San Ace questions

-- San Ace fans are top notch quality.
-- From a bit of searching; I found that these fans are about U$30 per fan... For that kind of money; you may as well just get a second AP-13 or two...
Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that the San Ace is not worth the money; I'm actually a big fan of expensive fans. I run a San Ace 9SG1212P1G01 on my VenomousX Black heatsink and the thing performs like a champ... That's a $40 unit there; and I also run a Nidec Servo G1238B12BBZP-00 some times ($100/fan)... That one is out on loan to a friend that's making a custom fan controller for "high powered" fans.

When you say "a lead over the GT".... What do you mean? Performance-wise? Price-wise?

The way I see it; San Ace (Sanyo Denki) and Nidec (Scythe GTs are actually rebranded Nidec fans) are two of the top brands when it comes to fans... You will not go wrong with either one... If you want silent performance; go GT... If you want more CFM/Static pressure at the sacrifice of a bit of noise... Go San Ace.

As I said... You really won't go wrong with either brand. I can't recommend the particular model of San Ace you're asking about, but that is simply because I've never owned it so I have no personal experience with it... As far as brand goes, I've owned both San Ace and Nidec (GT) and they're both good.... If you're the curious type (as in always want to test out new equipment); I'd say go for the San Ace and see if it really is better than your AP13.. If all you want is something that you can be sure will work; just go for what you know to be good (GT AP13).

Sanyo Denkei fans are in a whole other league when compared to other pc fans, with the exception of Delta and possibly Panaflo. Gentle Typhoon fans are not "performance fans", rather they are "Extremely Well-Executed Compromise Between Performance and Sound" fans, so while they do perform rather well, don't be mislead into thinking that they are anywhere even close to the top of the performance charts. Are they excellent fans for people wanting low noise levels from their computer with little to no sacrifice in performance? Yes, in fact they are perfect for such use, and while others like Noctua have tried to compete, the GTs simply "blow them away". However, if you are looking for performance and sound is less of an issue, you can find fans that are 2-5x stronger in terms of airflow volume, and 2-20x stronger in terms of static pressure. Will they be louder? Absolutely. Will they all be significantly louder, or even noticeably louder? No, not at all (assuming you live in a home with normal ambient noise of 40-55dB SPL).

If you want performance beyond what a GT AP15 is capable of, San Ace fans are absolutely the best (in fact, they are way better than GTs IMHO). I have a rather decent sensitivity to sound, as I do a lot of audio editing and mixing, and I have used a huge number of San Ace fans for their sound profile. Unlike many powerful fans, they have an incredibly consistent and low-frequency sound that is easily seen in a wave chart (and thus easily eliminated). In fact, there is no other fan that even comes close.
Also, please don't make the mistake of confusing the dB rating with the sound level/volume, much less "how" the fan sounds. I have used many fans with much higher dB levels than others, yet were completely comfortable and barely noticeable, while the "allegedly quieter" fans (going by SPL) were so awful and grating that they were immediately returned. The total actually measured dB difference between the two types? 18dB!

San Ace fans will give you, in general, many times more mmHg (static pressure) than the Gentle Typhoon AP15s can, especially if you get one of the 38mm thick models. The difference between the two fan speeds is really irrelevant in terms of sound and comparing any given fans, unless the speed variations exceed 500rpm, in my experience. I have used many fans that have proven themselves louder/far more obnoxious than some others that were between 500rpm and 1200rpm faster. There is certainly correlation between fan speed and volume/type of sound, but it does not mean causality.

Anyway, I apologize for the rant, I am just against the whole "Gentle Typhoon AP15s are the perfect fan ever and any other fan will rape your mom and drink all your beer and then you'll be sad and realize that you have evil fans and will get AP15s because they are the only way to defeat the evil fans". I exaggerate, but I think the point is there.

I am confident that you will be extremely pleased with the Sanyo Denkei fans.

personally i prefer FD Bearings over Double Ball Bearings when it comes to 'soundquality' and low noise fans. If you can find some bequiet silent wings 2 they are awesome.

As far as the san ace go: they are pretty good, it's the same series that works in my Seasonic PSU i believe.

Another Suggestion: you cant expect a huge improvement in temps from a AP13 to AP14. So if you are willing to spend as much as 30$ for a new fan iyou might as well think about getting a better heatsink.

For Example: You could get a Thermalright HR-02 Macho for ~40$, wich will be ca. as loud as the San Ace but will most likely perform significantly better compared to the 212/San Ace combo.