Finally decided what fans I'll use with my H100

Just thought I would share my experiences with different fans and configs I've tried out the last couple of weeks since it's obvious looking at all new threads lots of people are trying to figure out what fans to use.

I've tried push, pull, push-pull with the stock fans, Noctua NF-F12 fans, Cougar PWM fans, Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 RPM fans and in the end looking at the price/noise/performance factor I highly recommend a push config using 2 Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 RPM fans. That's what I ended up with and I'm very pleased!

What was your conclusion independent of costs? I got $18.84 for the Scythe GTyphoons 1850rpm 120mm, and $19.49 for the NF-F12s today at Amazon free shipping, no tax. IMhumbleO if the Noctuas perform better I would easily pay the extra 65cents for a 6year warranty plus all the grommets you could ever want airmailed to you directly from Austria for nada, over the Scythe single-year warranty. Plus the NF-F12s are PWM with a little integrated circuit inside driving the motor, and all the extra cables and gear included in the box, it’s an easy choice. Do the Scythes spin as low as 300rpm? Nah. Auditory output as low as 6decibels? Nah.

How much temp drop did you see with PUSH over PULL? Thanks M8!:D:

Here in Sweden the GTx were almost half the price compared to the Noctua PWMs. However the priced was not the biggest issue but more that when I started with trying out the Noctuas I continuously had problem with them never running at full speed what it appeared and from time to time one and sometimes even two of the fans stopped spinning completely and my conclusion was that was because of a compatibility issue between the PWM implementation in the Noctua fans together with the fan connectors in the H100. I also tried the Cougar PWM fans and they did spin just fine so although I first thought the problem was PWM in itself it didn't appear to be so but rather something specific in the relationship between the Noctua PWMs and the H100. Of course I could connect them directly to the PSU but I like the idea of having the ability to control the speed of the fans.

So...for all these reasons I found the GTs perfect for me, great price compared to both Noctua and Cougar here in Sweden, feels like they are of high quality just by feeling their weight in your hand (never tried GT before), very silent operation in all speeds, fully controllable speed using any normal fan controller like the one built-in in the H100 or an external one like the NZXT Sentry 2 fan controller I use and last but probably most important they keep the temps well below the danger zone.

Since I started mounting the GTs in a push config and I was 100% pleased with the result I never bothered trying them in a pull config so can't tell you the difference but from what I've read I doubt the difference would be more than a degree or two...

You are absolutely right; the NF-F12s are not made to plug into the H100 fan controller. Although mounting them on the H100 and powering them from either the mobo pwm headers or a pwm fan controller gives full control of fan speed 1500rpm down to 300rpm and excellent results.

Glad you found some fans that were perfect for your needs, cheers M8!:D:

... Do the Scythes spin as low as 300rpm? Nah. Auditory output as low as 6decibels? Nah... Thanks M8!:D:

Not so fast. Yes, the warranty of the Noctua's is a great feature, as is their customer service. But the "specs" you quoted are not accurate.

The GT fans, and specifically the SP15's, are high quality fans that are very efficient electrically, they use very little power. They will also run/start at ~350 RPM, at a mere 3.0V. The point of a fan running at ~300 RPM is questionable for CPU cooling, since at that speed the fan might move 5 CFM.

The GT's top speed of ~1850 RPM is higher than the Noctua, and according to tests I've read, move more air.

The acoustic performance of the Noctua's do not match their specs, as is really the norm for any fan. They are quiet fans, but at equivalent speeds, no more quiet than a GT according to tests I've seen.

All quiet fans have one thing in common, they never have a top speed of more than ~1500 RPM. Noise increases above that speed dramatically. For the best cooling of OC CPUs, speeds up to 2000 RPM and above are important. No fan is perfect and good ones trade one performance aspect for another.

I would never quote any specs unless they came straight from Noctua:

“The best way to adjust the speed of your pwm fans will be to either connect them to a 4pin mainboard fan header or to use an external fan speed controller that supports 4pin pwm fans. Because while it is possible to reduce the fan speed by lowering the voltage, only using them in pwm mode will allow you to get the fan speed as low as 300rpm.”

Kind regards,

Alexander Dyszewski

Noctua support team

“I'm sorry, but I can't recommend you a specific fan controller.

However it might be possible to use multiple splitters (included with the fans) to connect your 3 fans to one channel/controller. Our NF-F12 fan is rated at 0,05A or 0,6W, which is quite low compared to other fans and therefore the fan controller should be able to handle 3 fans with in total 0,15A or 1,8W; but please check this with the fan controller specs or manual to be on the safe side.”

Kind regards,

Alexander Dyszewski

Noctua support team

“At 300rpms for the NF-F12s, 6 to 8dB sounds about right, we didn't publish the values for minimum fan speed, because it gets difficult to make reliable measurements at such low noise levels. In real world terms the NF-F12 is inaudible when spinning at minimum fan speed.”

Kind regards,

Alexander Dyszewski

Noctua support team