I'm still testing an XP120, which is a wide-and-flat version of the XP90 (which is a tall and narrow version of the XP120).
An unseasonably cold November in So. California is not especially a good time to test cooling solutions, but I used two computers in similar cases with similar vent and fan choices for comparison.
One system uses a ThermalTake PIPE101 with an acrylic 120-to-92 mm fan adapter. It is this system which would be best candidate for an XP90, because the 120mm fan and adapter needs to be suspended above the CPU so that the fan and adapter clear the video card. The vid card on this particular mobo is closer to the CPU than on other ATX mobos I've encountered for the P4. So I fitted a duct from the fan adapter to the top of the TT PIPE101.
The other system uses an XP120 with a SUNON 120x38mm, 42dB, 108CFM, 3,100 rpm fan. It runs full throttle. It is in a full tower case, attached to the XP120 with the silly-cone rubber grommets and a duct which ports air from outside the case onto the fan and XP120. There IS some AKASA Pax-Mate on the case panels -- left and right -- but I didn't stick the stuff in every nook and cranny.
To me, this is near-noiseless. It's more quiet than a recent-model household air-filter. Most of the noise is air-turbulence white-noise, and rather soft at that.
So far, it seems the XP120 trumps the ThermalTake PIPE101. Idle CPU temperatures are equal, and the mobo temp on the PIPE101 system is about 1F lower than on the XP120 system. But running my same-model TV-Tuner-Capture cards in both machines starting from the idle temp heats up the PIPE101 system at today's room-ambient to 86F, while the XP120 system bounces between 82 and 84F. Finally, the load temps for the XP120 system are 2 to 4F lower than for the PIPE101. The PIPE101 uses a Silverstone fan with a 105CFM throughput, so the systems are fairly and evenly matched.
Both of those fans are great for most computer purposes of 120mm fans. Both quiet, high-throughput. But the SUNON weighs 326 grams and the Silverstone is more like 130 grams.
Before I would get a 92mm Panaflo for my own preferences, I would find a fan that has a potential speed that reaches at least 3,000 rpm (hoping for the throughput associated with 92mm fans at that speed), and the higher the speed potential, the better. I would then put it on a fan-controller, or set the BIOS fan control option as desired provided I can hook up the fan to the mobo.
Most people agree that the Vantec Tornado is loud, but what happens if it is located in the dead-center of the computer case, grommeted with silly-cone rubber, with some Akasa Pax Mate to deaden the sound? And what if there is no blowhole for it to broadcast its noise?
I also like the Thermaltake Blue LED 92mm offering -- top speed of 3,600 rpm and throughput around 75CFM -- not too noisy at around 2,600.
But the choice I would make on the basis of sound first and speed second is the Zalman 92mm fan. It spins up to almost 3,000rpm, and is very, very quiet. But why doesn't Zalman post CFM throughput measurements on that puppy?
