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Corsair H115i PRO VS H150i PRO - noise levels


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Hey guys, so I'm considering possibly upgrading my failing H110i GTX to either the H115i PRO or the H150i PRO. Does anyone have any experience as to which of the two is more silent running? I have been scouring reviews and videos and some say that the 115 has the edge, while others say that its the 150. It's been a little confusing :roll:
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The 115 is probably a little quieter because it has 2 fans instead of 3 and a little lower fan speed due to the larger fans. That said, it's going to be a pretty negligible difference; both are super quiet due to the ML series fans that they use.
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It is strictly fan speed (and type) dependent. The 360 has a small surface area advantage and thus at the lowest fan speeds the H150i will have a small head start in both cooling and noise. As the speed increases, the 140x2 H115i Pro will close the gap. The difference between 2x140@1000 and 3x120@1300 is pretty subjective for noise. It might depend on if you already have more 120s in the system or it is an all 140 build.
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It is strictly fan speed (and type) dependent. The 360 has a small surface area advantage and thus at the lowest fan speeds the H150i will have a small head start in both cooling and noise. As the speed increases, the 140x2 H115i Pro will close the gap. The difference between 2x140@1000 and 3x120@1300 is pretty subjective for noise. It might depend on if you already have more 120s in the system or it is an all 140 build.

 

Thanks for chiming in. I decided that I will go with the H115i Pro, as like you say, the audible differences will probably not differ all that much at all. I have an all 140 build (Phanteks Enthoo Evolv case), with a currently failing H110i GTX with some 140mm Noctua NF-A14 Industrial fans on it. It still sounds like a small jet engine when gaming, so I want something quieter. If the RMA on my GTX goes through then I will probably sell the new unit along with the Noctuas to make some money back on the H115i PRO purchase.

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;943118']Thanks for chiming in. I decided that I will go with the H115i Pro' date=' as like you say, the audible differences will probably not differ all that much at all. I have an all 140 build (Phanteks Enthoo Evolv case), with a currently failing H110i GTX with some 140mm Noctua NF-A14 Industrial fans on it. It still sounds like a small jet engine when gaming, so I want something quieter. If the RMA on my GTX goes through then I will probably sell the new unit along with the Noctuas to make some money back on the H115i PRO purchase.[/quote']

 

You should keep in mind that no matter which cooler you'll get, they will all sound like a jet engine if you don't have a fan curve setup with those fans. It's not the fans themselves that make the jet engine noise, it's the air moving through the radiator.

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You should keep in mind that no matter which cooler you'll get, they will all sound like a jet engine if you don't have a fan curve setup with those fans. It's not the fans themselves that make the jet engine noise, it's the air moving through the radiator.

 

No ... it's a combination of air and fan motor noise. Obviously, you don't have one of the new PRO coolers. The stock fans that come with the cooler are ML series fans. They are actually extremely quiet, even at full speed. The "whoosh" of air really isn't that loud and has a different noise profile than a "jet engine".

 

Now ... if you want to discuss the High Performance SP fans that were stock with the previous generation of Corsair coolers, comparisons to a jet engine is actually quite accurate.

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No ... it's a combination of air and fan motor noise. Obviously, you don't have one of the new PRO coolers. The stock fans that come with the cooler are ML series fans. They are actually extremely quiet, even at full speed. The "whoosh" of air really isn't that loud and has a different noise profile than a "jet engine".

 

Now ... if you want to discuss the High Performance SP fans that were stock with the previous generation of Corsair coolers, comparisons to a jet engine is actually quite accurate.

 

OK, here are the specs:

SP Fans

Fan speed: 2000

Fan airflow: 104.65 CFM.

Fan static pressure: 3.99mm-H2O.

 

ML Fans

Fan max speed: 1200 RPM.

Fan airflow: 55.4 CFM.

Fan static pressure: 1.27 mm-H2O.

 

Of course the ML fans will not give you the jet noise. They spin at half the RPM, you get half the airflow and less than half the pressure. If you bring down the RPM on the SP fans to 1200RPM I bet you will be hard pressed to hear the difference. So yeah, it all comes down to having a proper fan curve setup. The advantage with the SP fans is that you do have that extra cooling power if you ever need it.

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OK, here are the specs:

SP Fans

Fan speed: 2000

Fan airflow: 104.65 CFM.

Fan static pressure: 3.99mm-H2O.

 

ML Fans

Fan max speed: 1200 RPM.

Fan airflow: 55.4 CFM.

Fan static pressure: 1.27 mm-H2O.

 

Of course the ML fans will not give you the jet noise. They spin at half the RPM, you get half the airflow and less than half the pressure. If you bring down the RPM on the SP fans to 1200RPM I bet you will be hard pressed to hear the difference. So yeah, it all comes down to having a proper fan curve setup. The advantage with the SP fans is that you do have that extra cooling power if you ever need it.

 

The SP fans have significant motor noise. An ML fan, at the same RPM, is significantly more quiet.

 

How do I know this? How can I say this? Because I had the stock SP fans on both an H80i V2 and an H100i V2. I've replaced them with the original series ML fans, that spin as fast as the stock fans. Result? LOTS quieter.

 

Additionally, when the ML-RGB fans came out, I was, honestly, disappointed in the fan speed and lower "specs". So .. to see if it actually made a difference, I configured my "classic series" ML fans to have a max of 1600 RPM on my cooler. Guess what? Less then 0.5C difference in max radiator temperature when running ROG Real Bench for 45 minutes. No difference - at all - in max or average CPU temperature over that same period. And it was far, far quieter, even under max load.

 

The reality is that you get diminishing returns on higher speed, higher spec fans. There is only so much heat that you can dissipate and additional fan speed and air only creates more noise.

 

I'm now running an H115i PRO. I ran it for several weeks with the stock fans. Even on performance, they are almost dead silent and cool extremely well. I'm currently running with HD/LL fans in push/pull because ... well ... I like the blinkenlights.

 

So ... these things I say are not from marketing fluff or industry reviews. They are from actually using and stress testing the products.

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Pretty sure the original poster realizes running your fans at high speed makes noise. The question centered on what happens at the other end of the spectrum in a comparison of two different size fans on two different size radiators.

 

Since the choice was between H115i pro and H150i pro, the SP140L and SP120L fans do not come into this. However, you most certainly can tell the difference between any ML series fan and a SP-L at identical speeds, particularly if inverted.

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Ok, if you say so, then so be it. I was just comparing them through their specs and the specs usually tell you the story. I have SP fans and I do not hear them one bit under normal load at around 700RPM. I do not have ML fans to compare so I'll leave it at that.
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I was just going over the discussion here, and from personal experience, the quality of a fan does make a big difference.

 

When I first purchased my H110i GTX, it came with one defective fan that made a very annoying clicking sound at certain RPM ranges. I RMAd this fan with Corsair, but I also decided to invest in some higher quality fans altogether, these being the 140mm Industrial Noctuas. The result, they are definitely less noisy than the stock fans at all RPM ranges, but of course they still get loud at high load. It's a sound that I'm definitely alright with when I'm gaming as I always use my headphones, but it's not something that I would be happy with otherwise as my PC has glass side panels and sits on my desk, beside me. Other than that, at regular load, the GTX is just fine, although mine isn't working quite right of late, as you may have seen in my other thread.

 

I'm with DevBiker on the diminishing returns front. I would rather have something more bearable in acoustical levels but with a 2C degree loss of cooling for example than the opposite.

 

I picked up one of the new H115i PRO coolers yesterday and I'm really looking forward to installing it in my machine when I get a little bit of time to do so :biggrin:

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Ok, if you say so, then so be it. I was just comparing them through their specs and the specs usually tell you the story. I have SP fans and I do not hear them one bit under normal load at around 700RPM. I do not have ML fans to compare so I'll leave it at that.

 

The specs tell you a part of the story but definitely not the whole story. Fans exist and operate within an entire thermal management system and, especially in the case of radiator fans, also work with other components. You also neglected the noise level "spec".

 

Now ... the marketing team knows that there is a certain portion of the market that myopically focuses on just the specs, rather than the entire system. I used to be kinda that way too, until c-attack set me straight.

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  • 1 year later...
If the pump head of the H115i Pro and H150i Pro is bolder than that of past Corsair coolers, the radiator for these heatsinks is more subdued than ever. A simple chrome Corsair logo replaces the graphite-colored accent bar that used to run the full length of the radiator on older Corsair all-in-ones, and the end tanks of these radiators have been entirely wrapped in a blocky matte-black shell. Most people aren’t looking to the radiator of an all-in-one cooler as a major point of style for their systems, but I personally preferred the distinctive look of past Corsair all-in-ones to the more restrained style of the Pro-series coolers. To each their own. https://docsbay.net/corsair-s-h115i-pro-and-h150i-pro-cpu-coolers-reviewed
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