Best fans to use on Thermochill PA120.3?

[ElSel10]

I'm trying to figure out what fans will be the best for me to use with my PA120.3 rad. Because of the placement of the rad, they have to be set up in a pull configuration. I do have the Thermochill fan shroud that they will be mounted on. Is there any clear cut answer as to which fans will operate the best for this configuration? I'd like them to maximize the strong points of the PA120.3-- being on the quiet side but still maintaining excellent performance. :D

[Church]

Just get gentle typhoons for best bet. Nothing beats them noise/performance wise.

[PiLsY]

Gentle typhoon AP13 or AP14. Once you get over that you're better off with a GTX360 (more fpi). There's nothing wrong with running higher speed fans on a PA of course.

[defect9]

yep, GTs all the way for the current king. Though I'm still happy with my s-flex fans, and the yates petra had were always a good price/performance as well. a couple degrees difference between em (for same subjective volume level) isn't that much, so go with what you can get ahold of that sounds right to your ears and fits your budget (and maybe whatever looks good too). If you have budget, go with the GTs.

Just stay away from the scythe slipstreams on radiators. they actually will ramp up their volume and speed if you feed them air resistance. Fun as a non-critical experiement, sucks if that's all you have on your shelf that isn't being used.

[warriorpoet]

Personally I'd go 800 rpm GTs, but I'd probably undervolt them to 500 RPM, too :P

[avddreamr]

The gentle typhoons are great fans, I have 11 of them. At anything below 1400 rpm, they are not audible over a decoupled mcp355.

If you are going to mount your radiator vertically, then I would suggest low speed yates in push pull.

GTS are great, but the price has become borderline absurd, $25 each at some places. I could not fathom spending 275 + shipping for fans..
If you are intent on running on low noise, the difference in spl between most fans isn't significant at around 1000 rpm or below.

[PiLsY]

To be fair GTs are substantially cheaper in the UK than in the states atm. There's a first for everything...

AP14s are £11 and AP15s are £13 and tons in stock too.

[WonderSausage]

There are virtually no Gentle Typhoons to be had in the US, and those that are, are ridiculously priced. $29-$39 for a 120mm fan? Crack is being smoked. When they start lasting as long as Papst, maybe they will be worth $20-$25.

[skinnee]

Aquatuning.us (http://www.aquatuning.us/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Gentle%20Typho on&) still has a few in stock, and I know there is a massive amount of GT's headed for the US... :wasntme:

[Church]

I wonder how much Martin's tests have made them selling more :)

[Wolf132]

You know what kills me about GT's, that the frickin fan blades are grey...................... Srsly, why the hell would you do that, they look terrible on my all black case.

[Unrealer]

You know what kills me about GT's, that the frickin fan blades are grey...................... Srsly, why the hell would you do that, they look terrible on my all black case.

But it could be worse... :ROTF:



117524

[Gamb311]

GT's best bet. 1850rpm max. Can go lower but also medium Yate loons would work good! Cheaper and quite efficient

[warriorpoet]

You know what kills me about GT's, that the frickin fan blades are grey...................... Srsly, why the hell would you do that, they look terrible on my all black case....but with a z68 Gigabyte board, they're ace :up:

[McDown]

You know what kills me about GT's, that the frickin fan blades are grey...................... Srsly, why the hell would you do that, they look terrible on my all black case.

;)

http://i54.tinypic.com/2im1c80.jpg

[fr0wn3r]

Ello

Can someone please link me to post/article where can I read on this subject. I'm interested in it too...

Anyone tested Noisblocker fans, to be exact these:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=27346

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=27345

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=25027

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=24644

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=24881

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=24880

Read good things about all of these somewhere, but not one test about how good they would be as rad fans, for PA 120.3 especially...
I willl probably be using 3 fans for push config with a custom shroud... I know that testing which has been posted around here showed that best results are with shroud in pull config but... Dunno, we'll see...
Got no cash for getting 6, that's for sure. :rolleyes:

[zeropluszero]

I run Gelid UV Blue's on my PA140.3. Great success!

[ChaosAD]

I would also like to know if the Noiseblockers Multiframe and/or blacknoise silent pro would work on a PA rad.
http://www.noiseblocker.de/en/Multiframe120.php
http://www.noiseblocker.de/en/BlackSilentPro120.php

[fr0wn3r]

Anyone? Please? :confused:

Here are some very nice articles I mentioned:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/120mm-fan-roundup-2.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/120mm-fan-roundup-1.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/140mm-fan-roundup.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/120-140-fans-roundup.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/fan-roundup.html

Noiseblockers showed pretty good, especially on the noise front if I recall well... And Nanoxia ones too... Would really like some info on how they act as rad fans...

[warriorpoet]

The Noiseblocker multi-frames are very nice case fans, and I have acouple hanging off a vertical mcr-220 in my case. I have no idea how they perform in comparison to the GTs, but I can tell you they are quieter, and should not be run horizontally (hybrid sleeve bearing, from what I gather).

[fr0wn3r]

@ warriorpoet

Thanks for the feedback! Appreciate it. :)

In the meantime I found some Martinm210's test with those fans, and tbh didn't like the sound they created on his test setup. At what rpm you keep them spinning if I may ask, what config push/pull and what's with noise?

[warriorpoet]

@ warriorpoet

Thanks for the feedback! Appreciate it. :)

In the meantime I found some Martinm210's test with those fans, and tbh didn't like the sound they created on his test setup. At what rpm you keep them spinning if I may ask, what config push/pull and what's with noise?
I run them anywhere from 450-750 RPM, depending on what I'm doing, but to be honest, the ones I have mounted to my rad are installed deep inside my case, and the case fans are at the back, so I don't need to turn them down very often.

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit obsessed with noise ;)

Regarding tonal quality, these are the best "mounted" fans I've ever used. At 750 RPM (full speed for mine), they're completely absent vibration, even when mounted to an aluminium case. The only sound I can detect is air movement, and that only when mounted to something close and restrictive (i.e. hex grille, circle grille). Mounting two of them vertically in pull on an MCR-220QP does not seem to change their tonal character (completely neutral) at all. Motor noise on the 750 RPM model (at least the 4 I own) may as well not exist until you get within 12" in a very quiet room.

If I were to compare them to GTs, I'd say the GTs are more vibration prone when mounted (not much, but it's there, and emits a touch of hum on aluminium), and more tonal in free air (very slight motor noise). The GTs do move more air, but the ones I have also turn 50 RPM faster, so that may be a bit of a wash. The GTs appear to be better built, are easier spinning, and sturdier.

Compared to my other quiet fans here (various Yates- tonal and turbulent, Nexus- smooth but turbulent, Antecs- tonal, clicky, turbulent, Scythes (S-Flex- very tonal, bad undervolters, Kama Flex- vibration prone and turbulent), Thermalrights- turbulent, slight tonality, and Panaflows- all around bad old news), they're easily my favorite stock noise signature, and smoothest undervolters.

IMHO, the multi-frames are expensive, but worth it in noise critical situations. If you're not in very noise-sensitive circumstances there are probably other fans that are more flexible for less; not being able to mount them horizontally, in particular, is a bugger.

Unfortunately, I never run anything faster than 800 RPM, so I can't give you any feedback on the medium- high speed models.

Hope this is helpful :)

[fr0wn3r]

Thank you a lot man! :)

Just noticed your signature after this post, then looked at your profile and saw you're a Minister of Music, got the whole picture. :up:
Was very helpful to hear this description comparing with all the other fans you have, especially since you mentioned the other ones I was interested in - Nexus, Yates and S-Flexes. Just recently I discovered I have ears and noise started to bother me so much. :D I'm studying now beside my PC since I had to rearange my room and it's driving me crazy, plus it's now an open testbed setup since I'm preparing for making my own case and had to sell my old one.

Will do some more research, but seems to me that choice is narrowed to GTs and NBs. Thanks once more! :up:

[warriorpoet]

Thank you a lot man! :)

Just noticed your signature after this post, then looked at your profile and saw you're a Minister of Music, got the whole picture. :up: Yeah, everything changes when you're forced to listen to tonal nuances for 10 years and subsequently expected to record 3' from a running PC :p:


Was very helpful to hear this description comparing with all the other fans you have, especially since you mentioned the other ones I was interested in - Nexus, Yates and S-Flexes. Just recently I discovered I have ears and noise started to bother me so much. :D I'm studying now beside my PC since I had to rearange my room and it's driving me crazy, plus it's now an open testbed setup since I'm preparing for making my own case and had to sell my old one.

Will do some more research, but seems to me that choice is narrowed to GTs and NBs. Thanks once more! :up:Glad to help. Funnily enough, my quiet obsession began when I was studying full time at Uni; totally been where you are. Warning: once you tame your PC, the TV, central heating blower and refrigerator become co-enemy number 1.

[fr0wn3r]

Yeah, I recently discovered the world of HiFi and realized I was deaf all my life, besides listening to classical music since I was a kid and playing piano till I started with the Uni (well, been 8 years since I played it last time :(). Ofc some old school rock/punk/metal I listen also started to sound totally different. God where have I lived?! :confused:

So that was a start of changing my hearing. On top of all that came the thing I mentioned in previous post.

Lately I started to study at night hours more often cause of high summer temps and lack of time during the day and all the sounds/background noise from home and street became much more unacceptable. I already have a custom WC kit which was bought with assistance of ppl from here lying in the closet that I never put to use cause of a lack of time/cash etc. So, I finally got some cash these days and some more gear and gonna start making my own case soon so only one question remained and that's the title of this thread.

And I'm glad I found you! Or was it the other way around? :D

Cheers!