[Newcomer] needs some advice

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

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
emanueljvf2005
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:12 am

[Newcomer] needs some advice

Post by emanueljvf2005 » Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:26 am

Hello everyone i'm a newcomemr here and i need some advice on fan related stuff.

First of all the setup i've built is on a Fractal Design Node 304.

I'm thinking on putting 2 92mm nexus fans in the front and a Phanteks PH-F140HP/TS on the back as case fans.

For CPU colling i'm thinking on going for a Scythe big shuriken 2 rev. b , the reason i'm going with this one and not the the noctua nh-l12 its because i have an asrock fm2a85x-itx motherboard which does not accept most backplates but i've seen in an XBMC forum a user with the shuriken on that mobo so i'm guessing it fits.

Now for the questions, do you guys think the fan on the scythe is good enough or do i have some space for improvement? And also i have a CX430m PSU from corsair which does a nice job but the fan seems to be one of those cheap ones that rattle from time to time at low RPM, Corsair will not trade the PSU as it is functioning perfectly so in the near future if the rattling gets too annoying do you guys have any recommendations for a replacement fan for that PSU?

boost
Posts: 661
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:29 am
Location: de_DE

Re: Newcommer needs some advice

Post by boost » Sat Oct 19, 2013 11:40 am

The Fractal Design Node 304 can accept a fairly tall heatsink. Unfortunately with the Asrock fm2a85x-itx you can't use a backplate. Tall coolers shouldn't be too wide or they will collide with the hard drive cables (angled cables are a good idea for this build).
Some coolers that satisfy these criteria are Akasa Nero 3 Push pins and Cooler Master Hyper T4. They install on the standard AMD bracket.
The Node 304 comes with a fan controller and three rather low RPM fans (for their size) which will run on the controller at 5V at extremely low RPM. Without a discrete graphics card you won't need much more airflow and I doubt replacing the fans will lower noise level significantly. I would test the included fans before replacing them.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Newcommer needs some advice

Post by Abula » Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:04 pm

emanueljvf2005 wrote:Hello everyone i'm a newcomemr here and i need some advice on fan related stuff.
Hi and Welcome to SPCR!!!!
emanueljvf2005 wrote:First of all the setup i've built is on a Fractal Design Node 304.
Im guessing your already built it, it will be very useful if you could list the rest of the components, cpu, if you are using a dedicated gpu, how many hdds are you using, etc.
emanueljvf2005 wrote:I'm thinking on putting 2 92mm nexus fans in the front and a Phanteks PH-F140HP/TS on the back as case fans.
If you already tried the included fans and you didnt like them, then look into Nexus 92 and Noctua NF-B9 (there are pwm versions and 3pin). For the back, there are tons of options, check First 140 mm Fan Roundup: Noctua, Phanteks, Xigmatek and Second 140 mm Fan Roundup: Antec, bequiet!, Corsair, Scythe, among the best fans there you will find the phanteks you want and Antec 140 True Quiet and Antec TwoCool 140. But it really depends on how you plan to control them, i like a lot noctuas NF-A14 PWM and NF-A15 PWM, specially for pure PWM fan control, they drop extremly low and very quiet at low rpms, but if i were to go with software (like FanXpert2 or Speedfan), then i would probably go with antecs or phantek.
emanueljvf2005 wrote:For CPU colling i'm thinking on going for a Scythe big shuriken 2 rev. b , the reason i'm going with this one and not the the noctua nh-l12 its because i have an asrock fm2a85x-itx motherboard which does not accept most backplates but i've seen in an XBMC forum a user with the shuriken on that mobo so i'm guessing it fits.
As boost already pointed out, the NODE 305 can accept very tall heatsinks, and imo this is its biggest strength over other form factor cases, and i think you should take the advantage of it, check OCN [Official] Fractal Design Node 304 Owners Club for some builds and ideas into what you can fit on it.
emanueljvf2005 wrote:Now for the questions, do you guys think the fan on the scythe is good enough or do i have some space for improvement? And also i have a CX430m PSU from corsair which does a nice job but the fan seems to be one of those cheap ones that rattle from time to time at low RPM, Corsair will not trade the PSU as it is functioning perfectly so in the near future if the rattling gets too annoying do you guys have any recommendations for a replacement fan for that PSU?
I would go with the scythe on other smaller builds, but for me a bigger tower will allow you to spind down the fans even more and end up with better temps, etc. On the PSU, i will depend on the rest of you components, but two that you should look into are Seasonic 360W 80PLUS Gold ATX12V Power Supply SSR-360GP, reviewed by SPCR Seasonic G360 PSU: High efficiency & performance, low price, as long as you dont loaded to much should be quiet, or since you like Corsair, look into their just released line, that they are marketing that its their most quiet PSU, and no coil or electric noise.... Corsair RM Series 450-Watt ATX/EPS 80PLUS Gold-Certified Power Supply CP-9020066-NA, fully modular (G360 is not), there are other versions depending on your needs.

Check the following thread Asrock FM2A85X-ITX - the ultimate FM2 ITX mobo to lust for?, is mostly about your motherboard, so you might be able to get ideas, specially the post from nilssab, where he installs a mugen 3 on it. SPCR recently reviewed the new iteration of it, Scythe Mugen 4 CPU Cooler: Scythe Strikes Back, cross check that mounting bracket would work with the motherboard (im guessing it will but up to you to cross check this). Scythe USA suppose to reopen very soon, so we should have availability of their products.
Last edited by Abula on Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:21 pm, edited 4 times in total.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Newcommer needs some advice

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:09 pm

emanueljvf2005 wrote:For CPU colling i'm thinking on going for a Scythe big shuriken 2 rev. b


The Scythe Kabuto II should also work.

emanueljvf2005 wrote:any recommendations for a replacement fan for that PSU?


I think it mostly depends of the Corsair's fan header: do you know which is it? I would also think to resell it and swap the PSU too.

emanueljvf2005
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:12 am

Re: Newcommer needs some advice

Post by emanueljvf2005 » Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:46 pm

Uauuu thanks for the quick reply guys, that changed my mind a bit.

So i think i can keep the 140mm fan but i would like to change the 92mm ones, there not that noisy the problem is my case is sitting on top of a semi-empty drawer and it amplifies the noise a bit because of the vibrations.

The reason i choose a top down airflow cooller is because of vrm colling and other componentes on the motherboard, but i'm not sure if there is going to be a large difference or not.

As asked above here is a full list of my components:

- Case: Fractal Design Node 304
- Motherboard: ASRock FM2A85X-ITX
- CPU: AMD A6-6400K
- RAM: Kingston 4GB 1866MHz clip
- SSD(OS drive): Mushkin Chronos 60gb 7mm
- HDD: WDC WD30EZRX (one for now but i'll be adding more in the future)
- PSU: Corsair CX430M

I'm pretty happy with this setup the major problem is the CPU cooller, the mugen 4 seems like a nice cooller but maybe its too large for the setup i have :/ and because the mobo cannot accept a backplate its kinda hard to find a good cooler.

I would prefer a "slim" cooler if you guys know about one. Deepcool and artic cooling have a good couple of them but i cannot find good reviews anywhere :/

boost
Posts: 661
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:29 am
Location: de_DE

Re: Newcommer needs some advice

Post by boost » Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:25 am

emanueljvf2005 wrote:The reason i choose a top down airflow cooller is because of vrm colling and other componentes on the motherboard, but i'm not sure if there is going to be a large difference or not.
Without overclocking and a 65 W CPU, there's not going to be a large difference.
emanueljvf2005 wrote:I would prefer a "slim" cooler if you guys know about one. Deepcool and artic cooling have a good couple of them but i cannot find good reviews anywhere :/
I looked at some more coolers, still there are three that I could find that have 120mm fans and don't use a backplate. Aside from the two already mentioned there's the Deepcool Gammax 400. They are all rather slim , especially the Cooler Master. If your very concerned about noise level you'd have to replace either cooler's fan.

Deepcool and Arctic make coolers with 92mm fans that don't use a backplate:
The Deepcool Gammax 200, Gammax 300 and Iceedge 400.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2
The Scythe Katana 4 could work, too.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Newcommer needs some advice

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:40 am

emanueljvf2005 wrote:I would prefer a "slim" cooler if you guys know about one.


What about the Cooler Master Blizzard T2 (it may need a fan swap)? It goes with stock retention brackets, it's cheap and slim, but not very potent (nor you need it).

Post Reply