Hi all So, after grabbing that delicious Rampage 5 Extreme/6800k bundle off Xaser04 I'm going to do a system overhaul. New case, probably replace my watercooling, so forth. But I've hit a problem with fans. Fans were always a problem, but now there's RGB to add to the mix! So I'll outline my dilema: I'm going to move to a Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic, its a beautiful case, and very much a showpiece. Seeing as this is my bi-decade upgrade, I'm going to go the whole hog and line the thing with RGB fans. Now my thinking is a vertical X-Flow radiator to the right of the motherboard (clearence permitting as the R5E is a big boy!), so 3 120mm on that in a pull to draw air into the main compartment, as well as 3 120mm intakes on the bottow and 3 120mm exhausts on the top. So thats 9 120mm fans! Now because these are RGB fans, I want to get all of the same for colour matching. But that makes it a big cost. My preference would be Corsair ML series fans, as apparently they're the best, but 9 RGB ones of those would be £223 (without node controller), which is a biiiig pile of pennies! The other options, still looking at Corsair fans are the HD or SP fans, being £168 and £140 respectively. On paper these have as good spec's, if not better, than the ML series. So what are peoples opinions? The main reason I'm looking at the Corsair fans is that they're highly regarded and come with controlelrs, so I can control them all together easily. Don't worry about the pressure on the radiator, I'm going to probaby mount some fans on the other side to give it a boost, but those ones can be much cheaper.
EKWB Vardar RGB fans would be £162 and use a 'standard' 4-pin 12V rgb connection, so colour could be controlled through the motherboard or something like an Aquearo or one of it's add-ons since you're watercooling. The furious vardars I've got are fantastic, nice and quite, huge airflow, although the rgb ones only go to 2200 not the 3000 mine do, but my temp curve is set so my loop holds to 40c with the fans at about 1500. 3000 is for benching fun (and headphones ) EDIT: It's the Farbwerk that's their add on led controller for separate channels, bundle them all only the single rgb header on the Aquearo. I'm presuming you have an Aquearo? Get one.
I've never actually bothered with Aquearo's. I tried playing with one of the first or second versions like a decade ago and concluded that the faff just wasn't worth it. I prefer to spend the extra on quieter fans and better pump mounts, so my machine is quiet enough for my purposes. I used the 1800rpm Gentle Typhoons all of this time and to my ears they're just a pleasant background hum. So I just leave them at max, no fan curves or anything. The only think I've done is turn my D5 down to about 40% (if memory serves) as thats about enough for my loop. As an aside, make sure you keep them clean, as those DBB fans do not enjoy dust in my experience!!! Edit: Those Vardar fans really look like Gentle Typhoons!
I do not know how cheap you want to go but the deepcool rf 120's can be found for 30ish for a 3 pack not the greatest fans obviously but pretty darn good and fairly even lighting esp for the cost, comes with a 4 way pwm fan hub (though mine had the pwm signal shorted to ground which made me crack it open and cut the short out of the board with a knife) and 4 pin non aRGB headers with a 3 way wire splitter for what its worth, I give deepcool a bunch of crap, their QC is low and their customer service is slow and useless ... but a 3 pack of decent cheap fans with the goodies is worth a look if you don't want to spend more on stupid fans than your CPU
I think they essentially are GT's. EK licensed the design from scythe after they ceased production and I think just made copies at first, but there may have been a few revisions now. If you're going to get a controller for the colour of all them pwm fans, you might as well get one that'll control their speed as well and enjoy some proper quiet time. They'll have like moved on a lot since you last tried one, setting the fan curves and who does what was a doddle. Plus you can watercool it for all the unnecessary piping glory
https://www.amazon.co.uk/upHere-Pac...rds=120mm+rgb&qid=1562751215&s=gateway&sr=8-4 I bought a 6 pack of those and I am extremely impressed. They're very solid, quiet and easy to control. The remote even works with the pc closed up. Not only can you control the fan speed but you can cycle every colour and some cool pre programmed tetris effects etc. Best buy in computer parts in bloody ages. I have a video somewhere of them in action.
Actually no, I got these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07B3Z4992/ref=psdcmw_430499031_t1_B07HNNNN2R With the remote rather than software sync.
What about these? As far as I can tell they use the standard 5050 connection, but the Rampage V Extreme I'm getting obviously doesn't have this interface. Does anyone know of a RGB5050 USB controller? Edit: Looks like one of these would be my best bet. 14 connections, which is a lot more than most other systems for the price. Thoughts?
First you need to decide on which type of RGB you want. 5v,12v, addressable etc. Then decide on which fans you want and then find a suitable controller and possibly hub if the controller doesn't have enough. It gets incredibly expensive incredibly quickly. I bought fan frames for one rig with controller (AC Farbwerk) and XSPC hubs. I changed them about twice before just setting them to cycle. Then I bought the £37 kit with remote and I've got to be honest I've changed those twice too before settling on a green and blue Tetris style brick formation. In essence what I'm trying to say here is don't do your nuts on RGB fans because the cheap ones do it all and more. They come with everything too at an almost unbelievable price and will make you grin from ear to ear.
Dude those Lian li are probably exactly the same as the first fans I linked to only with a lian li sticker in the middle. In fact Antec recently released some RGB ram coolers and they were exactly the same down to the branding as the ones I got cheap on Amazon.
Found it. Seriously for £36 all in with the controller, hub and remote it's a killer bargain. They look really nice too, very solid and chunky.
