Corsair 100R front intake fan, SP or AF ?

[Hiran_]

Hello Folks...

I recently bought a corsair 100R and im looking to put a front intake fan to my case.as you guys might know 100 R has a very little opening in the front panel (as shown in the picture below)

the problem is should i use a corsair SP series fan or a corsair AF series fan, some says that get a SP fan since you have a very little intake from out side but some says SP fans are only used with radiators/hard drive bays etc etc...

Im going to mount this fan to the middle of my front panel so there will not be any obstructions to air flow in side the case.the only concern i have is the air coming form the out side in to the case.since the air coming through the front panel will be very little, what fan model should i use ?
a SP one or a AF one ?

 

[Isokolon]

Scrap the crappy Corsair SP/AF fans.
Invest a handful of $ and get Noctua A-14 or P-14s or Phanteks F140SP/XP

They're better in every regard (bearing, noise, air pushed, pressure)

 

[lunyone]

You can just contact Corsair and ask them directly. I'm sure they will suggest the correct ones for that case. My guess is the AF series are the ones that they use, but I could be wrong. You can invest in some higher-end ones, like Isokolon mentioned, but this isn't always the most economical way to do it.

 

[Hiran_]

Thanks for the suggestions both of you but the problem is noctua and phantek kind of out of thr budget for me atm.so thats why i was going for corsair ones + everything in my case is corsair so thats another reason i picked the corsair.

 

[lunyone]

No problems getting a Corsair fan, better than a lot of other options out there. I would get ahold of Corsair and ask them to be 100% sure, but I'm betting the AF ones are used. You can see which ones are used in the case and that could also give you an idea too.

 

[Isokolon]

how expensive is Phanteks/Noctua at your location? where I live they are like 4$ more...

anyway, if you're sticking with Corsair, I'd prefer the ML, however they will be severely out of your price range I figure
so go with the AF140, if you decide for a 120mm fan (which I wouldn't do) go with the SP120, as the AF120 is one of the worst mainstream fans imo

 

[SammChisnall]

how expensive is Phanteks/Noctua at your location? where I live they are like 4$ more...

anyway, if you're sticking with Corsair, I'd prefer the ML, however they will be severely out of your price range I figure
so go with the AF140, if you decide for a 120mm fan (which I wouldn't do) go with the SP120, as the AF120 is one of the worst mainstream fans imo

How are the SP/AF's bad? i'm running 3x intake AF120's, 1 exhaust AF140 and 6 Radiator SP120's and they perform perfectly, extremely quiet. keep everything cool, what more can you want from a fan?

OP the case you're looking at has a similar issue to mine with the space for the intake fans to drag air from, i'm using 3 AF120's behind the front panel and they're doing the trick. SP120's are generally used for radiators or places where air is harder to pull/push so it is hard to say without experimenting. As @lunyone said you are better off contacting Corsair directly if you are really worried about buying the wrong fan but the chances are unless you're running an extremely hot build you wont really see much difference between the two.

 

[Hiran_]

Yeah going to ask them now.it only came with one normal case fan.i think those are kind of optimized for both af and sp.but i saw on some of their new cases (570X or something) they are using af fans.

And also i asked around one of my friends and hes logic is, even i use either a sp or a af it will get the same amount of air from the out side of the case.what matters is what happens to the air after it goes through the fan.so since im going to mount it in the middle and there isnt anything blocking the air from the inside go for af one.and if im going to mount the fan in front of the hard drives go for sp one dince it will need more pressure to go through the hard drive bay.

 

[djinfamous]

Buy the Corsair SP120's, they are superior in a variety of applications moreso then the AF model. The fin's of the fan are shaped in such a way to push through more obstacles resulting in static pressure. Unless you have a grill or mesh front panel with unrestricted airflow, that means no metal panel with small slits on the side or top/bottom, then you will not be receiving the full benefits of the AF model.

TLDR; Buy the SP 120/140 model for most situations.

 

[Isokolon]

how expensive is Phanteks/Noctua at your location? where I live they are like 4$ more...

anyway, if you're sticking with Corsair, I'd prefer the ML, however they will be severely out of your price range I figure
so go with the AF140, if you decide for a 120mm fan (which I wouldn't do) go with the SP120, as the AF120 is one of the worst mainstream fans imo

How are the SP/AF's bad? i'm running 3x intake AF120's, 1 exhaust AF140 and 6 Radiator SP120's and they perform perfectly, extremely quiet. keep everything cool, what more can you want from a fan?

they push significantly less air at lower pressure and louder noise, using a cheaper bearing than fans from Noctua, Phanteks, even Cougar fans are better.

I put together a litte list of some fans. Specs can be checked on the products' pages

Corsair AF120 air pushed 88.70m³/​h pressure 0.75mmH₂O sound 25.2 dBA
Corsair SP120 air pushed 63.97m³/​h pressure 1.29mmH₂O sound 23 dBA
Cougar CFD D12 air pushed 109.42m³/​h pressure 1.74mmH₂O sound 16.6 dBA (really more like 18 though)
Noctua S12B air pushed 100.6m³/​h pressure 1.31mmH₂O sound 18.1 dBA
Phanteks F120 air pushed 86,17m³/h pressure 1.0mmH₂O sound 23.5 dBA
BeQuiet SW 2 120 air pushed 85,80m³/h pressure 1.63mmH₂O sound 15,7 dBA
BlackSilent XL1 air pushed 69m³/h pressure 1.39mmH₂O sound 13 dBA (!)


Corsair AF140 air pushed 114.58m³/​h pressure 0.84mmH₂O sound 24dBA
Corsair SP140 air pushed 84.1m³/​h pressure 1.17mmH₂O sound 29,3 dBA
Cougar CFD D14 air pushed 124.40m³/​h pressure 1.4mmH₂O sound 18 dBA
Noctua A14 flx air pushed 115.5m³/​h pressure 1.51mmH₂O sound 19.2 dBA
Noctua P14s (1200) air pushed 110.3m³/​h pressure 1.29mmH₂O sound 19.6 dBA
Phanteks F140TS air pushed 130.9m³/​h pressure 1.21mmH₂O sound 19 dBA
Phanteks F140SP air pushed 139,0m³/h pressure 1.33mmH₂O sound 19 dBA
BeQuiet SW 2 140 air pushed 102.6m³/​h pressure 0.81mmH₂O sound 15.8 dBA

especially in the market for 140mm fans the Corsairs are stomped by the competition.
a Phanteks F140 pushes 75% more air while having higher pressure and creating roughly 2.5 times less noise than the SP140. Granted the Phanteks costs a little more (at my location 3€)
the SP120 is outperformed by the usually even cheaper Noiseblocker BlackSilent XL1 which is 3-4 times quieter (this fan is literally inaudible)

yes, the Corsairs get the job done. it's not like they don't get enough air inside your case or to your radiator.
and they are solid build quality, look good and last long. but their technical design simply sucks compared to some competitors.
the Corsairs are maybe the best cheap fans on the market, but honestly, does it matter so much when you're building a €1000 computer if your case fan costs €9 or €14?

 

[Hiran_]

yeah that was my point too, but lot of people say different stuff.that's why i asked here

 

[Hiran_]

Buy the Corsair SP120's, they are superior in a variety of applications moreso then the AF model. The fin's of the fan are shaped in such a way to push through more obstacles resulting in static pressure. Unless you have a grill or mesh front panel with unrestricted airflow, that means no metal panel with small slits on the side or top/bottom, then you will not be receiving the full benefits of the AF model.

TLDR; Buy the SP 120/140 model for most situations.

yeah that was my point too, but lot of people say different stuff.that's why i asked here

 

[Hiran_]

Thanks for the suggestions guys after searching,reading and think about it for a while i decided to go for the cooler master jetflo 120 since it has more airflow and more pressure compared to the corsair ones.with the noise reduction thing which reduce speed to the 1600 RPM the noise also will be ok.

 

[harvster01]

Hi, I think im going to get this case. Did you go for AF or SP in the end ? Also what did corsair recommend? Please reply sooner then later. Thanks