DUAL vs SINGLE fan CPU coolers // Which has more performance?

It's a long, unanswered question (if you haven't searched for the answer). Which is better, Dual for Single fan CPU Coolers?
It's a simple question, and that's the problem, there's no nuance... So here's this video to add some nuance, and hopefully provide enough information to answer the questions (I think it worked well enough). But remember, in the end, the value or worthiness is all dependent on what your values are - it's a good catch all, get out clause :D.
Some Dual Fan CPU Coolers to consider - Amazon Associate Links (I earn through these links):
amzn.to/3o3cbOf - Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO
amzn.to/3IKCqB3 - Noctua NH-D9L
amzn.to/3HctZht - Noctua NH-D15
amzn.to/3HauFnL - Cryorig M9 Plus
amzn.to/3IKCe4L - Scythe Ninja 5
amzn.to/3o5jbu0 - Corsair A500 (consider carefully)
amzn.to/3KQ09Sg - be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
amzn.to/3gbZUmh - IceGiant ProSiphon Elite
Support AV Techy on Patreon! - / avtechy
All the links:
Facebook - / avtechy
Twitter - / av_techy
Discord - / discord
Other components used in this video:
Case - Thermaltake Core P3
CPU - Intel i7-6700K (1.28V, 4.50GHz)
Motherboard - ASRock Z270M Pro4 (mATX)
PSU - be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (750W)
GPU - EVGA GTX 1070 FTW (2000MHz)
RAM - 2x 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 DDR4 (3000MHz)
Fan Controller - NZXT Grid+ V3
TAGS:
Dual vs single coolers, dual vs single fan coolers, dual vs single fan cpu coolers, dual vs single cpu coolers, cpu cooler, best cpu cooler 2022, best cpu cooler 2021, best cpu cooler 2020, single fan cpu cooler, dual fan cpu cooler, best single fan cpu cooler, best dual fan cpu cooler, DUAL vs SINGLE fan CPU coolers // Which has more performance?

[@mtomp10]

5:45 is the video's answer

[@kalvinio]

the comment i came looking for

[@projectc1rca048]

Great video my guy. Now I understand that if one were to use a single tower cooler with a push-pull configuration, it's best to run both fans at a lower rpm for better noise to performance. Keep up the great content!

[@AVTechy]

Thanks very much. Just bear in mind it's all relative to a single fan cooler. Running two fans at full speed will yield the best results overall, louder than a single fan at full speed. And you can run two fans slower than a single fan cooler to get the same result as a single fan cooler. It's very pedantic :D

[@thealchemist5376]

I'm in the market for a new cooler, so this is perfect timing. Interested to see what your findings are

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Av, 1:44 I thought you were going to say "I sat on the Cooler while Testing if Farts can cool a CPU as good as a Fan'😂 Comparative Cooler Performance is such a hard thing to get consistent, plus for such a Small Hobby Channel you are coming up with interesting Topics instead of 'Your Take on the Same Same Review Style' because of a Low Budget while doing an Awesome job being thorough with your testing, but also still constantly trying to improve your quality. GN had their review of the Arctic Freezer 34 E-Sports Duo & found 2 Fans only a have small improvement over 1 fan, It had great Mount IHS Pressure Consistency but they found theirs had a Grinding misadventure on the Coldplate. Ps I love the new Intro, you did an Awesome job 😍

[@khanscombe619]

Love the B Roll. It's blooming brillant. What's the TDP equal of the U9S in single fan vs dual? Or the D9? I have the Xeon version D9DX-1489 4U which appears to be the D9DX i4 U3 w/ 2nd fan and get a 134 Noctua score over the 88 before/. I converted my U9S to U9DX-1489 as well. I need it to cool a 130w that can tip 150w in OC boost. IDK. I used the regular U9S for its extra heatpipe over the Server U9DX 4U. Fits & works.

[@Costinmusca]

4:30 - Maybe you're approaching the physical radiating element's heat transfer saturation.. (5 heat-pipes & surface area) thus, no matter how much air is passing through it, it is already saturated and can no longer pass more heat to the air effectively.. not at the same rate of the airflow increasing anyways.

[@PescaitoFrito]

A question, so these Noctua cpu fans with double fans, basically have one face as exhaust to pull the air to the rear chasis fans? and also has a second fans but as intake, to get the fresh air from the front chasis fans? or both fans of the heatsink are made for single position in this case exhaust? Thanks for your time, cheers.

[@AVTechy]

Ehh, sort of. The general principle is the front fan draws most of the air through the tower, and the rear fan is an assist that somewhat supplements the loss of airspeed through the tower and will in turn redirect any airflow leaking out the sides of the tower which might otherwise not run all the way through. That last part if only really relevant to towers with open side fins. Many towers have folded edges which virtually eliminate this from being an loss of performance. Since there's not a massive amount of airspeed loss through the tower there's a real diminishing return to performance gains. You'll get some better performance, but it's not significant. I think you touched on a good point there though. If you've got a rear case fan then there's very likely a negligible performance difference between single and dual fan towers since the rear case exhaust will be doing the job of a rear tower fan and assisting the rest of the case with shifting hot air out.

[@user-qn1zj5bs5p]

actually 2 fans are performing better when cpu is under mid load , which significantly reduce noise level

[@babytiny5807]

Is it best to have the 1 fan on the inner side blowing through the cooler, or on the opposite side sucking it out?

[@AVTechy]

The difference will be negligible, go with whatever you prefer the look of. For reference, the difference between the performance of 1 and 2 fans is very limited. So the position of 1 fan will make even less difference. Hope that helps.

[@ResilientME]

Good to know, I was wondering why I'd been seeing less builds lately with fans on both sides of rads.

[@AVTechy]

I think it's something most people are aware of. Push/pull just isn't an efficient setup. It's not like a radiator "needs" a second fan to help pull the air through it, there just isn't that much resistance, a single fan is plenty.

[@ResilientME]

@@AVTechy Makes one wonder about rear case fans with tower coolers. Do they benefit the CPU or just help exhaust air from the GPU?

[@AVTechy]

A bit of both really. Really help GPUs though.

[@shaneeslick]

I think too that there are so many well performing Quiet High Static Pressure Fans these days, only a few years ago it was all about High Airflow (🤨yes you CoolerMaster Jetflow) & to get the Static Pressure you needed for a Radiator or even CPU Tower you needed High RPM & so 1 fan at High RPM was much noisier than 2 Fans at Medium

[@michaelmcdowell7096]

I dont mess with pcs as often as u but I think I'm going to take and benefit from your new found rule, sitting on a cooler would be devastating to me.

[@dorientjewoller113]

WTH, who created your intro. It's very professional.

[@AVTechy]

Thanks very much. I made it in Blender while I was taking a bit of a break. Glad to see it's holding its own :D

[@technotrance011]

I was blown too. So damn good

[@spektrumB]

R.I.P. D9L

[@campal6421]

Not sure but it looks like you had the fans fighting each other blowing out on each side. There might be higher gains if the two fans blew through the center in the same direction, netting a higher air velocity.

[@jeffreyjohnson5964]

You need to straighten out your old cooler to see how well it performs, please!

[@StarsMarsRadio]

You can likely bend the cooler back. Just do it slowly.

[@AVTechy]

Possibly. I haven't got a use for it at the moment so I'll leave it as. Probably still works quite well as it is. Would be fun to test it actually, would be a fun comparison to other coolers :D

[@StarsMarsRadio]

@@AVTechy Have it be your bench standard to beat as a meme.

[@user-qn1zj5bs5p]

the problem is why did you bend the cooler lol

[@yrraljaime]

His arms doe.