[SOLVED] Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 (sTRX4) upgrade

[sa07kaiser]

Has anyone tried to install more powerful fans instead of the standard ones on Dark Rock Pro 4? I mean add Silent wings 3 120mm 2200 rpm and Silent wings 3 140mm 1600 rpm.
How much does this help? I want to assemble a working machine with a 3960x (don’t tell me about water ahah)) And every degree is important to me, and I'm interested.

 

[Karadjgne]

Depends on your fan curves, upto a point. And there's nothing saying a higher rpm fan actually gets any real better performance vrs a heatsink. It's not a straight line. The fans on my cooler at 900rpm silent mode are only 3-4°C behind 1500rpm performance mode. And my old nzxt Kraken X61 was the exact same way.

The fan not only has to have a goodly amount of static pressure, but also a close ratio spread. If the fan has too wide an output cone, even higher sp levels won't help with higher rpm as most of the air will go out the sides of the cooler. That hurts the thin towers a whole lot less than the deep towers like the scythe mugen. Too much resistance from turbulence between the fins.

You'll get the benefit out of the center fan for that.

You'll probably find there's not many opting for a higher rpm version of the same fan, if ppl are swapping fans it'll either be to argb/rgb or something like a Noctua chromax.

 

[sa07kaiser]

Depends on your fan curves, upto a point. And there's nothing saying a higher rpm fan actually gets any real better performance vrs a heatsink. It's not a straight line. The fans on my cooler at 900rpm silent mode are only 3-4°C behind 1500rpm performance mode. And my old nzxt Kraken X61 was the exact same way.

The fan not only has to have a goodly amount of static pressure, but also a close ratio spread. If the fan has too wide an output cone, even higher sp levels won't help with higher rpm as most of the air will go out the sides of the cooler. That hurts the thin towers a whole lot less than the deep towers like the scythe mugen. Too much resistance from turbulence between the fins.

You'll get the benefit out of the center fan for that.

You'll probably find there's not many opting for a higher rpm version of the same fan, if ppl are swapping fans it'll either be to argb/rgb or something like a Noctua chromax.

This partly explains why manufacturers are not trying to add more powerful fans, although they could. As is the case with Be Quiet or Noctua. It just seems that they find the optimal values when the extra 300 rpm no longer gives a significant result, but significantly increase the noise. I looked for a lot of options up to the use of an industrial fan on the cooler tower from Noctua (In a good soundproof case, all fine)) and nowhere did I find understanding when talking with professionals XD
I am very fun and interesting to study this. Thanks a lot. I will search and think more.

 

[Karadjgne]

No worries. Ppl have been debating fans vs heatsinks for years, some saying cfm is all important, some sp but there's far more to it. One of the best all time rad fans is the now ancient Noctua NF-F12. What made it so good, regardless of slightly lower sp and cfm and rpm, was its flow characteristics. It's cone of exhaust is almost 0° perpendicular, so all of its air is directed in a straight cone. Many other fans, can have a broadcast as much as 90-120°, so hitting fins at extreme angles, which by virtue of bouncing off a solid object, naturally creates turbulence, and due to the angle, looses a lot of sp.

The science of taking a fans properties and pairing it up with a heatsink, or creating both from scratch etc, is huge. Cryorig has done it very successfully with the H7 and its honeycomb finstack, Noctua won't release a design until it passes their version of perfection etc.

Other companies also do their homework, like beQuiet, and use existing fans, adjusting distance between fins, depth, count, heatpipe number, size, configurations and even fin composition etc. So if anyone has put a higher rpm silent wings on a DR Pro 4, they have and more than likely come to the conclusion that it offers little to no benefit. I could be wrong, dunno, for sure. But then again, beQuiet is also a company more tailored towards individual performance and not mass market flooding like some other companies.

This test was done by silverstone, the last fan is like the NF-F12, a solid flow, others before it show different cone angles. Put into a heatsink imagine where all that air is really going, and will higher rpm really do anything. For the last fan, probably some, the others not so much, if anything.

View: https://youtu.be/8m8fC809TK0

 

[sa07kaiser]

....
This test was done by silverstone, the last fan is like the NF-F12, a solid flow, others before it show different cone angles. Put into a heatsink imagine where all that air is really going, and will higher rpm really do anything. For the last fan, probably some, the others not so much, if anything.

View: https://youtu.be/8m8fC809TK0

Hello! Thank you for your responses
Yesterday I installed 3960x and BeQuiet DR PRO TR4. I tried Noctua Nf-F12 fan. It is noisy and does not give a performance gain! (But I do not regret) (aaand a 25 mm thick fan cannot be inserted in the middle due to anti-vibration pads on the radiator. The complete fan is thinner than usual.)
It's funny.
I just installed standard fans and an additional third fan from BeQuiet at the back (the brackets were bundled with DR Pro TR4). Thermal grease NH-T1. Case Fractal Design Define S. This cooler is easily able to hold 83 degrees with a tolerable noise level when accelerating to 3.9-4.1 mhz. At a base frequency of 3.8 - 68 degrees (corona renderer). All these water cooling recommendations for sTRX4 now seem ridiculous to me. And you gave me a new hobby - now Silverstone AP-120i Pro PWM is traveling from the USA to my Russian quiet. Thank you very much XD

 

[Karadjgne]

The water cooling isn't as rediculous as it may seem. The Threadripper cpus are originally designed as workhorse cpus, just for apps like the Corona Renderer you used for testing. Bump up the OC to get some shorter rendering times, maybe help out in the odd game or two. But many are under the impression that 83°C is still too high for long term usage, and would prefer to max out temps in the 70's at most. So you get liquid cooling.

You seem ok with your temps, so the aircooling works for those occasional extreme usages, others may not agree. It's just a matter of opinion and need.

 

[sa07kaiser]

The water cooling isn't as rediculous as it may seem. The Threadripper cpus are originally designed as workhorse cpus, just for apps like the Corona Renderer you used for testing. Bump up the OC to get some shorter rendering times, maybe help out in the odd game or two. But many are under the impression that 83°C is still too high for long term usage, and would prefer to max out temps in the 70's at most. So you get liquid cooling.

You seem ok with your temps, so the aircooling works for those occasional extreme usages, others may not agree. It's just a matter of opinion and need.

Unfortunately or fortunately, in image rendering, increasing the frequency of the processor does not seriously affect the results. The number of cores and the number of threads are importantly. As for my personal example - the difference between 4.0 and 3.8 (by the way, using Precision Boost Overdrive will void your warranty. Hello Asus, why is this feature initially activated in your BIOS?) will have to be looked for very, very carefully, and I did not notice it.
It is clear so far that you need to carefully look at the type of tasks and select the appropriate cooling type.

 

[sa07kaiser]

Unfortunately or fortunately, in image rendering, increasing the frequency of the processor does not seriously affect the results. The number of cores and the number of threads are importantly. As for my personal example - the difference between 4.0 and 3.8 (by the way, using Precision Boost Overdrive will void your warranty. Hello Asus, why is this feature initially activated in your BIOS?) will have to be looked for very, very carefully, and I did not notice it.
It is clear so far that you need to carefully look at the type of tasks and select the appropriate cooling type.

Hello again.
I can’t believe my eyes. I see the processor have 75-77 degrees (82-83 - standard fan) when overclocking to 4.1 with 1.20v-1.24v cores - today Silverstone AP 120i Pro came to me and I installed it. He growls a little, but at the 1680 rpm his motor actually no louder than a standard Be Quiet fan's motor, and more importantly, he’s more stable in tones. This is something special.
My respect for Silverstone, perhaps AP120i Pro is the best 120mm fan right now.
Thank you very much for mentioning this fan. The upgrade is complete.