Which Noctura fan?

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 09:50

Looking to sort out some fans for my Lian-Li 011 Air.

I decided in Noctura & mostly 120mm size for flexibility.

2x 120mm fans will feed the graphics card, 2x 120mm fans feeding the motherboard & CPU cooler with 2x 80mm fans exhausting to the back. 2x 120mm fans exhausting up top.

This gives a positive pressure inside the case which I think I'm fine with.

Noctura have 3 types of 120mm:
F12, for maximum static pressure
S12A, for maximum airflow
A12x25, for mid-section & all round performance

Even checking this page (https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a) & this (https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a), I still don't understand it. I think I need the S12a, but I'm really not sure at all.

Can anyone help?

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 11:34

Thank for your reply, but I want to check serious airflow restrictions? I bought the case as it seems to have very good airflow & was tested as such. With the filters taken off, I think it was the best, with filter on, it was about the middle. That doesn't read to me as serious restrictions?

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 12:28

Thank you

I've not started building the rig yet. I won't start until I can get the CPU.

The case will be air cooled - no radiators. I will remove all the dust meshes.

I was aiming to have 2 at the front, 2 at the bottom, 2 at the top, 2 at the back. I could maybe fit 3 at the bottom, front & top, but I wanted to avoid "confusion" in the airflow in the section between the front fans & the motherboard. Otherwise I feel that air could be blown in, then taken upwards. I may even consider a baffle as I want the front fans to go directly to the motherboard & PSU fan cooler.

The pc will be used for video editing, so not hours of 100% power gaming.

I'm hoping for silence most of the time apart from possibly rendering jobs.

Coojeekitten · 29 Jan 2020 at 13:38

EsaT said:
Here's nice comparison for what different restrictions in front of fan do to speed of airflow:
https://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?tid=wh_chessis&area=usa
Doesn't need much to be notable obstruction.
And most fan positions of that case won't be positioned high in that list for "exhaust ratio". (actual open area from total area)

Thanks. Yes the rear & base fan positions have elongated slots.

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 10:11

tamzzy said:
Instead of spending over £100 on fans that will not give any performance gain, and at best, marginal thermal gains...it would be worth putting that money into components that actually matter...

Sure. What do you suggest?

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 13:11

I'm building a pc for 4k H.265 Premier Pro video editing to replace my old i7-2600, 16gb, Quadro P2000.
Budget about £5k. Aiming for air cooling unless the cpu cooling becomes an issue.

Kit bought so far:
Lian-Li 011 Air
Team 8Pack 64gb RAM
Asus Prime X299 Edition 30
Asus RTX2080ti
Seasonic Prime TX1000

Not yet bought:
Intel i9-10980XE
CPU cooler
3x Samsung M.2 (OS, Project, Scratch)
Storage drive - maybe SSD

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 14:51

Thanks for your reply.

I'm going Intel as it works better for Premier Pro editing, although not for rendering so much. Editing 4k H.265 is painfully slow & I need all the help I can get. I don't care about rendering as that's when I leave my desk & go have a coffee.

What issues would I see with the power draw?

Also what do you think about data storage? I was originally going for platter, but it feels a bit out of date. I need at least 2tb, preferably 4tb for storage. Would you go SSD?

Coojeekitten · 30 Jan 2020 at 18:36

tamzzy said:
seems like AMD = intel for playback, and AMD thrashes intel for rendering: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...ore-X-10000-vs-AMD-Threadripper-3rd-Gen-1629/

cooling, rather than power draw may be the limiting factor
once overclocked, the intel chips suck more power than the threadrippers

i normally see a 4-5 tier storage system
1st tier: nvme ssd for programs + scratch disk
2nd tier: large sata3 ssd (or cheaper than tier 1 nvme ssd) for encoding output
3rd tier: mass storage hdd, old exports to be stored on computer
4th tier: local backup
5th tier: cloud storage

I'm not really intending to overclock too much as stability is essential. Maybe I'll tweak a little, just to try.

My intended disks:
1tb Samsung M.2 for OS/software
512gb Samsung M.2 for Project files (not sure on size)
512gb Samsung M.2 for Scratch (not sure on size)
4tb for storage. Maybe SSD, maybe platter

Backup as usual to off-site USB or Thunderbolt drives
I'm thinking of in future looking at a Synology NAS in an outbuilding.
I did use Crashplan for several years & stopped when they put up their prices. Although a good system, I found the client software to be very system intensive. If you have any other ideas for Cloud, I'd certainly be interested. I have tried Carbonite which would not install as I also use Dreamweaver & this appears to be incompatible with the Carbonite installer.

Coojeekitten · 31 Jan 2020 at 07:13

Thanks. I did see the Sandisk Evo, but was not considering it as it was only a tiny bit cheaper.

2tb for project & scratch drives, or 1tb each?

Coojeekitten · 31 Jan 2020 at 07:48

2tb M.2 drives are gong to be expensive. You realise that the Scratch can be wiped after every job? I've seen mention (in very old threads) of a 120gb for scratch. I was going to get 256gb or 512gb?