New fans for an H100i GTX

neonraver

neonraver

neonraver

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Even when I set the fans to the lowest setting in Corsair Link, the stock fans still give me a whirring sound sometimes which has started to annoy me so I was planning on changing the fans. I want to get some PWM fans so it's almost a like for like switch.

I currently have the stock fans pushing the air out of the radiator at the top of my case as an exhaust so i'll just be swapping the fans.

I've done some research and I like the look of these fans - EK Vardar F4-120ER and have heard they are fairly quiet and efficient. My PC doesn't go over 58c on load so I have some headroom but ideally I don't want to lose too much performance but my main priority is to make my PC quieter, especially whilst gaming.

Are these the best fans? I've heard GTs are good but they are a bit pricey and aren't PWM. The Noctua NF-F12 look good, especially in the black and orange but are they worth the extra £14 for the set? It's all very confusing...
 
The Vardars and Noctua are 2 of the best choices in terms of rad fans.

The vardar would offer better performance as it runs a a substantially higher max RPM than the noctua.

Your unlikely to lose performance form your stock fans,they may run at higher rpms,but at equal speeds the Ek/Noctuas are better and quieter than them.

I personally would reccomend the Noctua F12's,i have 6 of them they are phenomenal.The vardars are a fair bit cheaper tho and themselves extremely good rad fans.

Edit: If you want noise reduction also look at the EK-Vardar F2-120,it runs at the same RPMS as the noctua as opposed to a max speed of the EK F4 at 2200rpm(loud)
 
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I would say get noctua :D If you dont like their colour scheme there is special edition black/orange from linustechtips which looks sick. Also Noctua fans are the best as MrMD said you cant go wrong with them and they will last you long time. Dont get corsair's one they make humming noise very annoying, had them but replaced 2 months later with noctua :D

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/detail/index/sArticle/58491
 
I'm really swaying towards the noctuas and I'm a Linustechtips fan (no pun intended). Everything I've read about them is positive. Might just save up a bit more and splash out.
 
SamyBoy13 said:
Dont get corsair's one they make humming noise very annoying, had them but replaced 2 months later with noctua :D
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That must have been a bad unit to begin with. I've used both SP120 QE and PE myself and many others on different forums, and predominantly of the users are pretty satisfied with the noise/performance curve, especially when carefully optimized in Corsair link.
 
Greybeard said:
That must have been a bad unit to begin with. I've used both SP120 QE and PE myself and many others on different forums, and predominantly of the users are pretty satisfied with the noise/performance curve, especially when carefully optimized in Corsair link.
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I know you're a rep and have to paint your products in the best possible light but honestly, the stock fans are really loud - even with a quiet profile selected.

There are too many reports to count of people replacing the fans due to the noise. They're fine in soundproofed builds but in some of the 'air' cases that you make (carbide 240/540) they're unbearable if you have your rig anywhere near you.

I recommend the h100 series to people becuase of a) the competitive pricing b) availability c) general build quality & ease of installation but I can't recommend the fans at all & hope in a next revision you guys are able to change them.
 
Greybeard said:
That must have been a bad unit to begin with. I've used both SP120 QE and PE myself and many others on different forums, and predominantly of the users are pretty satisfied with the noise/performance curve, especially when carefully optimized in Corsair link.
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The noise is not noticeable at 500 rpm at corsair ones but when set at above 850 rpm humming noise was irritating me. And I dont think this was due to fan being faulty as all 8 of the fans behaved the same way so I just sold them on gumtree half price and got noctua.

To me Noctua makes the best fans full stop. I have nothing against corsair I personally have psu AX760 which works great never had any problems with it, but for fans I would go for noctua.

Spulse, I had h100i and stock fans were complete junk. I tried lowering fan speed etc as Greybeard, trying to reducing grinding noise but nothing helped. I saw huge improvement in acoustics when replaced with sp120. But noctua's fans are just outstanding. However the price can be scaring for some people but they will last very long time and are the most silent fans you can get and in terms of performance too. Corsair had to cut somewhere and it this case the fans. Hope this helps
 
I'm actually with you on that one, those stock fans on those coolers are not really great when it comes to acoustics, they are bit loud for my taste. But I wasn't talking about the stock fans but rather the SP120s ;)

That statement was based on my own experience with the SP120 and other SP120 owners, and not because I work for Corsair. Sorry if it came across like I'm pushing it.. I just wanted share my own experience with the said fans.
 
I hated the stock AIO fans. In fact because they were hanging upside down I found they rattled and made a lot of noise.

I replaced for SP120's. I now have 5 SP120's and a 140. Great at low speed for my use.

Anthony.
 
Greybeard said:
I'm actually with you on that one, those stock fans on those coolers are not really great when it comes to acoustics, they are bit loud for my taste. But I wasn't talking about the stock fans but rather the SP120s ;)

That statement was based on my own experience with the SP120 and other SP120 owners, and not because I work for Corsair. Sorry if it came across like I'm pushing it.. I just wanted share my own experience with the said fans.
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That's fine. My sp120 actually made humming noise that irritated me so swapped for noctua. I'm quiet sensitive to sounds and my computer is 30cm away from me on my desk so this is probably why it was getting on my nerves even more. They weren't bad fans at low rpm it could be me. One lesson I learned from this is not to skim on computer parts some time is better to pay little bit more and be happy in first place rather than learn through errors that usually work out more on the end.

Also Greybeard does Corsair have any RMA center in UK or is it still to Netherlands as I'm not sure if it's worth to send my corsair h100i on replacement due to grinding noise getting more intense over last few weeks in my media server and I'm sure it's a pump as Noctua fans are completely silent :D
 
SamyBoy13 said:
Also Greybeard does Corsair have any RMA center in UK or is it still to Netherlands as I'm not sure if it's worth to send my corsair h100i on replacement due to grinding noise getting more intense over last few weeks in my media server and I'm sure it's a pump as Noctua fans are completely silent :D
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I say get it replaced if the noise is progressively getting louder week after week. UK RMAs are now handled over at our Bolton depot. So it shouldn't take that long anymore to process an RMA. And its probably cheaper too on shipping cost vs sending it over to the Netherlands.
 
Greybeard said:
I'm actually with you on that one, those stock fans on those coolers are not really great when it comes to acoustics, they are bit loud for my taste. But I wasn't talking about the stock fans but rather the SP120s ;)

That statement was based on my own experience with the SP120 and other SP120 owners, and not because I work for Corsair. Sorry if it came across like I'm pushing it.. I just wanted share my own experience with the said fans.
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not at all, I misread and thought you were talking about the stock fans :p

haven't heard the sp120's so can't comment on those
 
Having just fitted a H100 I agree that the fans are quite noisy. Is there any way to slow them down or control them?

What are the quietest 120 fans around at the mo?
 
Since your cooler is not Corsair Link ready, I think it's best to have those fans connected to your MB and control them via BIOS, OR whatever software that came with your MB.
 
Well I discovered another lead, USB to USB header, in the H100i box so connected that up, then downloaded Corsair Link 4 and now the fans are quieter
 
I have just replaced the stock fans on my 110i with Linus tech tips edition NF A15s and the difference is staggering.

For a start they are incredibly quiet on exactly the same profile as the stock Corsair fans.

Secondly, the cooling performance is much better. On the same profile setup in Corsair link they kept my CPU temp down to 45 max when running Realbench stress test. The previous stock fans let the CPU hit 72 as a peak temp.

Based on the short time that I have had them I would recommend the Noctua fans. I assume the 120mm version would operate in the same way as the 140mm version.
 
So has he got a h100 or h100i ?

Only the 'i' models works with Corsair link so it seems like the obvious question.

Also Greybeard - I see you're a Corsair vendor rep, great to have you on the forums. Any danger of Corsair releasing a version of Corsair link that actually works properly, any time soon? Genuine question by the way...
 
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