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High Static Pressure 140mm as front intake case fans?


Satella

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Hey, I recently bought two SP140 fans off eBay thinking they were actually the AF140. I noticed this after buying the item, yes I really didn't notice. The fans I wanted were just front fans as intake for my case, is it okay if I use these fans for that purpose or are they not designed for that? Thanks tons!
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They should still be good for air flow purposes, even though it might not be optimal. Just remember that at a given air flow rate, the AF series are going to be running more quiet. At least that's what I got according to an Anandtech roundup on Corsair case fans a year ago. Heck it might work well anyway if there's not much clearance around it, like an opaque front with only intakes at the side of the front panel, or through a drive bay.
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It depends on what case you are using and if there is a dust filter in front of the fans.

 

This ^^^. However, most people in a standard tower may benefit from a bit more focused flow from a pressure orientated fan, particularly for displacing air around the chipset, multi-GPUs, or as mentioned drive and/or filter restrictions.

 

The other question is whether you now have a pair of SP140 LED fans or the SP140L variation that normally comes with the H110i/GT and H115i coolers. those could easily be mistaken for a grey AF140L and they are not true pressure orientated fans. Most 140mm fans have a hyrbid blade design anyway and the SP140L's pressure rating is really a function of it's high rpm. It's closer to an airflow fan than you think and certainly can be used on a front intake without much penalty. However, if this the fan you have, there is no reason to run it out to the max. 1000 rpm should do, but you can certainly experiment. I would not bother trying to get another pair of AF140L's unless you end up hating what you have.

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Unfortunately, it's hard to pen a golden rule beyond the general guidelines above. Each case environment is different and a fan that is fantastic in one application may be a noisy mess in another.

 

Beyond that, there is the question of how do you assess cooling performance for your fans. Increasing the air flow (total intake/exhaust volume) will usually help with the ambient case temperature, but the differences are usually small. You can't knock 8-10C off your internal air temp. On the other hand, a fan targeted at a specific zone (VRM, PCH heatsinks, GPU, m2 drive, memory, etc.) can reduce the temp sensor reading by a good healthy margin. So what is more important to you... reducing the entire case temp by 2C (and everything else in it)? Or reducing a specific zone by 7-8C?

 

No clear answer on that and it is certainly hardware specific. Some boards or other gear needs attention. I use more focused front fans on my 540 these days because of a low mount M.2 drive next to GPU #2. Even when the intake CFM is lower, a more focused fan will make that drive 7-10C cooler than a pair of higher RPM 140mm airflow fans with a large CFM advantage.

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The case i'm using is CM 690 III. I'll be trying the SP's out and let you guys know how they are. If i'm not satisfied however, will probably be keeping them for later and getting my self some AF140's. I'm not really aiming for cooling a specific component but instead cooling the whole interior of the case. Here are the fans I bought
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