Corsair Hydro H55 120 mm fan replacement recommendations?

Vexr · 29 Oct 2018 at 08:09

The fan on my H55 cooling an FX-8350 @ stock speed started making a grinding noise. On investigation one of the blades had pranged upward, which then fully snapped off with me hardly touching it. It's now running minus one blade and is causing pretty significant vibration to the system.

I need a replacement fan as a matter of some urgency. Any recommendation that'd fit the Corsair H55?

Specs of the current fan are here:
Dimensions: 120 mm x 25 mm
Speed: 1700 RPM
Air flow: 57 CFM
Noise level: 30.32 dBA
Fan static pressure: 1.9 mm-H2O

Ideally wouldn't mind upgrading to something a bit better. Usually run it at 800 rpm idle to 1200 under load, though it can get a bit toasty at 100% load at that speed. It can go 1700 rpm, but is way too loud for me at that speed. This would be an opportunity to replace the fan with something quieter at higher rpm and possibly improve cooling, so any recommendations are welcome.

Meddling-Monk · 29 Oct 2018 at 08:36

Will be having a few Noctua A12x25's coming a little later today for my H100i that I'll be swapping in temporarily whilst I locate another AIO. Heard they're good, but will be able to give you more info on that later after it arrives. Stats are similar to what you posted, but from word of mouth, much much more silent than anything else out there nearly when needing to push the same amount of air.

::edit::
Link: https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-pwm

Vexr · 29 Oct 2018 at 16:12

£29.99 on here that - I'd want a lot of fan for that money. I'll await your verdict before considering.

Meddling-Monk · 29 Oct 2018 at 18:13

The stock Corsair H100i fans were highly noticable when powered on and attached to the H100i rad in Push or Pull configuration as Intake or Exhaust. Since the fan controller on the H100i was giving off a high whine type noise, I had to plug the original stock fans into the motherboard headers as well and forced to run them at 50% to minimise the noise produced, but you can definitely still hear the fans.

Now, I've swapped the fans out for the A12x25's and placed them in an Exhaust and Pull configuration (for now; it increases the CPU temp a bit but lowers the rest in this config) on the H100i. Set them at 60% (1100 RPM odd) and I am getting better results than the stock fans (65-68C vs 73-74C with the stock fans at 50%) but the main difference is I can actually now hear the pump from the H100i instead of the fans. That's how silent it is. If need be, can push it to max (for hot weather times) and still retain most of the silence. 80% for me was still silent from the fans, and was more the rush of air that I was hearing being thrown through the case and grills. Only tried 100% temporarily so I could compare the fan noise as I dialled them down (to 50%, and then slowly raise them until I found the sweet spot for my ears), but I certainly wouldn't call it loud. In fact I'd compare it very favourably to the stock Corsair fans at 55 or 65% noise wise.

So if you're after some silence from the fans, I'd certainly recommend them. However, as you have noticed, there's a price premium on them at this time (relatively new product). So if silence is not one of your goals, you can aim for the other 120mm fans available: Noctua F12, Be Quiet Silent Wings 3 120mm, etc

Never thought I'd be able to have a (near silent) machine again after my old Intel Pentium 166Mhz back in 96. Really pleased with the fans. Silent as I need them, and have room to push them when I need them to cool in more aggressive temperatures.

Oh before I forget, the system (so you have a rough idea what it's cooling) is:
i7 4930k (at 4.3Ghz with 1.28v, will be pushed later to 4.5Ghz and beyond hopefully), 32GB RAM (missing 32GB due to RMA), Red Devil RX580 8GB (in Silent mode), in a Corsair 650D case (a terribly designed airflow case).
2x A12x25 in Exhaust Pull at top (60%)
1x A12x25 in Exhaust at back (60%)
1x 80mm fan on the PCI slots
1x 200mm fan on the front
1x A14 in 5.25 Bay on the front (60%)

Oh, and of course, there's only one colour scheme at the moment. Brown and Beige. Some take offence at that and won't take it, but performance and sound levels I'd say it is very worth it.

Vexr · 29 Oct 2018 at 21:40

Sounds very promising. Might be a bit overkill for me right now though - I'd previously assumed the Corsair H55 fan was almost entirely to blame for all my audible PC noise as it's the only thing in my case that I could single out as getting much louder than anything else. Today though, shortly after the grinding noise started, it then stopped. I assumed it was one of the many case fans and continued with a normal office type workload and also watched a YT vid/browsed. Then I checked Speedfan and it showed my CPU fan at 0 rpm, so I'd been passively cooling the CPU for several minutes with the water pump only. Temps weren't bad either, but then it was bloody cold this morning. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed any overall drop in noise with it completely off versus it at its minimum 800 rpm, which means I'm a long way off silent due to the rest of my case fans.

I do like the idea of going completely silent. I also remember the quiet old PC days, and I got some of that back when I had a Core2Duo laptop that I massively undervolted (1.25v stock down to 1.00v). I could imagine attaching quite a premium to making my desktop similarly quiet, though I think that's a project for another day.

Cheers for the insight and I'll look into those other models you mentioned.