Thermalright Silver Arrow SB E Extreme fan change!

vapor matt · 13 Apr 2013 at 13:00

Well I like the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB E Extreme, but hate those dam red fans, noisy when above 1200 rpm. so I was looking at replacement fans and came across these baby's! Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex Fan - 140mm now these are silent at max 1000 rpm and move 98cfm 18dba I know the thermalright TY-143 140mm can move 130-cfm but at 45dba

so I went from this

to this

and iam enjoying silent 98cfm, plus they are black, and offer greater space between first CPU cooler fan and the back of the top GTX-680

vapor matt · 13 Apr 2013 at 14:36

The temps are the same, even at full flight the thermalright fans at 80% to 100% made no difference, but these offer the same temps but silent at full speed. plus the better air gap from the back of the top GFX card allows better air flow to the first fan, so my temps are the same.

a great upgrade for silent air cooling!

vapor matt · 13 Apr 2013 at 15:22

If running over 80% made no difference, could you not have just run the existing fans slower

well you can run the existing fans slower but they don't move 98cfm like the new ones do silent, 1000 to 1200 rpm and you can hear the old fans and that's half speed.

plus the air gap is better with the new fans!

vapor matt · 13 Apr 2013 at 17:32

Part of the problem is the orientation of the heat sink, you're sucking hot air from your GPU so that compromises the cooling ability of the fans and heat sink, because the new fans are narrower they at least have some breathing space. I would have thought the original fans would have performed a lot better if you had the heat sink rotated 90º anti-clockwise with the fans pulling air from the front and blowing out the back of your case.

That made no difference to how cool the cpu ran either way round at idle, infact at the top of my case I have 2 X 120mm fans sucking air directly above cpu cooler and as hot air rises its perfect! at load its cooler this way round than pushing air toward the back of the case. The GPU's have reference design coolers that expel heat out the back of the case anyway so no heat rises from GFX cards.

vapor matt · 13 Apr 2013 at 17:39

heres a pic of my temps!

I have no issue with the cooler this way round

vapor matt · 14 Apr 2013 at 11:21

I agree, I had mine in both orientations and from bottom to top was slightly better even with the minimal clearance space between GPU and fan.

Exactly what I have found, it seems the cooler likes facing upward!

As for the TY-143's being loud.. being so close to your gpu it doesn't surprise me. 140mm fan needs at least 40mm of clearance to draw air into fan.. and as close as it was to your GPU it sure didn't have that.

I tried the silver arrow SB extreme the other way round where fans were not close to my GPU and still found them noisy above 1200 rpm which isn't half speed. these new fans keep my CPU just as cool but with no noise like a jet aircraft takeing off once they get to 1100 rpm unlike the standard fans at 1600 rpm sound. my case sits next to me about 2 feet away, proberly might be better 2 meters away under my desk but no point having a window case then.

I think these new fans work well and the cpu cooler facing upward offers better cooling this way.

vapor matt · 14 Apr 2013 at 12:52

Horizontal or vertical really makes no differnce to cooler but how well the hot exhaust exits your case will make a big difference in case temp; which translates to CPU temp.

well I have 2 x 120mm that exhausts any warm air directly above the cooler. so no problems there.

Standard Silver Arrow SB-E fans top speeds are 1300rpm for TY-141 & 146 and 1100rpm for TY-150. These are variable speed fans and when used as designed are not loud at all. You chose to buy lower airflow 1000rpm fans instead of adjusting your PWM fan curve to keep them below 1000-1100rpm because they are too loud above that speed and post that the TY-143 are too loud.

The whole thing was that the CPU cooler works better this way round cooling wise and I can use 41mm height ram without interference from the cooler itself, infact you can use 55mm high ram this way round, plus no fans sitting on top of ram. as for adjusting fan curve I did adjust it so the original fans ran at a max of 1200rpm, not to loud. but in a push pull config cooling wasn't as good, even with the closeness of the first fan to my GPU that config offered better cooling even at lower fan speeds. So what I wanted was quiet fans, pushing enough air to keep the system cool but also offering a better air gap from the GPU to cooler, also giving me very good ram clearance from the cooler itself. that's why I purchased these fans and so far the cooling is just as good as 1200rpm standard fans, but totally silent. and I have a better air gap to top GPU card.

The second thing that ive noticed is that now the 2nd fan in the middle of the CPU cooler also has an air gap unlike the original fan which relies on air passed through the fins of the cooler from the first fan, the airflow from top of cooler to case exhaust fans is greater, as the middle standard fan was restricted in air as it can only draw on air passed through the fins from the first fan which starved it of air anyway. as you said a fan needs 40mm clear to be able to breath properly.

so far these thin vortex fans are working really well, with better air gap to GPU card and improved air gap in middle of cooler. I feel these are better than the standard fans for noiseless operation.

vapor matt · 14 Apr 2013 at 20:53

Just a quick update for temps after playing 3 hours of tomb raider.

not bad for the vortex fans!