having things away from the fan will make it quieter ied say up to an inch at 100% but depends on fan. its like taking a fan and putting it flat on the table it will make noise and lift it tell the noise reduces https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Fans/RGB-%26-LED-Fans/iCUE-SP-RGB-ELITE-Series-Fans/p/CO-9050109-WW#tab-tech-specs The AF (Airflow) and SP (Static Pressure) have two different blade designs that result in different performance. An AF fan or any other with many, thin, steeply raked blades, is the most efficient for moving air. This is what why we use them. The SP fan by comparison has fewer blades (usually 7) with a flatter and fatter blade. This is a less efficient design and at any given RPM, the AF style blade will move more air. However, the SP style blade has the ability to focus the airflow into a tighter stream and is able to push more air when faced with moderate resistance. This can make it the better choice for areas where you need a focused, direct cooling source or when faced with resistance, like a radiator.

flatter" and larger blades act like a finer screw, and it takes more turns, but pushes with more force SP or other blades with a static pressure emphasis go the other direction. There should be a fewer number of blades (usually 7), they are wide with little space between those blades, and their rake is typically rather flat. As such, it is always going to be less capable of moving a volume of air at the same speed as an AF-style fan. However, it is far less impacted by resistance like radiators or dust filters. It also has a more focused airflow cone making it better for directly cooling hardware or pushing air through that radiator.Which one is better? It depends on the application and more often how much fan speed you are willing to tolerate. The AF fan will still move a ton of air at high speeds, but you will have to live with the noise. If you are trying for a super quiet set-up, the SP will fare better with dust filters and radiators at low speed.

due to conservation of energy, that mechanical work is converted into "pressure" pushing the screw forward if youre installing a fan in a very restrictive place, like in front of a bunch of hard drives, then a SP fan will perform better because it will have higher CFM at high mmH2O compared to the AF fan this other type of screw goes in very slow but it is a lot stronger at pushing into things because moving the same distance forward requires more turns, and more turns = more work doneLightning Node Pro, Up to 6 peripherals per channel, RGB Strips, HD Fans, SP Fans, SP Pro Fans, LL Fans, ML Fans and, QL Fans. NOTE: If you connect 6 QL fans and 4 RGB LED strips to the Lighting Node Pro, you will only be able to select and customize the fans in iCUE. So if you were to use fan B on a radiator as an exhaust (basically no restriction in the front of the fan), shouldn't it work better than the static pressure fan? I say this because both of the fans are still moving AIR which has the same density...etc. Since fan B is able to move the air faster to begin with, shouldn't the air be able to push through the fins of the radiators more effectively than the static pressure fans?