Intake and Exhaust Silent Fans

RDCorporation

RDCorporation

RDCorporation

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Hi all,

Recently built a system in Phanteks P400 Case and looking to upgradr airflow slightly. Currently have one stock Phanteks fan on the front and one on the back.

Looking to upgrade to two 140mm fans on the front for now and possibly put the stock fan on top.

After some research I decided on Noctua NF-A14 fans, although their not so good looks in my opinion, review were great and performance was a priority.
But then I came across reviews saying they are actually not that good anymore, not the Noctua it was before...and I started looking at Corsair AF140 quiet edition fans which I do quiet like the look of.

Has anyone got any experience with these fans or can recommend an alternative? Silence is important as current setup even though is stock, pretty silent.
I am looking into PWM fans so I can hook them uo to the board.

Thanks in advance.
 
Obligatory "the only silent fan is the one that doesn't spin" comment. Now that's done :p generally what you'll want to do for a quiet fan setup is to ensure that you run the fan at a particular rpm or lower. I've personally found that for 140mm fans, 800rpm is about as high as I like to go before I notice the noise - your mileage may of course vary.

Given that in mind, from a lot of reviews I've seen, most fans will operate quite similarly in terms of cooling ability at these low speeds. Also from personal experience, Phanteks fans (at least the PH-F140MP) are a decent choice. Your stock fans will be similar to these, though are the 120mm variant as far as I can tell.

My personal recommendation would be to go with fans you like the look of in this particular application. If you like the Corsairs then go with them.

Have a look at http://thermalbench.com/ - lots of really useful data there, though the fans are generally installed against a water-cooling radiator to test their cooling ability, rather than on a case chasis.
 
Haha you just couldn't resist could you :D that reminds me of when I first started my new system and GPU fans didn't spin, only to find I was too excited to install it and never read the box that they only fire up when reach certain temperature level haha.

Yeah hence I though 140mm will be better over 120mm, should spin slightly slower but pushing same amount of air? In theory that is.

Stock coolers are not bad, just need slightly more airflow in there I think, after I get 2 140mm for the front, will probably mount front stock one to the top of chassis, to pull the hot air out.

Your advice makes sense, it's just that at the back of my head theres always a want for the best :D But then searching for fans there are rifle bearings, hydraulic bearings and all sorts, kinda not sure whats best or best suited, hence going off noctua reviews.:rolleyes:

Ill give Corsair AF14 a try, I do like their looks!

Thanks for advice!:)
 
Have you tried moving the rear exhaust fan to front so there are 2x front intakes? That might solve your cooling needs.

We basically have 2 kind of mechanical fan bearings; ball bearing and sleeve bearing. All the fancy names for different varients of sleeve bearing mean little. A good quality bearing is what is important, not the name.

Corsair AF14 are really bad fans. total waste of money. Phanteks PH-F140MP, PH-F140XP and PH-F140SP are all quite good. Arctic F14 PWM are not as good but for £7 they are good fan for the price.
 
Ah, thanks. I like thw Phanteks fans, although they similar price whats their difference? Ill do my research later on as I am ay work at the moment but thanks for suggestion!

Havent tried shifting the exhaust fan to the front yet was just gonna replace front with two 140mm fans, leave one exhaust at the back and one on top and see how it works:)

Good quality bearing, ball or sleeve?
Thanks.
 
Yes either ball and sleeve of good quality last a long long time. A cheap ball bearing will wear out much faster than a good sleeve bearing. Also, sleeve bearings are inherently quieter than ball bearings .. because they have less moving parts.
 
Thermalright TY-147a SQ are quiet. Not quite as quiet as a Noctua (to me anyway). Only issue would be finding them in stock. I had to get a couple from Thermalright direct.
 
What Jon20 said. THermalright TY-147A SQ and other TY-14x fans are very good fans .. but finding them is problematic.
 
If the fans you have are fine just buy 4 more of them and use them. Phanteks fans are pretty good.

But from what I've read the be quiet fans are best or really good for silence.
 
My PH-F140MP should be delivered today, gonna try it out. I like the fact the fan is black and white, will suit the build nicely.

To be fair, I dont see any extreme temperatures within the case it's more of "dont wanna stop uograding and building" situation :D

Especially that amount of times I seen people buy cases and instantly swap fand made me think the stock fans always not good enough compared to more premiuk fans, which now proves not to be the case.

Although, hoping to increase the airflow slightly and maybe knock few degrees off.

Thanks gentlemen!
 
The Fan has arrived. It is great and the fan itself is pretty silent, I think some of the noise coming is the air shifting. Stock fans are quiter and at constant 1200- 1300rpm but i dont think they shift abywhere near as much air as this one does.
Although the cable could have been better, if you don`t put a bit of tension onto it the cable might hit the fan slightly
and make unpleasant sound.

Anyway, ordered another one to replace the 120mm fan on the front to have two 140mm fans instead. Now another question arises, do i need an internal fan controller?
I only have 3 Chassis Fan Headers and I don`t want to stress them by plugging several fans into one header with a splitter cable.

Any recommendations?
 
Last edited:
RDCorporation said:
Now another question arises, do i need an internal fan controller?
I only have 3 Chassis Fan Headers and I don`t want to stress them by plugging several fans into one header with a splitter cable.

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

I have an NZXT Grid+ v2 and I like it. Controls the fans well, though the software is good but not great. I have mine as I like being able to easily control the fans from Windows, rather than setting something up in BIOS or relying on the slightly complex nature of SpeedFan. You may want to give SpeedFan a go before you buy a fan controller.

Not sure you'd stress your current fan headers if you've only got a couple of fans on each.
 
Doesnt Grid+ V2 only has connections for 3 Pin fans?
I did look at it I think.

Although I do agree using windows software is easier but the main issue for me is actually connecting all fans and be able to control them. As in, only got 3 fan headers on the motherboard but gonna have more fans.

You think a Y splitter cable for 2 PWM fans will be fine on one header?

Thanks.:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
RDCorporation said:
Doesnt Grid+ V2 only has connections for 3 Pin fans?
I did look at it I think.

Although I do agree using windows software is easier but the main issue for me is actually connecting all fans and be able to control them. As in, only got 3 fan headers on the motherboard but gonna have more fans.

You think a Y splitter cable for 2 PWM fans will be fine on one header?

Thanks.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
you can stick more than 5 fans on one header on most motherboards without even coming close to a problem. i have an itx board and 5 fans in my case. there are only 2 headers on my mobo.
 
I love this forum, it gives me a perfect excuse to order stuff :D

Ordered Braided Y Splitter Cable, was extremely annoying me how all the build is clean and only one new fan is connected to middle of the board.
Now the splitter will act as extension as well, being 60cm so can hide most of it behind with all other cable management.

Is motherboard still gonna recognise RPM if two fans connected to one PWM header?

Thanks.
 
Yeah thats what I was thinking, as long as it shows what RPM it goes at. Seen some cases where motherboard showed 0RPM cause several fans were hooked up, don't know how many exactly but in my case its only gonna be max 2 fans per header.

:Doh shi...
 
RDCorporation said:
The Fan has arrived. It is great and the fan itself is pretty silent, I think some of the noise coming is the air shifting. Stock fans are quiter and at constant 1200- 1300rpm but i dont think they shift abywhere near as much air as this one does.
Although the cable could have been better, if you don`t put a bit of tension onto it the cable might hit the fan slightly
and make unpleasant sound.

Anyway, ordered another one to replace the 120mm fan on the front to have two 140mm fans instead. Now another question arises, do i need an internal fan controller?
I only have 3 Chassis Fan Headers and I don`t want to stress them by plugging several fans into one header with a splitter cable.

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
Take the amp rating of fan, double it and add additional fan amp rating the same way. As long as total is less than 1 amp you will be fine. Reason I say double amp rating is because most fans use running amp rating .. which is about half what fan pulls when starting up or if bearing seizes / fan stall with something stuck in it. Just look at post of people who fired fan headers and you will see it usually happens on a cold startup. ;)
 
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