Quieter fans for H115i

[Tallfeather]

Long story short - I like the 115, but the fans are pretty loud at anything other than very low settings.

 

Has anyone found a good replacement fan model which gives the same / better airflow at lower volumes?

 

I can of course live with what I have, and just have a bit higher temps with lower fan speed.

[c-attack]

You shouldn't need anything more than 1500 rpm for almost any set-up. My older H110 can get by with that fan speed with 230 watts coming through the CPU. Still, a fan with lower max speed may suit you. The new ML140 line will have a maximum speed to that effect (1600). We'll have to wait and see how it turns out. I will send on some other choices.

[Tallfeather]

Thanks for the note. I think the main issue is I'm worrying too much about CPU temps which are actually not very high.

 

I'll eyeball the new fan line when it arrives, but honestly I think the best solution is simply that I stop worrying about non-issues and let the CPU get a little hotter. It's still not anywhere near a thermal limit, and I can run fans pretty slowly. My CPU doesn't draw anywhere near what yours does, I bet even 1000 rpm would work most of the time.

 

Thanks again

[c-attack]

1000 rpm is enough for most any day to day load. My heaviest normal loads don't require more than 1200 rpm with all 6 cores flat out. The fans help remove heat from the water, not cool the CPU directly. Knocking the water temperature down by 2C will only lower your baseline CPU temp by 2C. Where fan speed become more important is when you have heavy sustained loads over a longer period of time -- stress testing, encoding, or combo loads like rendering where GPU heat may affect the base water temperature. For games and most normal applications, the CPU spikes come and go, but it takes a consistent load to raise the water temperature. The ability to hold a larger amount of heat is one of the advantages of liquid cooling over an air tower. Most people can by with very low fan speeds on a 280mm radiator.

[Tallfeather]

Thanks for gently prodding me back into reality. I for some reason get caught up in the mentality of making all temps crazy low, but not for any real reason other than ... wanting to see lower numbers.

 

I adjusted my fan profile to match what I really wanted - quiet. The preset quiet setting still likes to ramp up quickly with the ambient temps where i live (pretty hot), but the CPU is still waaay under anything of concern.

 

So, I adjusted the curve to just live with higher water temps by keeping the fans quiet at about 1k RPMS. After using the typical stressful things I really do (not artificial stress tests), everything is still just fine. And yes, my system is delightfully quiet. I have a spike in the curve should water temps get truly hot, then I'll allow fans to go nuts and keep things safe.

 

With my normal workloads (Visual studio compiles and gaming) it doesn't go above 55C. Thus, I really have no actual issue, and the fans are very quiet at this setting.

 

Interesting how just focusing on actual results can get you what you want... :)

[c-attack]

I have a spike in the curve should water temps get truly hot, then I'll allow fans to go nuts and keep things safe.

 

That's the way to do it. It provides a very audible warning should things go haywire and with the SP140L fans you will notice, regardless of your level of immersion.

 

The fans can't prevent the normal CPU spikes you see in casual use and gaming anyway. The voltage jump is instantaneous from a cooling perspective and the heat has to pass through the CPU into the cooling system. All the fans can do is give you a lower starting point, pre-voltage induced heat.