7 year old fans

PlanetBBQ · 15 Jun 2020 at 11:22

I7 4770K (At 4.4mhz, i think)
Gigabyte Z87X-DH3
Coolmaster silent pro 900 (or was it 800)
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB E Extreme CPU Cooler
16Gb Corsair Vengance ddr3 @ 1333MHz
Gigabyte Auros GTX1080Ti

i would like to replace the fans on my rig which is now showing its age, poor thing has been running flat out last 8 weeks furlough.
Couple of questions (maybe obvious):
1.Are case fans ok to strap to the above cooler fins.
2.how do you replace the rubber mounting pads between the heatsink and fan, cannot find 4 sale, is there a specific type of fans that have a rubber buffer included.
3. Are/do the cpu fans i need for this cooler rated differently, what RPM or airflow number is required
The case fans themselves are a miss match of 140mm and 120mm all sort of ages, couple of PWM thrown in for good measure, i need to update, any recommendations.

drakulton · 19 Jun 2020 at 15:50

PlanetBBQ said:
I7 4770K (At 4.4mhz, i think)
Gigabyte Z87X-DH3
Coolmaster silent pro 900 (or was it 800)
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB E Extreme CPU Cooler
16Gb Corsair Vengance ddr3 @ 1333MHz
Gigabyte Auros GTX1080Ti

i would like to replace the fans on my rig which is now showing its age, poor thing has been running flat out last 8 weeks furlough.
Couple of questions (maybe obvious):
1.Are case fans ok to strap to the above cooler fins.
2.how do you replace the rubber mounting pads between the heatsink and fan, cannot find 4 sale, is there a specific type of fans that have a rubber buffer included.
3. Are/do the cpu fans i need for this cooler rated differently, what RPM or airflow number is required
The case fans themselves are a miss match of 140mm and 120mm all sort of ages, couple of PWM thrown in for good measure, i need to update, any recommendations.

Your case fans will most likely be higher airflow for use in an unrestricted application, whereas the CPU cooler fins will need a higher static pressure fan to overcome their resistance.

Some of the higher end/higher priced fans like Noctuas come with the rubber bumpers to reduce any noise from vibration. The Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM are some of the best for rads and CPU coolers but they are expensive.

doyll · 20 Jun 2020 at 15:32

Actually case fans have way more restrictions to airflow than cooler fans. Cooler 8-12 6mm heatpipes through 40-60 thin fins spaced several apart, while case has big lines of grill as well as often having filters on intakes. Fancy case grills are very restictive, and even simple punched metal bottom and back grills lower iarflow 30-70%. So case fans need to have higher pressure ratings (ability to overcome resistance) than cooler fans. Also keep in mind static pressure rating is almost always with fan at full speed, and most of us rarely run fans full speed. If a fan has 1.5mm H2O rating at 1400rpm, it's more like 1.0mmH2O at 105-rpm, and even lower at lower speeds.

Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme fans have ball bearings and last long, long time. What speeds do TY-143 cooler fans run? I assume you increased case airflow to match demands of TY-143 fans .. or don't run them any faster than case fans run.

Phanteks PH-F140MP are good case fans, and when OcUK has the 2-packs in stock 2 fans only cost £16.26 making fans only £8.13 each.

Paul_RD · 20 Jun 2020 at 22:13

Have a look at the following advice on fans on Noctua's website:

https://noctua.at/en/which_fan_is_right_for_me

https://noctua.at/en/nf_s12_p12_comparison

PlanetBBQ · 26 Jun 2020 at 10:56

Thanks for that fellas, i had a feeling there would be a distinction between heatsink and case fans that was not obvious to me.first I am going to modify a thermal conductive silicon pad to replace the mounting pads that have expired.It could well be that the fan bearings are ok and its a vibration i hear.If not i now have the ammo to choose a correct fan for the job. Thanks

Paul_RD · 26 Jun 2020 at 13:10

PlanetBBQ said:
Thanks for that fellas, i had a feeling there would be a distinction between heatsink and case fans that was not obvious to me.first I am going to modify a thermal conductive silicon pad to replace the mounting pads that have expired.It could well be that the fan bearings are ok and its a vibration i hear.If not i now have the ammo to choose a correct fan for the job. Thanks

A few years ago, when troubleshooting yet again another vibration from a Lian Li branded fan, I got fed up and bought a full set of Noctua fans for the case.
I was very pleased with the Noctua fans (you have to ensure you get the right one for the application) and said I would buy them again for future builds.
Since then, I have converted all but one of my PC's over to Noctua case fans and CPU coolers (and that one will get new Noctua fans and a cooler soon).