Hello guys and girls.
To start with, I've always been obsessed with fans, trying to get the best/better ones in my builds. I have looked around and did not find any websites that dedicate themselves to test just fans and rightly so, It wouldn't be that lucrative.
I am in the process of building a website dedicated to just that, maybe expand it later, but fan testing will be the top priority. For now though, I'll stick to OCN's trusty forums
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I have begun testing and I will be updating this thread regularly with the data gathered from these tests.
I plan to build several different rigs to test different sized fans, the one I'm starting with is dedicated to 120 mm fans. The heatsink used in each system will remain the same. The only thing that will change are the fans.
As stated earlier, I only have one spare system that I've dedicated to test 120 mm fans. Hopefully, with enough funding and support, I will build at least two more testing rigs, one for 140 mm fans and another for 92/90 mm fans. I may or may not build a fourth system to test 80mm fans but we'll just have to wait and see.
Let's not get ahead of our selves for now as we only have one system to play around with
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Righto, down to business then, let me walk you through the 120 mm testing rig:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 (C0/C1 Revision)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus II Extreme LGA1366
Memory: 3 x 2GB (6 GB) Mushkin Redline DDR-3 1600 MHz
Graphics card: ASUS nVidia GeForce 210 (Passively cooled)
SSD: Corsair Force 3 60 GB
Power Supply: Seasonic X-Series SS-460FL (Fanless)
Chassis: Lian Li Pitstop PC-T60
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.C Black Edition
Thermal Interface (TIM): Indigo Xtreme
Prolimatech have been kind enough to send me a Megahalems Rev.C Black Edition as well as a set of their Red Vortex 12 LED fans, rated for 1600 RPM. On top of those, they also sent me a set of extended mounting clip to use with thicker 38mm fans and a set of screws required to use this cooler with a LGA2011 motherboard. I am very grateful for their support.
Those are the meat and potates of this setup, now let me reveal the BIOS and windows settings:
First of all, the overclock. This CPU has sort of been a pain in the bum as it's overclocking capacity is severely limited. It shouldn't matter though as what's more important is the amount of voltage I'm feeding it. It's running at 3.6 GHz using 1.4-1.42 volts (according to CPU-Z). In this trim, using Prolimatech's fans in push/pull, and with an ambient temperature of around 26 C, the CPU is running at an average of 78 C. Not bad at all as I was expecting somewhere around the 85-90 C mark. The Base Clock / Multiplier ratio for CPU is 180 x 20.
The memory is running at 1442 MHz. The timing for this set of memory is 6-8-6-24 with 1.65 volts, but I didn't manage to get it stable with those timings. As a result of that, I'm using 7-8-7-24. It doesn't really matter though as the impact will be negligable for what I'm trying to do here.
In the BIOS, I've pretty much disabled anything that is not necessary for the overclock such as Hyper Threading, Virtualization, etc (They are sort of relevant as you might need more voltage to run these features). I have gone one step further and even disabled LAN (Ethernet port) and some other irrelevant futures.
The motherboard is using the latest BIOS revision (2101). All spread spectrum settings are disabled. The Load line Calibration is turned on. The voltage set in the BIOS is 1.3875, but as stated earlier, it goes up to 1.42 volts in windows.
The operating system is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with the latest updates installed (as of june 25th, 2012).
The torture testing will be done with Prime95 64-bit version 27.7. The FFT size will be 1280K (min and max) to keep the amount of heat generated the same everytime. 1280K was optimal since it used the most power during full load. The test is ran for 5 minutes every single time.
CoreTemp 0.99.8 will be used to monitor the temperatures in each session. An average will be recorded after each test and the ambient temperature will be deducted from that value, giving you a more accurate picture of how well the fan(s) are performing.
I will try to be as accurate as possible to get the most consistent results. The heatsink and the whole system will be cleaned with compressed air before and after each test to maintain adequate airflow and thermal performance.
Before running the main torture test, Prime95 will run for 5 minutes to warm the heatsink, after which the main test will commence.
As most of you would know, the performance of any certain fan, depends entirely on where and how you use it. Different heatsinks/radiators have different thickness and fin densities and it's near impossible to test a set of fans in every possible scenario. In my series of tests with 120 mm fans, Prolimatech Megahalems will be used, which to me, is a worthy choice, and not just because it was given to me for free. I have used two of these coolers in the past and I've always been satisfied with the performance of these units. Putting that aside, The distance between each fin layer is 2 mm which is pretty much the same as most other CPU Coolers on the market. I've measured the fin gap on a Noctua NH-C14 and a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ and they are exactly the same as the Megahalems.
Now then, everything I just wrote pretty much involved temperatures and not much else. Worry not though as I will also be measuring the noise levels of each and every fan and maybe later, the voltage required to run these fans at full speed. The chart that I'm going to make will include a simple yet intuitive Performance to Noise ratio section alongside other standard bits and bobs.
I have a variety of tools (Multi-meters, Decibel-meters, etc) available. I will test each of them and determine which one is the most accurate to be used in my tests.
I am open to suggestions and I will wait a while for feedback about my setup and methods before initiating this project. Feel free to leave comments and intervene where you see fit.
Thank you
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Update #1: As of today (7/July/2012), I've changed the power supply for the 120mm test rig (Corsair TX850) to a Seasonic X-Series SS-460FL (Fanless) unit.
Update #2: I had to change the thermal interface to Xigmatek Freezing Point G4718 since Indigo Xtreme lost it's consistancy. (28/Sep/2012).
Update #3: 140mm rig finished and first fan set of fans tested. (5/Oct/2012).
Edited by Cyclops - 10/5/12 at 12:25pm
