Cooling Which CPU fan

I need to choose between two CPU coolers - a Scythe Mugen 2 and a Titan Fenrir (reviewed in a CustomPC mag group test in June) which I'm considering for an i7 920 build.

Both have 120mm fans but the Fenrir is much noisier when connected to the mobo via the 4 pin connector. According to the CustomPC article, the Fenrir can be quietened down by connecting to the mobo via a 3-pin adapter, which I'd guess means that the fan would no longer be PWM-controlled and would therefore spin at a constant speed, regardless of CPU temp, because the mobo can no longer control the fan speed via the 3-pin connection.

Am I correct in thinking this?

TIA

Johno

 

The titan fenrir is accepted generally as being excellent in cooling as for noise well that partly depends on what fan control you have. Connected via PWM on one motherboard can be quite different to being connected via PWM on another as the control is implemented differently. I have an ASUS motherboard that handles PWM perfectly and an Abit motherboard that no matter what I do I either end up with the fan stopped or screaming.

Remember that you can always change the 120 mm fan for another alternative in the future if you don't like the one that's provided. I believe this is true of either the scythe or the titan.

 

Thanks, that's a good point about choosing a quieter fan, though I'm trying to avoid any unnecessary hassle

I'm planning to build around an Asus P6T in an Antec P193 case which is a pretty quiet case so maybe the Fenrir won't be so noisy externally, but the Scythe's cooling performance with PWM control is only slightly worse than the Fenrir's and it's much quieter so I might just plump for that...

...unless of course someone has already paired the Fenrir with a quieter PWM-controlled fan and would care to share the details?

 

the fenrir works perfectly with a P6T, ie the MB will control it perfectly.

 

Is the fan audible at that overclock?

 

very much so. but im more concerned about temps than noise (theres plenty of other noisy stuff in there). i considered replacing the fan with a scythe gentle typhoon, but i havent made up my mind yet.

in essence, if you are at a lower OC or you dont push that hard you wont hear it. If you run prime or linX at 4ghz you most definately will, but such is life.

 

I'm more concerned with noise than temp as I'll only be OC'ing the 920 to 3.66Mhz (apparently that's the sweet spot for power use vs speed). I noticed from your sig that you've got a P6T SE.
After doing a quick feature comparison on Asus' website, I think I've decided to save about £30 and buy a P6T SE rather than the P6T.

Thanks for the info

 

no problem. the only thing you miss with the SE is SLI support, and since im an ATi person it didnt matter one jot.

 

be aware that on a fenrir you may have to do a bit of lapping

the finish on mine is quite poor.

 

Yeah, I'll be getting a single ATI GPU so don't need SLI either. One other thing I noticed that the SE mobo lacks compared with with the 6T is 6 sata ports vs 8, and something called EZ-Drive which, from my google research, is more a gimmick than a useful feature.

 

Hmm, that's put me right off
I'll probably buy a CPU cooler from a shop so I can check the finish of the thermal contact plate.
Should it be shiny smooth?

Ta for the info btw.

 

I have a Fenrir but I haven't got round to fitting it yet, probably will later in the week. At the moment I'm running an Akasa Evo 120 with the fan replaced for a Nexus Real Silent - http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-120mm-pwm-fan-ultra-quiet.htm which I'll probably try out on the Fenrir too.

 

I'd be interested to hear how you get on with that. The specs for the Nexus fan look good...

 

custompc did a huge roundup of fans not long ago.

apparently the best 120mm fans were the scythe gentle typhoon 1450 and the sharkoon 1000 (the golfball one)

 

I have a Titan Fenrir and an Asus Mobo (P6T SE). There is software with the mobo that allows you to change the fan speed by selecting profiles, such as silent, turbo etc. I have mine on silent and it runs a bit over 1000 RPM. It isnt very loud in my opinion, considering the fact that I have 6 other fans, an optical drive and HDD. You can also create your own Temp/Fan speed graphs using the Fan Xpert software I think. In terms of cooling the Fenrir works great too.

 

I'm planning on getting the P6T SE so your feedback is v. useful. What are your CPU temp and clock speed? What case are you using?

 

I also have the Fenrir but on a AMD Phenom 955. I cannot hear mine till it reaches 1400RPM so its pretty quiet. Controlled by Q-fan on the motherboard which keeps it cool and quiet.

 

I am using a Coolermaster HAF 932 case. It is a beast and has plenty of space and cooling.

I am running my i7 920 at 3GHz, I'm not really going to overclock it much for now, because it runs everything fast enough for me. Right now the CPU temp is 30 Degrees C. The highest it has gotten was 41 Degrees C after some gaming. The motherboard works well, runs memory XMP fine (6GB @ 1600MHz Latency 7-7-7-20).

 

Hmmm, given the feedback to my OP, maybe I'm getting a little too hung up on CPU fan noise. If the mobo is good at controlling fan noise then the noise should only be a problem when the CPU is under full load and approaching temp max out,which will be the exception rather than the norm. Sounds like day to day use with the Fenrir and P6T SE isn't an issue as far as noise is concerned.

But one thing that does concern me was the mention of the contact surface of the Fenrir being quite rough and needing lapping. Is this is generally an issue with heatsinks? If so then I might be better off buying from a bricks and mortar retailer (like YoYo Tech in London, where I work) so that I can check the contact plate for myself before I buy it.

 

i would go with the Scythe Mugen 2 seems like it will cool more also with some scythe fans for quietness