Greetings, I have read quite a number of posts on fan upgrades on this forum and wanted to learn more. I have a liquid cooled R10 and while I do not game I do 3D rendering. With 3D rendering, once you click the “render button” it is full throttle for the next 4 hours or more. I am not currently over clocking (but might dabble into that) and mostly want stability and quiet cooling. My system is currently totally stock. Quiet is important.
I am hoping to learn what the community arrived at as conclusions, and to gain information on what we are trying to achieve - meaning what specs we are trying to match or beat.
I am aware there is a case fan and the AIO cooler radiator fan. It would be nice if the solution does not throw bios errors or throw off the Alienware Apps/bios for monitoring cooling.
I am not sure what the radiator fan specs are but know the air cooled fan is quite the beast at nearly 150 cfm. I do not know the case fan specs. I believe both are 120mm. Guessing the radiator fan is PWM 4 pin and not sure of the case fan. So far on this forum I get the impression the details matter like RPM, CFM, PWM and the like. Appreciate any help moving forward.
I guess there are a lot of previous discussions so I will only add something never discussed here.
1. The radiator fan has an rpm range 800-4000. My assumption is you need at least 2000 rpm fan to avoid bios error ( and it is not the only criteria to meet bios requirements)
2. This forum only discussed ML120pro that can avoid triggering BIOS error, but there could be some better alternatives! ML120pro is relatively louder compared to Noctua A12-25 (only got reports that it works on R10, not R11/12) or Be Quiet! Wing 2.
3. The front chassis fan could have a much wider range of selection since it rarely throws an error code. You can opt for higher CFM or lower noise level depending on your need
Also some trivial things that you may not aware: the widely criticized stock radiator fan comes from NIDEC, which is a premium vendor supplying high-end server class fans. It may not be quiet but performance and reliability should be better than any retail fans you can buy from the market
Thank you for your comments. I did notice the radiator fan this morning as I took it out to photograph it and understand it better.
What stood out is it is 147 CFM.
That is really close to the Air cooled top fan which is 148.9 CFM.
I get the impression those are powerful fans. I did not look deeply, yet I did not see any Noctua fans that match that including their industrial line. I appreciate you mentioning the RPM of the fan. It would be interesting to know about the actual specs of the fan like acoustics.
I took the chassis case fan out to photograph it, yet the fan did not have a sticker saying what it is? Does anyone know what it is?
Interesting. On Amazon ( B07657VBQQ ) it says it's for low-impedance applications. I take that too mean, it's more of a case fan than a radiator fan? Is it that whole static pressure vs airflow thing?
I've noticed there are two versions, a 3- and a 4-pin, the latter being more expensive. And it comes in nicer colours, not that that matters in an AW case.
I think impedance means resistance - resistance to airflow. So a smooth properly sized duct would offer very little resistance. A complicated computer case with a lot of turns, screens and protuberances would have a higher resistance. Is the inside of case “aerodynamic” so to speak?
The R10 case is unique in design. I wonder if the community thinks of that case as normal resistance or high or low or…
That is the same graphic that made me wonder which is the best case fan vs radiator. I like that the graphic explains things well. I guess I am wondering if the Noctua fans are way under powered for this case. Or if we need two Noctua to each one stock fan. Perhaps like an extra fan on the door or hard drive area or the like.
Meister Bing
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Posted July 21st, 2021 13:00
I guess there are a lot of previous discussions so I will only add something never discussed here.
1. The radiator fan has an rpm range 800-4000. My assumption is you need at least 2000 rpm fan to avoid bios error ( and it is not the only criteria to meet bios requirements)
2. This forum only discussed ML120pro that can avoid triggering BIOS error, but there could be some better alternatives! ML120pro is relatively louder compared to Noctua A12-25 (only got reports that it works on R10, not R11/12) or Be Quiet! Wing 2.
3. The front chassis fan could have a much wider range of selection since it rarely throws an error code. You can opt for higher CFM or lower noise level depending on your need
Also some trivial things that you may not aware: the widely criticized stock radiator fan comes from NIDEC, which is a premium vendor supplying high-end server class fans. It may not be quiet but performance and reliability should be better than any retail fans you can buy from the market