Corsair AF and SP Series Fan Review - PAGE 1

Damn!!!

No PWM!!!

That's what I need. God. Nothing could be perfect in this world. I need a pair of PWM fans. Even though I wouldn't mind getting some for my case, but I just bought some fans the other day. So they'll have to wait.

No PWM!!!!

I would've bought some right now.

On case fans, no PWM for me would be fine since I like my case fans to run maxed out all the time. Lack of PWM would kill it somewhat for me using it on the CPU.

Which is better for case cooling though? Static pressure or high airflow? Expensive for fans (or atleast seems expensive) but somewhat worth it. Would've been tempted to grab some Spectre Pros to match my case, but these are quite tempting aswell.

Hope they do a PWM version though for my CPU cooling. Assuming ofcourse that they'll fit in my cooler.

one thing ive never had a definite answer on...those fan blade thicknesses. you have the thinner ones with more blades, then the thicker ones with fewer blades. whats the performance difference? its always been something thats confused me with things like the shape of propellers on planes and ships, with them being so different.

'static pressure' series, eh?

very messy benchmark though! there are two "configuration #2"s, benchmark graphs have typos; hard to get legitimate info from it all.

quote neoseeker

Airflow Series:

Configuration #1: AF140 QE front of case as intake.

Configuration #2: AF140 QE front of case as intake, AF140 rear of case as exhaust.

Configuration #2: AF140 QE front of case an intake, AF140 rear of case as exhaust, AF120 QE x2 top of case as exhaust, AF120 PE push/pull setup on the processor cooler.

so... config 1 you put in an AF140 QE fan... what was in the case before? are you replacing a case fan with an AF140, or was there just no fan in the case to begin with? i mean, the difference between config 1 and config 3 is ~2 degrees, and its 1 fan vs 6 fans... so you gotta be replacing case fans. same with the CPU heatsink... what fans were on there, since config #3 has 2x AF120 PE on the CPU??

then theres the issue of the SP series fan benchmark... the config you have for the SP series is not equal to any of the AF series fan configs, so a 1:1 comparison isnt there. (SP config: 2x system fans, 2x CPU fans; the closest AF config is config 3 which has 4x system fans, 2x CPU fans)

im also confused about how the SP series actually differs from the AF series, not considering the CFM and dB range. i mean, somehow its better for placement where airflow is restricted, like through dust filters, a heatsink, HDD cluster, etc, yet theres no benchmark for it, no raw numbers. what i would want to know if what the cooling performance might be between a comparable SP fan vs AF fan cooling a HDD or something (even though the AF series has a larger diameter).

maybe im retarded, but i cant get any useful info from anything.

quote ashantiqua

same with the CPU heatsink... what fans were on there, since config #3 has 2x AF120 PE on the CPU??

*same with the CPU heatsink... what fans used to be on the heatsink, since config #3 has 2x AF120 PE on the CPU??

quote ashantiqua

what i would want to know if what the cooling performance might be

*what i would want to know is what the cooling performance might be

quote harbin91

On case fans, no PWM for me would be fine since I like my case fans to run maxed out all the time. Lack of PWM would kill it somewhat for me using it on the CPU.

Which is better for case cooling though? Static pressure or high airflow? Expensive for fans (or atleast seems expensive) but somewhat worth it. Would've been tempted to grab some Spectre Pros to match my case, but these are quite tempting aswell.

Hope they do a PWM version though for my CPU cooling. Assuming ofcourse that they'll fit in my cooler.

You would want to use the high flow, but first look at where you intend to place the fan. Will it be pushing air through a hard drive cage then you would want to use the static pressure fan.

quote Cryonicstate

quote harbin91

On case fans, no PWM for me would be fine since I like my case fans to run maxed out all the time. Lack of PWM would kill it somewhat for me using it on the CPU.

Which is better for case cooling though? Static pressure or high airflow? Expensive for fans (or atleast seems expensive) but somewhat worth it. Would've been tempted to grab some Spectre Pros to match my case, but these are quite tempting aswell.

Hope they do a PWM version though for my CPU cooling. Assuming ofcourse that they'll fit in my cooler.

You would want to use the high flow, but first look at where you intend to place the fan. Will it be pushing air through a hard drive cage then you would want to use the static pressure fan.

So basically, static if there is an obstruction such as drive cages, but CFM if there isn't such as exhaust fans?

quote hiigaran

one thing ive never had a definite answer on...those fan blade thicknesses. you have the thinner ones with more blades, then the thicker ones with fewer blades. whats the performance difference? its always been something thats confused me with things like the shape of propellers on planes and ships, with them being so different.

Thin blades with a high pitch, angle or rake as some call it are designed to push more air, the fans with the wider blades and low pitch produce a higher static pressure. You can use a fan that has a low SP rating on a radiator with a low fpi count, but the more fpi you have the higher the SP rating you need to push the air through the radiator.

quote harbin91

quote Cryonicstate

quote harbin91

On case fans, no PWM for me would be fine since I like my case fans to run maxed out all the time. Lack of PWM would kill it somewhat for me using it on the CPU.

Which is better for case cooling though? Static pressure or high airflow? Expensive for fans (or atleast seems expensive) but somewhat worth it. Would've been tempted to grab some Spectre Pros to match my case, but these are quite tempting aswell.

Hope they do a PWM version though for my CPU cooling. Assuming ofcourse that they'll fit in my cooler.

You would want to use the high flow, but first look at where you intend to place the fan. Will it be pushing air through a hard drive cage then you would want to use the static pressure fan.

So basically, static if there is an obstruction such as drive cages, but CFM if there isn't such as exhaust fans?

Yes sir!

quote Cryonicstate

quote hiigaran

one thing ive never had a definite answer on...those fan blade thicknesses. you have the thinner ones with more blades, then the thicker ones with fewer blades. whats the performance difference? its always been something thats confused me with things like the shape of propellers on planes and ships, with them being so different.

Thin blades with a high pitch, angle or rake as some call it are designed to push more air, the fans with the wider blades and low pitch produce a higher static pressure. You can use a fan that has a low SP rating on a radiator with a low fpi count, but the more fpi you have the higher the SP rating you need to push the air through the radiator.

strange...every formula ive read would imply the opposite with thickness. as a blade gets thicker, it should produce more lift, given that every other factor remains the same, because theres more surface area for air to be deflected from.

you got some stuff i can read up on? now im really curious!

I'd like to read on that also. That completely changes the way I will look at fans especially when buying one.

hiigaran you are correct in that statement, every article I have read has stated the same thing, but then again we are not talking about lifting anything the fans are mounted to the case so we are talking about moving air. But yes if it was not attached and you cranked the rpm up with the fan laying on its back then yes we would have liftoff. lol "Maybe when I have some free time I can test that theory out"
You can read Corsair's blog regarding both the AF & SP series of fans,

Corsair Air Series Fans http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/introducing-corsair-air-series-fans[/link]
Air Series Fan Terminology and Testing http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/corsair-air-series-fan-terminology-and-testing[/link]

Question. How important is PWM if I were to get a pair of these? i know that they're not PWM fans but connecting them to the mobo and controlling them through bios, would it be a bad thing? i guess what would suck is that I would just have to go through the bios often just to adjust the speeds on them. which of course would be the inconvenient thing to do.

without PWM or a fan controller, theres no way you are going to control it. BIOS and software settings will affect how the PWM works. wikipedia has a decent explanation on how PWM really works.