Best Fan for Thermalright SI-120?

backlash224 · Post by **backlash224** » Tue May 23, 2006 1:06 pm

After much research I have decided to go for the Thermalright SI-120, but I don't know what fan to get. I want a fan that moves a lot of air but is quiet. The HSF will be used on an overclocked AMD64 3200+ Venice.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

SD-Plissken · Post by **SD-Plissken** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:18 pm

This is the fan http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std ... 120mm.html i beleave most of the users here swear by as being quiet yet able to cool. you may also want to look in to some of the Panaflo models. they are known to be quiet.

backlash224 · Post by **backlash224** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:41 pm

To me, the Nexus's CFM is too low. CFM = 36.87

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Tue May 23, 2006 3:27 pm

backlash224 wrote:I want a fan that moves a lot of air but is quiet. The HSF will be used on an overclocked AMD64 3200+ Venice

Everybody at SPCR wants a fan that moves a lot of air quietly. There is no such thing. If you could double a given fan's speed, it would move about twice as many CFM but its noise would increase about 18dBA. Since the SI-120 pretty much determines that the fan will be 120mm, then you have to decide the tradeoff between cooling and quiet. If you want to do a lot of overclocking, it's gonna get real noisy in your parts. Or you could forego overclocking and cool (and quiet) down.

It's your decision.

backlash224 · Post by **backlash224** » Tue May 23, 2006 3:55 pm

Alright, how about this Panaflo? http://www.frozencpu.com/fan-18.html 86.5CFM and 35db, 2100 RPM

intx · Post by **intx** » Tue May 23, 2006 4:12 pm

It will provide decent airflow, but most people on here would not consider a medium panaflo fan or a 35DBA* fan quiet.

People here consider the 'low' speed version noisy.

It really depends on your noise standards. If you're using a cool and quiet motherboard, you could turn it down.

*35DBA Panasonic manufacturer specifications, SPCR tests dba ratings with the mic closer, thus SPCR test ratings will be higher.

backlash224 · Post by **backlash224** » Tue May 23, 2006 4:32 pm

What would you consider a quiet DBA?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Tue May 23, 2006 4:58 pm

Hello,

I used a 7-8v low speed Yate Loon (~850RPM) on an XP120, on an Athlon 64 4000+ (Newcastle) and it is both reasonable quiet and plenty cool.

My personal preference is for a fan to be at least 24-25dBA in order to be tolerable. 28dBA is too loud for "comfort". Anything under 21-22dBA is essentailly silent, since my office is louder than that...

35dBA? No way!

paulesko · Post by **paulesko** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:50 am

I have my pIV 2.66 overclocket at 3150 with stock voltage and a xp-120 cooling it. I use a scythe fam that runs at 850 rpm @ 12v. my temps at full are over 50Âº and be sure itÂ´s not cold here in spain.

So my answer is scythe 850 rpm 12cm fan

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Wed May 24, 2006 8:01 am

I really like the Papst 4412F/2GL fan on my XP-120. It's effectively running at F/2GLL speeds (1400 rpm max). I suspect a Globalwin fanwould be equally nice and less expensive. Both of these fans have bearings that should withstand the higher temps of a CPU cooler for a long time, but I don't think that's much of an issue with the Thermalright design.

I've measured much more uniform temps with the XP-120 fan blowing away from the CPU. CPU temp doesn't change, but the voltage regulator bits, which are under the heatpipe tips in my system, are 7C cooler, while the northbridge below the heatpipe bends is 7C warmer. Net result: all are less then 47C under sustained load.

The CPU fan is connected to the MB header with temp-sensitive variable voltage (not a PWM-type control). I recently read elsewhere in SPCR that some consider that a bad idea because the fan would be changing speed very often. That has not been the case for my system, and when it does change speed, the change in noise level is very subtle and and not irritating at all. At low loads all the 120mm fans in my system are under 850 rpm and unobtrusive.

Hey backlash, nobody has yet said: Welcome to SPCR!

MasterWerk · Post by **MasterWerk** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:25 am

yeah, i
d stay away from the panaflo medium if quet is what you're looking for. i had the same hs and fan going and it was quite a howler.

although, now, i have the panaflo tamed as an exhaust with a 12v/5v switch and it's very quiet at 5v. haven't tried it on a cpu, though, but it's something to think about.

Mike_P · Post by **Mike_P** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:44 am

i have an XP-120 w/ a Nexus connected to the CPU header on the motherboard.

My board reads the speed @ 0rpm (too slow i guess), but the fan definately spins.

idle temps (ambient temps are 23-26c) are anywhere from 31-36c. Load temps (video encoding) are in the low 50's.

It's perfectly quiet and cools awsome.

I modified my nexus to fit (cut the corner things off), but now they sell a special bracket that goes to the TOP of the fan instead of the bottom plate.

Best Fan for Thermalright SI-120?

Best Fan for Thermalright SI-120?

Re: Best Fan for Thermalright SI-120?