Gentle Typhoon replacement/140mm equivalent

[Odai]

Hello,

Recently Scythe ended their partnership with Nidec Servo and as such the Gentle Typhoon series of fans have become discontinued. Stock of these fans is now very difficult to find and I am therefore wondering if anyone knows of any suitable replacements? Ideally 140mm as I will likely start using a 420mm radiator instead of my current 360mm.

I initially thought the Swiftech Helix fans would be a good bet, but they seem to not perform nearly as well in terms of either absolute airflow or airflow/noise ratio.

The GTs were incredible on radiators, and nothing else I've had ever came close in terms of airflow at the same noise level - the only issue I've had with them is the motor noise can be a bit iffy sometimes.

Any ideas?

[Martinm210]

I would guess that Servo makes some sort of new distributor relationship. Some folks on OCN emailed Servo and supposedly they plan to continue the manufacturing of the model. Probably one of the bigger companies will swoop in there, rebrand as their own and start charging you twice the cost..lol

Not sure on the 140 factor, but check in to SPCR, their testing looks pretty good. I've heard good things about Phanteks per SPCR and some users bu no pesonal experience.

140 development still has a ways to catch up to 120 refinement levels.

[Evantaur]

how about noctua?

[Odai]

I see the fan branded by Scythe as Gentle Typhoon is still on Servo's website, but I'm guessing it will be difficult to get hold of - and there isn't anything larger than 120mm anyways.

The big issue is the vast majority of reviews out there focus on how these things perform as either case fans or heatsink fans. There are very few radiator based reviews. Martin, I did read the excellent review on your website where you compared various 140mm fans and some 120mm (including the GT AP15) fans, and in it the GT15 seems to come out ahead of even the larger fans.

[paulbagz]

Scythe make an awesome 140mm fan however it has 120mm mounting holes and stupid backpanel voltage controllers.

Push buttloads of air though, great on 140mm rads if you're not scared of modding/soldering/sleeving.

-PB

[Martinm210]

Check out this SPCR review, it is heatsink based and not going to quite capture the more dramatic radiator resonance issues, but they speak highly of the Phanteks

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1345-page7.html

They also speak pretty highly of noctua in the 140mm factor.

I've never tested either 140, but yeah my one 140 round was pretty well put to shame compared with GTs on 120>140 adapters.

since then I lost my 140mm test rig due to galvanic corrosion in my HWlabs SR1 140 when I left water sitting in the rad.

I suspect there is a significant difference between heatsink and radiator. A radiator acts a lot like a speaker subwoofer box causing all sorts of odd bladed diamphram like issues. Regardless, I'd be looking at the Phanteks as a possible option, perhaps noctua but hard to say for sure what happens on a radiator.

[GliderHR]

Hi,
to avoid resonance effects of the fan I always use rubber/silicon gaskets.
For the 420 mm radiators there was a single gasket from the company which name should not be spoken :).
Such a gasket for the 360 radiators is not available. There I use single rubber or silicon gaskets. If the hole for the screw is a m4. I also use polyamide screws.
In my Alphacool Monsta 360 test I compared several fans and was surprised by the Gentle Typhoons power (only thicker fans were comparable (Feser Triebwerk and the 38mm Yate Loon))
Maybe I will attach the GT's to a low rpm optimized radiator (HTSF 2) to see his results there.

[Martinm210]

Hi,
to avoid resonance effects of the fan I always use rubber/silicon gaskets.
For the 420 mm radiators there was a single gasket from the company which name should not be spoken :).
Such a gasket for the 360 radiators is not available. There I use single rubber or silicon gaskets. If the hole for the screw is a m4. I also use polyamide screws.
In my Alphacool Monsta 360 test I compared several fans and was surprised by the Gentle Typhoons power (only thicker fans were comparable (Feser Triebwerk and the 38mm Yate Loon))
Maybe I will attach the GT's to a low rpm optimized radiator (HTSF 2) to see his results there.

I have experimented with all types of gaskets, but you still get some interesting radiator effects not from vibration transfer, but from fan blades flexing. Just part of radiator effects I suppose and why I never trust testing of fans that isn't on a radiator.

It's like testing a subwoofer speaker without the enclosure.

[madmaxx]

Frozencpu has some GT stock still, not sure about 140s though. Maybe those Akasa Vipers are worth a look?

@ Martin: You can test a sub minus the enclosure, the only information it will yield is excursion capability... IIRC

[WrigleyVillain]

Phantek?

[GliderHR]

@Martinm210
I agree to your statement. I think the air which is pushed through a radiator does not flow as a constant current, it has depending on the fan speed a kind of intermitted frequency which is depending on the fan speed. When I look on a large, transparent fans at low speed I can see that the blades are vibrating a little bit. They hit the air. Together with the maelstrom effect of the air at the end of the propeller blades this creates sound. If you avoid this and use a high quality drive the sound could be reduced (i.e eLoops), but not eliminated. The moving air makes sound too, sometime too silent or with a frequency which I can't hear.

[tool_462]

I am pretty impressed with the value of the Swiftech 140mm Helix fans. They *seem* to have pretty good static pressure (I'm using them shrouded) and their noise characteristics are pleasing enough, like the GT's. Obviously the build quality isn't that of the beautiful GT tanks though, but the price wouldn't suggest they would be.

[Church]

Imho the main point of GTs performing better then helixes (dispite very similar blade design and supposedly even more winning helix's smaller motor size (=smaller blind spot)) is just one - bearings. GTs have very uncommonly & unexpectedly relatively low noise level of their ball bearings. From that one gets all the other goodies. GT simply can spin faster at same noise levels (and faster rpms are THE main way to get oh so important pressure that is needed for airflow to drop less when going through resistive rads). Worse bearing = worse rpms = less pressure = less airflow through rad. Even while other fans can get comparable airflow at similar noise levels when unrestricted, but while spinning at less rpms, adding restriction and rising pressure importance quickly sets apart who is who. So imho to beat GTs @ LC at 1000-1800rpm vendors should work most on getting motor/bearing noise down (afterall, if helix fans somewhat proved, that almost same blade shape wasn't 'IT').