Hi All, I do have a Corsair H80i V2, I am using the fans with in a push-pull setup, If I wanted to get the absolute best of performance of it, what fans would you recommend? Thank you all in advance.
Usually the fans that Corsair place with their AIO's are about as good as you'll get for perf so unless they're about to die I wouldn't bother wasting your money on new fans
The fans coming with H80i V2 are SP Series, comes with 70.69 CFM, moving to something round 90 CFM won't push the performance forward specially in OC and load?
The fans coming with H80i V2 are SP Series, comes with 70.69 CFM, moving to something round 90 CFM won't push the performance forward specially in OC and load?
when looking at fans for radiators. CFM means nothing. you have to look at what people call 'SP' or 'Static Pressure' CFM is for open airflow when the fan is used as a case fan without the restriction of any sort of filters.
For example if you compare the blades on the Corsair SP series of fan with their AF series - they are different because one is pressure optimized (SP) and the other isnt.
Its all down to noise. For the same noise as the SPs at 40-60% can get quite loud. The MLs could move the same amount of air or a bit more but a lot more quietly thus you can run the fans faster because it wont sound like a jet engine.
Unfortunately, the bane of AIOs is that because of the low flow pumps and aluminum rad, they require extreme speed fans. Extremely dificualt to find a CLC type AIO, even at 2 x 120mm, that can beat the better air coolers for cooling ability and those that get close are much louder.
Here you can see the $46 Scythe Fuma Air cooler outperforming the $95 H80i V2 by 3C and 14 dbA ... that's 2.6 times as loud
The 2,430 rpm is the reason for the extreme noise levels. But the only way to improve performance is a) to push more air thru it and b) use cooler outside the case air which is not practical on a 120mm AIO
For custom loops, SP is a non factor as today's custom loop copper radiators are mostly 8 - 14 fpi which provides less resistance than a typical case fan air inlet filter. On CLC (closed loop coolers) AIOs however, they tend to stick with higher fpi (fins per inch) which leaves extreme rpms as the only option. If you look at the 1st link above , you will see that only 5 coolers top the Fuma... 4 of them are not CLC type AIOs, they are open loop design (OLC) , use copper rads, high flow pumps and are able to provide better performance at lower noise than CLC type AIOs. As we can see in TPUs review ... the H80i has an FPI of 21... and yes the V2 has the same fin density. Still that's not bad from a historical perspective "back in the day" up to 30 fpi was not uncommon
If you play with earphones, then upping the rpm to 3,000 - 4,000 is an option. Keep in mind however that the min speed will be about 30% so that means that at idle, options will be to have your fan speed control bottom out at 900 - 1200 rpm. If your speed control utility provides an option to shut fans off below a certain temp / speed you could look into that. We usually set fans up on WC builds to run from 320 - 850 rpm using 1250 rpm fans. On budget (Air) builds heat sink fans are usually set to run 300 - 1450 rpm and case fans at 350 - 850.
One more thing about fan specs and fan reviews ... many sites don't have the equipment to do proper testing. MartinsLiquidLab was the best but he retired. if you read the manufacturer's spec page. it will say something like:
Air Flow = 70 cfm
SP = 1.2
In the real world that means, the fan can produce 70 cfm @ 0 SP and will give ya 0 cfm at 1.2 SP .. reality = consider yaself lucky if ya see 35 cfm @ 0.6 SP
Which fan is better ?
Cougar Vortex
Max Airflow = 70.5CFM
Static Pressure = 2.20 mm H20
In the real world that means, the fan can produce 70 cfm @ 0 SP and will give ya 0 cfm at 1.2 SP .. reality = consider yaself lucky if ya see 35 cfm @ 0.6 SP
This is one amazing finding!!! actually this got me more confused - bare with me please - now I can't count 90% at least on the manufacturer data, should I consider the Gentle Typhoon ones? I did read TPU article about the last Fan review but your finding flipped over the table xD
Unfortunately, the bane of AIOs is that because of the low flow pumps and aluminum rad, they require extreme speed fans. Extremely dificualt to find a CLC type AIO, even at 2 x 120mm, that can beat the better air coolers for cooling ability and those that get close are much louder.
Here you can see the $46 Scythe Fuma Air cooler outperforming the $95 H80i V2 by 3C and 14 dbA ... that's 2.6 times as loud
The 2,430 rpm is the reason for the extreme noise levels. But the only way to improve performance is a) to push more air thru it and b) use cooler outside the case air which is not practical on a 120mm AIO
For custom loops, SP is a non factor as today's custom loop copper radiators are mostly 8 - 14 fpi which provides less resistance than a typical case fan air inlet filter. On CLC (closed loop coolers) AIOs however, they tend to stick with higher fpi (fins per inch) which leaves extreme rpms as the only option. If you look at the 1st link above , you will see that only 5 coolers top the Fuma... 4 of them are not CLC type AIOs, they are open loop design (OLC) , use copper rads, high flow pumps and are able to provide better performance at lower noise than CLC type AIOs. As we can see in TPUs review ... the H80i has an FPI of 21... and yes the V2 has the same fin density. Still that's not bad from a historical perspective "back in the day" up to 30 fpi was not uncommon
If you play with earphones, then upping the rpm to 3,000 - 4,000 is an option. Keep in mind however that the min speed will be about 30% so that means that at idle, options will be to have your fan speed control bottom out at 900 - 1200 rpm. If your speed control utility provides an option to shut fans off below a certain temp / speed you could look into that. We usually set fans up on WC builds to run from 320 - 850 rpm using 1250 rpm fans. On budget (Air) builds heat sink fans are usually set to run 300 - 1450 rpm and case fans at 350 - 850.
One more thing about fan specs and fan reviews ... many sites don't have the equipment to do proper testing. MartinsLiquidLab was the best but he retired. if you read the manufacturer's spec page. it will say something like:
Air Flow = 70 cfm
SP = 1.2
In the real world that means, the fan can produce 70 cfm @ 0 SP and will give ya 0 cfm at 1.2 SP .. reality = consider yaself lucky if ya see 35 cfm @ 0.6 SP
Which fan is better ?
Cougar Vortex
Max Airflow = 70.5CFM
Static Pressure = 2.20 mm H20
This is more like manual monster car! I LOVE it, thinking to getting two and a 5.25 Inch interface that can accomodate both controllers in the front side of the case, I think SS provide something like this?
