Best fans for AIO's

mrsim · 5 Nov 2018 at 10:34

hello the community,
just wanted to ask a question regarding AIO fans,i currently have a Kraken X62 AIO and wanted to do a push pull config in my enthoo evolve but the unit only comes with 2 NZXT 140mm fans,i also have 2 phanteks stock case 140mm fans in my case,after asking around i was given the info that i should actually get the same fans to use for this config but was wondering which fans would be best i was looking at the noctua NF-A14 140mm industrial fans which have a max 2000rpm although i doubt i will ever actually push the CPU,(6700k), to need that much cooling...LOL

so hopefully you guys here can suggest different fans altogether i allow CAM to control them so will not be setting any type of custom fan curve,(unless it is recommended here in the thread of course),thanks a bunch

doyll · 5 Nov 2018 at 18:11

Not a lot of 3000rpm fans available out there. NF-A14 iPPC 3000rpm and Thermalright TY-143 SQ come to mind.

mrsim · 5 Nov 2018 at 18:18

doyll said:
Not a lot of 3000rpm fans available out there. NF-A14 iPPC 3000rpm and Thermalright TY-143 SQ come to mind.

will i even need 3000rpm fans and wont they make a hell of a racket at that speed anyways...???

doyll · 5 Nov 2018 at 19:07

Of course they will make a racket at that speed. Without knowing how fast they spin now to keep things cool I can't say how fast they need to spin. I will say running push/pull does not increase airflow on it's own. What it does is increase static pressure and that can increase airflow if resistance. How fans do you have to spin then now to keep things cool?

Also the Evolv ATX benefits greatly by having all holes in the front and top mounting panels not flowing air through fans / radiators blocked off so air cannot leak back to side it is coming from.

mrsim · 5 Nov 2018 at 21:40

doyll said:
What it does is increase static pressure and that can increase airflow if resistance. How fans do you have to spin then now to keep things cool?

Also the Evolv ATX benefits greatly by having all holes in the front and top mounting panels not flowing air through fans / radiators blocked off so air cannot leak back to side it is coming from.

not quite sure what you mean here but i guess increasing static pressure is not a good thing,(or doesn't sound like a good thing anyhow...LOL),also yeah i am planning to cut some airway into the front/top panels at some point for better airflow as that is defo one of the negative things i have read about this case...just need to get a dremel first

mrsim · 6 Nov 2018 at 11:08

so after a little research i found out that not only is it not worth changing the fans on the AIO to SP or any other type but also that the kraken uses Aer P140 fans which were available on OC's webshop so ordered a couple extra and will throw then in and see how it goes....now i need to find a cheap second hand dremmel for chopping the case up..LOL...thanks for your input

doyll · 6 Nov 2018 at 12:13

mrsim said:
not quite sure what you mean here but i guess increasing static pressure is not a good thing,(or doesn't sound like a good thing anyhow...LOL),also yeah i am planning to cut some airway into the front/top panels at some point for better airflow as that is defo one of the negative things i have read about this case...just need to get a dremel first

The fan/radiator front and top mounting plates have holes and slots for many combinations of fans/radiator mounting. This means most of the time whatever is being used leave holes not covered by fan/s radiator/s and air being moved from one side of mounting panel to the other will leak back through these holes. If it's the front panel it is cool air leaking back in front of fans instead of being pushed on into case. If it's the top mounting panel it's heated air from inside of case being pushed into top and venting out that leaks back into motherboard compartment.

The below image shows opening in both front and top not covered by fans. Top image has pink and white color in openings that need to blocked to stop air leaking back into motheboard compartment or out of motherboard compartment. Hope this helps explain it better.

mrsim said:
so after a little research i found out that not only is it not worth changing the fans on the AIO to SP or any other type but also that the kraken uses Aer P140 fans which were available on OC's webshop so ordered a couple extra and will throw then in and see how it goes....now i need to find a cheap second hand dremmel for chopping the case up..LOL...thanks for your input

The case's venting is not really bad. As above, the problem is all the open areas not covered by fans/radiator need to be blocked/covered so all airflow is going one way and not circling back to intake side of fans/radiator.

mrsim · 6 Nov 2018 at 13:40

ahhhh...understood also didn't realise that the top came off so easilly too will attempt to work out a system to be able to raise the top cover without having to keep unscrewing it

orbitalwalsh · 6 Nov 2018 at 13:52

i used silent wing 3's in that case, set to 100%. quiet and airflow was huge . 5.1ghz overclock on 8700k

mrsim · 6 Nov 2018 at 14:07

orbitalwalsh said:
i used silent wing 3's in that case, set to 100%. quiet and airflow was huge . 5.1ghz overclock on 8700k

nice OC that 5.1ghz.....a shame as i just purchased an extra 2 NZXT fans...also watched a test video where a guy tested changing fans on an AIO for better more expensive fans and there was litterally no difference in temps at all in fact the high static fans actually had to ramp up to 2000 rpm's from the stock fans running at 1000 rpm's and it made no difference to temps @orbitalwalsh were you air cooling or using an AIO...?

orbitalwalsh · 6 Nov 2018 at 14:15

mrsim said:
nice OC that 5.1ghz.....a shame as i just purchased an extra 2 NZXT fans...also watched a test video where a guy tested changing fans on an AIO for better more expensive fans and there was litterally no difference in temps at all in fact the high static fans actually had to ramp up to 2000 rpm's from the stock fans running at 1000 rpm's and it made no difference to temps @orbitalwalsh were you air cooling or using an AIO...?

when i was using it

bare in mind, fans in Push need static pressure, fans in pull dont

(learn directly form alphacool)
also depends on the Fins density on the rads or FPI , and most CLC are poor aluminum rads so regardless of what fans you use, you'll reach a point. why i recommend eisbaer units or ekwb AIO
silent wings also have high airflow - but sound is their golden source

extreme high pressure there so only thing for airflow is out of the case, no re-circulation

doyll · 7 Nov 2018 at 12:38

mrsim said:
ahhhh...understood also didn't realise that the top came off so easilly too will attempt to work out a system to be able to raise the top cover without having to keep unscrewing it

Once the screws are removed you have to pull up on top to unclick the latches and remove top .. same clips as front uses. The screws holding top on so peeps don't have top come loose after they pick it up by the top and have it fall on thier toes.

You can just set the top back on the latches and it adds a nice vent gap around the top. You can also remove the grill mesh from the existing top vent slots and that increases top vent airflow area by about 50%. Round hole mesh blocks about 50% of it's area.

It's glued on and if done carefully can be removed and stuck to inside of top so it can be put back into vents if you want to later.

Ross Thomson · 7 Nov 2018 at 18:37

push pull will do very little to reduce temps. If you make graph of fan speed v temp you can see if your current fans are actually doing a good job or not. You'll find most coolers don't improve significantly once you get over a certain rpm.

mrsim · 8 Nov 2018 at 11:17

doyll said:
The fan/radiator front and top mounting plates have holes and slots for many combinations of fans/radiator mounting. This means most of the time whatever is being used leave holes not covered by fan/s radiator/s and air being moved from one side of mounting panel to the other will leak back through these holes. If it's the front panel it is cool air leaking back in front of fans instead of being pushed on into case. If it's the top mounting panel it's heated air from inside of case being pushed into top and venting out that leaks back into motherboard compartment.

The below image shows opening in both front and top not covered by fans. Top image has pink and white color in openings that need to blocked to stop air leaking back into motheboard compartment or out of motherboard compartment. Hope this helps explain it better.

The case's venting is not really bad. As above, the problem is all the open areas not covered by fans/radiator need to be blocked/covered so all airflow is going one way and not circling back to intake side of fans/radiator.

WOW removing the top panel almost dropped temps by 10c amazingwent from 29c idle down to 21c on air not AIO

doyll · 8 Nov 2018 at 11:35

mrsim said:
WOW removing the top panel almost dropped temps by 10c amazingwent from 29c idle down to 21c on air not AIO

What you did was remove all resistance to airflow coming into case so the air that was circling back in front of fans before is now moving on through the case.

Block the openings in front panel not covered by the 2x front fans!! This will make all the air the front fans are pushing into case move back through the case instead of looping back into the front of case and going round and round once the opening in front are blocked shut. I"m not kidding, the big open areas above and below front fans is letting fan air go in a circle instead of it moving back through case, so doing this will give you much better case airflow.

Try removing all PCie back slot covers from the back. This will almost triple the rear vent area around GpU. Also remove the mesh that is glued on inside of the top vents and set top on without latching it down so it is setting on the latches. Just don't try to push the start/stop button on top of case unless top is latched on!! If you do that it will likey break the button out of top.

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mrsim · 8 Nov 2018 at 13:36

i think i will reattach the top panel for now and just get at it with a dremel for better airflow that way...having to keep popping the top on and off all the time would kinda **** me off for the minimal ammount of extra airflow i am sure it will create,i may add some extra fans into the top pushing air out of the case and see if this helps a little with thermals they are not that expensivealso attempting to block the front panel gaps may be a little challenging as the front IO cables all hang into the gap,i will try the rear PCIe method and see what gains that will give me as that sounds a little more plausible

doyll · 8 Nov 2018 at 14:11

Until you block all the openings in front fan mounting panel that are not being used by the front intake fans you are not really addressing the problem. Airflow is simple displacement. All the air going in is coming out .. and if it's circling back through openings in front fan mounting panel it is not moving back and through the case like it needs to be doing. Do yourself a favor and tape it off with some cheap masking tape to see how much difference it makes.

Air flowing from front intake fans is following the path of least resistance. With the fans pulling air in their intake side in front of their mounting panel they are creating a low pressure area there and their exhaust side is higher pressure. The path of least resistance air moving back in front of fans. You can probably see this using the smoke off of an incense stick by putting it in front of open area by I/O cables and below bottom fan.

I'll say it again, case airflow is all about displacement. We push air in with fans and it flow toward the lowest pressure points. In your case as it is that is right back around in front of the intake fans. Removing the top (and side glass) created a great big open area of no resistance for air to flow from outside of what would normally be a closed case to CPU cooler fan, for air inside of case to move out and for air coming in the front not having the resistance of front cover and it's intake vents.

mrsim · 9 Nov 2018 at 13:36

doyll said:
Until you block all the openings in front fan mounting panel that are not being used by the front intake fans you are not really addressing the problem. Airflow is simple displacement. All the air going in is coming out .. and if it's circling back through openings in front fan mounting panel it is not moving back and through the case like it needs to be doing. Do yourself a favor and tape it off with some cheap masking tape to see how much difference it makes.

Air flowing from front intake fans is following the path of least resistance. With the fans pulling air in their intake side in front of their mounting panel they are creating a low pressure area there and their exhaust side is higher pressure. The path of least resistance air moving back in front of fans. You can probably see this using the smoke off of an incense stick by putting it in front of open area by I/O cables and below bottom fan.

I'll say it again, case airflow is all about displacement. We push air in with fans and it flow toward the lowest pressure points. In your case as it is that is right back around in front of the intake fans. Removing the top (and side glass) created a great big open area of no resistance for air to flow from outside of what would normally be a closed case to CPU cooler fan, for air inside of case to move out and for air coming in the front not having the resistance of front cover and it's intake vents.

will get to it this weekend with the front intake blockage i did remove the rear PCIe slots as wwell and now have pull push config on the AIO rad which i managed to mount on the front panel,(i guess you already know that this case is not supposed to be able to mount a rad up front only in the top part of the case but if you remove the bottom drive cages and 1 base plate you can squeeze in the rad...must admit temps are pretty nice at idle 15-18c have yet to test on load as i have been a little busy at work and when i get home but hopefully this weekend i will do a little stress test and benchmark the CPU and check the fans and cooling to see how it goes after i follow your advice and close of the gaps in the front panel,also need to pick up some bolts which will allow me to fix the two spare case fans to the rad bracket in the top of the case and see if it will help with airflow