120mm holes in the 1260 radiator???

Thick8

New member
I received my new radiator this afternoon. Washed it out. filled it with water to verify no leaks. Then started mounting the 140mm fans. after getting the 8th one mounted, I noticed the holes for the fans are smaller than the fan. So, I measured the final hole. It's only 120mm. WTF!!!
Is this a mistake or did I get played?
Boxing it back up right now for return. First and last Alphcool product for me.
EDIT: Removed content to alleviate confusion regarding product being discussed.
 
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Eddy

Iceman
Staff member
The 1260 has holes for 140mm, the 1080 for 120 because that radiator is smaller. And you can read and check it in the article text and in the datasheets. Did you bought the wrong one? Because in your Titel you are talking about the 1260 and in your text you are writing about the 1080?
 

Thick8

New member
I purchased the 1260 radiator. The fan mounting hole spacing is for 140mm fans, but the fan holes are only 120mm in diameter. I measured the radiator; it is the 1260.
Did Alphcool miss-manufacture this fan mounting plate? Do you have a 9-fan 1260 mounting plate available? If so, will you measure the hole size?
I'll hold off on taking any action until you get back to me.
 

Thick8

New member
My concern is that the holes the fans blow air through are only 120mm in diameter. A 140mm fan requires a 140mm hole. For the obvious reason of unrestricted airflow. You should know this.
 

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Thick8

New member
After spending a few minutes measuring the radiator I realized that this is just a 120mm fan plate that has been converted to mount 140mm fans to it. It was never designed for 140mm fans at all. yet the product description clearly states that the holes are 140mm in diameter. https://www.alphacool.com/shop/radi...hacool-supernova-1260-fan-grill-9x140mm-black
My guess is that the 1260 is really just a 120mm fan radiator, but you already had a 120mm fan radiator in the form if the 1080. But you couldn't have two radiators with 120mm fans on them because no one would pay the extra money for the 1260. So, someone came up with the bright idea of redrilling the mounting holes so 140mm fans could be mounted to it. Who cares that the restriction and bad airflow would make the 1260 less efficient. Hell, it probably has less cooling ability the the 1080 because of the restricted airflow patterns. I would imagine that, in this poorly guised attempt at customer deception, someone said something about what was being done. But instead of fixing the design, Aphacool chose to go ahead and market this as a 140mm radiator. Shame on you. I want my money back.
 

Luckystricker

Official Alphacool Staff
Staff member
Hi @Thick8

That fits.
The specified hole size means that ONLY 140mm fans can be installed. It goes without saying that the opening is smaller, since the diameter of the rotor on the fan can vary depending on the manufacturer.
You can also see that in many cases that the brackets for the fans are the same. In addition, this also makes the sheet metal for the fans more stable, if the recess were now larger, it would in turn wobble better.
And this variant also seals the fans in the corners better, so the air flow generated is forced to go through the radiator. Since many actually only have the rounded corners.

Here you can say that Alphacool has already thought of something here and doesn't just want to trick its customers.

Best Regards
 

Thomas_S

... the nice marketing guy next door
Staff member
Thank you @Luckystricker for the good explanation to understand how it works. And briefly from our side: we do not develop products to trick or deceive customers! If that were the case, we would hardly have been successful on the market for 20 years. Of course, there are questions that need to be answered from time to time or things in products where we also improve on customer advice! But all this always happens to the best of our knowledge and belief!
 

Thick8

New member
It is not a good explanation. The holes are 120mm in diameter. Your product page CLEARLY states that they are 140mm in diameter. Ive been water cooling for 20 years. I learned early on that the worst thing you can do with a radiator is to disrupt airflow. A 10mm wide ring stopping the airflow around the outer edge of the fan is bad. Like I said "You should know this". You are conveniently dancing around the fact that the holes are 120mm in diameter. Why is that?
 

Thick8

New member
Hi @Thick8

That fits.
The specified hole size means that ONLY 140mm fans can be installed. It goes without saying that the opening is smaller, since the diameter of the rotor on the fan can vary depending on the manufacturer.
You can also see that in many cases that the brackets for the fans are the same. In addition, this also makes the sheet metal for the fans more stable, if the recess were now larger, it would in turn wobble better.
And this variant also seals the fans in the corners better, so the air flow generated is forced to go through the radiator. Since many actually only have the rounded corners.

Here you can say that Alphacool has already thought of something here and doesn't just want to trick its customers.

Best Regards
Do me a favor. Measure the holes for the fans mounted on your computer case. Do the hole sizes match the fan size? Of course they do. Feel free to post pictures?

Also "Hole size: 140mm" means the holes are 140mm. Not the BS explanation your trying to peddle.
 

Luckystricker

Official Alphacool Staff
Staff member
Hi @Thick8

I can upload pictures here. They will come in the next few days, as I am currently on the road to assembly. In the case of my nephew, these are the same, only for 120mm fans the hole diameter is even smaller.

Don't take it badly, but in the product description and in the technical data sheet the fan mount is 140mm and not the hole diameter. If the hole diameter was 140mm, how would you like to mount the fans?
This is not possible if the diameter is the same as the fan size, because then the circles are together at the cutting points and therefore there would no longer be any sheet metal where the fans are placed and fastened.

In addition, as already written above, the sheet metal is there to ONE seal the fans at the corners so that the air is pressed better through the radiator, and SECOND to stabilize the fans or do you want that when the fans have a pressure build up so that they bend away from the radiator.

Not all fans are like yours, most of them have rounded corners, and the frame may be a bit thicker, which makes the rotor smaller. On yours, the corners are normal corners and the frame is visually quite thin. I also use 140mm fans, but the rounded corners make the frame thicker and the rotor smaller. My frames are 1cm thick, so the rotor only has 120mm, roughly speaking.

I mounted 6 pieces on radiators, and so that they are sealed at the corners I also use shrouds. And 3 case fans, and with these the case has either a grille with or without a dust filter.

I can understand that in your case the rotor is probably a bit bigger than the hole in the sheet metal, but that can't be avoided.

Best Regards
 

Thick8

New member
"If the hole diameter was 140mm, how would you like to mount the fans?"
Like this I would imagine. https://shop.watercool.de/MO-RA3-420-LT-black_1
I assumed that, like the MO-RA3, the Alphacool radiator was large enough to accommodate the fans without restricting the airflow. I also assumed that, with 20 years of water-cooling experience, you would realize that restricting airflow in the fashion that you have, is not a good thing. I also assumed that "Hole size: 140mm" meant exactly that. It would seem that I was wrong on all three accounts. My bad. I have linked this thread and have begun the RMA process with Performance-pcs. You really need to change the product page so it doesn't state that the hole size is 140mm, because it is only 120mm. I would have chosen a different offering had I known the hole size was not as stated in your product page.
 
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Sanctus

New member
Despite the not very fruitful discussion, the topic itself is quite interesting in my opinion. It is clear that with the existing radiator design, the holes cannot be exactly 140mm - then the radiator should be not 420mm, but a bit longer. But why exactly 120 mm? It doesn't look very 'balanced' and a diameter of about 135-138mm would be preferable when used with most 140mm fans. Within a month, I will receive my supernova 1260 and plan to make a custom plate with holes of about 135mm from acrylic panel and compare the noise level and cooling performance with the standard one . In my opinion, the chosen hole diameter of 120mm is one of the reasons why supernova is only slightly better than mo-ra3 (according to many tests), whereas structurally it is made much more in a "right way" and this should lead to a much greater temperature difference.
 
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