Cooling 140mm Case Fan Cooling Performance - Arctic - Be Quiet! - Thermalright - Updated with both Intake & Exhaust Airflow Testing

Mark13

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Sep 5, 2020
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Arctic P14, Be Quiet! Silent Wings 4 High Speed & Silent Wings Pro 4, Thermalright TL-C14X Case Fan Testing

I conducted the first part of 140mm small form factor case fan testing with the four above noted fans. This was to compare their performance as case intake fans. A subsequent test in a different SFF case will be added with the same single fans to compare their case exhaust performance.

For this test I used the 13.3 liter Sliger S610 case with my current testing setup, installing a Noctua L12 Ghost Edition CPU cooler with a Noctua A9x25 fan (replacing the included and outdated B9x25 Noctua Fan) with downdraft airflow on the underside of the cooler. Each of the four fans was mounted on the side fan/radiator bracket blowing directly into the CPU cooler and motherboard components. The CPU cooler fan was run at 75% PWM to reduce the noise introduced by this fan and to further highlight each fans’ performance. No other case fans were installed for this test. The noise floor with only the A9x25 CPU fan at 75% PWM was 39.1 DBA.

After my initial test of the first fan, it became apparent that there was considerable air intake noise generated despite the well ventilated, unfiltered side case panel. I then reinstalled each of the fans using 10mm spacers and longer screws to secure the fans to conduct the testing reported below. This 10mm spacing seemed to eliminated all of the intake noise initially noted.

As this is a comparison of case fans, I selected what I deemed to be a reasonably quiet fan speed on the Silent Wings 4 High Speed of 50% PWM – 1136 RPM. I then adjusted the PWM setting of the other two pressure oriented fans fans – the Arctic P14 and Silent Wings Pro 4, to match the RPM range of the Silent Wings 4 HS. For the airflow focused Thermalright fan I used my DB sound level meter to match as closely as possible the sound level of the Silent Wings 4 as at the same RPM range as the other three fans, as this fan was much louder at the same RPM levels while providing additional cooling.

Be Quiet! SW Pro 4 has a three position switch on the rear of the fan that can be set for maximum speeds of 1100, 1900 and 2400 RPM respectively.

Using the latest version of Fan Control software (#128) all four fans had fan stop at zero % PWM, and all restarted between 25-29% PWM – 506 RPM for the Arctic, 680 RPM for the Thermalright, 626 RPM for the BQ! SW 4 HS, and 732 RPM for the BQ! SW Pro 4 in ultra high speed mode.

I also included the maximum RPM of each fan and the DB meter reading in the testing results.
DB meter was 30cm from center of the left side of the chassis facing directly towards the case fan intake, and 19cm high from the desk top.

Fan characteristics noted:
The fan noise was fairly even between all of the fans at the selected PWM/RPM. The Arctic had a slightly higher pitch in tone than the Be Quiet! Fans. The Thermalright had to be slowed to 997 RPM to reach similar noise levels of the other three fans. Conversely at higher RPM it can push a considerable amount of air at a high noise level. The Be Quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 is also quite loud at maximum RPM but differs in tone from the Thermalright. The two Be Quiet! fans were the most premium construction with the Thermalright just slightly less solidly built but still giving an excellent quality impression. The Arctic fan was their typical cheaper hard plastic but solid construction with a cheap plastic plug in cable that did not impair its cooling performance.

Aorus X570 ITX MB; Ryzen 7 4750G; 32 GB Corsair LPX 3200 RAM;
Evga 3060Ti XC Graphics Card – Self Regulated
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste
CPU-Z Stress Test & Unigine Valley Ultra Settings for 10 minutes
Room Temp 21C;


CPUID HWMonitor & Tech Power Up GPU-Z Readings:

Side Mount Case Fan​
Arctic P14​
Thermalright
TL-C14X​
BQ! SW 4 HS​
BQ! SW Pro 4​
TZ 10 Temp Sensor Max​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
PC 10 Temp Sensor Max​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
System 1 Max​
53​
51​
52​
52​
CPU Max​
77​
76​
76​
77​
PCIEX16 Max​
21​
21​
21​
21​
VRM Max​
48​
46​
48​
48​
CPU Fan Max RPM​
75% 1595​
75% 1562​
75% 1569​
75% 1610​
Side Case Fan Max RPM​
60% 1151​
35% 997​
50% 1136​
42% 1159​
Chipset Fan Max RPM​
4041​
4089​
4166​
4272​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​
77.5​
79​
76.8​
77​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​
72.92​
72.18​
73.12​
73.63​
NVMe Top 980 Pro Temp​
52​
49​
52​
51​
GPU Max Temp​
66.9​
66.6​
66.5​
66.8​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​
78​
77.6​
77.6​
77.9​
GPU Max Wattage​
177.85​
179.47​
175.37​
179.23​
GPU Fan Max RPM​
71% 1997 1980​
71% 1953 1955​
71% 1953 1955​
71% 1967 1962​
DBA Sound Level​
39.7​
40.6​
40.2​
40.6​
RPM @ 100% PWM​
1646​
1721​
1939​
2360​
DBA @ 100% PWM​
45.2​
56​
50.8​
56.2​

This is a second test using the 10 liter Lazer 3D LZX-10 PC Case to compare the same four fans case exhaust performance. The fully vented top panel was used.

I used the same testing motherboard setup (listed above) of a Noctua L12 Ghost Edition CPU cooler, but replaced the A9x25 fan from the underside of the cooler and installed a top mounted Noctua A12x25 with downdraft airflow.

As the four case fans were exhausting air, no spacers were needed to reduced noise. Fan grills were installed on the front side of the fans to prevent any contact with the very close 24-pin motherboard connecting wires.

The DB meter was 30cm from front center of the chassis facing directly towards the case fan intake, and 19cm high from the desk top. The sound floor with only the Noctua A12x25 at 50% was 36.6 DBA. At the lower noise levels of this test, the chipset fan could be heard with all four case fans. The noted DBA numbers for each fan are with the chipset fan not operating.

With the latest version of Fan Control installed (#129) both the Arctic and Thermalright fans reverted to no fan stop. At zero % PWM the Arctic P14 slowed to 349 RPM, the Thermalright TL-C14X slowed to 442 RPM. This is how these two fans performed for me in prior testing. No idea why it functioned differently on the earlier version of Fan Control. Both Be Quiet! fans continued to have fan stop.

The same method for selecting fan speeds was used as in the initial test. The temperature numbers between the cases are not comparable due to the different CPU cooler fans used and the different case fan speeds selected. The comparison should only be between the fans while used in a single case/airflow orientation.
Maximum RPM of each fan and the DB meter reading were again included in the testing results.

Fan characteristics noted:
All four fans at these reduced speeds were pleasantly quiet. The Thermalright TL-C14X had a distinct resonance at 26-27 % PWM – 864-885 RPM just below the selected RPM. The Arctic P14 had a slight howl at 80-81% PWM – 1430-1451 RPM. No resonances were noted with either Be Quiet! fan.


CPUID HWMonitor & Tech Power Up GPU-Z Readings:

Front Mount Case Fan​
Arctic P14​
Thermalright
TL-C14X​
BQ! SW 4 HS​
BQ! SW Pro 4​
TZ 10 Temp Sensor Max​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
PC 10 Temp Sensor Max​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
16.8​
System 1 Max​
52​
53​
52​
52​
CPU Max​
80​
81​
80​
79​
PCIEX16 Max​
22​
22​
21​
22​
VRM Max​
53​
53​
53​
53​
CPU Fan Max RPM​
50% 1188​
50% 1194​
50% 1192​
50% 1192​
Front Case Fan Max RPM​
55% 1043​
29% 914​
52% 1117​
40% 1097​
Chipset Fan Max RPM​
4720​
4821​
4753​
4687​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​
80.8​
81.3​
80.3​
79.5​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​
73.27​
72.74​
73.13​
73.35​
NVMe Top 980 Pro Temp​
57​
58​
56​
58​
GPU Max Temp​
64.5​
64.9​
64.5​
64.7​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​
75.7​
76.5​
75.8​
76​
GPU Max Wattage​
172.92​
171.56​
171.52​
171.65​
GPU Fan Max RPM​
69% 1859 1856​
69% 1868 1872​
69% 1869 1866​
69% 1859 1862​
DBA Sound Level​
39.7​
38.2​
38.4​
39.4​
RPM @ 100% PWM​
1687​
1767​
1912​
2213​
DBA @ 100% PWM​
46.7​
55.7​
50.9​
55.2​
 
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