Push/pull for TR True Spirit?

[TurboJ]

I'm trying to improve my system cooling without spending money on new parts, because I'm saving up for a custom water loop already.

I have a Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU cooler that I'm going to use for my 4770k.
I also have some Bitfenix Spectre 120mm PWM fans lying around; I'm wondering if it is a good idea to fit one of them to the rear side of the True Spirit.

What I'm looking for is experience from people who have done a similar thing. I know the Spectre PWM is not the best fan on the market, but if one will give any improvement to the TS's function, I'd be a fool not to use it.

Now, replacing the True Spirit stock fan with another Spectre PWM fan sounds like a bad idea, right? They aren't pressure optimized in any way I guess...

 

[ninjacore]

I have the TRUE 140 and experimented a bit with 2 fans instead of just the single, default config. I tried a 120 pulling and the stock 140 pushing. I didn't notice enough of a difference to justify the increased noise level. I think I remember it being in the neighborhood of 1-2 degrees?

That was in my old Antec 300. I would imagine if your case is well insulated (or if you just don't mind the noise from the extra fan), it should be worth it to throw the extra fan in there. It also might be more of an increase for you since you have the 120 vs. my 140.

Regarding replacing the stock 120 fan with one of the Spectres, I would say do whatever gives you the results you're looking for (noise vs. temp). There's nothing special about the stock TR fans.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I was about the same as Ninjacore with adding a second fan. I have a TRUE 120 Ex and added a Scythe Slipstream 110 cfm to it in addition to the one already on there. I saw about a 3c drop in temps, take into account that they are 2 110 cfm fans and loud at full blast. Trying it wont hurt and if you run some tests you'll see if it's worth it. You may find that you really don't get much of a change in temps but it is a bit quieter in normal usage with the 2 fans.

 

[TurboJ]

It seems the question I asked was premature... There was not enough space for two fans because the Asus Thermal Armor was blocking the second one on my Gryphon Z87 mobo...
However, I am surprised how well the cooling works on this small True Spirit heat sink; at 4.2 GHz the 4770k can not be bullied to over 70 C using any of my normal stress test regimes, and only on long Prime95 sessions can it touch 80. CPU-heavy gaming sees a max of 62 or so. I would not have expected this with such a small heat sink.