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by kitsunesoba 1144 days ago
The size of the fans makes a huge difference, way more than you'd think.

One of my friends has a tower built with a i7 12700k in a Torrent Compact case (2x 200MM fans) which is very quiet on its own, and the giant hunk of metal NH-D15 cooler with a 140MM fan it uses adds almost nothing to that. Its PSU can also run with its fan off most of the time and even when it does spin up isn't too bad.

1 comments

The 180mm Fractal fans are ... not very good. They're the best 180mm fans (there is not much choice, just Silverstone and some cheap stuff), but pretty shitty compared to the available 120/140mm choices or the 200mm Noctuas (which will not fit cases designed for 180mm fans).

Semi-passive PSU is kinda table stakes nowadays.

Nice catch, I hadn’t noticed that Torrents came with 180mms instead of 200mms. Even if they’re not amazing they keep my friend’s temps reasonable without making much noise.

The number of cases that will fit 200mms is tiny and none of them are particularly great which is a bummer.

I've really only seen people use them for external radiators like the MORA 420.