Case Cooling Upgrade with Noctua Fans

Very astute observation.  The Seidon is louder than the Corator DS (still one of my most recommended heatsinks).  Since the Overseer RX-1 has a top mounted 200 x 200 x 30 mm Blue LED fan  rated at 13 - 15dBA (600~800rpm) I thought I would try mounting the Seidon directly below it and forgo the Seidon’s rather noisy fan solution.

The 3770K Ivy Bridge is pretty efficient at only 77w TDP so I figured the TT branded fan should pull just enough air through to make it work and without the included fan.  The overall sound level should be reduced slightly with no heatsink fan since the case fans are all there now.  As an added bonus the XL size 120mm radiator is small enough the 200mm case fan can still pull air from the case around it.

One problem.  With the case open I noticed the case fan was wobbling a bit.  Probably from all the abuse it has seen since the beginning of 2012.  We have to have something lying around that’s at least as good right?

Enter Plan A.  It turns out we don’t have a lot of 200mm fans around the labs.  They tend to find homes pretty fast!  Fortunately we do have these sexy 180 mm Silverstone Air Penetrators (AP182) which would be perfect for this build.  The AP182 is a bit smaller but is rated at an impressive 60 – 170 CFM starting at only 17 dB/A.  Looking at the Thermaltake mountings shown here we should be able to use 120, 140 and of course replacement 200 mm fans.

Remember, our primary goal in this project is to reduce the sound signature, but we don’t want to lose performance.  Some quick research reveals our Thermaltake case fan is a TT-2030 (FN2030N121206) specs are a bit scarce but probably a Thermaltake Thunderblade 20 Plus is an optimistic equivalent.  That means it is pushing a max of 123.6 CFM at 30.3 dB/A.  Our Silverstone fans are pushing that 170 CFM at 34 dB/A.  That seems like a fair trade right?

The Overseer has two top mounted fan locations.  This turned out to be an extra blessing as I started with the front mountings.  It turns out that Thermaltake doesn’t use a mounting pattern that matches our Silverstone fan.  As you can see here we are right between the factory bolt holes.

After rechecking the spec a couple of times I finally had to measure the factory fan mount.  Sure enough, the unique style of the factory 200 mm fan means the actual screw positions are smaller.  Sadly this means we are back to ordering a replacement from Thermaltake to fit the bolt pattern or moving to a different fan yet again.