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Quest for a silent AIO


Herwinz

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So I'm wondering what would be best fans/cooler for a silent AIO. I'm thinking a Corsair h110i GT/GTX (Not really sure how they differ in performance) or an h100i GTX. I would like to use aftermarket fans on what ever cooler I pick. My biggest problem with deciding on a fan is because 140mm fans have worse noise vs static pressure, but 280mm radiators seem to have allot better cooling performance. This would be cooling a overclocked 6700k

 

I was thinking BlackSilentPro PK-2's (140mm) for the 280mm AIO's and for the h100i gtx eloop B12-PS's (120mm). The 140mm ones have 1,270 mmh20 (22,4db while the 140mm ones have 1,475 mmh20 (21,2db). Fan suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

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The H110iGT is CoolIT based and has two fan controllers. The H110iGTX is Asetek based and has one fan controller. Cooling wise they are much the same. The H110iGT also has far more capable firmware (http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?p=795986). I feel the H110iGT is a far more capable cooler.

 

Yeah I saw stuff saying this. The thing I cant seem to find is any comparison of them. Preferable for me at least using the same fans on both ^_^

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The 280mm radiator is always going to quieter than the 240. 120mm fans typically have a buzzier sound profile and more speed will be needed compared to 140mm x 2. I have the prior H110. Even on a 6 core at 4.4Ghz, there is no need to run the fans higher than 600 for anything other than a full stress test. I would even recommend that older H110 for a quiet set up with its comparatively lower 1500 rpm pump speed, but it's now out of production and the price has gone up considerably. Don't get too hung up on static pressure. You have to consider it in relation to airflow to try and predict a theoretical airflow on a radiator --- and that is always going to be a guess. Anything over 1.4mm of H20 @1000 is going to be decent. It's also RPM dependent so you need do some rough equalization between models with differing limits.

 

I am going to recommend against using the PK-2's on a radiator. I used 3 of them last month for case fans. Nice look, relatively quiet, but a slightly below average airflow meant more speed was needed and nullified any noise advantage compared to some other premium models. Regardless, it isn't a very good radiator fan. The blades are flexible, thin plastic and you tend to get a lot of deflection (and noise) against a radiator. Combine that with slightly below average performance in free air and I think it would be a bit lacking on the radiator.

 

Bionic E-loops are funny little creatures. It's an interesting design, but they can be very buzzy with any kind of interference on the inlet side of the fan. Not good with fan filters or grills. Performance wise they can be good, but it's very limited in it's application. I think I went three builds before I finally found an occasional use for my 3x120 in this set-up. There is now 140mm e-loop, but doesn't seem to have found it's way from Europe to N. America yet. It's a slightly different design, so I don't want to speculate on its performance.

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The 280mm radiator is always going to quieter than the 240. 120mm fans typically have a buzzier sound profile and more speed will be needed compared to 140mm x 2. I have the prior H110. Even on a 6 core at 4.4Ghz, there is no need to run the fans higher than 600 for anything other than a full stress test. I would even recommend that older H110 for a quiet set up with its comparatively lower 1500 rpm pump speed, but it's now out of production and the price has gone up considerably. Don't get too hung up on static pressure. You have to consider it in relation to airflow to try and predict a theoretical airflow on a radiator --- and that is always going to be a guess. Anything over 1.4mm of H20 @1000 is going to be decent. It's also RPM dependent so you need do some rough equalization between models with differing limits.

 

I am going to recommend against using the PK-2's on a radiator. I used 3 of them last month for case fans. Nice look, relatively quiet, but a slightly below average airflow meant more speed was needed and nullified any noise advantage compared to some other premium models. Regardless, it isn't a very good radiator fan. The blades are flexible, thin plastic and you tend to get a lot of deflection (and noise) against a radiator. Combine that with slightly below average performance in free air and I think it would be a bit lacking on the radiator.

 

Bionic E-loops are funny little creatures. It's an interesting design, but they can be very buzzy with any kind of interference on the inlet side of the fan. Not good with fan filters or grills. Performance wise they can be good, but it's very limited in it's application. I think I went three builds before I finally found an occasional use for my 3x120 in this set-up. There is now 140mm e-loop, but doesn't seem to have found it's way from Europe to N. America yet. It's a slightly different design, so I don't want to speculate on its performance.

 

I've seen the 140mm eloops, but they have worse mmh20 then the pk-2 but better airflow. What 140mm fan would you recommend?

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A 140mm E-loop at 900 rpm moves more air (free) than PK series at 1500 rpm. There is no static pressure rating that is going to compensate for that. The graph below is for the 120 e-loop series, but compare the 1300 and 1500 rpm models.

 

http://i.imgur.com/eZzCyo9.jpg

 

It's the same fan, just 200 rpm less on the max. "The 1300 rpm model has 50% less static pressure than the 1500 model, so obviously it is massively inferior". Fortunately, this is not true and static pressure ratings can be very misleading. Ultimately, it is the amount of air moving through the radiator that does the job. Static pressure can help you estimate how much air goes through at a certain resistance level, but P-Q curves aren't common and trying to figure out how much resistance the radiator offers (in terms of mm H20) is a little elusive. All AIO radiators are going to be comparatively low in terms of resistance. Substantially better airflow will trump most any static pressure deceits. I'll send a PM with some other ideas.

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