Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)?

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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Djehuty
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Location: Pennsylvania

Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)?

Post by Djehuty » Tue May 13, 2014 12:14 pm

I've been reading reviews and forum posts until my brain has turned to pasta. :) I'm trying to figure out what will be the best fans for my build, the Antec TrueQuiet or one of the Phanteks 140mm fans. Do the TrueQuiets move enough air for moderate gaming? I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I do tend to favor games that look nice, which can get the GPU working overtime.

I'm also a bit confused as to which Phanteks fan is which. They all have different numbers and letters attached, but they all seem to have very similar attributes, except perhaps the new PH-140XP, which seems to be the only one that includes noise-dampening screw replacements.

I've really given myself quite a headache trying to make sense of all this. I want the fans to be as quiet as possible, but I also don't want my computer to cook itself. I would be most grateful if someone could just tell me, "Buy this fan!" :)

Abula
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Re: Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)

Post by Abula » Tue May 13, 2014 12:37 pm

It's a tricky question and there is no unique answer. Noise is something relative to each, and depends on a lot of things. Most of us dont build a totally silent pc, just we chose quiet components that in total produce less noise than the ambient, at least on idle or light loads, but we dont have the same ambient noise, and even then we have different standards into what we sacrifice to achieve the quietness we are searching for.

Your build seems pretty solid, very similar to CA_Steve in a lot of aspect, he is running antec true quiet 140s, so my guess is that you should be fine as well. For a combo with a fractal Design Define R4 + Asus motherboad with fanXpert2, i would probably chose the antec true quiet 140s, 2 in and 1 out, they are cheap fans, if you are patient, you can find them close to $11 free shipping, so testing 3 will be $33. While phantek fans are more like $17, so its more like $51. Phantek PWM 140s only drop to 600rpms, so if you are fine with that they should give better cooling than antec that drops to 200rpms, the antec will only go toward 700rpms and the phantek will go to 1300rps. But its up to you, and your ambient noise and how much are you willing to sacrifice on temps for the quietness you are looking for. But i would bet on antecs out of having Ca_Steve build that its up and running.

Djehuty
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Re: Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)

Post by Djehuty » Tue May 13, 2014 3:59 pm

Thank you... maybe ten minutes after I posted that, I was re-reading CA_Steve's thread about his PC build and saw that he has Antec TrueQuiet fans. Gave myself a bit of a headsmack for missing that. :roll:

I appreciate the answer. I've been learning a ton from this forum!

Mrc112
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Re: Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)

Post by Mrc112 » Wed May 14, 2014 4:23 am

I imagine you read the review of the antec and the Phantek?
In my opinion, you can't go wrong with either one of these fans. Both can get quiet, both will keep the temps reasonable. It just depends on what you favor more: a little bit more silence or a little bit lower temps.

One small remark on Abula's comment (& the thread of ca_steve): in the review, the phanteks went down to 200rpm (but these weren't the xp-bk models).
Should you get the non-xp-bk models that were tested by SPCR, you might get the same noise levels with the phanteks, while still maintaining a higher cooling potential (at an extra cost)

Djehuty
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Location: Pennsylvania

Re: Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)

Post by Djehuty » Wed May 14, 2014 4:57 pm

Yep, I read both reviews, but thanks for reminding me of the salient points. I think I may try the Phanteks. I've had some Antec fans, and some were fantastic, but some were a bit iffy. The Phanteks appear to be a bit more solidly constructed.

Abula
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Re: Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)

Post by Abula » Wed May 14, 2014 7:30 pm

Mrc112 wrote:One small remark on Abula's comment (& the thread of ca_steve): in the review, the phanteks went down to 200rpm (but these weren't the xp-bk models).
I cant say for sure because i dont own it, but from what i can tell from the review the least they got it down was 560rpms, given that it says in the same picture minimum rpms 209, if you read below says "Fan will run when Fan Power is higher then 25% 560rpms". In some scenarios fanXpert2 which is an algorith can glitch out, thats why i like to see the RPMs that the fan is running not only the % table. My guess is that the fan will run at 560 or higher, the 209 is a glitch, agian i dont own it so idk, and this also doesnt take merit on the fan, as it was one of the best cooling and sounding of all 140s, just pointing out that the 200rpms might not be achievable.

Here is a phantek PWM (not the same as the review), that i did buy and ran on FanXpert2, the lest on the test is 596rpms, but running 630rpms that you can read below on the CPU Fan.

Image

Here is another example on the FanXpert2 on the Antec True quiet 140, where you can see the test fan below that it can be ran at 200rpms.

Image

Either way i think both fans are great, if you need more cooling and willing to take the 500rpms+ go with phantek, and if you want the most quiet 140 and willing to take a little higher temps go with the antec.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Antec or Phanteks (or something else that doesn't rhyme)

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:53 am

Abula wrote:I cant say for sure because i dont own it, but from what i can tell from the review the least they got it down was 560rpms, given that it says in the same picture minimum rpms 209, if you read below says "Fan will run when Fan Power is higher then 25% 560rpms". In some scenarios fanXpert2 which is an algorith can glitch out, thats why i like to see the RPMs that the fan is running not only the % table. My guess is that the fan will run at 560 or higher, the 209 is a glitch

Sorry for necro Tiago, I came across this your old post today and I'd like to drop a note: the old PH-F140HP can be driven either by PWM or by variable voltage (and IIRC the firsts HP/TS were 3 pin fans with PWM adapter).

Driven by PWM my HP cannot be dialed down below about 600rpm, while driven by voltage they reliably start at about 430rpm but they can be reliable dialed down even more, up to about 230rpm. Unfortunately I forgot to check my PH-F140XPs when voltage driven, and now they're gone to a friend: next time I hope to remember about checking that.

My guess is that maybe the original SPCR finding was referred to a voltage drive (given also the auto analysis was performed on a chassis header).

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