Best Case Fan - 2015?

[Geong1]

I've been researching case fans, and by far the best fan that I seem to have found on the market is of the Noctua series. This seems to be the ONLY go to fan, and I need other suggestions being as my problem with this fan is all of the reviews claim they build their fans over sized, and my motherboard is almost touching my current case fan as is. So, instead, I'm looking for the second best fan, with just a little bit more space to spare, so that I know I wont have to send it back in.

My case is a NZXT Tempest 210 with 120mm and 140mm mounting holes on top.

My current exhaust fan (top) is dying, so I don't want to have to send back a new fan. Got any ideas?
Price cap: 20-30$
Sound cap: Preferably quiet.

 

[Clast]

It's difficult to recommend a high performance fan if you want them to be quiet, however corsair has some fans that are quiet but still have decent airflow, but Noctua are the best in high performance fans (they are a bit noisy)
currently imo.

 

[Geong1]

I don't care if they aren't quiet as long as they get the job done, and fit inside the case.

 

[datguy20]

You should be able to find exact dimensions of whatever fan you want. I'd recommend Noctua, Corsair, or Cougar fans. They all make great high-end fans for various purposes.

 

[Sav4]

Phantek f140sp are a good fan and quiet.
http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/cooling/heatsinks/37419-phanteks-f140?showall=&limitstart=

 

[gamer1357]

For an exhaust fan I would check out the Be quiet Silent Wings 2 140mm. It moves a decent amount of air and is super quiet. The noctua s12a is also a great fan for an exhaust.

 

[photonboy]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-case-fan-phf120mpbkpwm

It's variable (some aren't) with a range of 500RPM to 1800RPM.

Generally you're set to 40% of the max for case fans (or 20% for CPU) from the motherboard (usually use the motherboard software, and most boards support both voltage and PWM variable support for case fans). That's roughly 700RPM at lowest which I can confirm is SILENT. Not just quiet, but SILENT.

You can setup a fan profile, but in my experience the case fans didn't really change much. In my system that's:

i7-3770K, GTX680 2GB, 16GB DDR3, + 4 hard drives.

I had 2x12cm as INTAKE and 1x12cm as exhaust (plus the power supply on the bottom). Even the top, 12cm fan wouldn't go above 800RPM with my fan profile and that's where most of the heat ends up.

*I experimented with different case fan RAMPS (RPM vs temp) but what I discovered is going above 700RPM for fans like these provided very, very minimal benefits. For example I ran a game looping benchmark and 1800RPM vs 700RPM made only a 2degC difference to the CPU!!

What this proves is that for most people, there's little benefit to more fans, better fans, or higher RPM's. It mainly comes down to optimizing for NOISE. There's a lot of crappy fans out there, and some very poor choices (like a 2000RPM, non-variable fan).

**OTHER example:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-fan-r4l4s10abgp

The one above is 1000RPM, but only 16dB. It doesn't move as much air as some 1000RPM fans but it does likely move more than required while also being very quiet. Good customer feedback and only $7.

 

[Geong1]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-case-fan-phf120mpbkpwm

It's variable (some aren't) with a range of 500RPM to 1800RPM.

Generally you're set to 40% of the max for case fans (or 20% for CPU) from the motherboard (usually use the motherboard software, and most boards support both voltage and PWM variable support for case fans). That's roughly 700RPM at lowest which I can confirm is SILENT. Not just quiet, but SILENT.

You can setup a fan profile, but in my experience the case fans didn't really change much. In my system that's:

i7-3770K, GTX680 2GB, 16GB DDR3, + 4 hard drives.

I had 2x12cm as INTAKE and 1x12cm as exhaust (plus the power supply on the bottom). Even the top, 12cm fan wouldn't go above 800RPM with my fan profile and that's where most of the heat ends up.

*I experimented with different case fan RAMPS (RPM vs temp) but what I discovered is going above 700RPM for fans like these provided very, very minimal benefits. For example I ran a game looping benchmark and 1800RPM vs 700RPM made only a 2degC difference to the CPU!!

What this proves is that for most people, there's little benefit to more fans, better fans, or higher RPM's. It mainly comes down to optimizing for NOISE. There's a lot of crappy fans out there, and some very poor choices (like a 2000RPM, non-variable fan).

**OTHER example:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-fan-r4l4s10abgp

The one above is 1000RPM, but only 16dB. It doesn't move as much air as some 1000RPM fans but it does likely move more than required while also being very quiet. Good customer feedback and only $7.

So you're suggesting that last one, then?