Which 120mm fan for Thermalright 120 Extreme on Asus P5Q?

reidthaler · Post by **reidthaler** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:02 pm

Not sure which CPU, likely either Q6600 or Q9300. Room where computer resides is cool year-round in N. California. I have a fan controller so I could run a 1200 RPM fan and lower the voltage.

What's the current thinking? Would the Scythe S-Flex 1200 rpm be the best choice or are there others to consider?

Case will be the Antec P182. (how many case fans do I have to use, and can I run them on low?) Open to other thoughts. Don't think I'll overclock. If I do, only in the BIOS as percent and not messing with voltage and timking.

Thanks!

Reid

gopherbob · Post by **gopherbob** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:25 pm

P182 is an excellent case. A buddy of mine has it and I have the P180 case used on my backup pc.

The antec tricool 120mm's that come with them are not my favorite. They are quality fans but set to medium and high theres a particular 'color' of the noise I don't like. I first tried out S-Flex 800rpm fans... to me they are pretty dang silent. I was not a big "fan" of the fans airflow... seemed I could hold my mouth to the case and blow more air than those fans did.

So on that note if you go with an S-Flex I would recommend 1200rpm models. I think I read on SPCR somewhere that the slipstream 1200rpm fan was a winner on heatsinks? But I've also read about dependability issues with them... enough so that at least now I'm not interested in trying them.

Currently my computer that I spend time with has 1 s-flex 800rpm on the exhaust, the antec 'big boy' 200mm set to low on the top exhaust, a low speed yate loon 120mm on the side panel and for the 'wind tunnel' contraption an 800rpm s-flex at the front that doesn't do much and doesn't make much noise and finally at the end of the 'wind tunnel' another low speed 120mm yate loon.

Here's a quick link to the 120mm yate loons I use. They are not silent but they are quiet and the little noise they make sounds good to my ears.
http://jab-tech.com/YATE-LOON-120mm-Cas ... -3851.html

On to your actual question.... as of now I've got an Enermax twister PWM fan on my heatsink. Real temp right now says my E8400 is at 32C. Seems pretty good to me and the fan is really quiet. I do have sitting on my desk a Noctua NF-P12 that I'm going to replace the Enermax with. Not really because I dislike the Enermax but just because the reviews for that noctua are too good to be true. I'm actually hoping that I hate the noctua! So far all I can say is the Noctua has got to be the ugliest fan ever created.

reidthaler · Post by **reidthaler** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:55 pm

GB,

Thanks for the detailed post and insights. More to read and digest! Your post also helped me find the article at http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page1.html

Would like to correspond with you more. Don't know if you email address is available. I'm still deciding about CPU and RAM.

Thanks!

Reid

burn-x · Post by **burn-x** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:32 am

I have the same motherboard and heatsink.

I went with the Slipstream 1200rpm for the heatsink. Can't hear it when it's inside the case.

My CPU is the Q9550 and Ram is Cossair XMS2 DHX. Hope that helps in your decision

reidthaler · Post by **reidthaler** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:40 pm

gopherbob,

Thanks for your response I created a new thread at viewtopic.php?p=433906#433906 related to this post that now has P182 in the subject title so other P182 users could benefit.

Thanks for the link for fans.

gopherbob wrote:
The antec tricool 120mm's that come with them are not my favorite. They are quality fans but set to medium and high theres a particular 'color' of the noise I don't like. I first tried out S-Flex 800rpm fans... to me they are pretty dang silent. I was not a big "fan" of the fans airflow... seemed I could hold my mouth to the case and blow more air than those fans did.

So on that note if you go with an S-Flex I would recommend 1200rpm models. I think I read on SPCR somewhere that the slipstream 1200rpm fan was a winner on heatsinks? But I've also read about dependability issues with them... enough so that at least now I'm not interested in trying them.

Would the Tri-cools set to low provide sufficient cooling?

Currently my computer that I spend time with has 1 s-flex 800rpm on the exhaust, the antec 'big boy' 200mm set to low on the top exhaust, a low speed yate loon 120mm on the side panel and for the 'wind tunnel' contraption an 800rpm s-flex at the front that doesn't do much and doesn't make much noise and finally at the end of the 'wind tunnel' another low speed 120mm yate loon.

What "side panel?"

Here's a quick link to the 120mm yate loons I use. They are not silent but they are quiet and the little noise they make sounds good to my ears.
http://jab-tech.com/YATE-LOON-120mm-Cas ... -3851.html

Why the Yate Loon? It looks like even the low model is 1300 rpm?

On to your actual question.... as of now I've got an Enermax twister PWM fan on my heatsink. Real temp right now says my E8400 is at 32C. Seems pretty good to me and the fan is really quiet. I do have sitting on my desk a Noctua NF-P12 that I'm going to replace the Enermax with. Not really because I dislike the Enermax but just because the reviews for that noctua are too good to be true. I'm actually hoping that I hate the noctua! So far all I can say is the Noctua has got to be the ugliest fan ever created.

I'm still researching the CPU fan. It sounds like a 1200 rpm is right, especially since I have a fan controller, and the choices seem to be between the Scythe Slipstream or Kama. I agree that the Noctura is too ugly, and it sounds like the Nexus isn't as reliable.

It looks like the nod would go to the Scythe S-Flex Fan - SFF21E because of the bearing. Would this be good choice?

Thanks!

Reid

lethul · Post by **lethul** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:08 am

gopherbob wrote:On to your actual question.... as of now I've got an Enermax twister PWM fan on my heatsink. Real temp right now says my E8400 is at 32C. Seems pretty good to me and the fan is really quiet. I do have sitting on my desk a Noctua NF-P12 that I'm going to replace the Enermax with. Not really because I dislike the Enermax but just because the reviews for that noctua are too good to be true. I'm actually hoping that I hate the noctua! So far all I can say is the Noctua has got to be the ugliest fan ever created.

If you searched a bit on these forums you would see that Noctua ain't that good according to people who compared them to nexus/scythe etc. Lots of hype but fail to deliver.