Noctua still the go-to for quiet fans?

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Actually that's not a bad idea. You could keep the middle Noctua fan to help with VRM cooling, and use a P14 for clearance for taller ram sticks. I was wanting a D15 for my new build but worried about ram height limitations

Oh, good luck with that! Alternatively, I'd consider a D15s + NF-A12x25 or NB-PS, though that would be mighty expensive, of course.

I have a Gelid Phantom that was made with 12 cm in mind, but with my P14 5-pack already arrived I'm thinking about putting a P14 in the middle of it as far down as possible with zip ties (and a rubber gasket to help absorb vibrations from that sort of ghetto mounts). Or could rotate it 90 degrees (better exhaust opportunities through the top than the rear) and put the fans low. In the long run, I wonder if the Macho with the Thermalright oversized fan should provide a similar advantage for VRM cooling or if there's more to Noctua's solution than meets the naked eye.

My other idea was to go with an AIO for CPU but get tower coolers with large fans for VRM. Or perhaps just a topdown fan. Even a side fan on the case wing/window.

Or, with a tower cooler rotated 90 degrees, it wouldn't be hard to attach variously rotated fans to it with glue or zip ties. But this is probably just my tired brain and too much coffee.

 

[COYS]

Oh, good luck with that! Alternatively, I'd consider a D15s + NF-A12x25 or NB-PS, though that would be mighty expensive, of course.

I have a Gelid Phantom that was made with 12 cm in mind, but with my P14 5-pack already arrived I'm thinking about putting a P14 in the middle of it as far down as possible with zip ties (and a rubber gasket to help absorb vibrations from that sort of ghetto mounts). Or could rotate it 90 degrees (better exhaust opportunities through the top than the rear) and put the fans low. In the long run, I wonder if the Macho with the Thermalright oversized fan should provide a similar advantage for VRM cooling or if there's more to Noctua's solution than meets the naked eye.

My other idea was to go with an AIO for CPU but get tower coolers with large fans for VRM. Or perhaps just a topdown fan. Even a side fan on the case wing/window.

Or, with a tower cooler rotated 90 degrees, it wouldn't be hard to attach variously rotated fans to it with glue or zip ties. But this is probably just my tired brain and too much coffee.

Having looked a bit more, the fan clips with the D15 won't fit on normal fans. So the D15S which comes with a clip for a 120mm fan is the best option.

 

[SpartaP]

Silent Wings 3 - High Speed fans any good? Specifically for rad cooling?

I thought they were held in high regard

*EDIT*

Nvm, just watched that vid from page 1 and also his 120mm vid, it mostly seems overall P14wins when factoring in the price/warranty too. For me it’ll have to be P12’s, just a shame he didn’t include those in his 120mm test.

 

[zaphod-159]

Yeah. And what are you getting for the CPU? Asking because I've already heard from people replacing A15 fans on their D15s with P14s, well, at least one guy I know, but he knows his stuff. So a cheap old D14 heatsink + 2*P14 suddenly becomes the best air cooler or as close as it gets. More sense than a D15, unless D15 does a better job cooling the VRM section due to the way the fan is mounted. But then, if the Freezer is cheaper than D15… A while ago I missed a NIB Freezer II 280 for 64 pounds.

5900x most likely, going to be playing a lot of WoW, excited to see what kinda performance gains there will be. I never used AIO always stuck with air but at this point there is a performance difference there, and the RAM clearance issue was the final thing in making me decide for an AIO this time around.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Silent Wings 3 - High Speed fans any good? Specifically for rad cooling?

I thought they were held in high regard

*EDIT*

Nvm, just watched that vid from page 1 and also his 120mm vid, it mostly seems overall P14wins when factoring in the price/warranty too. For me it’ll have to be P12’s, just a shame he didn’t include those in his 120mm test.

Well, I've got both P14 and SW3 — installed 2xP14 on the same CPU on which I'd had SW3s before. The first observation is that while the Arctics are indeed queiter, they don't necessarily provide better thermals, and they tend to collide with my heatsink much more than the SW3s did. I actually put think rubber gaskets between the heatsink and the fans, and the wings still somehow manage to collide with the heatsink on the P14s. No such problem with the SW3s. I'm also inclined to think I hear some sort of motor sounds that the SW3s didn't have. And while the brush is quieter at >1000 rpm on the Arctics than on the SW3s, on the Arctics you also get to hear some motor sounds. Possibly PWM whine. Or whatever it is. I wasn't exactly thrilled by the replacement, and I kinda wish I hadn't.

I'll still have to check the P14s out as case fans.

Two other things to say about SW3 hi-speeds:

1. Hi-speeds may be louder at low to mid rotation speeds than regulars. I did hear them as CPU fans starting from 750-ish. As case fans pulling through relatively dense case mesh and a relatively dense dust filter (probably more obstruction that the CPU heatsink), they were audible at 560 rpm and certainly 600. Perhaps regulars (non-hi-speed) would have been better. This is what some people claim is actually true on the basis of their experience.

2. SW2 may be better in fact than SW3, though on paper they are worse. There are opinions that SW2s are the best fans BeQuiet has ever made.

If your seller accepts returns I suggest you buy SW2, regular SW3 and hi-speed SW3, then return the 2 you liked less, then buy more of whichever you liked best. If it's a small shop just perhaps drop them a courtesy line and let them know what the plan is.

Oh, one last thing — the obstructed pull made my SW3 HS emit a coarse motor sound, a nasty sort of buzz roughly comparable to a big fact insect or something from the woodworks. Hard to tell exactly. It wasn't sharp or high-pitched, thankfully, but it was coarse enough to dislike. Perhaps this is what obstructed pull does to some fans. SW3 HS wouldn't be the only ones to have such problems. It probably depends on the type of fan, the type of obstruction and the type of mount all taken together, so you may end up cycling through a lot of fans before you solve them problem if it actually happens to you — hope not, of course.

P12 will tend to be close to equal with NF-A12x25 and slightly worse than NB-PS in terms of flow and acoustics per se, while of course materials and workmanship likely will be worse.

 

[SpartaP]

Well, I've got both P14 and SW3 — installed 2xP14 on the same CPU on which I'd had SW3s before. The first observation is that while the Arctics are indeed queiter, they don't necessarily provide better thermals, and they tend to collide with my heatsink much more than the SW3s did. I actually put think rubber gaskets between the heatsink and the fans, and the wings still somehow manage to collide with the heatsink on the P14s. No such problem with the SW3s. I'm also inclined to think I hear some sort of motor sounds that the SW3s didn't have. And while the brush is quieter at >1000 rpm on the Arctics than on the SW3s, on the Arctics you also get to hear some motor sounds. Possibly PWM whine. Or whatever it is. I wasn't exactly thrilled by the replacement, and I kinda wish I hadn't.

I'll still have to check the P14s out as case fans.

Two other things to say about SW3 hi-speeds:

1. Hi-speeds may be louder at low to mid rotation speeds than regulars. I did hear them as CPU fans starting from 750-ish. As case fans pulling through relatively dense case mesh and a relatively dense dust filter (probably more obstruction that the CPU heatsink), they were audible at 560 rpm and certainly 600. Perhaps regulars (non-hi-speed) would have been better. This is what some people claim is actually true on the basis of their experience.

2. SW2 may be better in fact than SW3, though on paper they are worse. There are opinions that SW2s are the best fans BeQuiet has ever made.

If your seller accepts returns I suggest you buy SW2, regular SW3 and hi-speed SW3, then return the 2 you liked less, then buy more of whichever you liked best. If it's a small shop just perhaps drop them a courtesy line and let them know what the plan is.

Oh, one last thing — the obstructed pull made my SW3 HS emit a coarse motor sound, a nasty sort of buzz roughly comparable to a big fact insect or something from the woodworks. Hard to tell exactly. It wasn't sharp or high-pitched, thankfully, but it was coarse enough to dislike. Perhaps this is what obstructed pull does to some fans. SW3 HS wouldn't be the only ones to have such problems. It probably depends on the type of fan, the type of obstruction and the type of mount all taken together, so you may end up cycling through a lot of fans before you solve them problem if it actually happens to you — hope not, of course.

P12 will tend to be close to equal with NF-A12x25 and slightly worse than NB-PS in terms of flow and acoustics per se, while of course materials and workmanship likely will be worse.

Thank you for your detailed post. I have already RMA’d the SW3’s and have ordered the P12’s in preparation for my first custom loop build. They’ll be mounted on a rad instead of a heat sink. Also the SW3 were £120 while the P12’s were £30.

I’ve not personally had P12’s before but I have had SW3 on my old Dark Slim Bequiet cpu cooler. And when it ramped up, the flow noise was nice and quiet but the motor did emit an annoying sound, albeit not very loud.

I’ll give the p12s a go and see how they go. For the cost to performance, they definitely appear to be a good deal!

Thanks again for your feedback

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

5900x most likely, going to be playing a lot of WoW, excited to see what kinda performance gains there will be. I never used AIO always stuck with air but at this point there is a performance difference there, and the RAM clearance issue was the final thing in making me decide for an AIO this time around.

At this point the best AIO and the best air cost about the same, or even Liquid Freezer II is actually a little bit cheaper than D15, in addition to the advantages you mentioned.

 

[zaphod-159]

I just want to have a build for once where I don't have to think about the ram clearance, also given how the arctic fans are actually quieter than the noctua ones, there is a strong possibility that the liquid freezer II will be quieter too.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

I just want to have a build for once where I don't have to think about the ram clearance, also given how the arctic fans are actually quieter than the noctua ones, there is a strong possibility that the liquid freezer II will be quieter too.

Also my line of thinking. But the pump can be louder than the fans until the point they take over. I remember seeing a test in which the whole Freezer was listed with 25, 27 or similar dBA figures on the graphs (vs slightly louder figures for D15) and only in the body of the review text did the reviewer mention the pump hitting 29 dBA actually. Which is obviously not huge, but the Freezer may end up louder than D15 in idle.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

A word of warning about P14s — they are not 25mm fans. They are 27mm fans.

Arctic also confirms.

There may be a problem with 0-gap dual-tower coolers. For example I struggle to even brute force one of them in the middle of my Gelid Phantom. And I succeed, there's no guarantee the blades won't collide with the heatsink. And my impression, like I said a while ago, is that P14 may collide with heatsinks more easily than some other fans do.

Just bought two (not so much) used TY-141s at 10 pounds each, shipped.