Corsair 540 Fan Config Question

[neil_g]

Just received a new Corsair 540 case, which seems to come with 3x 14cm AF140L fans included. I'm debating whether these would be better or worse than my existing Noctua fans.

All of the fans at my disposal:

3x Corsair 14cm AF140L (67.4 CFM / 25.5dbA / 1000rpm)
3x Noctua 12cm NF-S12B FLX (59.2 CFM / 18.1dbA / 1200rpm)
1x Noctua 14cm NF-P14 FLX (64.9 CFM / 19.6dbA / 1200rpm)

Basically it's either:

Option 1

2x Corsair AF140L in
1x Corsair AF140L out

Option 2

3x Noctua NF-S12B FLX in
1x Noctua NF-P14 FLX out

I can't get my head around what would be best for cooling while not being obnoxiously noisy.

I've got an Aquaero 5 LT controller which will be doing monitoring and fan control duties for whatever gets installed.

Any opinions?

 

[Relentless81]

I played around a lot with my 540 air setup, lots of 120 and 140 fan configs, the best setup I used was

3 x 120mm intakes and 1x 140 exhaust

Louder but cooler

The second best was

2 x 140mm intakes and 1 x 140 exhaust

Quieter but slightly warmer

The standard fans are absolute rubbish and very noisy

 

[neil_g]

Thanks, I think I'll start with the Noctuas then and try an Aquaero profile that keeps them off/low rpm until things start warming up. See how that goes.

 

[ukxenon]

The 540 is a dam nice case but the fans you get are a tad loud I would use the noctua fans