Best fans for static air pressure?

[Vidar]

So am looking at doing my first custom loop in the next couple of months and just wondering what people think are the best fans for static air pressure?

Currently running Silent Wings 3's on my AIO that I may just reuse but am certainly looking for suggestions...

 

[EsaT]

You don't want only static pressure.
Because that's measured like how much noise/RPM car's engine makes when gear is at neutral and car isn't going anywhere.
Neither is car's top speed in dropped from airplane free fall any more usefull value.

What would be needed is something fan brands don't advertise if they even know about it: P-Q curve.
(or they know it would be bad for their fan)
That tell's fan's performance where it actually matters in real world between those two useless numbers.
https://martinsliquidlab.wordpress....w-specs-are-poor-measures-of-fan-performance/

Highly forward swept blade designs seems to be at least one of the best in that especially compared to noise.
Like how Noctua heavily copied Nidec/Scythe Gentle Typhoon into NF-A12.
Or Arctic P12 with its very smooth noise profile and superb performance espeically for the price.

 

[Phil2008]

Im using "areocool dead silent" fans for in my case, as they seem to produce good air flow while being quite quiet, also they look pretty nice in my case too. I have 2x 140mm in the front, 1x 120mm in the rear and 1x 120mm for the cpu fan.

 

[ttaskmaster]

NF-A14 Industrial PPC 3000 have pretty high SP at 10.52mm/H2O... Noisy as ****, though!!
NF-F12 IndustrialPPC 2000RPM offer almost 4mm/H2O at just under 30dB, which is quite good.

As always, it depends what you're pushing all that air through, though. That's where the real noise comes from... I presume you want your fans fairly quiet?

 

[Vidar]

Going to be pushing through a rad installed in the p600s, while I don't want a jet engine next to me any more I would like to get the best performance out of my investment in a custom loop while maintaining decent noise levels

 

[ttaskmaster]

In that case, it depends mostly on how many Fins Per Inch (FPI) the particular radiator has, the airflow characteristics of your chosen fans, whether you have covers, meshes, grilles and/or filters over the fan intakes (or exhausts, if you're doing it that way round), how far away from each of those obstructions the fans are and how well they cope with that... There are other factors too, but they are comparatively minor, for the most part.

I've had plenty of fans that were supposed to be good end up being very naff, due to combinations of the above factors, and vice versa. This is why I generally find it's easiest to just try some out and see how they do.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

I use the deepcool rf120. on my custom loop and they even matched the corsair ml120 pro. at £42 for 5 rgb hybrid fans they win and 1500rpm while can be noisy they work well at 1000rpm and produce less noise than the ml120 pros at the same speed. Imagine when I spent £100 on 5 ml120's and £42 on the rf120. I felt cheated.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I use the deepcool rf120. on my custom loop and they even matched the corsair ml120 pro. at £42 for 5 rgb hybrid fans they win and 1500rpm while can be noisy they work well at 1000rpm and produce less noise than the ml120 pros at the same speed. Imagine when I spent £100 on 5 ml120's and £42 on the rf120. I felt cheated.

RF120s give only 56CFM compared to 75 for the ML120s.... and a quoted 1.63mm/H2O versus 4.2.
The ML120 is louder, yes, but with much higher performance.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

RF120s give only 56CFM compared to 75 for the ML120s.... and a quoted 1.63mm/H2O versus 4.2.
The ML120 is louder, yes, but with much higher performance.

The ML120 gets to 2400rpm so at 1500rpm they performance very much the same within margin of error. don't forgot that 1500rpm is around 40% of 2400rpm. 40% off of 75cfm is 45cfm at 1500rpm. yes static pressure is 20% higher still but that 1c at most. so a saving of over £50 for 1c and quieter operation should be a deal breaker

 

[ttaskmaster]

The ML120 gets to 2400rpm so at 1500rpm they performance very much the same within margin of error. don't forgot that 1500rpm is around 40% of 2400rpm. 40% off of 75cfm is 45cfm at 1500rpm. yes static pressure is 20% higher still but that 1c at most. so a saving of over £50 for 1c and quieter operation should be a deal breaker

I'm no maths expert, but isn't 4.2mm/H2O quite a bit more than just "20% higher" than 1.6mm/H2O... Something like 160%, if my calcs are correct?

Don't assume that everything scales, though... and remember that SP is more of a concern than airflow volume here - The bigger defining factor is how any particular fan performs when pushing (or pulling) through a particular radiator. ML120s are generally the best choice for low FPI Black Ice rads, for example.

Also, you can get six ML120s for about £66.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

I'm no maths expert, but isn't 4.2mm/H2O quite a bit more than just "20% higher" than 1.6mm/H2O... Something like 160%, if my calcs are correct?

Don't assume that everything scales, though... and remember that SP is more of a concern than airflow volume here - The bigger defining factor is how any particular fan performs when pushing (or pulling) through a particular radiator. ML120s are generally the best choice for low FPI Black Ice rads, for example.

Also, you can get six ML120s for about £66.

I meant 20% based on 1500rpm for both rf120 and ml120 taking scaling into account. Anyway the ml120's are fantastic fans but the price is steep for the performance. yes the ml pro would fair better in low fpi 12-16 fpi but at that the rf120's perform within a degree of of the ml pro's. if your budget allows it get the ml pros otherwise get the rf120s.

 

[Vidar]

So I've gone ahead and bought all the stuff for my loop now! Yikes

Have ended up getting some additional Silent Wings 3's because I didn't want to replace all my fans in one go and a lack of symmetry would trigger me! lol

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

So I've gone ahead and bought all the stuff for my loop now! Yikes

Have ended up getting some additional Silent Wings 3's because I didn't want to replace all my fans in one go and a lack of symmetry would trigger me! lol

I know the feeling. ended up getting these rf 120's for symmetry as another 2 ml pro's at the time would have been £40 with delivery. hope to see some pics of the finished rig soon

 

[ttaskmaster]

I meant 20% based on 1500rpm for both rf120 and ml120 taking scaling into account.

Scaling down to 1500rpm, the ML120s would give 2.62mm/H2O, versus 1.01 for the RF120.... Still more than just 20%. Closer to 150%, in fact!

Anyway the ml120's are fantastic fans but the price is steep for the performance.

You have a funny idea of steep...
The RF120 actually costs £5.25 per mm/H2O, while the ML120 is only £2.61.... But even if one pays the insane price you seem to have, at £20 per fan that's still only £4.76.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

the rf120 are 1500rpm at 1.66mm/h20 vs the ml120 pro at 1500rpm for 2.52m/h20. so ok that around 50%. My bad on the maths . however at 1500rpm the mlpro's move 45cfm compared to the rf120's for 56cfm. so the mlpro's at 1500rpm give 2.52mm/h20 (50% more than rf120 1.66mm/h20) and 45cfm (20% less than rf120 56cfm). so yes the ml pros are better but make more noise which is why I prefer the rf120 also slightly cheaper per fan

 

[Vidar]

I know the feeling. ended up getting these rf 120's for symmetry as another 2 ml pro's at the time would have been £40 with delivery. hope to see some pics of the finished rig soon

Check out my thread in the project log, only one pic of my rig in its current state but that's where all the updates will be.

 

[ttaskmaster]

the rf120 are 1500rpm at 1.66mm/h20 vs the ml120 pro at 1500rpm for 2.52m/h20. so ok that around 50%. My bad on the maths .

1500 is 62.5% of 2400
62.5% of 4.2mm/H2O is 2.62mm/H2O
62.5% of 75CFM is 46.8CFM.

so the mlpro's at 1500rpm give 2.52mm/h20 (50% more than rf120 1.66mm/h20) and 45cfm (20% less than rf120 56cfm).

When unrestricted in a Mfr's test bench, yes.... But without enough static pressure to actually push it through the restrictions, that 56CFM will drop like a dead fly... and the MLs have half as much SP on top.

so yes the ml pros are better but make more noise which is why I prefer the rf120 also slightly cheaper per fan

Again, depends on the rad. Most fans optimised for low FPI will be quieter in the real world. Bumping up your FPI will only increase compression stalls and further hamper the fan.[/QUOTE]

 

[EsaT]

When unrestricted in a Mfr's test bench, yes.... But without enough static pressure to actually push it through the restrictions, that 56CFM will drop like a dead fly... and the MLs have half as much SP on top.

Static pressure tells as much about fan's real world performance as sound level available from car's engine with gear at neutral tells about car's actual speed:
https://martinsliquidlab.wordpress....w-specs-are-poor-measures-of-fan-performance/

 

[ttaskmaster]

Static pressure tells as much about fan's real world performance as sound level available from car's engine with gear at neutral tells about car's actual speed:
https://martinsliquidlab.wordpress....w-specs-are-poor-measures-of-fan-performance/

Yes, you've posted that before in similar discussions, as if it is somehow the be-all and end-all of any substantiation to your opinions...

As for your ridiculous analogy, you clearly haven't read the article yourself - To quote the author himself, "This just means the two spec we often use for comparison are an incomplete picture and should not be relied upon 100%". However he does also state that most fans do have a linear curve, which is why the geeky academic numeric duelling above can take place.
See here for further details: http://www.arx-group.com/pq.html

Or to quote Nidec themselves: "Fan air volume-static pressure characteristic diagram (P-Q curve) is a curve that shows the relationship between the air volume and the static pressure resulting from loss due to the pressure applied to the inlet and the outlet of the fan."
But to use your car analogy - SP is the tyre grip compared to the AF being torque. No matter how much torque you have, you can't put it down on the road without sufficient grip.
So as I have said earlier in this thread, it depends on several other factors in addition to the fan specs... which is why I generally advocate a 'suck it and see' approach rather than trying to figure out the various numeric quantities for the numerous different factors which also aren't supplied by the manufacturers. The throwing around of numbers above is purely academic duelling, especially when the real world results will be so variable and even highly subjective.

End of the day, no matter what your PQ-Curve is, more static pressure still means more of its airflow actually making it through the restrictions. Same as we know full well the Mfr's noise isn't real world noise, but that restrictions of any kind will make that fan louder.
You will likely need to alter the RPM for your particular fan in order to get optimum performance, because (surprise surprise) not every fan performs best at the same RPM anyway... and in your link, for the most part, the higher SP fan does still perform better. All other things being equal, more fans spinning slower usually cool better than a few fans spinning faster, for these very reasons.