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Do fan adapters work?

Connoisseur

Connoisseur

Platinum Member
I saw over at SVC that they have the 120mm panaflos that output ~85CFM. I was wondering if I purchased the 120mm fan and a 120mm to 80mm adapter and a zalman fan mount (this is all going on my alx-800) whether the my cpu temps would decrease significantly over say a 75cfm TT SmartFan II or a 50cfm generic fan? And how much would the noise level decrease? The Panaflo is rated at ~34dBa. Thanks for your time.
 
hm, that's a very nice idea. Id like to know myself... that would be very nice... nice, quiet, and lots of air.

wish I knew the answer for you, but I'd like to know also!
 
I figured this practice was pretty common. However I don't really think you need a 120mm fan for the CPU heatsink, that's a little overkill. An efficient and somewhat quiet 80mm or 92mm will do just fine, just look for a smaller adapter.
 
Originally posted by: CRXican
I figured this practice was pretty common. However I don't really think you need a 120mm fan for the CPU heatsink, that's a little overkill. An efficient and somewhat quiet 80mm or 92mm will do just fine, just look for a smaller adapter.
Click to expand...

I dont think it would be overkill at all,with a 120mm fan you can run it much slower with less noise & still have good airflow.

I say go for it and buy it. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Budman
Originally posted by: CRXican
I figured this practice was pretty common. However I don't really think you need a 120mm fan for the CPU heatsink, that's a little overkill. An efficient and somewhat quiet 80mm or 92mm will do just fine, just look for a smaller adapter.
Click to expand...

I dont think it would be overkill at all,with a 120mm fan you can run it much slower with less noise & still have good airflow.

I say go for it and buy it. 🙂
Click to expand...

I know how fans work thanks. Ask around and see how many people are running 120mm fans on their CPU heatsink.
 
Good idea, the stock fans on my P4 3.2C and Tualatin 1.3 server are both louder than I'd like them to be, I've just been to busy and lazy to do something about it.

The folks in the www.SilentPCReview.com forums should know if it will work, they're quiet freaks 🙂
 
actually a decent amount of people use some form of adapter to get a larger fan to blow into a smaller area. Some people use adapters, some use ducts. I was just curious because, in general, reducing the size of the area that a fan has to blow in also reduces the overall airflow. i'm not expecting the full 85cfm from the panaflo but I'm wondering whether it would still be superior to my high speed 80mm fans. Since i'm buying a zalman mount I actually plan to have the 120mm fan hovering a few millimeters above the heatsink and i'm wondering whether this will improve/worsen the airflow. I want to know before I plunk down ~$40 for the whole setup. I'm a poor college student... you know the deal 😉
 
Actually, it won't reduce airflow, it would just increase pressure.
The air isn't going to stop flowing (assuming the fan keeps working at the same rate), the air will just be "compressed" into a smaller area (increase in pressure).
Since you may have an 80mm fan pushing 35cfm, or you can have an 80mm fan pushing 50+cfm (delta screamer), a 120mm fan pushing 60cfm isn't going to have any problem either, even in the small space, pressure will just be greater.

This is assuming you have a "seal" between the new fan and the heatsink (like a duct or adapter) so that the air is forced onto the heatsink.

If you are sucking air away from the heatsink, then I would imagine there would just be a greater vacuum effect which would increase the amount of air sucking through the heatsink fins (as you would expect from a higher cfm fan).

I can't see any way, with a good adapter/duct, that you could lose any airflow, assuming you had a decently rated 120mm fan.

Dell also does an OK job cooling its processors with ducts at the back of its cases.
I was thinking of getting an adapter from 80mm to 92 or 120mm for my CPU, when I have the money, to keep the noise down.
 
Dare I ask why you would go to so much trouble to adapt a fan that is still 34dB? If this is for a CPU, why wouldn't you just get something like a Zalman 7000 which would cool better and be much quieter to begin with?
 
umm well I have a ThermalRight ALX-800 which is "supposedly" one of the best HS's out there. I also have a mobile barton overclocked to 2.4ghz @1.75Vcore so i'm def outputting a decent amount of heat. I was considering a 120mm fan mostly because it MAY improve airflow. Right now my case is noisy and the cpu temps are STILL around 49C idle and 58C load. I'm trying to improve these temps but no matter how fast I run my fans, it's just not happening. I don't understand how some ppl get these overclocks and still only have load temps in the mid 40's.... I don't think they worry about electricity bills. Only way I can get those temps is if I turn my room ac on full blast and bring room temps to ~50-60F.
 
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