How much should I pay for case fans?

xenon20

xenon20

xenon20

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Hi All,

With fan prices from £2 - £45, how much do you have to pay to get something half decent?

I've just recently purchased a BeQuiet! Pure Base 500DX case which comes with 3x Pure Wings 2 140mm fans.

I'll be running a Ryzen 9 7900X CPU with Peerless Assassin 120 cooler and RTX 2070 GPU but the GPU will be upgraded at some point to something more current.

I'm thinking that three fans wont be sufficient, I was thinking I'd want 3 at the front, 2 at the top and 1 exhaust.

Obviously with it being a BQ case I'm tempted to go for BQ fans, but I noticed some other cheaper options such as these:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitfenix-spectre-140mm-fan-red-led-fan-ca-22h-bx.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-p14-pwm-pst-co-fan-140mm-fg-05m-ar.html

Would you pay the extra for the BQ fans? The Bitfenix would about 1/6 - 1/8th of the price!

Also what do you think THESE would look like in THIS through the mesh? Not noticeable / Cool effect / ridiculous?

Thanks
 
BitFenix Spectre 140mm Fan Red LED Fan
CA-22H-BX
£10 (incl. VAT)
£2 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Arctic F14 PWM PST CO Fan - 140mm
FG-05M-AR
£8 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 140mm Fan - White
FG-03X-BQ
£16 (incl. VAT)
£13 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
be quiet! Pure Base 500DX ARGB Midi Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass
CA-13W-BQ
£100 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
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Arctic cooling make very good fans, the CO one (Continues Operation) are the best they make as there designed for 24/7 operation.
 
I like Arctic for budget builds with no specific need for fancy fan options. Also Phantek SK120/140. That price on the BF is tempting but I've no experience of them.

However as you already have 3 BQ fans I'd prefer to match them.
 
I always buy really expensive fans, lol.

It's because other people are completely deaf and don't seem to hear all the noise the fan is making!! Horrid little tick tick noises or such.

I suppose, what it really is, is that when I have had noisy fans in the past I have cured the problem with a Noctua or a Corsair Magnetic Suspension fan... so that's what I tend to use all the time now. I mean, I have dozens of them and recycle them for new projects. They are expensive, but that's small potatoes against the cost of a PC.

I know I'm stupid, but I can't be bothered experimenting to save a few quid.
 
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You probably won't need any additional fans. I almost never use exhaust fans. BQ stock case fans are are not great but probably do the job. I would try with stock setup and if it's not cooling well change to higher pressure rated fans. Just be aware fan specs are at full speed, and much less at lower rpm. As others have said, Arctic are quite good high pressure fans and not expensive.
 
xenon20 said:
The Bitfenix would about 1/6 - 1/8th of the price!
Click to expand...

They are, but the only reason is because they've had deep discounts to shift them - they are very old FIXED colour fans, rather than the slightly newer 12v RGB, or the much newer and preferred 5V Addressable RGB.


Personally I'd add another vote for Arctic fans - they normally offer 95% of the performance of the very best fans for a fraction of the price.
 
What Armageus said.

Stock Pure Wings 2 case fans are rated 0.67mm H2O @ 1000rpm. 18.8dB. Take the db with a few grains of salt because that 18.8db is with no restrictions; no grill, no filter, nothing. Fan spinning in open space. Just a grill will easily double that.

Arctic P14 is rated 2.4mm H2O @ 1700rpm, so even at 1/2 the pressure at 1000rpm it would be 1.2mm H2 .. about twice as much as stock Pure Wings 2. What this means is P14 will flow way more air at same rpm and/or same noise level as Pur Wings 2 can. Higher pressure ratings mean higher ability to overcome resistance .. things like grill, filter, etc.

Fill front vents with intake fans and let them push air thru case and out top and back vents.

Just to be clear, I would build with all 3 stock fans as front intakes and see how it cools. You will probably be fine. If not then get and install 3x Arctic P14 as front intakes.

​

 
xenon20 said:
I'm thinking that three fans wont be sufficient, I was thinking I'd want 3 at the front, 2 at the top and 1 exhaust.
Click to expand...
3x 140mm fans should be plenty. I mean..., if you buy a 4090 and run it at 600 watts, sure, but something like a 4070/4070 Super is more than fine with that.
 
If you have 3 fans (like Arctic P14) pushing air into your case you will have same 3x fans of air flowing out of case. It's simple physics. Cases flow exactly the same amount of air out as they flow in. So if you have 2 140mm intakes your case will only flow in and out as much air as those 2 fans move. If ouu run 4 intake fans, in case with 6 vents, cases will only flow the air that 2x exhaust vents can flow.
 
I think the three stock fans should be fine. The postage is going to skew the price on the cheap fans.

I'm intrigued by the bitfenix spectre fans. They are 1000rpm and three pins so should be silent but without pushing much air. I have two 120s at 1000-1200 so these would be better. They are very old though. I think you should get them and report how you get on;)
 
doyll said:
If you have 3 fans (like Arctic P14) pushing air into your case you will have same 3x fans of air flowing out of case
Click to expand...
yea but the exhaust fan usually sits directly in line with a cpu heatsink fan and gets that heat out of the case quicker.

I'd rather a nice clean air stream running directly through the case from the front to the back.


with an exhaust surely the air goes like on the left
xCZleeR.jpeg

But without an exhaust most of the air will take the path of least resistance and blow back off the rear wall of the case disrupting the whole airflow and probably stopping the fans pushing as much air in.


The main thing is making sure the heat from the gpu and cpu goes straight out the rear as fast as possible, and you get more of an air corridor like when you have 2 opposite windows open.


don't do 1 rear 1 front though, you need more air blowing in than being sucked out, or any openings in the case will pull in dust
 
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arknor said:
yea but the exhaust fan usually sits directly in line with a cpu heatsink fan and gets that heat out of the case quicker.

I'd rather a nice clean air stream running directly through the case from the front to the back.


with an exhaust surely the air goes like on the left
xCZleeR.jpeg

But without an exhaust most of the air will take the path of least resistance and blow back off the rear wall of the case disrupting the whole airflow and probably stopping the fans pushing as much air in.


The main thing is making sure the heat from the gpu and cpu goes straight out the rear as fast as possible, and you get more of an air corridor like when you have 2 opposite windows open.


don't do 1 rear 1 front though, you need more air blowing in than being sucked out, or any openings in the case will pull in dust
Click to expand...
Having both intake and exhaust can improve case airflow slightly, hard to say how much difference it makes.

Using intake and exhaust fans in a case are similar to push/pull fans on coolers or stacking fans. 2x fans do not move more air at same pressure, but 2x fans double pressure rating. But the difference in overall airflow is minimal at best. Good example is single vs double fans on coolers. NH-D15 (2x fans) vs NH-D15S (1x fan) both cooling about the same with only 2c maximum difference. Different placement of case fans changes airflow paths thru case. This is why my tutorial on setting up case airflow show a cheap way to monitor air temp entering CPU / GPU coolers while system is in use. Often just changing some of the case fans' speeds slightly can make a huge difference in case airflow currents, thus greatly changing air temp entering component. This means 2x fans have the ability to overcome more resistance to airflow (ie; grill, filter, cables, etc.) and sometimes create different flow patterns in our cases.

You might find basic guide to how airflow works and how to optimise case airflow in link below helpful.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

Your opposite window is a good example of airflow through a container (case or house). Another way of visualizing airflow is think of air as water and fans as propellers. Case is a box on bottom of pond and fans are propellers as intake and/or exhaust moving water into case and /or out of case. Case will only flow as much water out as is flowing in.
 
I went for noctua fans, fair amount of money, but in all honesty they aren't the difference they were years ago, most brands have caught up, and imo they still aren't that quiet, but they don't make annoying tick noises or whirring noises just the fan blowing noise.

The noise isn't helped by my setup as I've modified an IKEA draw unit and have 3x 140 fans on a vacuum formed cowling but from friends and the PC's at work etc, the noctua imo havnt been worth the extra money. I'd have got similar performance from arctic, thermaltake etc.

£10-15 is probably a good price performance ratio.
 
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