Not much progress + Fan Tips and Suggestions

So an update on shipments of parts today. Nothing new to report on the Mushkin ram, just says that it left LAX @ 7:02 yesterday, kinda disappointing but to be expected considering I went with the cheapest Purolator shipping. Will probably be here middle of next week (or sooner if I get lucky). Power supply should also be here any day, then I can start putting some of the hardware into the Reiter rig. By the way, from now on I will be referring to computer cases as rigs simply because I can get carried away where I use case when I am referring to a situation rather than a computer case, so it will cut down on a bit of confusion.

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Got a new 140mm Xigmatek XAF fan in black. They're decent fans, kinda make a bit of noise if you don't put them in carefully. It could possibly be the technology specific to the XAF fans (uses a "Copper Bushing Axis Bearing") that may be causing slight tilting during the spin that may be the cause of the vibration, or it could be that the 90 CFM (amount of air flow) may be causing the fans to warp causing a slight vibration (only really seems to be happening to the one that had a slight defect which may be the culprit). In terms of overall noise when it's not vibrating, you're mostly hearing just the sound of a fast large volume of air with a tiny whine from the motor (which is fine in my opinion). Really any fan under 24dB isn't going to be a huge burden on gaming experience unless you want an absolutely quiet system (in which case you're most likely going to be looking at pricey liquid cooling instead of air cooling). Unfortunately I didn't get around to taking any pictures of the install because I completely spaced out and got 2 hours of sleep since last night so everything is a bit overwhelming right now. Anyway, got a nice optimal airflow path going now in my rig with excellent CFM fans installed that should be fairly reliable (unless that one fan decides to have a catastrophic failure due to the slight defect). I used to be all about Silenx fans, but recently some of them have been giving me a bit of grief (one of them has literally locked up and overheated to the point where it was actually transferring some of the motor heat to the heat-sink, opposite of what it should do), and the old Xigmatek fans were in the system prior to the Silenx fans and they're still running strong (but are covered in dust right now), however they have been removed from the rig and replaced with XAFs (with the exception of the side panel fan which is a CLF 120mm Blue LED fan).

A Xigmatek XAF-1451 140mm Fan

When looking at fans, there's several things to consider, LED vs non-LED, CFM per dB (can become a fair bit important if you want maximum cooling with the most minimal dB), price, CFM vs static pressure (or sometimes labeled as air pressure), and size of the fan.

One of the first things to decide on when looking at fans is the size of fans you require. In the case of my CM 690 II (prior to replacing the side panel with a windowed version) my side panel supports all the way from 80mm fans to 140mm fans. Normally when you look at rig specifications they will have multiple measurements for certain areas in the case simply because of the possibility of a clearance issue if you used one size larger of a fan. In the example of my CM 690 II (once again, pre-window panel), I had originally bought 2 140mm fans for the side panel but ended up only being able to use one because I required a bit more space for my heat-sink than the fan would give me, so I was stuck with only mounting the bottom one. Since I will still be having clearance issues in the future after I receive my Phanteks PH-TC14PL_BL, so I opted for the side window panel which can only house a 120mm fan at the bottom half of the case (blowing air over the graphics card area), which is fine for me as I have tons of other fans installed for a good airflow path. In another example using the Reiter rig, it supports a 120mm on the front, a 120mm on the back, and 2 120mm fans on the side (of which I have only installed one due to the heat-sink clearance necessary that would otherwise be impeded by the fan. Another thing when it comes to the fan size is that sometimes you will have to deal with really fat heat-sinks that may be a fair bit wider (140mm capable heat-sinks tend to run a bit on the fat side). In a situation like that, you may be better to run a slightly smaller size side panel fan to allow for a bit of better clearance (if possible). If I still had my original side panel on my CM 690 II, the 140mm would be a smidgen too large and caused a clearance issue according to the specifications of the heat-sink size. Make sure to sort out your other measurements of hardware first, prior to picking out fans to avoid a situation like that.

Price is obviously a main factor in choosing the right fans for your budget. Not everyone can spring for 140mm XAF fans (which generally run about 25 dollars a unit), so it's always good to know what your options are. When shopping around, brands I usually tend to look at more are Xigmatek, Bitfenix, Zalman, Phanteks, Noctua, Prolimatech, Gelid, Corsair, Coolermaster, Cougar, and occasionally Silenx. Sometimes I will eye other brands if I'm looking for something more specific, whether it's a specific LED color that may not be as available, when I have a really constrained budget, or I am looking for an odd sized fan (such as an 80x80x15mm fan for a low profile behind the cpu backplate). Price can also influence how much CFM, air pressure, dB (decibels), and LED vs non-LED options. This is where you sometimes have to start making compromises.

If the rig has no window, often people will just fill it up with non-LED based fans because in most situations it ends up being cheaper due to cost of less parts to used to build the fan. That being said, when dealing with rigs that have front meshing for a front fan optimum air intake, I usually spring for at least 1 LED fan on the front and the rest being non-LED (in most settings it's usually for a gaming rig). If there's a side panel that as ample enough space to look inside the system (whether its through meshing or empty fan slots) I will tag another LED fan to the side. Most rigs where there is a side window, people new to fan upgrading tend to load up on LED fans. A thing to consider with choosing LED vs non-LED is that non-LED will draw less power. Yes it's usually not a massive difference in amount of wattage between a non-LED and a LED fan, but if you're already loaded to almost maximum wattage, you could end up over-extending the power supply and cause your precious overclock to become unstable. It's always best to do a pre-build plan of the rig and components so you can buy a power supply with a bit of wattage overhead in the event you end up getting higher or newer gen hardware in the system that may end up taking up more wattage than your previous gen hardware. There's a few websites that help calculate power supply wattage that is recommended for a stable system experience. I tend to use the Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator website more than the others, but it's mostly personal preference. They all have the same options (pretty much) and are updated frequently for support of new processors and graphics.

CFM vs air pressure is an important topic to discuss. A high amount of CFM doesn't always mean a a high amount of air pressure.

For example, a Xigmatek XAF 140mm fan may have a CFM of 90.3 (at highest setting) and a static pressure rating of 1.08mm-H2O vs a Bitfenix 140mm Spectre Pro fan which has 86.7 CFM and a static pressure rating of 1.38mm-H2O. The Xigmatek may have a higher amount of CFM, but the Bitfenix can move static pressure at a more concentrated and consistent rate (which is better for heat-sinks).

A Bitfenix Spectre Pro Blue LED 140mm Fan

When dealing with rig fans, in most situations CFM is more important simply because it's the amount of movable airflow per minute and you don't have to worry as much about friction as the gaps for intakes and exhausts are usually large enough that a small amount of difference in static pressure will not effect the temperature by much. However, when choosing heat-sink aftermarket fans, its best to look at static pressure as a lower static pressure will have more friction against the heat-sink fins causing less overall airflow going through the heat-sink effecting the efficiency of cooling of the heat-sink itself. Now, when I'm referring to static pressure and heat-sink efficiency, this is in situations where the fans are almost directly next to the heat-sink itself. If the fans have any major gaps between them and the heat-sink itself, the slight increase of amount of static pressure in the above scenario is of no benefit because there's no wind tunnel effect as a fair bit of the air is escaping though the large gaps. This is why it's important to read reviews on all your hardware before you go and buy it so you can plan accordingly.

CFM per dB is another important consideration when looking at fans. Some fans have an extremely high CFM for their fan size, but can often come at a cost of louder dB. For example, a Delta 120mm fan (which costs around 45 dollars) may have 240 CFM but it's coming at a price of 62 dB. That's about as loud as someone practicing piano right next to you. Alternatively, a 90 CFM Xigmatek XAF 120mm costing roughly 15 dollars runs at about 26dB. With sound considerations in mind, you can always look for certain rig designs that are built to dampen sound such as some of the Fractal Design rigs. In the situation of a Fractal Design rig that has sound dampening, I would opt for something a tad bit louder at more CFM as they can have a bit more of a limitation on airflow compared to something at the other end of the spectrum, such as my Coolermaster CM690 II as an example (which happens to be the rig that I am running at this time).


One last thing I would like to discuss for the day is a matter of negative air pressure. Some people don't care for it, and some don't care about it. Essentially what I think of as real negative air pressure is when more air is being drawn into the case that cannot be sufficiently sucked out. Often this will cause a more dramatic build up of dust in the system. A way to avoid this is to have your fans only pulling air out of the case. If the system has top fan locations, it's best to put them in a pull configuration to make sure that you can avoid as much negative air pressure as possible. I personally don't mind a bit of negative air pressure as it allows it to circulate the system making sure it stays at a more consistent temperature so that the heat-sink doesn't effect the temperature inside the case as much. It's user preference when it comes to the decision to a push/pull configuration vs a pull only configuration, your mileage may vary. I don't mind having to dust out the system a bit more often than if I didn't have as much of an airflow path occurring in my system.