Suggestions for 140mm fan in Fractal Design Define XL

Alloneword

Alloneword

Alloneword

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16 Oct 2008
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231
OK first off i have to say normally i buy my case fans from another shop as they have a great little graph where you can sort the fans in noise level, noise flow or RPM, however there choice is not great compared to other sites especially this one so i have come here for advice on what the best 140mm fan is for me in my situation.

My case is a Fractal Design Define XL with 10 hard drives in so far all of them are the old platter versions no SSD and there won't be for about another 6-9 months, I'm not an overclocker but it is important to me to keep my drives as cool as i can, having said that i don't want to sit next to a jet engine either so some kind of balance is needed, I'm also installing a Reeven Sixeyes fan controller my only reason going for this is because it will fit flush in the case when the door shuts.

OK this is what the manual says about the case:
2 front 120/140mm intake fans with removable, washable filter (one 140mm included, one optional)
1 top 180mm exhaust fan (included)
1 rear 120mm exhaust fan (included)

Now the 2 front currently have Fractal Design 140's and these need to be replaced with something new (over to you), the top 180 will stay standard and the rear 120 with be replaced with a Noctua NF-S12B (unless you tell me otherwise) only using that as i have one hanging around here, I think my fan controller will take 3 & 4 pin fans so i think i have most bases covered.

My rig is not that powerful it's just a E8400 @ 3Ghz with 8GB, not a gamer so fan less video card (6450), it will get upgraded but not for about another 8-12 months.

So over to you folks what are your suggestions? If you need any more infor from me just ask.


All1
 
So are you after silence? Also do you have a fan controller or would you prefer PWM controlled fans?

These are PWM ones I would be looking at.

I have the 3 pin 120mm golf fans and they are fantastic so I fully expect the 140mm to be quieter and flow more air, All the fans here have decent static pressure for 140mm fans which will help with getting air through the HDD enclosures and through meshes and filters and such. Ill post some 3 pin ones in a bit.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Be Quiet! Shadow Wings Fan PWM - 140mm £15.98
1 x Akasa AK-FN062 Apache Black Super Silent 140mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM £14.99
1 x BitFenix Spectre PRO PWM 140mm Fan - White £11.99
1 x Zaward Golf II Fan 140mm PWM ZG2-140B - black £8.99
Total : £61.85 (includes shipping : £8.25).

 
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Silence would be nice but i know i'll get some noise so it's a case of as little as poss.

I do have a fan controller it's a Reeven SixEyes it does say "use 3 pin with speed sensor or 4 pin (PWM)".

I have just taken out the stock so called 120mm and put in the NF-S12B and it's pants as there is space around the edges so no idea what is going on there it may look like i'm after just 3 x 140mm, right of to bed Mrs has got the right up with me banging around at 3.30am :-/

All1
 
I've got those zarward golf fans linked to above which I swapped out my fractal fans to so I could take advantage of pwm. Used in conjunction with something like speedfan app, use the s.m.a.r.t. Hdd temp sensing to ramp up the fan rpm's as required. They have a good rpm range and are very quiet on low rpm, reckon they are quieter than the phanteks under load too.
 
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I'm running modified TY-14x fans (cut square to fit) with PWM control.. Like thenewoc said it works great. And it's easy to do using a PWM splitter with molex for PSU power.

If you want quiet and cool it's good way to go. Fan's idle at 700rpm so silent and ramp up as load / heat / demand for air increases. Have done this on several builds now.
 
Alloneword said:
I have just taken out the stock so called 120mm and put in the NF-S12B and it's pants as there is space around the edges so no idea what is going on there it may look like i'm after just 3 x 140mm, right of to bed Mrs has got the right up with me banging around at 3.30am :-/

All1
Click to expand...

Are there 140mm fan mounts in the chassis? If not make sure to get 140mm fan with 120mm mount placement to save some dsr/drill hassle.
 
arad85 said:
What is wrong with the Fractals?

Also, what temps are your disks? You don't want them too cool - the failure rate is a U shaped graph, with the lowest point being in the upper 30s/low 40's. See: http://research.google.com/archive/disk_failures.pdf
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Nothing is wrong with them per say (if that's how you say it), it's just one of them is giving a clicking sound, taken them out cleaned the lot and still same issue, so went a hunting for new one to be honest my money was going on Noctua but having done some more reading I went for 3 x Be Quiet SilentWings 2 140mm Case Fan, I'm also looking at CPU cooling right now as well but that's another story.

Thanks everyone for your advice here it's been handy to read the reviews on the others that were suggested.

All1
 
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