Let's test a Graphics card, equipped with an Asetek GPU cooling unit. Sporting a similar design as Corsair's older Hydro 50 CPU coolers. The PNY GTX580 comes with a factory OC.

We sticked to the basic PNY installation method, with the cooler sucking out hot air via the aft of the case. This too avoid dumping the hot air, generated by the overclocked GTX 580 graphics core, inside the case.

By using the Quiet Edition Static pressure fan we were able to drop the GPU temperatures by 2°C while running a 3 loop 3DMark Vantage. The temperatures were monitored by running GPU-Z in the background, keeping track of min and maximum temperatures. By using the Performance Edition of the Corsair Air Series fans we get a nice 5°C temp reduction.

Now let's test the air flow fans in Corsair's own Vengeance C70 case. While we liked the sleek design and features of the C70 case, a top fan was seriously lacking to draw out the hot trapped air. We swapped all the original boxed fans with the Air flow series Quiet Edition fans. Secondly we opted to position the two 120mm fans in front of the HDD bay, instead of the C70's setup with the fans at the rear of the HDD bays.

Biggest temperature difference is made by adding a 140mm fan in the top of the Vengeance C70 case. This one draws out the hot air, that is generated by the X79 Sabretooth's PWM area. Overal dropping the PWM temperature by a nice 6°C. If we opted to install the fan to blow ambient air on the PWM area, we got the PWM area temp hoovering steady around 80° Celcius. The rest of the used hardware parts hardly benefit form the newly installed fans, meaning that the Corsair engineers did an okay job with selecting the boxed coolers.

Noise Measurements:

We measured the generated noise at 1m distance from the fan intake. In the chart we included the stock fans of the CPU, GPU and case fans. The measured results can be found in the below chart:

Loudest fan is without doubt is the high speed fan of the Corsair Hydro 80 all-in-one cooling unit. If we compare it with the highest performing Static Pressure version of the Air Series, we spot a 10dBa difference.  Similar outcome compared to the other fans, just the C70 case fans and the Alpenföhn WingBoost fan are already dead silent out of the box. However better cooling performance at a similar or lower noise level, mission accomplished !