just found out today a local vendor is stocking the SL120. ordered 4 (3+controller kit & 1 single fan). gonna have them delivered next week. so excited!!
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Cooling Cooling setup advice
- Thread starter Dawelio
- Start date
Ah nice one dude!
Glad to hear it, hope it turns out the way you imagine it Personally I'm still in the waiting game for the Lian Li O11D Mini case, can't do anything with the build until that arrives unfortunately
The ONLY concern I have though, is how to connect 3 of the SL fans to the Kraken Z73 AIO? I mean, will the pump be able to power 3 of those togheter? Due to them having just a single PWM cable, since they are daisy chained togheter?... The last thing I want is for the pump or circuit being potentially overloaded due to the 3 fans being too much to handle, since the AIO already costs a fortune in itself.
Yeah, but then the AIO itself wouldn't be controlling the fans installed on the radiator. The controller is.
don't really get your point since both will be controlled by the motherboard anyway? plus you'd probably want the pump curve to be separated from the fan curve anyway. When I had the EK-AIO, the pump was plugged into the AIO_PUMP header on the motherboard whilst the Noctua fans were plugged to the CPU_1 header and I configured both curves in BIOS
What I mean is that I've always had AIO's where you plug an 2 or 3 way splitter into the pump itself, which you then connect the radiator fans to. That results in the pump itself is controlling the speed of the fans on the radiator.
Here's the best image I could find of an older Corsair H100i:
As you can see in the bottom left on the image above, there's an SATA power cable that goes directly to the pump unit itself. But there's also 2 fan connectors, which are splitted into one cable that goes into the pump block itself as well.
Hope this makes more sense, if not, I'll try to find a better way of explaining this
my understanding is that the pump itself is not controlling anything, the curve is set either in software (CAM/iCUE, etc.) or BIOS where the PWM signal comes from the motherboard header and then being passed through the splitter to the fans. haven't used those software for ages so maybe they are different now, I don't know anymore.
I'd still recommend splitting them out and set the curve in BIOS because it will take effect immediately upon booting. If you just set the curve in software it will have to wait for the software to be fully loaded in Windows which may make your pump & fans running full speed in the meantime
I'd still recommend splitting them out and set the curve in BIOS because it will take effect immediately upon booting. If you just set the curve in software it will have to wait for the software to be fully loaded in Windows which may make your pump & fans running full speed in the meantime
Is there any reason why you do not plan to follow the default cable connection of the Z73?
Cable ''M'':- one end connects to the pump block, the other 5 ends connect SATA (for power from the PSU, this powers everything including the pump and the fans and RGB lights), fans (up to 3) and RGB.
The mobo provides a single PWM signal to the pump and to the fans.
This 'standard' connection should be good enough for most situations, I suppose.
Umm, not sure to be honest. Your post however, has turned on the light bulb in my head regarding this. So might just do this through the BIOS, haven't really done that before to be honest.
Yes, because the Lian Li UniFans SL120's that I'm planning on using on the Z73 isn't a traditional fan in the sense of how it's connected. Usually you have 3 fans on the radiator, with 3 different PWM connectors to plug into the Z73. However the Uni Fans are daisy chained togheter and therefore only has 2 cables coming out of those 3 fans; 1 cable for the PWM and 1 cable for the RGB.
If you look on the top set of fans, on the right side of them, the connector is shown and there you can see it's only 2 cables - 1 for PWM and 1 for the RGB:
Then, why not just connect this PWM/power cable of the LL UniFans SL120's to the ''1''/primary fan cable connector of the cable M and the other to the RGB?
Cause of a slight concern that that one connector might not be strong enough for the daisy chained 3 fans togheter.
Take a look at the NZXT's design, that cable M should do its design well, particularly the 1st connector should be able to handle its own fan as well as current from fan positions no. 2 and no. 3.
So, from a safety point of view and as far as the requirement of current ampere is concerned, I think the connector/cabling is strong enough for 3 fans definitely.
@Dawelio my only concern with the Uni Fans was noise - don't want another Corsair ML or EK Vardar blasting at max RPM and happy to find out it is just as quiet as Arctic P12 and Gentle Typhoon on radiators and plenty of airflow too! Putting that 2.54mm H2O to work!
Pretty unorthodox testing methodology by this Youtuber but it is consistent across the fans so results are still comparable. Timestamp for noise measurement:
Pretty unorthodox testing methodology by this Youtuber but it is consistent across the fans so results are still comparable. Timestamp for noise measurement:
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Thank you for that video, just took a quick look at it. At the end of the day, fans will perform more or less the same. It's mostly just comes to personal preference in terms of aesthetics than anything. I personally went with the UniFans due to them looking quite nice, really liking the metal badge on the fan hub itself, looks very clean and professional. As well as the overall lighting execution of them, doesn't matter if you have them as exhaust or intake, the lights will show the same regardless. However, the main selling point for me was their innovation in their cable management, very interesting solution that Lian Li has come up with on these fans.
I've always liked the Corsair ML fans as well, although those cable management is just a real haystack to be honest. Not only having 2 individual cables from each fan (which most RGB fans does have), for some unlogical reason, Corsair decided to go even further with this. And not only add the Commander to their cable management, but also needing additional hubs for the LEDs themselves. Sure they have since then revised the Commander to do both fan speed and LEDs, but still, their implementation is absolutely horrible, not cable management friendly at all and overall something that has putted many people off, including myself.
Especially when you have something like myself, 9 fans in my upcoming build. The UniFans are just designed for that scenario, or any scenario really. Corsair's however, is just an ever growing nightmare the more fans you add to your system.
Apologies for this small ranting and again, thank you for that video tip!
The improvement to cable management from this solution really shouldn't be downplayed. It's pretty brilliant. I mean, server fans have had pogo-pin power connectors for at least a decade. Something like this ought to be standardized for end-user case/cooler fans too - it's not like it would be hard, or all that expensive. Yes, it would obviously drive up the cost, but the sheer convenience would really be worth it.Thank you for that video, just took a quick look at it. At the end of the day, fans will perform more or less the same. It's mostly just comes to personal preference in terms of aesthetics than anything. I personally went with the UniFans due to them looking quite nice, really liking the metal badge on the fan hub itself, looks very clean and professional. As well as the overall lighting execution of them, doesn't matter if you have them as exhaust or intake, the lights will show the same regardless. However, the main selling point for me was their innovation in their cable management, very interesting solution that Lian Li has come up with on these fans.
I've always liked the Corsair ML fans as well, although those cable management is just a real haystack to be honest. Not only having 2 individual cables from each fan (which most RGB fans does have), for some unlogical reason, Corsair decided to go even further with this. And not only add the Commander to their cable management, but also needing additional hubs for the LEDs themselves. Sure they have since then revised the Commander to do both fan speed and LEDs, but still, their implementation is absolutely horrible, not cable management friendly at all and overall something that has putted many people off, including myself.
Especially when you have something like myself, 9 fans in my upcoming build. The UniFans are just designed for that scenario, or any scenario really. Corsair's however, is just an ever growing nightmare the more fans you add to your system.
Apologies for this small ranting and again, thank you for that video tip!
I really hope I didn't come across in that way which I downplayed Lian Li's solution on the UniFans, as I was trying to be the complete opposite in my post.
Look what we have here Arctic BioniX P120 A-RGB. I don't know about you guys but this is an absolute fail to me:
- 30mm thick -> wth???
- Static pressure rating is just 2.1mm/H2O vs. 2.75 of the BioniX P120
- The 8-pin dual-side connector seems not as durable a solution compare to the pad of the SL120
The RGB ring intrudes significantly on the area occupied by fan blades on the non-rgb version, so the loss of performance is likely entirely down to smaller blades (with the increase in thickness likely trying to rectify this somewhat, though clearly not succeeding). Definitely less than ideal, that's for sure, but probably still okay for aRGB fans - it's not like those are typically known for performance.
UNI Fan AL120 just launched with more static pressure at lower noise compare to the SL120 - this is what longer blades do for you I guess 
Once again I'm getting the urge to swap out the trusted A12x25s for these babies
Once again I'm getting the urge to swap out the trusted A12x25s for these babiesSimilar threads
