Need some new fans for my case swap! Help I'm too picky!

beasty6 · 31 May 2022 at 10:54

Hi all,

I've got a case swap to do in couple of weeks.
Moving from a lancool 215 to a o11 mini air.
I want to replace the stock fans with 140's in the front, roof and bottom, then 120's on the side and rear.
I also would like the fans to match, be as quiet as possible and RGB too.
Now the main challenge.... Without the crazy prices I've seen some fans at.

I can fill the case with arctic P14/12 rgb for around £90, any other options?

Drumroll · 2 Jun 2022 at 21:43

Depending on the cooler you’ll be using, the top fans will be quite close to it and may create some unwanted noise.
The fans you have in mind should be perfect, as I don’t see need or benefit to run them over 1000rpm, which is the point where the humming may happen. All fans at 800-900rpm max should give you a great performance.

beasty6 · 3 Jun 2022 at 23:16

I have a EK 280 AIO, so running it at the front is the only option.

Drumroll · 3 Jun 2022 at 23:51

That should be fine then.
I was disappointed with the lack of support for top mounted AIO, unless using a M-ATX or smaller.
But as you're front mounting the AIO, the Arctic fans won't need to run faster than 800-900 rpm and should be pleasantly quiet.
Have 10 of them (120mm non-RGB) + 3 EK from the AIO. Sadly the Arctic Freezer mounting wouldn't fit (O11 EVO + MSI Z690 Tomahawk), but they're pretty decent fans.
If you check on the O11 Air Mini thread, I have 2 system there. One using the Silent Wings, other using Noctua. Honestly, I don't think they're worth the £20+ price tag, maybe if you need to run them fast, maybe, but as you're taking the same approach as me and going overkill on fans, the arctic should be able to reach the desired performance way before they become noisy.
At the moment, the noisiest fan in my system are the EK ones, but only because I have them at 1000rpm, with little change according to CPU temperature. Always avoiding the fans changing rpm too often, as it irritates me more than anything.

beasty6 · 4 Jun 2022 at 12:43

I'm hoping to make the system as quiet as possible, got a phanteks amp PSU on hybrid mode, 3070ti FE so in theory it should be a super quiet system, especially with the Arctic fans like you say.

I'm going to try the undervolting on both my 5800x and 3070ti, may give me that head room to slow the fans down even more or just enjoy the lower temps, either way I'll give it a shot and find out

pastymuncher · 4 Jun 2022 at 13:19

My personal opinion is that you can't beat the Arctic Cooling fans for price v performance. I have 8x P14 fans on my pair of HWLabs GTX 280 rads in push/pull and I rarely have to increase the fan speed except in very hot periods during the summer. For the vast majority of the time they are running at 780rpm which is just about silent. I am one of those people who find fan prices just ridiculous these days and wouldn't pay more than £7-8 per fan. These fans that cost £20 and even £30 each are just madness, it's not as if they are that much better to justify the price.