Yet another fan thread

Supa Koopa

Supa Koopa

Supa Koopa

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Wakefield
I recently bought 7 of the OCUK silverstone fans for my Havoc 480 rad (I can only get 7 on there as the hard drive cages stop the 8th). Now when they arrived one had a broken frame which I glued back together with some super glue, but decided to fit anyway. Now after setting everything up in the Aquaero one of the other fans makes an annoying rattle at anything past around 700rpm. I've contacted OCUK and they have said they will replace one of the fans (I think they mean 2 but they got it wrong). The problem is they are now out of stock and don't look to be getting anymore. So I have a dilemma.

To be honest I'm not overwhelmed with the quality of them so I'm going to change to something else and write the money off as a lesson learnt. The problem is I really don't know what to go for. I want something that pushes a decent amount of air but doesn't sound dreadful doing it. I've narrowed my choices down to;

EK Varder F4 120ER
Noctua NF12 Industrial or linus tech tips

The Noctua's are a ridiculous amount of money and I'm just not sure they are worth it going by the reviews. They seem to fall behind in airflow through a rad.

The EK's seem to get good reviews, but the people who actually own them say the quality is questionable and can make an annoying hum.

This will be the 3rd set of fans I've bought for this rad and I would like to get it right this time and stop wasting money, so any help or guidance would really be appreciated. I have searched the forum and the net and that's what's caused the indecsision. :)

Any others I should be looking at.
 
My build currently has a combination of Noctua's (forget the model number but they are 1500rpm variants, so a little less powerful that the industrials) and Vardar F4's.

I've had the Noctua's on my radiators and they performed fine. The F4s are on the radiators now and they also perform fine (no hum from them under load).

Given that if they are getting to 75% or greater of the rpm range (F4's) they are going to be fairly audible I would say that if you have them sitting around the 700-1000 rpm range then you should be happy with the Vardar's. I suggest this tentatively as I appreciate that db tolerance is a subjective thing! Having selected the ER variants you will also have the lower rpm range which will be inaudible, based on the db from my standard F4s.

The Noctua's are now used as case fans and provide great airflow into my system. It also keeps the less than great aesthetic colour combo out of sight! I went through the same dilemma when upgrading, but in retrospect think that I probably overthought things and paid a little too much attention to the web etc.

Having had both and still using both I hope that this helps a bit with your decision.
 
I have the OcUK fans you have cooling an AIO, and while I think they're good fans I appreciate there are more expensive fans out there that are slightly better at cooling at a low noise level, along with a high build quality. For the 120mm intake fans on my case, after some research I decided to go for these:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/nois...series-m12-s1-fan-120mm-750rpm-fg-012-nb.html

At full whack (750rpm) I can't hear them from where I set (about half a meter away) and with my ear next to the fans they are still quiet with no noticeable buzzing or humming, just a nice whooshing sound. If you wanted a slightly higher RPM model (1250) the S2 variant are supposed to be good, and if you have a fan controller you can lower the RPM to S1 levels anyway:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/nois...eries-m12-s2-fan-120mm-1250rpm-fg-013-nb.html

As well as being quiet, you can tell the fans have been very well engineered, and it's easy to see where your extra money is going on the fans when you have the fans in front of you.

There are also S3 and PWM variants, but the review on the PWM model I've seen isn't amazing (though is still good) and I'm not sure about the S3 as I would presume it gets a bit louder at full speed (1800 RPM).

Incidentally, I found the Silent PC Review site really helpful when it came to choosing fans, as the reviewer looked at cooling ability of fans, rather than just how much air they could push out. Here's the review for the Noiseblockers I recommended, and there are other 120mm and 140mm fan reviews and comparison tables at the same site:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1266-page4.html
 
I'm also in the market for new fans, wanting to upgrade the Phanteks ones I'm currently using. Anyone had any experience with the NB-eLoop Fan B12-3? Really liking the sound of these but not sure how brilliant they work with a radiator...
 
The noctua fans are very good but also extremly expensive - not worth the extra money in my opinion.

The Vardars have good pressure but the quality is meh and i heard that they have annoying extra sounds when used with pwm.

If you are looking for a good looking, strong performing and affordable fan i would recommend you buying the Noiseblocker Blacksilent Pro PLPS. I use 6 of them myself and they are by far the best fans i ever had.
 
Thanks guys, especially Petelock as you have the comparison I needed. So going by your statement I might as well save a bit of cash and go for the EK's as they are both pretty good. I have a pretty good profile setup and the fans only get up to around 1,100 rpm on really intensive games. I don't need 2000rpm, but by all accounts the ER's scale really well amd the extra cooling could be there for emergencies I guess.
 
Supa Koopa said:
Thanks guys, especially Petelock as you have the comparison I needed. So going by your statement I might as well save a bit of cash and go for the EK's as they are both pretty good. I have a pretty good profile setup and the fans only get up to around 1,100 rpm on really intensive games. I don't need 2000rpm, but by all accounts the ER's scale really well amd the extra cooling could be there for emergencies I guess.
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No worries.

I've not experienced any additional noise problems through pwm usage as aceCrasher mentions. However, I do also have a couple of 1500rpm Noiseblocker Blacksilent Pro PLPS (not currently using) which were also solid fans.

Decisions, decisions! ;)
 
I've been very impressed by the ocuk Silverstone fans. I bought 8 and had one DOA which was replaced immediately. Compared to my Noctuas they didn't feel as sturdy but when it came to noise and performance they were on par or even better so they have it where it counts.
 
Cheers Disco. I know they had a good reputation and that's why I bought them. The problem is 2 need replacing due to being faulty and they don't stock them anymore. Since I'm using push/pull I need to find completely new alternatives and don't want to risk questionable quality again. PC's are an expensive hobby and £80-100+ for a set of fans is not something I do lightly. I don't mind spending the money but I'm tired of wasting it. :)
 
I think Vardar fans only coil whine when you ramp the fans down below the rated PWM cycle.

And I'm pretty sure they replace the fans right away if you do exchange the fans if you encounter coil whine within the rated PWM cycle.

Just saying - coz I think Vardar fan's build quality is quite good (Noiseblocker is still better but they're even more pricy)
 
Petelock said:
No worries.

I've not experienced any additional noise problems through pwm usage as aceCrasher mentions. However, I do also have a couple of 1500rpm Noiseblocker Blacksilent Pro PLPS (not currently using) which were also solid fans.

Decisions, decisions! ;)
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I read it in a german Hardware magazine when they tested them. Maybe they fixed it. Other then that im pretty sure the fans are pretty good.
 
Well I'll find out. After a bit of messing around with customer service (I won't go in to it further as this is not a bad mouthing excercise) I've ordered 7 Ek F4 ER fans from another well known site to be delivered today. I'll have a go at dismantling everything once again over the weekend to see how I get on. :)
 
Supa Koopa said:
Well I'll find out. After a bit of messing around with customer service (I won't go in to it further as this is not a bad mouthing excercise) I've ordered 7 Ek F4 ER fans from another well known site to be delivered today. I'll have a go at dismantling everything once again over the weekend to see how I get on. :)
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How did you find the fans?
 
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