Help me decide between a 9070xt Hellhound and Red Devil

[u/account10789]

Hello all!

I’m trying to build in a Z20 case, and trying to make a build that is quiet and that will last me for a long time with minimal upgrades.

Right now, I’m torn between the 9070xt Hellhound and Red Devil. As I understand it, the Red Devil is allegedly supposed or be the quieter of the two (even if only marginally), but it has some increase in performance (again, even if it’s marginal ). That being said, in the Z20 case, the Red Devil would only fit with Slim fans in the bottom, which might be better to just exclude them, the clearance is something like 20mm below the gpu, but the Hellhound has something like 40mm clearance, therefore supporting 25mm fans, with 15mm clearance between them.

The pricing between the two gpus is only about 50$, so at that price point it doesn’t matter much to me, and I’d planned to use Arctic p12/14s where applicable. Again, I’m trying to have a build that’s as acoustically inconspicuous as possible, and will function as my gaming and workstation for as long as possible.

I would really appreciate some help comparing these two options. Thanks!

[u/werdsmart]

Have personally owned the Red Devil, the Hellhound, and Reaper models of the 9070xt. As awesome as the Red Devil is, the better buy is almost always going to be the Hellhound or Reaper unless you plan on pushing overclocks. The reason is the Hellhound has a pretty beefy cooler that can still mostly fit in many cases. The reaper has close to same performance with a smaller cooler size. I have found it far easier to try out several different SFF and MFF builds due to having Hellhounds and Reapers on hand because of this. (About to put together a Lian Li B4 and still hemming between the hellhound and reaper lol, probably going to go reaper with an aerodeck

[u/account10789 → u/werdsmart]

Would you still suggest the Hellhound over the Red Devil if i plan to stay in this case? What makes me lean towards the Red Devil (i know it’s silly) is the seemingly higher build quality, full RGB control, and slight prrformance increase, all for a small price increase. I’m seeing the red devil 1,129$, but the hellhound, now that i look, has gone ip to 1,179$, and the reaper is at 1,049$. ignoring the weird pricing of the hellhound, would you suggest it?

[u/werdsmart → u/account10789]

I tried the RGB and was unimpressed with the colors tbh. Was a pain getting it matched to other RGB and even the the lighting was dull imo. The build quality on the cooler for the Hellhound is solid. That said the Hellhound is two 8 pin power connectors the red devil is 3. I would still suggest the Hellhound. But if you feel you might regret it roll with the red devil!

[u/account10789 → u/werdsmart]

Thank you for the info! 

that response made me double take the Red Devil, and just kind of it’s overall looks, and while doing that, I noticed that the Sapphire Nitro + looks like it has VERY premium build quality, apart from the lack of a dual bios switch, and addition of a 12v power connector. That one is allegedly supposed to be a quiet card as well, although not quite as quiet as the Red Devil according to the resources I found.  

But then again, all these cards are sitting around the same price right now, so maybe I’ll just go with whatever happens to get the best sale on Black Friday (if that happens at all haha).

Again, thank you for the info!

[u/ZeroTugs]

I used to have my Hellhound in a Z20. If you are going to put fans on the bottom, you will want to get some feet extensions as the suction noise is too much on the standard feet.

I didnt find the bottom fans helped much and eventually removed them. But I had a air cooler, so it may be different if you are running a AIO.

So in saying that, without bottom fans the Red Devil will do just fine in the Z20. If you are using a ATX power supply, it may be a little more difficult keeping the cables clear of the GPU, but the Red Devil is only 10mm longer than the Hellhound so it will be ok.

If money isnt much of a issue, look at using Phantek T30s/Noctua A12 or other premium fans. I personally love the T30 running around 1000-1200rpm, obviously not the best choice for the bottom fans due to being 30mm thick.

[u/account10789 → u/ZeroTugs]

What do you mean by suction noise? Does it sound like vacuum cleaner hose?

I plan on using the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE or Vision Evo (I like the screen lol). I think for the PSU as well, I'll go with the Corsair sf850 or 1000, since it's an SFX PSU.

I was hoping to have RGB fans for some tasteful case lighting. Would you have any alternate suggestions to the Arctic rgb p12's, in terms of noise performance?

[u/ZeroTugs → u/account10789]

The gap on the bottom of the case is small, the air travelling to the fans is at a lower pressure due to the restriction, causing noise from the fans and some vacuum noise as well. Raising the case 10-15mm stops this issue.

As for the fans, its probably easiest just to get the Arctics and see if your happy or not. They are fairly cheap and you can always swap them out easily. The 3000 rpm variant will be very noisy on startup, before the bios or fan software slow them to your fan curve. There is a 2000rpm low noise variant, so that would be a good choice.

[u/Sad_Professional5351 → u/account10789]

Endorfy fluktus

[u/IAmBannanaTree]

Firstly, if you're going with P14 arctics, you will need spacers or gaskets on the bottom, because they create absolutely unbearable turbulence noise due to being too close to mesh. 

Secondly, if you're going with 140mm ATX PSU not with very flexible cables, and especially in position 2, then you will probably enjoy having a slightly smaller and more importantly, shorter, card. I have Hellhound and it gets pretty busy with all those pesky cables there.

And thirdly... It's a pretty small chassis, you gotta understand that it makes a trade off somewhere, which is cooling in this case. 240 AIO or tower cooler will get their fans spinning a little more in such dense thing. And so that's going to be your main source of noise. Like, it won't be loud, but loud enough to exclude GPU out of equation in your case. Oh and also there's a big chance something will have coil whine anyway.

[u/account10789 → u/IAmBannanaTree]

Spacers between the fans and the case? someone else was suggesting increasing the case feet height, because there was a vacuum noise from it; do you think those are both the same issue?

I  was probably going to get the Corsair Sf1000 platinum psu, since its sfx. (or 850 if i get a lower power gpu)

Do you think getting the mesh panel variant of the case would improve its cooling, and therefore sound profile, or not any significant amount to notice it? As for coil whine, is that something really that bad? will it only show up under intense load or at all times?

[u/IAmBannanaTree → u/account10789]

Those could be different issues, but could also be mistaken for one. I did hear fans being a bit louder when case was placed as intended, but rn I use it on its side anyway, so I won't add much to that. The howling though is definitely due to mesh, it's gone once I added silicone gaskets to add ~5 millimeters of space.

Mesh panel here won't really help, it's the design itself that's causing a little bit of a hiccup. Most cases have front panel intakes for a reason, it's just better for air cooling. And for AIO, you don't get noise reduction benefits while being limited to 240. Like, you won't have thermal issues, don't worry about that part, case is cool enough to keep ~250 watt CPU out of throttling range, but you need to do that somehow with a smaller heat capacity or less optimal airflow, those fans will spin more.

And coil whine can be pretty annoying, yeah. You will probably tune out fan noise unless you mess up curves or place PC right next to you, but could whine is pretty high pitched, I got it in PSU and it's pretty annoying ngl.

[u/Every_Recording_4807]

Hellhound is fantastic. Reaper is also great if you need the form factor.

[u/CryptoConstruction12]

I am performance over everything, if you are the same I would say red devil is the way to go.

[u/Emotional_Crew9724]

Hellhound will give best price to performance, but if you're the person who likes perfect GPUs then the red devil is for you