[SOLVED] Fractal Design 7 compact - fan configuration

[Hard_ware]

Intended for next build: Fractal Design 7 Compact (already here)
MSI Z690 Tomahawk DDR4 Wifi
12700K, 32 GB 3600 Mhz, 2 NVME PCIe SSDs 1 TB 970 Evo Plus, 3080
Be quiet Dark Rock 4 cooler
Silent Wing 3 Fans: Back 120mm, Top Rear 140mm, Front 2 x 140mm

Does it make sense to add another 120mm bottom fan in this specific case because it does not have enough airflow from the front side?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Does it make sense to add another 120mm bottom fan in this specific case because it does not have enough airflow from the front side?

the front-side vents actually provide a lot more air than it would appear.
my Vector RS is a similar design and you can feel tons of air being pulled in from around the front, even attracts loose paper sitting nearby.

if you remove all of the modular interior panels, drive housing, and anything else obstructing airflow adding a bottom fan blowing as directly into the GPU as possible will help lower graphics card temps.
adding a 3rd 140mm to the front can help achieve a similar outcome.

i would always stick with 140mm options where possible due to higher airflow even at lower RPMs.
if you haven't ordered or received the fans yet, i would change the order to ALL 140mm.

you can see my fan setup in my signature with an almost identical case design.
stays relatively silent at all times due to the Silent Wings and my lower-RPM fan curves in place and never even reaches 60°C for either CPU or GPU even with the most hardware intensive games running.

 

[Hard_ware]

the front-side vents actually provide a lot more air than it would appear.
my Vector RS is a similar design and you can feel tons of air being pulled in from around the front, even attracts loose paper sitting nearby.

if you remove all of the modular interior panels, drive housing, and anything else obstructing airflow adding a bottom fan blowing as directly into the GPU as possible it will help lower graphics card temps.
adding a 3rd 140mm to the front can help achieve a similar outcome.

i would always stick with 140mm options where possible due to higher airflow even at lower RPMs.
if you haven't ordered or received the fans yet, i would change the order to ALL 140mm.

you can see my fan setup in my signature with an almost identical case design.
stays relatively silent at all times due to the Silent Wings and my lower-RPM fan curves in place and never even reaches 60°C for either CPU or GPU even with the most hardware intensive games running.

Thank you for your ideas:
Unfortunately the Design 7 compact can have only 120mm fans at back and bottom - the rest will be 140 mm

Do you have any advantages with the high speed version for your fans? Is it not dificult to configure a quiet fan curve for non gaming operation? I looked into the specs and you do get only around 30% more CFM but around 13dbA more which is a lot. Would be interesting to read your thoughts on that. I have not ordered the fans yet.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Do you have any advantages with the high speed version for your fans?

even at their lowest RPM the High-Speed PWM version offers higher airflow and air pressure than the standard version.
~20-30CFM is quite a lot.

my fan curve for the front 3 tops out at 65% which still offers very good airflow and no noise whatsoever.
bottom & rear max at 75% which starts to get a bit more audible but blends with the ramping up GPU & radiator fan noise, which still remains fairly quiet.

the standard version still offers better specs than the majority of options out there but for the few dollars more at the time of purchase the High-Speed variants were a much better deal since you can just lower the RPM some to keep the decibels in a silent range.

 

[Hard_ware]

my fan curve for the front 3 tops out at 65% which still offers very good airflow and no noise whatsoever.
bottom & rear max at 75% which starts to get a bit more audible but blends with the ramping up GPU & radiator fan noise, which still remains fairly quiet.

The details are interesting. And as I assumed you limit the high speed version to 65% and 75% because they get too noisy.
Here is a graph PWM% / RPM for silent wings 3 high speed. If I am correct your fans never go over 1000RPM which is still in the specs of the non high speed version limit.
Could you please look at how high your rpms are at 65% and 75% PWM? Thanks.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

If I am correct your fans never go over 1000RPM which is still in the specs of the non high speed version limit.

the fans are not identical design; fan blade and other slight differences.
the High-Speed variant can offer more airflow & air pressure at the same RPM as the standard version.

when i get home later i will check what the exact RPM is at bottom & top of the respective curves.

but even so, for the few dollars more why wouldn't you go with a superior version of a product?

 

[Hard_ware]

when i get home later i will check what the exact RPM is at bottom & top of the respective curves.

I would appreciate this a lot, thanks.

but even so, for the few dollars more why wouldn't you go with a superior version of a product?

Very reasonabel: I have already 2 Silent Wings 3 - and I hessitate to mix it with high speed fans because. But let´s see with your RPMs later and I will decide.
Thanks a lot.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I have not ordered the fans yet....

I have already 2 Silent Wings 3 - and I hessitate to mix it with high speed fans

if you hadn't acquired any yet i would definitely suggest to go with all High-Speed versions but...

i like to keep sets of fans identical.
mostly because i have usually grouped them together based on location through fan hubs or splitters and want those groups to share the same profile.
currently my front 3 are sharing a PWM motherboard header's signal through the case's fan hub and i just like knowing that the curve i have in place for that header will be identical for all 3.
their profile is based on CPU temp.

bottom and rear use separate motherboard headers with slightly different profiles.
both are based on GPU temp just because it's usually a couple ° higher than the CPU when the system is being stressed.

if you haven't ordered the 2x 120mm fans yet, i would probably get the High-Speed variant for those.
being 120mm vs 140mm the higher airflow could help make up for that 20mm size difference between them and the standard 140mm.

for the few dollars more why wouldn't you go with a superior version of a product?

i just meant for myself,
when i was purchasing that it made more sense to get the higher quality version due their only being a $3-4 difference between the two.

 

[Hard_ware]

if you hadn't acquired any yet i would definitely suggest to go with all High-Speed versions but...

You are totally right and everything makes sense - let´s see if I will throw away 2 regular fans and buy 5 high speed

i like to keep sets of fans identical.
mostly because i have usually grouped them together based on location through fan hubs or splitters and want those groups to share the same profile.
currently my front 3 are sharing a PWM motherboard header's signal through the case's fan hub and i just like knowing that the curve i have in place for that header will be identical for all 3.
their profile is based on CPU temp.

bottom and rear use separate motherboard headers with slightly different profiles.
both are based on GPU temp just because it's usually a couple ° higher than the CPU when the system is being stressed.

Do you have all your fans controlled by UEFI? Or do you use a tool like FanControl?
It provides you with so many different options: E.g. You can create a fan curve for the CPU and another for the GPU to be controlled.
Additionally you can create a MIX (CPU/GPU) curve which can take into account the as one of the options the average temperature of CPU and GPU combined or the max(CPU, GPU) temperature for all your front fans. It is a great tool and I will design my fan curves for my new build with it. Side note: You can just copy every fan curve to any fan, therefore, no splitters/hubs are needed.

I am already looking forward to seeing your fan´s rpms at 65% and 75% PWM.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

let´s see if I will throw away 2 regular fans and buy 5 high speed

i wouldn't really recommend it unless you notice after the system is built that you would like something a bit more powerful.
and then i would save the standard versions for another build or just sell them locally.

Do you have all your fans controlled by UEFI? Or do you use a tool like FanControl?

i always setup curve profiles in the BIOS for my occupied fan headers but also use motherboard control software for profiles i can access within the OS.
currently using ASUS AI Suite III's FanXpert for that.

do you use a tool like FanControl?

i would always try to avoid having any extra software running when possible.
with the motherboard control software i can set the fan curve profiles and they are stored in onboard memory so nothing needs to be running to keep their status updated.

Side note: You can just copy every fan curve to any fan, therefore, no splitters/hubs are needed.

splitters and/or hubs are needed for many motherboards because they do not offer adequate amount of fan headers.
and why have all the extra visible cable mess when you can route particular fans to a hub that is out of view?
with my front 3x intakes; when i can have a single header controlling these 3 fans that i want to share the same profile it would make no sense to unnecessarily use 2 more motherboard headers and have to have 3 separate profiles when all can just share 1.

looking forward to seeing your fan´s rpms

watching their live RPMs for ~10-20 seconds in each scenario,

front intakes:
30% @ 30° / 45% @ 50° / 65% @ 60°
when idling(25-30°C) = 470-500RPM
stressing the system(50-60°C) = 1015-1050RPM

bottom intake:
35% @ 30° / 50% @ 50° / 75% @ 60°
idling = 550-575RPM
stressing = ~1200RPM

rear exhaust:
40% @ 30° / 55% @ 50° / 75% @ 60°
idling = 650-700RPM
stressing = ~1200RPM

but when comparing to the standard version of these fans you also have to keep in mind that the High-Speed PWM version offers higher airflow and more air pressure at the same RPM as the standard.