best 140mm LED fan for front of Zalman Z9 plus case

arnie2013 · 8 Nov 2015 at 03:25

Hi all

just want some advice really. i currently have the zalman z9 plus case with the following cooling setup

1 x corsair SP120 PWN performance edition fan at FRONT of case ( intake)
2 x corsair SP120 PWN performance edition fans on SIDE PANEL ( intake)
2 x corsair SP120 PWN performance edition fans at top ( exhaust)
1 x corsair SP120 PWN performance edition fan on bottom ( intake)

Now i currently have 3 hard drives in the bays and 1 SSD on the back of the motherboard plate

now my theory is with my having the 3 hard drives is that the SP120 fan isnt going to be good enough at getting air into my case and cooling inside

so im on the market for a 140mm fan preferably with an LED can anybody recommend any or do you think that my current setup is at its best

jbh110tdi · 9 Nov 2015 at 00:59

what a horrid case to work with in my eyes..
( sorry if you like it Ive got one and really do hate it)

Ive really no ideas about best 140mm fan to use but what I did was cabletied a second fan to the harddrive bays on the inside of the case and this made a good difference on getting air in. I ended out chopping the hardrive bays up a bit to allow more air through.. but that's another story

Ive got my AMD set up in my Z9 at present.. but hoping to pick up another case soon for it.

arnie2013 · 9 Nov 2015 at 11:48

I do like the case ye i like its style. iv never had problems working with it. what problems have you faced?

only reason i ask the question about a new fan is because i currently have 3 hard drives at the front and my theory is that they are blocking the airflow from the front fan
so if i can get a 140mm fan put in place of the 120mm fan it should push more air through i hope

i do like the idea of putting another fan on them drive bays though id like to do that, do you much any vibration form that cabletied fan though?

jbh110tdi · 9 Nov 2015 at 12:20

arnie2013 said:
I do like the case ye i like its style. iv never had problems working with it. what problems have you faced?

only reason i ask the question about a new fan is because i currently have 3 hard drives at the front and my theory is that they are blocking the airflow from the front fan
so if i can get a 140mm fan put in place of the 120mm fan it should push more air through i hope

i do like the idea of putting another fan on them drive bays though id like to do that, do you much any vibration form that cabletied fan though?

I thought it was a nightmare for cable management plus airflow.

the 2nd fan made a good difference and I havent noticed any extra noise or vibrations with having it there.

heres my new case that I built up with 4690k

its the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M case the cable management is superb over the Z9 and the airflow is much better

arnie2013 · 9 Nov 2015 at 12:38

Ye i know what u mean about cable management as i have loads of wires obviously. Behind my motherboard plate so sometimes closing yhe side panel can be abit tricky and any spare psu wires iv had to shove them at the bottom of my hard drive bays as no were else put them
Im guessing maybe them wires could qffect airflow plus hard drives as well

Il have check my hard drive temps later

Im thinking buying a 140mm for the front then do what u have done put either another 140mm on the drive bays or just shove my sp120 their

jbh110tdi · 9 Nov 2015 at 12:44

if I remember right when I first done the second fan so I had the push pull it dropped my harddrive temps by about 5 or 6c it also helped my gpu temps

I did have 2 drives in there at one point but used the 1tb on another system.

I used an ssd as a system drive and put it behind the motherboard.

arnie2013 · 10 Nov 2015 at 01:14

how can i attach a fan to the drive bays face my GPU then apart form cable ties

what are them metal things called with two holes in

nails666 · 11 Nov 2015 at 22:43

Not a direct help I know but I tried a BitFenix Spectre Pro 140mm fan as an intake on my case and wasn't impressed with it at all. Quite loud and didn't seem to push that much air either.

arnie2013 · 12 Nov 2015 at 00:44

i purchased a corsair SP140 LED fan for the front of my case, it came with two of them.

the 2nd one im going to cabletie it to the hard drive bays like you have but first i have to wait til i buy another one of them splitter cables as i dont have any fan connectors FREE on my motherboard all used up lol

was looking at both specs from my new SP140 LED and the one i justr removed SP120

and my new SP140 doesnt much as much airflow as the SP120 and also its slower. which i find odd seen as the fan is bigger shouldnt it slightly push more air..

wonder if il see a rise in temps now arghhh?

i was thinking of putting two SP120s with rings onto my corsair H80I GT but i read the specs and the stock fans on the H80I GT are faster and push more air, but i dont get it as i thought they were jus SP120 fans, obviously not?