70 flow

About 15 each.
 
I have a couple of questions for the upcoming video.
1) Should I cut out the metal grid/mesh in the roof of the 600T so the fans have unrestricted airflow or should I leave it there for more realistic results?
2) How should I have the fan mounted. Inside the case or out?
3) Would you like me to zoom out so you can see the smoke though the 600T's window or would that make it more difficult to compare the results?
Click to expand...
1) Cut out the grid/mesh. Reason is not all cases have same grid/mesh as 600T. Comparing different grid/mesh/filters on intake and exhaust sides would be interesting.

2) Inside because that's where most people use them. Comparing inside and outside mounting might prove interesting.

3) Please zoom out as doing so will show how air is being drawn into fan and what if any turbulence fan is creating causing on smoke movement inside case.

Love your work!
 
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