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Low FPI vs. High FPI rads

post #1 of 5
Thread Starter 
What would be the scenario where a high (or higher than 8) FPI radiator would be called for ?

It seems to me when shopping for a new rad my mind is made up on low FPI rads so I can run AP15s @ ~1100RPM. Am I missing some magic sauce here ? What's the secret to GREAT performing loops ? Is it putting up with fan noise ?

Hoping someone can shed some light on this for me, I can't seem to wrap my tiny little brain around this nuance.
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post #2 of 5
low FPI are designed for low speed fans, high FPI are for high speed fans. Low FPI rads do not have the maximum cooling performance that high FPI rads do. If you are building for maximum silence you use thick low FPI rads like the UT60 or RX360 with fans like AP-15's running 1000 RPM or less. The trade off is depending what you are trying to cool, it might require more of these rads (or larger rads) to get the same cooling performance as smaller high FPI rads like the GTX family.

I ran a single RX360 for a GTX480 GPU and i7 870 both OC an was able to keep my GT-15's around 1000 RPM max. Currently I have two RX360's on a GTX570 Classified OC to 1G and I7 2700k running 5 GHz. My fans stay around ~ 800 rpm max for total silence.

Hope that helps.


BTW 8 FPI is pretty low.
 
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post #3 of 5
High FPI, or dense rads require high speed fans to work well. This obviously is noisy, can be very noisy.


Low FPI rads require low speeds to run in "their" optimal range. This is quiet be comparison. The issue though is that it requires a lot more rad surface area to make up for the loss of that dense FPI and high speed fans of High FPI setup.

There is no magic, no free lunch. If you go low FPI rads/fans setup you will need more rad to make up for it.
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post #4 of 5
I would suggest the Alphacool NEXXOS UT60, as it is the best all around radiator available, doing exceptionally well at any speed.
     
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post #5 of 5
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RatDog View Post

low FPI are designed for low speed fans, high FPI are for high speed fans. Low FPI rads do not have the maximum cooling performance that high FPI rads do. If you are building for maximum silence you use thick low FPI rads like the UT60 or RX360 with fans like AP-15's running 1000 RPM or less. The trade off is depending what you are trying to cool, it might require more of these rads (or larger rads) to get the same cooling performance as smaller high FPI rads like the GTX family.
I ran a single RX360 for a GTX480 GPU and i7 870 both OC an was able to keep my GT-15's around 1000 RPM max. Currently I have two RX360's on a GTX570 Classified OC to 1G and I7 2700k running 5 GHz. My fans stay around ~ 800 rpm max for total silence.
Hope that helps.
BTW 8 FPI is pretty low.

Yup, my SR1-360 claims 9FPI and my RX360 just says "sub 8 FPI"

Quote:
Originally Posted by tsm106 View Post

High FPI, or dense rads require high speed fans to work well. This obviously is noisy, can be very noisy.
Low FPI rads require low speeds to run in "their" optimal range. This is quiet be comparison. The issue though is that it requires a lot more rad surface area to make up for the loss of that dense FPI and high speed fans of High FPI setup.
There is no magic, no free lunch. If you go low FPI rads/fans setup you will need more rad to make up for it.

As in a NOVA 1080 ? Just ordered one today. thumb.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by nleksan View Post

I would suggest the Alphacool NEXXOS UT60, as it is the best all around radiator available, doing exceptionally well at any speed.

Yeah, that looks like a great rad. It would be a tight fit in my setup. I'm going external.

Thanks for all the help all. +REP.
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Scylla
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