Noctua or Scythe

[birthdaymonkey]

OK, after dropping a significant amount of my monthly geek fund on a set of Noctua NF-S12B ULN fans ($40 after shipping and taxes), I've discovered that--even though they are indeed very quiet, well made, and beautiful as advertised--they don't move as much air as the stock 120 mm fans I was replacing (Lian Li V351 front intake fans). This is causing me higher temps and faster spinning of the CPU fan= more noise over all. So now it's back to the drawing board I guess.

I've got it narrowed down to three options:

2x Noctua NF-P12-1300 (gonna cost me $60 after tax/shipping)
2x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F (about $40 all told)
Put the Lian Li stock fans back in and stare mournfully at my brand new Noctuas collecting dust (unless I can find someone else in this backwater [Atlantic Canada] to buy em)

I'm a Noctua fan fan, but the power of the ULN series is underwhelming for my needs. The computer is a combiner light game/HTPC/Music server, so noise is a factor.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts...

 

[RussianSensation]

There are better options than both of those fans. The F series is good (I have one), but it's also beaten by the Gentle Typhoons.

Gentle Typhoon AP15 - 120mm fans compared.

Not sure if these are going to fit in your case (break out the ruler!), but they have 120mm mounting holes: Thermalright TY-140

At the end of the day, you only need better airflow for the videocard and CPU. Did you already upgrade your CPU heatsink fan? That may be a smarter choice if you didn't.

 

[AsianriceX]

Has anyone been able to find GTs lately? All the usual retailers I've look at are out of stock.

 

[RussianSensation]

Has anyone been able to find GTs lately? All the usual retailers I've look at are out of stock.

SVC.com has models AP-11, 12, 13, 14 (15 is sold out).

Xoxide.com, Frozencpu.com, Jab-tech.com, Sidewindercomputers.com are all sold out of the AP15 (probably because many consider it one of the best 120mm fans right now?)

I just searched Scythe-USA.com and they redirected me to AntaresPro.com where I found AP15s in stock (as well as other GTs). Shipping is expensive though.

Check out the Thermalright I linked earlier (with the review). Fast forward to 1 min 25 - 30 seconds in the video. He has 3 of these TY-140s running!!! So quiet!

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Did you already upgrade your CPU heatsink fan? That may be a smarter choice if you didn't.

That's the issue I would raise. You could upgrade your CPU heatsink and use a quiet non- PWM fan (like the typhoon's) so the CPU still stays cool and the fan rpm's don't increase.

And yeah, why the hell are all the typhoon's out of stock at newegg?! Grrrr...

 

[Dark Shroud]

I've noticed in the last year that Newegg isn't that great with keeping up with fans & heat sinks. It took them quite awhile just to start carrying the Prolimatech Megahalem.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Hi folks,
I can't seem to find any Canadian retailers that sell the Gentle Typhoons. Buying from a US company adds a whole new level of hassle to the purchase (border duty, brokerage fees, currency conversion, etc) that I would just prefer to avoid.

I have thought about upgrading the HSF, as I'm running the stock cooler from my Phenom II 555BE, but I'm really limited in height for a cooler that will fit in this case. The Noctua C12P is thought to be the best one that will fit without modding, but it's $70 plus tax/shipping and I've read some posts on the HardOCP forums from people who are using it with poor results (probably due to overall airflow problems in this small case, and the fact that it has to blow up to avoid fighting the PSU exhaust fan for air). The clearance is only 110 mm or so, unless you want to install the HSF inside the tiny case (without sliding out the mobo tray), in which case you can get a 120 mm cooler in there.

I was considering the Scythe Big Shuriken low profile cooler, but I'm not sure it's going to do much better than stock. Temperatures aren't really that bad inside my case right now: 40-45 idle, high 50s under prime 95. It's just the noise issue that I don't like, and I'd like to get the idle temps down a bit. My video card is a GTX460，which never seems to have any problems with temps (30 idle, 60 under load).

I don't think the TY-140 would fit without modding．Is the F-series quite loud? According to the specs, it should move much more air than the Noctua ULN fans at least.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

UPDATE:
I decided to take action. First, I removed the low noise adapter from the 80mm Noctua I have exhausting at the top of the case behind the HD cage and removed a secondary drive to allow more air up and out at the back of the case (I don't really need it). I also fiddled with the wires and tucked some of their length into the top 5.25 bays. This seems to improve airflow a good deal. Temps topped out at 55 after half an hour of prime, and I don't think the stock CPU cooler was at its max RPM. Temps quickly went back down to 42 in about 15 seconds after I stopped prime.

So now the noise is a little worse at idle (the 80mm exhaust is the loudest fan in the case at 2000 RPM), but I don't think the CPU fan will be revving up when I'm watching HD movies... at least I hope not. I'll have to test this tonight.

I also ordered a Scythe Big Shuriken--I had an order in progress for an SSD, so the total cost will only be $40 (no additional shipping) after taxes. Worth a shot, anyway... maybe I'll be able to turn the 80mm back down to 1500 RPM.

I guess I should be reasonably happy: I'm running the Phenom II at 3600MHz (400 above default) on stock cooling with an old 690G motherboard in a tiny case and I'm ranging 40-55 C. But there's always room for improvement.

 

[theAnimal]

I can't seem to find any Canadian retailers that sell the Gentle Typhoons.

ncix.com has an ETA listed of Nov 19 for the AP-15.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

ncix.com has an ETA listed of Nov 19 for the AP-15.

Thanks for the tip. I'm sure it would do my wallet good to wait a bit till the next upgrade. Happily, the 120mm shuriken cooler I ordered just so happens to be compatible with bigger 120mm fans....

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Check out the Thermalright I linked earlier (with the review). Fast forward to 1 min 25 - 30 seconds in the video. He has 3 of these TY-140s running!!! So quiet!

Man that's awesome. You know of anyway to mount the TY-140's to 140mm only applications (like on a case)? If not guess I'll just have to use the X-Silent 140's.

 

[mv2devnull]

Has anyone been able to find GTs lately? All the usual retailers I've look at are out of stock.

I've been looking for GT's lately and apart from the "none in stock" I've stumbled on more than one thread (mostly British forums, IIRC) that have pondered the shortage of GT. The usual guess is "insufficient production", but there was also a note that Nidec Servo (which makes the GT) has introduced a high-RPM GT (i.e. could be changing focus). Anyway, it seems that whenever a store receives a shipment, they get sold out in no time.

 

[RussianSensation]

Man that's awesome. You know of anyway to mount the TY-140's to 140mm only applications (like on a case)? If not guess I'll just have to use the X-Silent 140's.

If you need 140mm fan mounting holes, then the TY-140 is not going to work. I am amazed that Scythe didn't release 140mm GTs yet. They certainly should.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

If you need 140mm fan mounting holes, then the TY-140 is not going to work. I am amazed that Scythe didn't release 140mm GTs yet. They certainly should.

Yeah, hopefully they're in the works.

I just came across the Penetrator AP121, looks interesting. I wonder if this would cool a heatsink/radiator better than a fan with similar CFM...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m8fC809TK0

Course there's also the Nexus BeamAir which looks like it does the same thing, though would add some thickness to any fan it's on.
http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nexus-beamair-airguider.htm