Fan selction for best performance/noise ratio

Hello all,

I know that this topic has been beaten and beaten but I haven't been able to find any comparative reviews of push/pull with fans at lower CFM vs. push with fans at higher CFM. After reading reviews from skinnee, I know that push/pull adds about 20-30% performance increase. Now my question is, do you guys think 6 yate loon mediums (33dBa, 70CFM) undervolted in push/pull would work better, and not be as loud, than 3 higher CFM fans.

Essentially, I'm wondering how much more noise is created by adding 3 more fans to make push/pull to get the 20-30% increase in performance.

Any ideas or help will be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I'm sure that these results are across the board on radiators, but if not, I am using an XSPC RX360.

With your rad, I would run 6 low speed Yates in push-pull. They should provide plenty of air movement and will be as quiet or quieter than just 3 medium Yates in push, IMO. That is a great low cfm, low static pressure rad and won't offer much resistance to the lower pressure and cfm of the low speed Yate fans.

One important concept to understand. Lets say you get a 30% CFM increase with push pull. A 30% increase in air flow will relate to some amount of better heat removal. It won't be 30%. Lets also look at your rad and what heat you will be dumping into it. Lets say you have an average loop, and your water temps under load are 10C higher than your ambient temps (your DeltaT Temps). So, by increasing your CFM, you get a 20% better DT. Thats 2C. Not bad. It would bring your CPU temps down less than 1C. What have you gained? A bit better temps, but it's not a crazy drop in temps.

People that have massive heatloads and not enough rad can have a 20 DT. They will see awesome benefits.

I have a 120x3 with 2 280 GTX GPUS and 3 GT 1850 fans on pretty low. If I were to go to 6 low speed GTs I'd see no gains at all, my DT is already darn low.

Is it worth it? Thats up to you. Don't over analize, just do it, your gonna have a great loop already. If 3 fans in pull aren't enough, order 3 more. Part of watercooling is playing with it.

You got more than enuff rad and will see little benefit with push pull. You don't need it.

Thanks. I never thought about the CFM translating to actual water temp drops. The 1C drop in CPU temps is not worth the potential headache caused by fan noise.