# are Corsair SP120 fans really that bad?



## terroralpha (Sep 24, 2015)

i seen a lot of people saying that they aren't good radiator fans. i have the opportunity right now to get SP120, either quiet editions or performance editions, for $5.50 a pop. but the bad reviews are deterring me. i'm not worried about the reviews claiming that the mounting holes break easy, that wont be a problem for me, but i'm worried that they may not push air through a 60mm rad.

gentle typhoons and CM jetflos get all the praise it seems. GTs are just way too expensive. no way in hell i'm paying $30 a fan. i've played with a jetflo 120 and it sounded like a leaf blower. even with the low noise adapters @ 1200 RPM they are loud enough to be annoying.

i need 120mm radiator fans that actually push air through a 60mm rad but are also very quiet. they don't have to be stellar performers as long as they actually do the job. anyone have suggestions?


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## manofthem (Sep 24, 2015)

For $5.50/each, I would definitely purchase either of them as they were very decent fans. 

I used to have the SP fans but they were too loud for my tastes. They were great for my old rad back when I had them, but I hated loud systems.  I sold them off. 

Even more recently, I was using the quiet edition ones on my radiator, but I switched them out for more of the GTs.  (GTs are just great fans, just pricey like you said.)  I was running the 120q fans on my ut60 rad, and they did a swell enough job; they were able to move the air through the thick rad.


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## Nordic (Sep 24, 2015)

Psh, are they bad? No. Yate loons are supposedly great radiator fans. I switched from yate loons to corsair sp120's. The corsairs at 7v were quieter than the yate loons for the same performance. Put the corsairs to 12v and I dropped a few degrees.

60mm rad is pretty thick, but I had my corsair sp120's on an 80mm think radiator. Now I have some 32mm thick panaflows but have not set up the watercooling to replace the corsair fans, but have yet to reset up my watercooling.

I was able to keep a 4.8ghz lga2011 4820k at 60c and a 7970 at 1300mhz at 40c on the same loop with just the 240mm monsta rad with push pull cosair sp120's.

At $5.50 each, those corsair fans are a steal. Sure there is better, but they are going to cost a heck of a lot more. Think Noiseblocker, EK vader, panaflow, Noctua fans, ec.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 24, 2015)

They are not bad at all. I have 5 of them in my system running on 360 and 240 rads, and not a single problem with them, and run fairly quiet, I have them on a 7v resistor adapter.


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## Batou1986 (Sep 24, 2015)

Work fine for me, just don't buy a mix of singles and two packs because for some reason the lights on the single packaged one are a slightly different hue than the two that came in the two pack.


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## terroralpha (Sep 24, 2015)

thanks guys.


Batou1986 said:


> Work fine for me, just don't buy a mix of singles and two packs because for some reason the lights on the single packaged one are a slightly different hue than the two that came in the two pack.



i'm buying the non-LED ones. the ones with the 3 different color rings. i hate lights


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 24, 2015)

They are OK airflow wise and pretty strong on rads, but noisy as all hell... Even at sub-1k RPM.


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## terroralpha (Sep 24, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> They are OK airflow wise and pretty strong on rads, but noisy as all hell... Even at sub-1k RPM.



am i right to assume that we are talking about the performance edition?


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 24, 2015)

Yes, but unless the quiet one uses a different bearing it will still be pretty noisy compared to other fans.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 24, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> Yes, but unless the quiet one uses a different bearing it will still be pretty noisy compared to other fans.



I disagree. They really aren't that noisy, and they undervolt very well.


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## Whilhelm (Sep 24, 2015)

I have 4 of the PWM performance ones on my 480 radiator and I have mixed feelings about them. At 900 rpm each they are faintly audible but still move enough air through my radiator. At full speed they are crazy loud and perform almost as good as the 1850RPM Gentle Typhoons. I want to switch to the Noctua IPPCs but I feel like the cost of doing that wouldn't be worth it. 

For the price you can get them for I would say its worth it but run them at low speed.


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## Nordic (Sep 24, 2015)

Corsair sp120's are not the quietest fans you can get. They are performance fans. I think they are an acceptable noise level. Again, at $5.50 each you can't lose.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 24, 2015)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> I disagree. They really aren't that noisy, and they undervolt very well.


Well at the same RPM range they are more noisy than the stock fans in my brothers 550D... At 800 or so RPM one of them drowned out a pair of WD reds, a WD blue and some old 250GB drive. Then again, that's just my experience, but I will say with certainty that Gentle Typhoons are worlds better.


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## Johan45 (Sep 24, 2015)

My only real gripe with them was price for performance,  at 5.50 ea. that's a great price.
There's a pretty good list here if you want to compare and there are a few different versions of thoe fans so pay close attention to which ones you're getting.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1274407/...d-comprehensive-array-of-tests-and-benchmarks


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## R00kie (Sep 24, 2015)

I have SP120 LED's on my H100i right now, they're similar to the Quiet edition fans, and theyre not that loud at all, compared to what that cooler had in the box anyways. And when my PC is stressed you can hardly hear them, as my graphics cards' fans are definitely overpowering them.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 24, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> Well at the same RPM range they are more noisy than the stock fans in my brothers 550D... At 800 or so RPM one of them drowned out a pair of WD reds, a WD blue and some old 250GB drive. Then again, that's just my experience, but I will say with certainty that Gentle Typhoons are worlds better.



Well they will definitely be more noisy then most fans because they are built for static pressure, so they are able to force a larger amount of air movement. So air noise can be a concern. Gentle Typhoons are definitely better, but impossible to find now. The runner up best from what I've heard are the EK Vadar fans when talking about fans for radiators or heatsinks, where static pressure is the main worry.


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## Nordic (Sep 24, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> Well at the same RPM range they are more noisy than the stock fans in my brothers 550D... At 800 or so RPM one of them drowned out a pair of WD reds, a WD blue and some old 250GB drive. Then again, that's just my experience, but I will say with certainty that Gentle Typhoons are worlds better.


Stock fans are not a good comparison. Those stock fans are not meant for radiators. Radiator fans are not meant to be quiet. They are meant to push air. Look at the wide blades of the cosair sp120's vs the small blades of the corsair af120 fans. I have both, and the af fans are much quieter.

The simplest way I can put it is that there is a trade off between noise and static pressure. Corsair sp fans are slightly on the performance side, but they are not super loud either. For me it was an acceptable level. Quieter than yate loon fans by a lot, and more performance.


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## Norton (Sep 24, 2015)

I use Swiftech Helix 120's on one of my setups(240mm rad in push/pull so 4 fans)- good static pressure and not silent but they sound completely different than SP120's. Noise from them doesn't bother me at all but everyones hears differently so YMMV.

Great value at around $10 each but $5.50 each for SP12o's would be real hard to pass on.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 24, 2015)

james888 said:


> Stock fans are not a good comparison. Those stock fans are not meant for radiators. Radiator fans are not meant to be quiet. They are meant to push air. Look at the wide blades of the cosair sp120's vs the small blades of the corsair af120 fans. I have both, and the af fans are much quieter.
> 
> The simplest way I can put it is that there is a trade off between noise and static pressure. Corsair sp fans are slightly on the performance side, but they are not super loud either. For me it was an acceptable level. Quieter than yate loon fans by a lot, and more performance.


That is not consistent with the aerodynamics of the fan.

The SP120s (I haven't seen the AFs IRL) have quite a large gap between the blade tip and the housing, this is compared to the GTs and the stock case fans. Because of the larger gap, more air can flow over the wingtip, these vortices are what cause a lot of the air related noise in most fans. Worse still, the gap is not equal around the circumference, this creates the effect that in some areas (where the housing is closest) the pressure under/over the fan will be higher/lower (respectively), and it will continually vary as the fan is spinning. The increase and decrease in pressure is very perceptible and it seems to (at least by my ears) match the sound profile. It would be like comparing a turbofan with a propeller engine on the plane, propellers have a very distinct report due to the open tips, while a large portion of the noise on a turbofan originates from the power turbine and the deltaV between the different airflow regions.

I'm still waiting on a fan that has either bearings around the outside (very challenging mechanically) or just a ring around the edge of the blades to completely stop any tip vortices.


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## terroralpha (Sep 25, 2015)

so i went with the SP120 quiet edition PWM fans. they arrived today. i hooked one up inside my case as exhaust and have it spinning at about 1000 RPM / 9V and i can't heard it at all.... i think. but it's only 1 fan.

i don't have all my water cooling parts yet.

so far got,
Swiftech HydrX
EK EP 480mm rad,
EK supremacy EVO CPU block
EK 3/8" ID - 5/8" OD compression fittings
EK 5.25" bay reservoir + D5 PWM pump combo

i didn't set out to go all out EK stuff, but my local computer stores don't carry alphacool products. my choices were XSPC or EK for blocks and swiftech or EK for rads. the compression fittings i didn't pick or have to pay for, those were handed down to me. but i'm not complaining.

i'm looking at my res now and just realized that the fill port requires a G3/8 fitting while everything else is G1/4.... which is pretty stupid. my local microcenter doesn't have ANY G3/8 fittings. seriously..... i spent over an hour digging through their bins and couldn't find even 1.

in any case, i'm still waiting for the EK GPU blocks. and still looking for tubing.


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## Nordic (Sep 25, 2015)

terroralpha said:


> so i went with the SP120 quiet edition PWM fans. they arrived today. i hooked one up inside my case as exhaust and have it spinning at about 1000 RPM / 9V and i can't heard it at all.... i think. but it's only 1 fan.
> 
> i don't have all my water cooling parts yet.
> 
> ...


Might want to check the hardware store for something that will work for your fill port.


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## Brusfantomet (Sep 25, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> That is not consistent with the aerodynamics of the fan.
> 
> The SP120s (I haven't seen the AFs IRL) have quite a large gap between the blade tip and the housing, this is compared to the GTs and the stock case fans. Because of the larger gap, more air can flow over the wingtip, these vortices are what cause a lot of the air related noise in most fans. Worse still, the gap is not equal around the circumference, this creates the effect that in some areas (where the housing is closest) the pressure under/over the fan will be higher/lower (respectively), and it will continually vary as the fan is spinning. The increase and decrease in pressure is very perceptible and it seems to (at least by my ears) match the sound profile. It would be like comparing a turbofan with a propeller engine on the plane, propellers have a very distinct report due to the open tips, while a large portion of the noise on a turbofan originates from the power turbine and the deltaV between the different airflow regions.
> 
> I'm still waiting on a fan that has either bearings around the outside (very challenging mechanically) or just a ring around the edge of the blades to completely stop any tip vortices.



the  Noiseblocker e-loop have that ring. Expensive, and i have not tried them.

Personally i use  Arctic cooling F12 PWM but that was mostly because i got them for super cheap, and you were able to daisy-chain as many as you wanted on one 4 pin contact. Both important aspects when i use 24 of them (18 on one radiator), in addition, with some voltage trickery i am able to make them hover on ca 400 to 500 rpm when idle.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 25, 2015)

Hmm, those noiseblockers are pretty damn good, might have to try a few. Along with a few noctuas maybe...


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## erocker (Sep 25, 2015)

I use the high performance SP1120's (9 of them) hooked into two fan controllers and they work great. Anti-vibration mounts, the blades are easily removed from the body for cleaning and I haven't had one fail yet.


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## terroralpha (Sep 25, 2015)

james888 said:


> Might want to check the hardware store for something that will work for your fill port.



that's what I had to do. found one brass barb fitting that fits the G 3/8 threading of the fill port and my 3/8" ID tubing. but it's way too damn long and I'm in the process of cutting it down from both ends.


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## terroralpha (Sep 30, 2015)

Brusfantomet said:


> the  Noiseblocker e-loop have that ring. Expensive, and i have not tried them.
> 
> Personally i use  Arctic cooling F12 PWM but that was mostly because i got them for super cheap, and you were able to daisy-chain as many as you wanted on one 4 pin contact. Both important aspects when i use 24 of them (18 on one radiator), in addition, with some voltage trickery i am able to make them hover on ca 400 to 500 rpm when idle.



i managed to get 1 NB eloop fan locally today. the store had just 1. bought it on impulse. it's the alphacool 1200 RPM version, a slightly deturned noiseblocker 1300 RPM. 0.9 mmH20 rating vs 1.0 mmH2O. and i got to say, this thing seemed pretty worthless on the airflow side of things. strapped it to a 40mm radiator and felt almost nothing coming out the other end. it's definitely quiet, but it doesn't seem to be pushing much. after playing around with it for a little i did a google search and found a lab test of this fan, it actually only produces 0.6 mmH20!!! that's less than half of what a quiet SP120 pushes. i seriously don't get the hype with the eloops.

then i found this: 







that's the 1300 RPM noiseblocker eloop. maxes out at 1.0 mmH2O as promised but still less than the 1.4mmH2O SP120 quiet editions puts out while also definitely being louder.

in any case, i got my first batch of SP120 fans. 4 of them, and 4 more coming. 1 is making some kind of rattling noise but corsair said they'll exchange it. the other 3 are great. at 10V i can't hear them at all from inside the case and they are definitely moving a decent amount of air at that speed. not exactly sure how fast they are spinning.
in the end i'm glad i went with the SP120s. i was almost ready to splurge on typhoons but decided not to.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Sep 30, 2015)

Hmm, will be sending my H75 back later, the pump on it is dying, so I'll ask about the fans when I do that.


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 30, 2015)

terroralpha said:


> gentle typhoons and CM jetflos get all the praise it seems. GTs are just way too expensive. no way in hell i'm paying $30 a fan. i've played with a jetflo 120 and it sounded like a leaf blower. even with the low noise adapters @ 1200 RPM they are loud enough to be annoying.



The irony of your post is - Even if you wanted to spend $30 on GTs, you simply cant as they dont make them anymore. This happened well over a year ago so retailers are pretty much bingo on stock. If you're lucky you might find a retailer that might have a few of them left. But most WC enthusiasts probably cleaned the shelves once they heard they were no longer being made. The only way to get them now is on the pre-owned market and i doubt many a watercooler would be willing to part with their GTs. If they did though, they would probably be charging more than $30

If you want something similar to GTs have a look at EKWB Vardar fans. I run a pair of them on my H105 and they can be pretty quiet at 1300rpms while providing decent performance. they are pretty much silent to 1500rpms then you start to hear a gentle woosh.


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## terroralpha (Sep 30, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> The irony of your post is - Even if you wanted to spend $30 on GTs, you simply cant as they dont make them anymore. This happened well over a year ago so retailers are pretty much bingo on stock. If you're lucky you might find a retailer that might have a few of them left. But most WC enthusiasts probably cleaned the shelves once they heard they were no longer being made. The only way to get them now is on the pre-owned market and i doubt many a watercooler would be willing to part with their GTs. If they did though, they would probably be charging more than $30
> 
> If you want something similar to GTs have a look at EKWB Vardar fans. I run a pair of them on my H105 and they can be pretty quiet at 1300rpms while providing decent performance. they are pretty much silent to 1500rpms then you start to hear a gentle woosh.



I'm a little lost. What do you mean by "they dont make them anymore"? Sure they do. Scythe doesn't have them anymore but they were only a brand. The original OEM that made them for scythe was nidec servo. Nidec branded GTs are readily available at Amazon for around $23 with prime. 

Am I missing something?


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 30, 2015)

terroralpha said:


> I'm a little lost. What do you mean by "they dont make them anymore"? Sure they do. Scythe doesn't have them anymore but they were only a brand. The original OEM that made them for scythe was nidec servo. Nidec branded GTs are readily available at Amazon for around $23 with prime.
> 
> Am I missing something?



It seems there has been a little confusion and a lot of flip-flopping going around regarding GTs that i havent been keeping up with once it was announced that Nidec was ending their partnership with Scythe. There is a lot of conflicting information out there regarding the Patents on the GTs. Nidec owned the patents to the motor/impeller where as Scythe probably the fin design. Now it seems Nidec has 100% rights to the entire fan but not the scythe brand name for obvious reasons.... Nidec has said that they wont discontinue production of GTs


For that matter they are the exact same fans but without the scythe name.

::EDIT::

Also if the model number of the fans youre seeing is 'D1225C12B6AP-60' I dont think they're gonna be that silent...... Even with 1850rpm GTs that i had, they we'rent exactly silent at full speed which is what i had them running at constantly


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## Nordic (Sep 30, 2015)

terroralpha said:


> found this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


With the noise blockers, you have confirmed what I was saying earlier. There is a trade off between noise and performance. The noise blockers are definitely quiet but that is all.

Really glad you like the corsairs. They are a nice balance between noise and performance I think. They are of an acceptable noise level for me, and still audible at 7v. Really nice that you can't hear them at 10v.


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 30, 2015)

james888 said:


> With the noise blockers, you have confirmed what I was saying earlier. There is a trade off between noise and performance. The noise blockers are definitely quiet but that is all.
> 
> Really glad you like the corsairs. They are a nice balance between noise and performance I think. They are of an acceptable noise level for me, and still audible at 7v. Really nice that you can't hear them at 10v.



I have a few corsair SPs, Though I dont run them anymore. way too loud at full bore and made an annoying click if you undervolted them


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## Nordic (Sep 30, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I have a few corsair SPs, Though I dont run them anymore. way too loud at full bore and made an annoying click if you undervolted them


Different people have different tolerances for sound. I find them to be right at an acceptable noise level at 12v. The OP was worried about how loud they are, and found out they are much quieter than he anticipated.

The tick though, that is interesting. I never heard a ticking on any of mine. I do find that to be an indicator of fan quality.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 1, 2015)

james888 said:


> Different people have different tolerances for sound. I find them to be right at an acceptable noise level at 12v. The OP was worried about how loud they are, and found out they are much quieter than he anticipated.
> 
> The tick though, that is interesting. I never heard a ticking on any of mine. I do find that to be an indicator of fan quality.



I was running the 2350 RPM fans not the slower 'quiet editions'


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## Nordic (Oct 1, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I was running the 2350 RPM fans not the slower 'quiet editions'


Those are what I have. I also have some of the airflow ones too.


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## terroralpha (Oct 5, 2015)

none of the eight  SP120


james888 said:


> With the noise blockers, you have confirmed what I was saying earlier. There is a trade off between noise and performance. The noise blockers are definitely quiet but that is all.
> 
> Really glad you like the corsairs. They are a nice balance between noise and performance I think. They are of an acceptable noise level for me, and still audible at 7v. Really nice that you can't hear them at 10v.



are you sure you have the quiet editions? i connected my SP120 QEs via Noctua low noise adapters. they come in packs of 3 for about $6. they drop the voltage to about 8.4V. and when the case is closed I can't hear them from 3 feet away. at 10V i can only hear them in the dead of night.


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## Nordic (Oct 5, 2015)

terroralpha said:


> none of the eight  SP120
> 
> 
> are you sure you have the quiet editions? i connected my SP120 QEs via Noctua low noise adapters. they come in packs of 3 for about $6. they drop the voltage to about 8.4V. and when the case is closed I can't hear them from 3 feet away. at 10V i can only hear them in the dead of night.


I do not have the quiet editions. I did not realize you were getting the quiet editions. Mine are 2350rpm, reduced to 7v are probably pretty close to the quiet editions at 12v.


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## RyanK (Oct 5, 2015)

The SP fans are just another corsair product, and if you know corsair, they are very good at marketing. They do offer great customer service however and generally have manufacturers supply them with quality hardware for their name. I have had corsair things I liked, a case or two especially. However, you can get much better hardware elsewhere. As for fans, corsair fans are nothing special. If you want top quality fans and don't like Noctua. Then Phanteks, or BeQuiet! Make very very nice fans.


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## terroralpha (Oct 6, 2015)

RyanK said:


> The SP fans are just another corsair product, and if you know corsair, they are very good at marketing. They do offer great customer service however and generally have manufacturers supply them with quality hardware for their name. I have had corsair things I liked, a case or two especially. However, you can get much better hardware elsewhere. As for fans, corsair fans are nothing special. If you want top quality fans and don't like Noctua. Then Phanteks, or BeQuiet! Make very very nice fans.



not a fan of noctua (pun intended). i did some research and it seems that they lie about their fan performance. for example, the NF-F12 PWM is supposed to produce 2.6 mmH2O of static pressure at 1500 RPM. but they max at about 1.9 mmH2O. plus they sound like vacuum cleaners at max speeds. corsair fans on the other actually do meet and even exceed the advertised specs. a typical the SP 120 quiet edition can actually produce 1.4 mmH2O but are advertised as 1.3 while being manageable acoustically at max speed. you can hear them, but they aren't bad. 

i have a Phanteks enthoo primo case that came with their own branded fans. several months back i decided to "upgrade" to A14 PWMs when newegg was giving out $20 off $50 coupons, i figured it would be a cheap and worthwhile upgrade. but the temperature inside my case actually went up a few degrees Celsius with the noctuas. i ended up returning them all. that's what prompted me to start doing research in the first place. i do like the phanteks fans and also like the vardar fans. but vardars are way too expensive. it was a tough choice between phanteks and corsair for me, until i found way to get them cheap, at $5.50 a pop. then it was just a no brianer. 

on any normal day i wouldn't buy corsair products. their RAM is overpriced, their SSDs suck and super flower leadex based PSUs are better than anything Corsair has in that department. but these fans are actually pretty good.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 7, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Also if the model number of the fans youre seeing is 'D1225C12B6AP-60' I dont think they're gonna be that silent...... Even with 1850rpm GTs that i had, they we'rent exactly silent at full speed which is what i had them running at constantly



I just bit the bullet for a pair of these... a little over $64 in total (about $2 was shipping) I wasnt going to but one of my Vardar F4's is developing a buzz or a rattle that stops as soon as i push the impeller back against the motor.

At first i thought the rattle/grinding noise was just from noisy hard drives but i stopped a fan with my finger and the sound went away.

Will be cool to see how they match up against the Vardars. I already know they run a lot more quieter










Jump to 4.40 in the video - its when the testing starts


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## Nordic (Oct 7, 2015)

I expected the gentle typhoons to be quieter, but which has more static pressure.


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## cdawall (Oct 7, 2015)

You are all nuts the best radiator fans are nidec betaV's. 255CFM of pure unadulterated power.

On another note I use SP120's in my normal PC. They work fine and are quieter than the video cards when undervolted. I have 6 of them in my case, 4 in push/pull on an h100 the rest as intake/exhaust fans.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 7, 2015)

james888 said:


> I expected the gentle typhoons to be quieter, but which has more static pressure.



i think the Corsair SPs for sure. 3.1mm/H2o if youre going at full bore for the performance fans but they are LOUD

I cant get an exact measurement for the new GTs but according to a few sources its about 28pa = 2.86mm/H2o - Obviously, I dont have the exact datasheets and calculations are based off specs from their website and an online calculator used to calculate the overall static pressure.

GTs have always been more about a decent noise to performance ratio rather than a corsair SP that just rams air through a radiator rather then gently scooping it up and ushering it through the dense fin array of your radiator.



cdawall said:


> You are all nuts the best radiator fans are nidec betaV's. 255CFM of pure unadulterated power.
> .



I have a pair of these given to me by Rcoon. Sadly i went through 4 or 5 sets of different screws and all of them were too short


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## cdawall (Oct 7, 2015)

I have mine setup in an overclocking rig. Complete with shrouds etc. They make noise, but they also maintain ambient temp for my watercooler.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 7, 2015)

cdawall said:


> I have mine setup in an overclocking rig. Complete with shrouds etc. They make noise, but they also maintain ambient temp for my watercooler.




Do you know the size/name/partnumber of the screws you used?


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## cdawall (Oct 7, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Do you know the size/name/partnumber of the screws you used?



Mine are screwed into the shrouds, or use stubbies. They all have open ended corners.


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## Nordic (Oct 7, 2015)

Sound is all subjective, I find my corsair sp120's not quiet editions to be an acceptable noise level at full speed. I do not call them quiet. They are all fine fans. I got corsairs because they were cheap for what I think is a good balance of performance/noise.

When I started watercooling and I had a thread like this, everyone told me to get yate loons. That they were quiet, cheap, and performed exceptionally. In my experience they were loud, cheap, and performed ok. They had an awful ticking noise even at full rpm too. All 4 that I got. So I tried some corsair sp120's and they were quieter than the yate loons, performed better, and were only $7.

EK vadar fans have 3.16mm/H2O @ 2200rpm, for 33.5 dBA
Corsair sp120 has 3.1 mm/H20 @ 2350rpm, for 35 dBA
If the spec sheets are honest, the ek fan is technically better.

Gentle Typhoon has 2.86mm/H2o but I don't know what rpm that is at, or what dba. It honestly does not matter. I got all of my corsair fans for about $7.  It is really telling that corsair fans are priced so low while used while gentle typhoons go for a fortune.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 7, 2015)

Imo its all about that fan and motor design. Ive used GTs for years and every alternatively ive used has been too loud at full rpm or didnt offer the kind of performance i was looking for. Even with all the noise absorbing material inside my Fractal Define XL the SP was unbearable unless i ran it at at 70-90% power. Just at that level where it would start to make a loud woosh. I left maximum voltage for hot days where it would reach beyond 27'c in my room


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 11, 2015)

Well.... Just swapped over to the new GTs then back to the vardars Because Asus lies about 'Fan Xpert+' Fan Xpert+ was supposed to be able to turn normal fans into PWM fans but it didnt work for the GTs. Going to need to dig out my fan controller and manually control all my fans again.

The sound profile was instantly better than the vardars at full speed though, but i guess sound is pretty subjective.


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## manofthem (Oct 11, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I cant get an exact measurement for the new GTs but according to a few sources its about 28pa = 2.86mm/H2o





FreedomEclipse said:


> st swapped over to the new GTs then back to the vardars



I'm a little late to this discussion but which are these new GTs that are being discussed? I'd love to check out as I am a huge fan of the originals!

I just did a quick Google search. Are these new GTs the Servo Gentle Typhoon fans?


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 11, 2015)

manofthem said:


> I'm a little late to this discussion but which are these new GTs that are being discussed? I'd love to check out as I am a huge fan of the originals!
> 
> I just did a quick Google search. Are these new GTs the Servo Gentle Typhoon fans?




Here you go


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 13, 2015)

Finally got time to dig out my NZXT Sentry Mix 2 - Gonna start hooking everything up and also switch back to the GTs soon. be nice to have all my fans be able to switch to from wind tunnel mode and back to barely audible at the flick of a few switches again.

gonna look real sweet at night with this white glow.







So minor changes are also needed. one of the LED strips has a few dead LEDs, that one will get switched for one that wasnt plugged in


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## terroralpha (Nov 2, 2015)

my 480mm rads are now cooled by SP120 QEs and Thermaltake Riing fans, and my 280mm rad is cooled by noctua redux fans. the only thing i hear from my case now are my stupid 3x 4TB seagate hard drives. now i just have to wait for SSDs to fall in price some more...


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## cdawall (Nov 2, 2015)

Ignore the me in this (was years ago), but none of the fans mentioned will ever touch these for static pressure on radiators.


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## Nordic (Nov 3, 2015)

cdawall said:


> Ignore the me in this (was years ago), but none of the fans mentioned will ever touch these for static pressure on radiators.


Sure, that is great if all you want is performance. I really liked how you used one of those fans to cool both the cpu and gpu in a mini itx system. That was a pretty epic little system.


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## cdawall (Nov 3, 2015)

james888 said:


> Sure, that is great if all you want is performance. I really liked how you used one of those fans to cool both the cpu and gpu in a mini itx system. That was a pretty epic little system.



Thanks I miss it. They are pwm fans power them via the psu and use a fan header to control it.


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