High static pressure fans as case fans - whats your experience?

[lolek86]

Using high pressure fans instead of high airflow, is it good idea? For example corsair sp140l as front intake or side intake maybe back exhaust? anywhere?. That wide selection of 140mm hp fans with PWM is certainly tempting sometiems. What about running such fans at lower rpm? is it cancelling gains from higher power fans and airflow drops so much that is making whole deal unacceptable? And of course, what about noise in this scenario. Tell your experience if you have any

 

[UsandThem]

Here's a 140mm fan round-up that you can look at and it should help clear up some of your questions:

http://www.overclockers.com/15-case-fans-tested-ultimate-140-mm-roundup/

The simple answer to your question is this: High static pressure fans usually do better job than low static fans when pushing/pulling air through heatsinks/filters/radiators. Low static pressure fans usually are usually best for case fans. As the article I linked to will show you, sometimes it's a big difference, sometimes it's pretty minor. The chart also shows what the noise level is.

For example if you compare say the Noctua NF-A14 FLX to the Rosewill Hyperborea. At full speed, the Noctua is rated at 1.51 mm and the Rosewill is rated at 2.76 mm. Now for the best performance through a radiator, the Rosewill wins hands-down (66 CFM to 53 CFM). But notice the sound difference. The Rosewill hit 31 dB, while the Noctua hit 23 dB. So if the extra noise bothered someone, they could lower the speed in their BIOS or with a fan controller, but then the CFM difference will close as a result. The link I provided also shows the results for some of the fans when they are ran at a lower RPM (like the Noctua with the ULN & LNA connected).

The thing is just select fans based on your needs (quiet, performance, through a radiator, case intake, etc), and to not overthink it. A fan, even one that is high static pressure, will still exhaust air from your case just fine. The only time I would say that a high static pressure fan is a must is with radiators/heatsinks. Other than that, they are all in the same ballpark for intake/exhaust fans.

 

[lolek86]

Thanks for reply. Thats very nice article. I think I will give both styles a try and compare. I have hdd cage and front intake construction is little obstructed in my case so lets see what will be better in that place high pressure or high airflow.