Neoseeker : : : : Corsair AF and SP Series Fan Review
Newsletter
News Headlines
More news »
New Articles
Related Articles
Hardware Price Check

Compare Prices

Motherboards
ASUS
Gigabyte
MSI
eVGA
Intel
Tyan
More...

Processors
AMD
Intel
More...

Memory
DDR
DDR2
DDR3
More...

Video Cards
ATI
eVGA
XFX
Sapphire
PNY
More...

search for lowest prices

Corsair AF and SP Series Fan Review - PAGE 1

Roger Cantwell - Like +my favourites


Article Index

1.Introduction & Specifications:
2.Closer Look: The Fans
3.Testing Setup & Results
4.Conclusion

Get updates when we publish new articles
View this conversation in the forum

Comments

Sort by date: ascending descending
0 thumbs!
^
deeplove Aug 9, 12
Oh hell. So a fan controller is needed basically. Is that how some people have those Corsair water coolers with if they have these fans connected?
0 thumbs!
^
harbin Aug 9, 12
TBH I do really hope Corsair does a PWM version of both. If they did, then I'd probably have the fans set out, unless I saw something better elsewhere. If they did PWM fans, then I might even be tempted to get a fan controller fitted.

How loud roughly, is 24dB and 31 dB? What are they equivalent to? I can hear the fans in my current PC (not too loud), but if I have sound coming out of my TV, then I cannot notice any noise from them.

In the case of mine though (I plan on modding the case at some point) but at the moment, I have a Bitfenix Shinobi. Two fans are front of drive cages, with the bottom having two HDDs in front... so static pressure should be place on them, along with two static pressure fans on the heatsink (an NH-D12). The bottom fan and the rear exhaust fan (which has a heatsink placed just behind) should be pure CFM then, because air is currently being pushed towards it? Even then, how does that work with the case vents (those honeycomb meshing things that cover part of the hole, or with dust covers), would that restrict airflow enough to require SP fans instead of CFM fans? Might just be being pedantic about the whole thing.
0 thumbs!
^
Randome Aug 10, 12
I have 3 of the SP120 quiet edition. They all come with little diodes (or whatever those things are) that can be placed between the 3-pin on the fan and the 3-pin plug you're connecting it to. That little thing will slow them down, but I don't know by how much. I'm sure all versions of their fans come with those.

I haven't actually been able to turn them on yet. I'm still waiting for a fan controller and I don't want to use them before I get a controller. I'm going to keep 2 of my case fans with blue LEDs.


The difference between the fan blades is that the large number of small blades will move air faster, but that can't create all that much pressure. The bigger blades will create better pressure, but they'd have to spin a lot faster to move the same amount of air.

They have been tested by the experts at Corsair and by multiple people who've bought both types.

The SP fans are for radiators only. AF fans are for everything else. Somehow you shouldn't even use an AF fan as a radiator pull fan. I don't know how that is, but it has been tested.

I'm pretty sure that the only reason they didn't give those fans 4 pins is to make people buy more fan controllers. Extremely few people would ever buy one if these fans had 4 pins.

quote harbin91
How loud roughly, is 24dB and 31 dB? What are they equivalent to? I can hear the fans in my current PC (not too loud), but if I have sound coming out of my TV, then I cannot notice any noise from them.
My previous CPU cooler DBX-B is rated to be at 20 dB and it was as loud as a microwave oven. I mean like pretty loud.

dB is not what humans define as loudness.
Sort by date: ascending descending
Add your comment:
Name *:  Members, please LOGIN
Email:  We use this to display your Gravatar.
Sign in with
Comment *:
(0.1060/d/web6)