How much should I pay for case fans?
- Thread starter xenon20
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Soldato
The PB DX is a pretty small case meaning a low volume of air. You don't need to max out all the fan slots - ultimately I think the case won't handle super high power components anyway.
My Pure Base 600 is a pretty similar design and I have 3x intake at the front and a single exhaust. The internal case temperature was much lower when I removed 2 top fans and sealed the top, for straight through air flow.
My Pure Base 600 is a pretty similar design and I have 3x intake at the front and a single exhaust. The internal case temperature was much lower when I removed 2 top fans and sealed the top, for straight through air flow.
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I'll only use Noctua now and I'm conditioned to the sound/tone they make at a constant 1000 RPM at 15 plus years. I've never had one fail and Noctua support is 2nd to none.
That being said I wouldn't mix and match fans so that you get a consistent noise from your PC.
Arctic P12 PWM 5 pack at 27 quid seems a bargain - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-p12-pwm-pst-black-fan-five-pack-120mm-fg-05j-ar.html
Can go 3 front intake and 2 exhaust or grab another single for another 6 and balance the system.
Avoid Cryorig like the plague absolute garbage the RPM goes up and down for no reason so they sound awful even when using a fan controller with the RPM fixed.
That being said I wouldn't mix and match fans so that you get a consistent noise from your PC.
Arctic P12 PWM 5 pack at 27 quid seems a bargain - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-p12-pwm-pst-black-fan-five-pack-120mm-fg-05j-ar.html
Can go 3 front intake and 2 exhaust or grab another single for another 6 and balance the system.
Avoid Cryorig like the plague absolute garbage the RPM goes up and down for no reason so they sound awful even when using a fan controller with the RPM fixed.
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Assuming "PB DX"is BQ Power Base 500DX, your case is capable of handling the most powerful hi-heat CPUs and GPUs, Front to back airflow is preferred for both CPU and GPU, and back of your case is mostly venting, so has good front to back airflow. Would be even better if all PCIe back slot covers are removed. This is because grills restrict airflow significantly. Best grilles are big hole hexagonal mesh and round wire flow 72% and 71% as much as open hole. Typical punched sheet metal case grills flow only 29% to 60% as much as open hole. So PCIE slot covers removed and a good 140mm rear fan pulling air out will easily flow all the air 3x 120mm front intake fans flow into case.
3x 120mm high pressure fans as front intakes are capable of flowing slightly more air than 2x 140mm fans. 3x 120mm front intakes are capable of flowing around 150cfm of air thru your case at about 35dB noise level. 2x 140mm fans would flow about 135-140cfm at similar noise levels. Powerful CPU coolers use 50-65cfm when working hard. 90mm GPU fans are about 35-40cfm, 80mm GPU fans flow about 30cfn, so 2-3 GPU fans can flow up to maybe 80-90cfm. That's a total of 155cfm of airflow thru both CPU and GPU.
So rough guessing we end up with your case able to flow about 150cfm and components similar at about 155cfm. 5cfm difference is nothing. Especially considering thin GPU fans loose much more of their airflow going thru cooler fins, around cables, changing directions, etc than 25mm-27mm thick case fans do.
3x 120mm high pressure fans as front intakes are capable of flowing slightly more air than 2x 140mm fans. 3x 120mm front intakes are capable of flowing around 150cfm of air thru your case at about 35dB noise level. 2x 140mm fans would flow about 135-140cfm at similar noise levels. Powerful CPU coolers use 50-65cfm when working hard. 90mm GPU fans are about 35-40cfm, 80mm GPU fans flow about 30cfn, so 2-3 GPU fans can flow up to maybe 80-90cfm. That's a total of 155cfm of airflow thru both CPU and GPU.
So rough guessing we end up with your case able to flow about 150cfm and components similar at about 155cfm. 5cfm difference is nothing. Especially considering thin GPU fans loose much more of their airflow going thru cooler fins, around cables, changing directions, etc than 25mm-27mm thick case fans do.
Caporegime
I'm a big fan (heh!) of the P12 PST, it's so much easier to route cables when you can just daisy chain them.
There is no logical reason to match intake fan numbers to exhaust fan numbers. In almost all cases (no pun) intake grills are more restrictive than exhaust are. Intakes also often have filters, creating even more resistance to airflow. This means fans on intake vents flow much less airflow per fan into case than same model fan mounted on exhaust vent flow out. End result is case has negative pressure and draws air in through holes, seams, etc. These leaks will often collect dust and become obvious. So just grab a 5-pack of Arctics and run 3 intakes and 2 exhausts.
I do agree with you about all case fans being same kind. These differences in sounds / speed control can usually be resolved by adjusting fan rpm:temp curves.
I've only used Cryorig cooler with included fans, but have never had any issues with with them. Well, I did find their XT140 13mm fan on front of R1 Universal cooler did sometimes create harmonic noises. I was able to resolve that by changing temp : rpm curve slightly. Also, That was 10 years ago, and fans have made a lot of changes in last 10 years.
P12 PST daisy chain is nice bonus. Just be careful how many you run on single fan header. Even though they are rated 0.1A, they draw 3-5 times that at startup. This means 5x daisy chained together can draw over 2 amps, even 3+ amps at startup. This can (and does) burn out fan headers. It's the reason most fan header failures happen / are noticed when first starting computer up.
some of the noctuas will fully turn off at below 20% PWM too.
so you can have your case fans at 0rpm until the cpu starts getting a bit a warm.
I want my case fans running so there is a little airflow thru case. With a little airflow thru case everything runs cooler so less chance of problems. Only down side of case fans always spinning is filters gather more dust. I hoover them once a month anyway. They don't need it that often, but if I don't have it on a regular schedule I forget them until they are so full of crap the fans are spinning up trying to pull air in. ;(
Thermalright fans are quite good. 1550rpm, 66.17cfm, 1.53mm H2O specs are quite good. They have had a few issues with bad bearings, but that was some time ago. Right now they can be had for even less that what tamzzy said.
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Yes they can!
Unless one is gunning for absolute silence, these Themalrights are the best compromise of bling-bling/performance/value
I struggle to see why anyone sane would want to spend any more than this for what really is very diminishing returns (to the point where I'd consider it negligible at best)
When thought about rationally...is very irrational lol
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I agree 110%.
Run 3 intake fans instead of 2 more expensive ones and fans can be ran at about 30% lower speed and be silent with plenty of case airflow .. all for same or less money than just one of the so-called "better fans" out there on the market.
3x140mm can't remember the model but think they might be nfa-14 and 2x nfa- 12
Those are £25-30 each, so £130 or more in new fans.
Are you planning on using new 3 NF-A14 fans on your vacuum formed cowling in IDEA drawer unit?
Would love to see some pics of your setup and how you plan to set it up
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Yeah already done it, I havnt put any finished pics up, but the idea is there, it's a bit rough and ready, I went at it like a bull in china shop as only had limited time to complete it squeezing it in around life, had I thought about things more I would have made things a bit neater.
The PSU also has a fan in it acting as an exhaust aswell so it's a slightly pressured system.
I've tried to take into account the flow of air as much as possible,
I wanted everything noctua so got the noctua NHD 15 cooler aswell, however having said that, I'm pretty certain I could have spent a 3rd of what I did on cooling products and still have similar performance in terms of noise and cooling.
I'm thinking of adding some dust filters to the back of the intake fans but havnt done so yet as concerned of the effect on the air flow.
The hand holes in the front are actually quite large and they do flow surprisingly well.
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Soldato
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You can get some cracking fans on a budget these days,I recently purchased 6 reasonably cheap Artic RGB fans and was pleasantly surprised just how quiet they are and move quite a bit of air.
Same with budget air coolers,recently purchased a Thermalright Assassin spirit 120 which is a sub £25 cooler and it can absolutely handle 250W.
Same with budget air coolers,recently purchased a Thermalright Assassin spirit 120 which is a sub £25 cooler and it can absolutely handle 250W.
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What's up with thermaltake?
I've got their tough power psu and seems great with 10 year warranty and the reviews of it were really good.
Recently I've been looking at their cases for my boy as would suit his need and was thinking of just getting everything thermaltake, for no particular reason other than just cos, though I think I was erring on get an arctic freezer cooler rather than thermaltake one
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The tough power line is perfectly fine as they use good OEMs (HKC, Great Wall, probably forgetting some for their older ones) but their own stuff has generally poor build quality and they plagiarise other companies often.
Bare in mind the warranty on more expensive fans. I would only consider Noctua NF-A14x25 or Phanteks T30 fans because I am susceptible to hearing buzzing, grinding or rattling on lower quality fans. If you experience any of these issues in fan sound profiles try running them at different RPM to see if it sorts it out.
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