Case fans! Where to start?

[watercooled]

I don't suppose anyone has some recommendations for some decent case fans? The simpler the better, preferably no LEDs etc and I'm not all that fussed what they look like, but ideally reasonably quiet, move enough air on full speed to cool a gaming system, and good quality e.g. no nasty bearing noises.

I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm not even sure where's a good place to start. I have a Fractal R3 with its stock configuration of two fans but I think it could do with a couple more - one on the spare intake filter and one in the roof would be good I'd think?

Oh and I'd rather not be spending something like £20 per fan - they're just fans after all!

Thanks!!

[Phage]

Ah - the budget is your problem. Quiet fans are expensive fans. Just like nuclear sub propellors.
Anyhting by Noctua or beQuiet will be excellent. I have an R4 and have two noctuas on intake on the AIO and two 140mm bequiet for exhaust. I used to have just one exhaust but the GPU was chucking out so much heat.

Neither of them have any LED flimflammery

[Dashers]

I've got a few Corsair magnetic bearing fans in my case. No bearing noise, but unbelievably expensive and actually still reasonably noisy because they can spin pretty fast. Pretty quiet down low, but then you don't move much heat.

[Hoonigan]

Noctua NF-A12x25

[scaryjim]

I've always been a fan of Antec Tri-cools, although I think it's been a few years since you could buy them separately. They do a 'True Quiet' fan now with a two-speed selector switch, which if they're of a similar quality should be pretty good: https://www.ebuyer.com/245549-antec-...761345-75250-3

[watercooled]

Thanks everyone. Don't get me wrong I'm not averse to spending a bit more if needs be, just I'd rather not pay for lighting/aesthetics/brands. The PC they're in isn't super quiet as-is but it doesn't produce any particularly annoying sounds, and I've known some cheaper fans to produce really irritating tones regardless of RPM.

My main concern is getting heat out of the case and trying to keep the area around the motherboard a bit cooler - a NVMe SSD idles at about 60C when the GPU is churning because of its proximity to the GPU's exhaust, and the only case exhaust fan currently present pushes out some fairly hot air. It's a shame you can't remove the drive bays on the Fractal R3 like you can on later models, to improve airflow. Well, I guess I could, with some force...

[peterb]

I guess spending money on fans is a bit like spending on PSUs - they are lowly components yet can be critical to the effective operation of the machine.

I agree with you about spending maney on useless bling, but the higher priced fans (like the Noctua) do seem to offer benefits in volume of air shifted and noise. Large fans that shift high volumes at a lower air speed will be quieter than small fans spinning faster, and with higher air velocities (that is probably a SOTBO - Statement Of The Blindingly Obvious ) but is probably spending a bit more on a better quality fan.

£20 against £5 is not much when you think how much you spend on GPUs and processors!

[Jonj1611]

I run BeQuiet Pure Wings 2, incredibly quiet, I did have Silent Wings but to be honest the price premium isn't worth it as there wasn't any noticeable difference in sound.

[scaryjim]

... a NVMe SSD idles at about 60C when the GPU is churning because of its proximity to the GPU's exhaust ...

Do be aware that NVMe drives generate a lot of heat and run hot themselves - far more so than even SATA M.2 drives, AFAIK. I upgraded my new laptop with one and the area underneath the drive gets uncomfortably hot pretty quickly...

[watercooled]

Yeah it does get warm by itself, maybe 40-45C, but that ~60C is with the game on another drive so it should be close to idling. Then again, a ~20C jump is about right given that's about how much hotter than ambient the case exhaust seems to be.

I imagine it would be hotter again if that game was accessing the NVMe drive frequently though, but would probably still be within the recommended temperature range. The form factor is nice and compact but doesn't really lend itself to dissipating a lot of heat efficiently. And motherboard manufacturers putting the only x4 NVMe slot right above or underneath the GPU probably isn't ideal either.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Noctua fans are good but too expensive and the Scythe Gentle Typhoons are not made anymore.

In the end I use a combination of the Corsair high airflow fans for the fansink and a Zaward Golfball jobbie,and use a controller so I can ramp the speed down. Then I added some acoustic foam to the case sides which helped.

[Ttaskmaster]

The Noctua fans are good but too expensive and the Scythe Gentle Typhoons are not made anymore.

Full-on Noctuas seem expensive, but that's because they come with a ton of accessories. They did do a basic version with just the fan and four screws, and the prices were roughly on par at about £12.

There are better performing fans and quieter fans, but Noctuas offer the best balance of performance for the level of noise reduction.
I keep meaning to buy a bunch of Corsair ML120s for my rig, to replace my Gentle Typhoons and Noctuas.
EK Vardars are a little noisy but do well, as do Phanteks fans.

But what makes the biggest difference is the noise made by the airflow itself. You need fairly unobstructed airflow to keep it quiet, which includes interacting airflows that lead to reverberation especially on lighter side panels.

[Ahrimar]

İ have TH Mozart case, its big. Once i time i have used more than 8 fans with fan controller.after a while, i saw, they have no point at cooling CPU or GPU. so i bought a cheap water cooling system( corsair h105), After installing it, i plug off all fans + controler unit. No sound, no any heat etc. After a while i install 6 hdd (raid). they were so hot, so i need a fan. i install 1 fan for it. After a while i bought 1080ti. it was getting more heat while oc. i put 2 fans under card. After a while i asked to my self, why not rgb fans. i exchanged the 3 fan with rbg ones. After a while i asked to myself (again), there is lots of fan places in case. why not more rgb fan. i bought and bougth lots of rgb fans with rbg controller unit. so… now i have too much noise…. anyway.. if u want a silent fan, u need to work it at low speed. so u need another cooling system. its a water cooling. Buy a cheap one . after installing the water cooler, u may not need a fan. unistall it. no sound is better. if u get bored and wanne a rgb fan, read this write several times. u will see the vicious circle…

[Mr_Jon]

I don't suppose anyone has some recommendations for some decent case fans? The simpler the better, preferably no LEDs etc and I'm not all that fussed what they look like, but ideally reasonably quiet, move enough air on full speed to cool a gaming system, and good quality e.g. no nasty bearing noises.

I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm not even sure where's a good place to start. I have a Fractal R3 with its stock configuration of two fans but I think it could do with a couple more - one on the spare intake filter and one in the roof would be good I'd think?

Oh and I'd rather not be spending something like £20 per fan - they're just fans after all!

Thanks!!

I'd go with the more of the stock Fractal fans - it's the one thing they do very well, and at a comparatively low price. There's not much difference regarding which generation of the Fractal fans (I've got a mix of the R2 and R3 silent series 140's) apart from the price...off the top of my head, the R3 fans are twice as expensive at ~15 quid each. Both come with a voltage retarder for quieter operation, but it's easy enough to hook them all up to one or two headers and speedfan them. The roof exhaust is a good idea, but on the Fractal cases this does seem to increase the hum of the system.

[Phage]

I have the two stock 140mm Fractal fans I took out of my R4 if you'd like them. I'm sure we can agree a lot lower price than the £20 !

[Dashers]

It's the long term economics of bearings etc that convinced me to try out the magnetic bearings. Hopefully no bearing wear after a few years of heavy use.

Frankly I think the main problem with cooling isn't the fans, it's the cases. Air doesn't really like having to change direction. Cases are all setup for desktop days, and the move of the PSU to the bottom has done wonders for the PSU, but buggered up clear airflow by putting large drive bays in the way of LOS to the CPU.

With a PCIe NVM drive and other gubbins, I went for a Corsair 500R as it's about one of the only cases you can get that allow you to mount significant side-cooling, allowing you to get direct airflow on those components.