I hate selecting fans!

Jargy

Jargy

Jargy

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5 Dec 2007
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Location
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Ok, so I'm due to start putting together a new PC, which is basically going to be just a facelift of my current one (see sig) with a few minor upgrades, including returning to air cooled. I'm going to be moving from a Akasa Eclipse case to a Silverstone FT01 (I'll do a build thread as I'm planning a few mods :D), which is going to be my first ever windowed case. One of the upgrades I've decided upon is a new heatsink, which is to be the prolimatech megahalems.

The area that is giving me a headache at the moment is selecting suitable fans / fan combinations. The things I'm having to consider are:

1/ Is the rear 120mm case fan worth replacing in the FT01?
2/ I want to add some lighting to my case. Do I do this with separate cathodes/leds or use led fans? Are led fans more for show than efficiency?
3/ Will be looking to do some overclocking, but noise levels are more important to me than performance? What fans are the best option?
4/ Do 2 fans fitted in push/pull on my heatsink really make a difference, or am I just as well to just use one to push air through it?

Too many things to think about. Anyone got any opinions/suggestions?
 
1: I personally think the fans that come in Silverstone cases do just fine.

2: Cathodes are the way to go if you want to add lighting to your case, LED fans are ok if you like that type of thing.

3: PWM fans is what you want imo, have the 2 fans that you have fitted to the Megahalems connected to the PWM fan header on the mobo using one of the Akasa PWM splitter cables, that way your fans will run slower when the PC is idling, and once you put a load on the system the fans speed up..

4: I saw a significant improvement when I started using 2 fans on my TRUE, my load temps dropped by about 5c iirc.

as for which fans to use, I would recommend either Scythe Gentle Typhoons, or Akasa Apaches (if you can deal with the color of them!!)
 
Push/Pull on heatsink do make a difference - usually a couple of degrees cooler with the right fans.
I use 2 x Nocturas NF-S12B on a Maghalams.
 
Davyboy is spot on.

My 38mm san ace is definitely my best fan. Favourite is the 1600rpm scythe s-flex. Sadly neither are pwm.
 
Jargy said:
Are led fans more for show than efficiency?
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Hello? Earth calling common sense...
Does it make your car go faster if you paint it with other colour?

For acoustics LED fans are like those cheap Chinese bling bling ping pong toys with possibly poisonous materials/paints.
Translucent/transparent plastics (of any fan, LEDs or not) are often lot more resonating than standard plastic which is bad thing for acoustics.

Scythe SlipStream has notably higher airlow per rpm than normal fans but as there should be positive pressure inside the case air shouldn't need much encouragement for getting out.

Usefulness of second heatsink fan depends on impedance of heatsink/has fan enough pressure to push good airflow through it. Naturally very high impedance heatsinks like TRUE benefit from it at least untill fan speed becomes high and fan has more pressure reserve to waste while retaining airflow. Megahalem's fin density is about "medium" tight so some benefit from second fan is natural.


And PWM is buzzword for selling something same again, motherboards have been capable to controlling speed of fans long before PWM became fashionable.


setter said:
http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkte/luefter/silent_eagle_se/index_en.html?id=2
noise level is pretty good even at full speed
Click to expand...
Compared to jumbojet taking off from other side of the street?
 
EsaT said:
Compared to jumbojet taking off from other side of the street?
Click to expand...
Theese arent the same silent eagle that ocuk stock. (3 pin 1000 & 2000 rpm model). Theese are 400-1200 rpm modular cabled fans, they can run of various voltage reduction cables or pwm, i tend to use pwm and run them at 400 - 800 rpm, only have them set to hit full speed if the cpu temp ever goes above 60c.
 
EsaT - I know painting a fan doesn't make it perform better, but if you paint a ferrari, it doesn't exactly slow it down either....
I guess I'm after bling that perfoms ;)

DavyBoy - Thanks for your thoughts. I've considered the PWM splitter, and have decided I will go that way.

The reason I was considering changing my 120mm stock fan in the fortress was to make it the same as the fans on my heatsink. I read somewhere that keeping the fans the same is better for the noise levels (same type of noise). Mind you, if I'm going to control them through PWM then they are likely to be spinning at different speeds, so potentially creat different noises. I suppose I could PWM all of them...

Out of curiousity, has anyone tried the Enermax Apollish fans? Look pretty good, though not stocked by OCuk.

Completely off topic, how the hell do I quote someone? Can't find any info on how to do it and can't figure it out.
 
Jargy said:
Completely off topic, how the hell do I quote someone? Can't find any info on how to do it and can't figure it out.
Click to expand...

qoute.jpg


:eek::rolleyes::D
 
Another thing to consider would be to buy a fan controller and run all of your case/heatsink fans off of this, that way you can have much better control over them, even having the option of turning them off completely if you wish.

I have a Scythe Kaze Master Ace fan controller in my system, and I am really impressed with it.
 
EsaT said:
Hello? Earth calling common sense...
Does it make your car go faster if you paint it with other colour?
Click to expand...

yes, maybe not enough for you to notice, but different colour paints have different weights. think jaguar had that issue when they were last in f1.

back on topic, i have not been able to find any LED fans that have good performance like the apache. maybe im just not looking hard enough.

DavyBoy said:
I have a Scythe Kaze Master Ace fan controller in my system, and I am really impressed with it.
Click to expand...

yeah i love mine too, but there is a better version slightly more expensive by a few £ called the kaze server or something like that, its got all the functions of the master but with an automatic mode too.
 
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