Wrong fan choice and correction

[Veovis]

Hi Rog,

After refreshing the TIM on my graphics card and cpu, I noticed the performance was much more stable however in a few hours the computer would heat up back to its top temperature and I realized why.

My Radiator fan is the Noctua NF-S12A-25 which means high airflow but low static pressure. While it's usually pretty quiet it sucks (pun intended) at moving heat from the radiator. This is where my dilemma comes into play as I don't have much experience in fans:

Would it be better for me to get 2 NF-a12-15's for a PUSH PULL configuration through the radiator, a single NF-A12-25 (A highly recommended sweet spot that might not be best for this case due to no direct vent exit for heat), a single NF-F12-25 for acoustics and better single fan performance (no idea if 2 NF-a12-15's static pressure has a diminishing return higher than this one fan) or a Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 3000 PWM (Throws acoustics out the window but has very high static pressure)

This is going in to the GamerStorm Tristellar case, so there's only 80mm of clearance. Putting 2 25mm tall fans on a single 38mm 120 Rad (which is the only one that will fit in the case) would exceed that. Also positioning will be key as this fan has to pull the air through a magnetic mesh filter and Push/pull through the radiator.

I'm leaning towards the iPPC for maximum performance but it can get as loud as 43.5 DB vs my current 17.8. Next up is the 2-15's as the 2 double teaming can compensate for the pressure needed for the mesh and through the radiator, plus be quiet as the work is essentially "halved"

Currently with the one "silent" fan I have there's only 17 mm of clearance to push the air as it leaves the radiator. Getting 2-15's would make it 12mm... and going one 25 and one 15 would only leave 2 mm which would probably just make a new problem as the air would need to squeeze out the gap and blow over the motherboard (Probably cause whistling or some kind of whooshing noise)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Veovis]

Re-thinking about it, I probably want the two slim fans in push pull. The main reason is that the air still has to flow out of the case once it pushes through the radiator.

Having a only a pull causes a weird suction issue where the fan can't optimally push as if it was unrestricted. And having only a push causes some restriction after the radiator, given that there only one place to mount the fan/aio radiator and that's the inlet/ or outlet for the board, and these radiator fans have to push air out of the case as well as take it in, this configuration is probably "best" for airflow, acoustics and static pressure for this case setup.

[Veovis]

Update: only one 15mm high fan was in stock, so Ill test it with the current high airflow fan to see if this combo will work. The only real drawback is the 2mm clearance. But if it works I'll have decent static pressure going into the radiator and high airflow out. Since this airflow also passes over the motherboard, it could help cool that down as well.

[xeromist]

How much of a problem are you having? High air flow fans should be OK at 100%. Where they start to suffer is when you lower speeds. High SP fans might be marginally better but not dramatically so. If you are seeing overheating you likely have another issue. Perhaps not enough radiator surface, air or crud in the loop, too much voltage, etc.

[Veovis]

That's the problem. I'm locked in with this case. The Tristellar is all looks and some function. Essentially its taken the traditional case design and segmented it into 3 separate chambers. One with the PSU and 5inch hard drive bays. Another with the GPU and 3 2.5 sata bays, and the last with one 120mm cutout and the motherboard.



I can't do anything much about loop crud with the aio, nor increase surface area as there's only one mount for the 120mm radiator/fan combo. As for voltage that's being managed by the asus software which is still running hotter due to not enough airflow being provided over the board from that single inlet.