Please help me with Which 120mm Noctua Fans please

[mattyc]

I have quite a heavily overclocked I7 system and a new gtx570(awaiting for aftermarket cooling to come out as it sounds like a hoover! I have ordered arctic colling xtreme plus with vr004 heatsinks). I presently have 3 nexus basic fans installed but since installing them from some slipstream 1200rpm fans my system has increased in temp quite a lot. I dont have the slipstreams anymore but have had noctua in the past and have chosen to go with them again.

I will post a shot of my unusual Case, the front of it is quite restricted i think this i am thinking of getting the noctua NF-P12 x2 for the front.
Should i get the same fan for the rear exhaust as this isnt as restricitve or should i get the nf-s12 flx.
The p12 says its for heatsinks and restricted airflow and the s12 is for unrestricted case cooling.
Not bothered about the top fan as it only spins at 500RPM

thanks.

[wouterr5]

Have you removed those fan grills that Lian-Li uses already? They are very restrictive, and make the fans noisy. Also, what are the temps? In my experience, a few of those Nexus fans create almost a wind tunnel. If you stick a temperature sensor (or your hand) in the case, does it feel hot or does it feel like ambient?

Also, those Nexus fans are pretty good compared to Noctua fans, according to this review at Xbit-labs:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... html#sect0
They've made a graph of something interesting as well:

Very impressive and illustrative difference, isn’t it? And note that all fans were working at the same level of noise, in other words, by choosing a proper fan you will be able to significantly lower the CPU temperature without losing any of the acoustic comfort. If we go back to the airflow readings, we will recall that Akasa fan generated about 34.2% higher airflow than Noctua at the same level of noise. And as you can see from the obtained results, it greatly affects the CPU temperature. The airflow from Noiseblocker fan, in its turn, is only 18.8% higher than that from Akasa, which translates into smaller CPU temperature difference. In other words, we see evident practical continuity of the results taken with our thermal anemometer. I would like to add that Nexus Basic fan that is about 4% behind Noiseblocker in airflow taken at the same noise level lost only 1 °C (when tested with two fans on a heatsink):

So, the Nexus working at the same noise level as the Noctua gives a temperature 8 degrees lower than the Noctua
If you replace a Nexus with a Noctua, you might have to let it run at +200RPM for the same airflow, meaning that you won't gain much airflow by replacing your fans.

[mattyc]

Very interesting read. What do you mean by removing the fan grills though? There is the big dust collector that slots into the front but I don't really want to remove that.

[mattyc]

Just also noticed though, the fan review was not for the noctua "p" fan but for the "s" fan. The p fan is meant to be better when you have low static pressure. If they had tested with a "p" fan the results would probarbly been much better.

[johnniecache7]

You'd like gain more by getting rid of all them replacing them 120mm Scythe S-Flex 1,200 rpm version there just as quiet as the Nexus but with sony FDB bearings for longer life and would way better blowing threw tight fin heatsink or restricted grills then the Noctua's. Noctua's have very poor static pressure and more hyped and are expensive.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page5.html