[SOLVED] Best affordable high static pressure and high airflow 120&140mm fans

[thepurplesith]

Hey Guys,
I plan to build three new fans into my PC (and already know the difference between static pressure and airflow fans). I'd like to have one 120mm high airflow fan, one 140mm high static pressure fan and another 140mm fan with high airflow. Which are good and affordable options?
Thanks in advance!

 

[tennis2]

I think we need an idea as to what you call "affordable". Also sales can bring an "expensive" fan down to "affordable".

Noctua is the best and most expensive, Be Quiet! and Fractal Design and Cougar have good mid-price fans. I like Cooler Master for low-price.

Are you looking for plain or lighted fans? RGB or single color?

 

[Karadjgne]

Best all around fan ever designed, the Scythe GT. Hits rads same as a Noctua NF-F12, hits airflow better than the beQuiet silent wings.

And you cannot go by stats alone. Cfm is the only valid measurement as it's testing is standardized. Static pressure is not, it's dependent on the methodology used by the tester. And both results are only applicable at maximum rpm, not where fans spend most of their time in the middle rpm ranges. Which for most fans is not a linear progression.

Phanteks also makes excellent fans.

 

[tennis2]

The Cooler Master MasterFan Pro Air Balance is the same design as the Scythe GT.

 

[Karadjgne]

And a Lexus is a Toyota, an Infinity is a Nissan. However the CM looks, there has ho be differences in design, copywrite and trademark restrictions guarantee that. Can be anything from lack of strators, change in pitch of the blades, angles of pitch, composition and flex of the blades etc.

It took Noctua 20 years to finally develop the technology in blade design and material composition to allow them to manufacture a 200mm fan. It could have and has been done prior, but not with Noctua standards in motor size, efficiency, noise rating etc.

The CM masterfan pro air balance might look extremely similar to a Scythe GT, even perform relatively close, but still not the same.

 

[thepurplesith]

Thanks for all the replies!

I think we need an idea as to what you call "affordable". Also sales can bring an "expensive" fan down to "affordable".

Noctua is the best and most expensive, Be Quiet! and Fractal Design and Cougar have good mid-price fans. I like Cooler Master for low-price.

Are you looking for plain or lighted fans? RGB or single color?

I don't really care for the looks, so RGB isn't that important, if the price is significantly increased for the feature.
I'm thinking about buying two Corsair ML40 fans, I heard that it has both good airflow and static pressure (even though that new technology they've build into it seems to not be that revolutionary), good idea or not so much?

 

[Karadjgne]

The ML140 are expensive, and really not worth the price unless planning on reusing them over the next few builds. Their performance is as most other hybrids, not as good as a dedicated rad fan, not as good as a dedicated flow fan but usable in either instance. And I'm not taking the Corsair SP120's/SP140's (on the h100i etc) into consideration, those are awful fans to begin with and the ML series easily tops temps by 5-10°C at any duty cycle. At low-mid (quiet mode) rpm ranges, the ML's are quiet, even silent, but bump them to close to max speeds (performance mode) and go buy some earmuffs. They get loud. There's just no way to make a 2400rpm fan silent.

So my question is just where are you going with these 3 fans. Do they need to match existing fans? Additions to a rad or case? Quiet important or not? Or do you imagine 6 case fans will improve cpu/gpu temps significantly?

Optimal fan usage is 2x2, 2x intakes, 2x exhaust. More than that shows severely diminishing airflow returns, less fans show considerable temp increases. Both add noise, one by adding fan noise to existing, the other by higher duty cycle speeds to maintain lower temps.

 

[thepurplesith]

The ML140 are expensive, and really not worth the price unless planning on reusing them over the next few builds. Their performance is as most other hybrids, not as good as a dedicated rad fan, not as good as a dedicated flow fan but usable in either instance. And I'm not taking the Corsair SP120's/SP140's (on the h100i etc) into consideration, those are awful fans to begin with and the ML series easily tops temps by 5-10°C at any duty cycle. At low-mid (quiet mode) rpm ranges, the ML's are quiet, even silent, but bump them to close to max speeds (performance mode) and go buy some earmuffs. They get loud. There's just no way to make a 2400rpm fan silent.

So my question is just where are you going with these 3 fans. Do they need to match existing fans? Additions to a rad or case? Quiet important or not? Or do you imagine 6 case fans will improve cpu/gpu temps significantly?

Optimal fan usage is 2x2, 2x intakes, 2x exhaust. More than that shows severely diminishing airflow returns, less fans show considerable temp increases. Both add noise, one by adding fan noise to existing, the other by higher duty cycle speeds to maintain lower temps.

Okay, they don't need to match existing fans, additions to case, noise not that important.
To give more detail, I have made an akward little graphic with paint that shows my current situation.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XH5mnK4EyB_U4ethdZ4d8Azl8jULP5Ro/view?usp=sharing

I currently have only 2 120mm fans that were part of, and the overall placement of them and major hardware components can be also seen there. How can I get the most out of this composition (for an affordable price/25$ per fan max)?

 

[Karadjgne]

Are those arrows actually representative of the direction of airflow? If so, you have 2x intakes fighting each other and no way of exhaust other than air finding cracks and vents by itself.

This is roughly what your pc airflow should be like, front/low intake, top/rear exhaust.
2 fans in front, 2 fans in top or 1 fan at rear and 1 at top-rear positions. That's all you need.
CFM moves a lot of air with no real force, SP moves less air, hard. So cfm (airflow) fans are good with open space, and SP fans are better when there's obstructions like hdd cages etc.

If you have a 240/280mm aio, it can be either intake or exhaust. If you have a tower aircooler, it's best to use a top-rear and rear exhaust. If you have a down-draft style cooler like amd wraith, then 2x top works better.