Airflow vs Static Pressure Performance Difference

ts316

ts316

ts316

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19 Oct 2013
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110
Hi!

I'm looking into building a watercooling system this Christmas as a little side project. The plan is to use a 240mm radiator for the time being. I've got a whole load of 120mm airflow fans lying around that I was thinking of using to save myself a few quid, rather than shelling out another £25 for new static pressure fans.

I'm well aware that static pressure fans are optimal when pushing or pulling air through radiators, but I was wondering if anyone knows what the real performance hit would be if I were to use airflow fans instead? Is it simply a case of one or two degrees difference (depending on how many fans are used)?

Any help would be great!

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Hi

Depends what your loop is cooling.
Some radiators can even run passive, but they are usually the bigger ones.
If you have a component runing hot, it will heat up coolant. If the fans are to weak, your liquid cooling will be ineffective. Coolants have limited temperature tolerance as well.
I would spend that extra 25£ on good fans.
 
Thanks for the reply! I did a bit more searching and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FphamgmsAy8.

I think I'm going to stick with airflow for the time being as it's only my CPU being cooled at the moment. I'll replace them with static pressures a bit further down the line when I start to add more in to the loop :)
 
If there isn't enough static pressure for the radiator fin density, the air essentially will just cool the face the fan is pointing too, rather than going all the way through and covering a much bigger surface area of the radiator.
 
38mm > 25mm

I've got 38mm Yate Loons on all of my radiators, more static pressure means you can reduce the fan speed and still have a good amount of air flow.
 
Cheers for all the advice. The radiator I've got my eye on is the XSPC AX240, ~40mm thickness. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and shell out for some SP120s or something :)
 
If you are short on cash for new fans, switch the AX xspc rad for a PE EK rad. The new EK rad is £40 and the AX rad is £75.

The PE rad isn't your average rad either, as it sports two sets of fairly high density fins in between each set of copper chambers, much like the AX radiator. The outer aluminium case also looks to be very similar. Grab one of these before everyone catches on and its price goes up i say!

It also has been listed as the top performer for the 40mm thick radiator class. I Havant seen any benchmarks but it wouldn't surprise me from the specs, as it is pretty damn close to the AX specs.
 
Thanks again for all the replies. Cheers for the heads up about the EK rads Avenged7Fold, they look pretty neat. I'll definitely be picking up a 120mm one.

I've changed my plan a little, going to roll with a 420mm rad now after making some adjustments to my case...so looks like I'll be picking up some brand new 140mm static pressure fans for christmas :D
 
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