[SOLVED] Fan Advice

[MannyChachere]

Hey,
So I'm building a new computer and I need help choosing fans for my AIO, if necessary at all.

First, when choosing an AIO, the performance benefits and differences between all of them is mostly the fans attached to them right?
If so, I could just choose 360 AIO that i'd like in my system and replace the fans, regardless of fan noise and cooling performance stats on the AIO?

Next, fan choice.
Note: ARGBs not needed, my build will only use Red Lighting.
So i'm looking for a fan with Red lighting but will stay "silent" while pulling air through my radiator, which will a 360mm rad. For context, the case is a CoolerMaster MC500.
As far as silent goes, for reference, i'm using the Corsair SP120 Red and while they are "quite" for me at 1500rpms i don't like that the red light is pretty much none existent as they are pulling air through my rad up top. So I am looking for new LED fans for brightness or more vivid lighting, as far as cost, while i've already confirmed with my wallet that $140 for 3 fans (Corsair QL ) I'd rather not drop that on 3 fans. Also, wanted to stay away from ARGB if possible because of cable management. That being said, its not a deal breaker.

Now I did look into the Halo Lux thing, and was thinking, I could go Noctua and attach that to them.. But pricing noctua nf-p12 and the Phanteks Halo lux, well, i might as well go for Corsair or Cooler Master then.

So now im left with the question, which fan will give me a nice, solid, vivd red light while having decent SP to pull/push air through a rad in the front of a case while staying relatively silent? I'm looking for something under 25dBA.

Additionally,
Fan setup will be a 360m rad in the front with 3 120mms
2 120mm up top and 1 120mm in the back.

Im thinking pulling air through the front and rad.
Now should I even that out with the other 3 pushing out or should do more positive and have them pull air through the top?

AIO fans to compare them to will be either the Corsair 360 H150i or the Coolermaster ML360. I want to try and keep the fans and AIO by the same dealer. Part of me says go for the CM ML360 but that wire management got me scared tbh. Tho, its got a better price than the Corsair... everything... first world problems i swear. Anyways, yeah.

Corsair fans considerations:
QL
LL
HD
SP

Cooler Master fans considerations:
MF120 Halo
SP120
MF120

Again, while most of my considerations are ARGB, not only do I plan on just using solid red lighting, I dont plan on doing patterns are stuff. While its cool, i dont have a true want for that.
So if someone else can drop some other brands with good lighting, good SP and stays under 25dBA at or around 1500rpms, then great. Personally, was leaning towards HD/LL and thought maybe the QL and SP120 (Cooler Master) wouldn't been as good for Rad as the others. But I know the CM ML comes with the MF120 and the H150i comes with their ML120 series fans.

Side note:
Custom Water cooling. I'm open to the idea, but I know nothing about it and im concerned about the upkeep/maintenance on it. Also, would it be a waste because im only cooling CPU not GPU.

 

[Lutfij]

I'm not a fan of RGB'ing the fans and the build since it just adds a headache in terms of how you connect them. Even if they all plug in to the right ports, getting them to all sync is another nightmare in itself.

I would ask that you look at Thermaltake's Riing fans that have the higher static pressure variant. They make case fans that are also under the Riing branding but the radiator fans will have the higher static pressure rating. Here is a link to the one I'm taking about. They connect off of the fan header and don't need an additional LED wire to run to it(as opposed to the other RGB LED fans out there).

You might want to read through the watercooling sticky to get a better answer about your watercooling question. It's pretty informative and generally covers all questions, ironing out doubts.

 

[Karadjgne]

Your assumption is pretty on track about performance of AIO's being related to fans. There's not many OEMs for rads and pumps, so most are very similar, if not the same across brands. It's the fans that make the differences. But thats not the whole story.

Ability and capacity are 2 seperate beasts. And that's where knowing the intended cpu output is of importance. For instance a 120mm rad is roughly 140w capable. A 360mm rad is roughly 350w capable. For a 50w i3, there'd be almost no difference, even a 65w Ryzen wouldn't see much difference, if any. A 200w OC on a i7 9700k (that's just an all core lock at 5.0GHz) is going to see a major difference. But then again, there'd not be much difference to a 300w 280mm and a 350w 360mm to that cpu.

Bigger doesn't mean better performance, just higher capacity. Meaning the temp curve on a higher capacity is shallower for longer. 120w output on a 140w AIO is going to have high temps as it's close to maxing capacity, so will be high on the curve. 120w on a 240mm, 280mm or 360mm is chump change for capacity, so will be low on the curve. That's not performance.

Custom loops are just AIO's you have to think about. And that involves every aspect from the pump to rad size to flow to tubing size, coolant mix, maintenence, everything.

Take your $140 budget and quadruple it and that'd be a good start.

A single light strip puts out way more light than any mix of fans.

 

[MannyChachere]

Your assumption is pretty on track about performance of AIO's being related to fans. There's not many OEMs for rads and pumps, so most are very similar, if not the same across brands. It's the fans that make the differences. But thats not the whole story.

Ability and capacity are 2 seperate beasts. And that's where knowing the intended cpu output is of importance. For instance a 120mm rad is roughly 140w capable. A 360mm rad is roughly 350w capable. For a 50w i3, there'd be almost no difference, even a 65w Ryzen wouldn't see much difference, if any. A 200w OC on a i7 9700k (that's just an all core lock at 5.0GHz) is going to see a major difference. But then again, there'd not be much difference to a 300w 280mm and a 350w 360mm to that cpu.

Bigger doesn't mean better performance, just higher capacity. Meaning the temp curve on a higher capacity is shallower for longer. 120w output on a 140w AIO is going to have high temps as it's close to maxing capacity, so will be high on the curve. 120w on a 240mm, 280mm or 360mm is chump change for capacity, so will be low on the curve. That's not performance.

Custom loops are just AIO's you have to think about. And that involves every aspect from the pump to rad size to flow to tubing size, coolant mix, maintenence, everything.

Take your $140 budget and quadruple it and that'd be a good start.

A single light strip puts out way more light than any mix of fans.

So, lets confirm, im going to run a 3700x. I understand the CPU fan it comes with is more than enough to cool down the beast but preference wise, i was never into cpu coolers like that. Just not my taste. I do understand that a 360m rad could be considered overkill with that kind of CPU too.

I do appreciate the knowledge drop tho, I never really stopped to think about CPU output vs AIO ability/capacity.

As far as Watercooling, the price is something that have contemplated for a while and I keep going back to, do i have time to keep up with maintenance, and honestly, i dont think i do.

Light strip is something i've looked into too. I may do one. I just wanna make sure that im putting the correct fan on a rad. So many options and im not fluent in all the terms and measurements of Air/Static Pressure.
On my other rig, i got the CM ML360R and those fans are LOUD at even 1000rpms. Yet the Corsair HDs that are on there start getting load around 1500rpms but they arent Rad fans from what i've heard.

 

[MannyChachere]

I'm not a fan of RGB'ing the fans and the build since it just adds a headache in terms of how you connect them. Even if they all plug in to the right ports, getting them to all sync is another nightmare in itself.

I would ask that you look at Thermaltake's Riing fans that have the higher static pressure variant. They make case fans that are also under the Riing branding but the radiator fans will have the higher static pressure rating. Here is a link to the one I'm taking about. They connect off of the fan header and don't need an additional LED wire to run to it(as opposed to the other RGB LED fans out there).

You might want to read through the watercooling sticky to get a better answer about your watercooling question. It's pretty informative and generally covers all questions, ironing out doubts.

Trust me, I hear you on that RGB thing.
Build a fully RGB rig for my GF, worst experience ever. Coolermaster needs to really figure out a better wiring solution for their ML360R. Took me Hours longer than it should have, doesn't help i got the Corsair Cardibe case so theres barely any room to wire manage the chunky power cable, let alone the ARGB pins. But I digress.

I haven't seen any of those wires on a Single color fan, which is what I really wanted to go for. But i've noticed that alot of the single color fans also come with higher Noise even at lower rpms. Someone also recommended EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB for Rads so im gonna look into those as well.

The Thermaltake fans look good, i may look into getting those + the AIO unit.

 

[Karadjgne]

Well, there's 3 kinds of lighting on fans.

1. LED. Single color, not changeable, powered by the fan. For pwm 4pin fans, the led is constant 12v so light never changes. For DC 3pin fans, the voltage is changed to control the fan, so the led dims with slower than max rpm.
2. RGB. Single color, changeable color and brightness. Seperately controlled than fan, seperately powered than fan. No rainbow affect or multiple coloring possible. Fan or strip, same thing. 12v almost always, max of 12w per header. Usually 3 fans maximum, controlled by Amperage changes, so hubs are very expensive for more than 3 controllable.
3. Addressable RGB (ARGB). Each individual led has its own controller chip, so any color possible on any led, controlled by software. Fan or strip, same thing. Works on pwm system, so easily gangable, capable of @ 72 fans total with ganged, powered hubs as 5v power is a constant, unlike variable amperage of RGB. Any affect, brightness, color or variation possible with software addressing/control.