What are some good case fans for my rig?

DarkDubzs

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Jun 10, 2013
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I currently am only using the one case fan that came attached inside to my case on the rear as exhaust. I obviously need some more, but dont know which to get. I need it to be a PWM fan so it changes speeds, quiet, and gets the job done. Also has to be 120mm. Im going to need like 5 so cheap prices are always good. Any help or feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
 
You could always buy 3 pin fans and get a fan controller...that's what I did and I love the setup. 4 pin fans are often more expensive, so getting 5 will run you. Cooler Master has a 120mm 4 pack of 3 pin fans for $8!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

Pair that with a fan controller:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992005

(NZXT Sentry 2 for $19, right now) And boom, you're in business for $27. That's the exact setup I have, and I like it a lot. The fans aren't the quietest at that price, but they do the trick.

Cheers!
 


I know that they will be more expensive, but i like them because i dont have to worry about them, its just throw them in and they do their thing. I was actually looking at those fans and heard that you cant place sleeve bearing fans horizontally like for top fans. Would that be true? Also, i added up the noise levels to like 76 db and i saw that its the same as a vacuum cleaner, wouldn't that be extremely loud?
 


Never heard of that before, and I haven't had any issues with them on the top, so I would disagree :) You don't add the db to get the total...like you wouldn't add up the noise of 3 vacuums and get a semi truck. If the noise level is 19db, the other fans will blend into that and you'll have 19db 'total' so to speak, so you're not going to get a vacuum level, trust me.

If you want PWM fans, this is the cheapest on Newegg, if I have my info right: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998124
 


Wouldn't the sound of each fan add up at least a little to the last one and get louder with all of them? Anyways, how loud would it be if all 4 of those were going on max?
 


I'm no audio engineer, but it seems like the max db would be equal to the single loudest of all the fans. I actually never really run them all on max, so I'm not sure. I usually use the controller and keep them down to 40-50%. I think I've had 'em full like once and it was loud enough. The thing is with fans, as you probably know, you get what you pay for, in almost everyway. So when you get 4 fans for $8 you throw away any option of being an audiophile :) Someday I might upgrade to Corsair SP120s or Noctua NF-F12s, but since I usually wear headphones anyway, and I'm not super picky, louder fans are ok for me.
 


Hey ive been really thinking of getting this setup you listed now. But what if i use a software instead of a physical controller? Could i do that and would it work with a 3 pin fan hub?
 


Unless they're hooked up to your mobo, no software would know they're there, if that makes sense.
 


So i wouldnt be able to control them if thy were connected to a hub?
 


Pardon me, I didn't understand that the first time around. Yes, you could get a hub, however, all of the PWM splitter/hubs I've seen still require the fans to be 4-pin, PWM capable.

(http://www.frozencpu.com/products/13548/cab-464/Akasa_Flexa_FP5_PWM_5-Way_Splitter_-_Smart_Fan_Cable_AK-CBFA03-45.html?gclid=CPnS9bOGvLkCFaN_QgodGm8AFw)

So, unless you find something to the contrary, a hub would take you back to square one, with needing 4-pin fans. I know at least with the NZXT Sentry 2, you can set it up to work automatically, like software, if you set up the included heat probes.
 
Phew! There is a lot of tackle in this thread.

Right, so, first off, on the subject of decibels, one must keep in mind that the scale is logarithmic. Think of it kind of like a Richter scale for earthquake, but far smaller in magnitude; a notch up is not a set amount higher, but a whole level higher. As an example, people commonly take 30 db to be about the level of a whisper, while 60 db is more of the loudness of a "normal conversation." Moving up in increments of thirty, 90 db can be roughly compared to say, a lawnmower, and 120 db is in the ballpark of a really loud rock concert and the threshold of starting to feel pain. The scale is small, but you can see how it steadily increases: doubling the decibels of a normal conversation is definitely more than doubling the actual loudness you will experience. (Behold! The troubles of trying to perceive an abstract model of reality, as it was created by man.)
Now, there are a lot of rules of thumbs when dealing with decibels. For this case, one worth noting is that when you have two like decibels, you can add two to their value to simulate what is being perceived. In other words, if you have two 30 db fans, it's a safe assumption to say you are perceiving 32 db. For mixed values (just to pull numbers: 5 db, 15 db, and 30 db) I think it might be safe to assume that the max decibel value is still the deciding factor - but I don't know for sure.
In the case of the Cougar fans, assuming 19 db (although the newegg link says 17.7), I think you'd work out the math to be 23 db. (Four fans at 19 db, if paired give you 21 db per pair, and you have two pairs of 21 db, making 23 db.) I think this might be bending the rule of thumb a bit much though, and I am going to say that it is just conjecture on my end.

On the subject of bearings, standard sleeve bearings can wear faster and go bad if mounted horizontally; all the lubricant that should be spread through-out the bearing can pool to one side and cause the whole bearing to wear faster. This is why most companies have updated with rifle bearings, which are modified sleeve bearings that have grooves to circulate the lubricant, or, in high-tier cases, fluid-dynamic bearings, which are sleeve bearings that have the grooves structured as such to have the shaft "hydro-plane" on the lubricant. Magnetic bearings operate off of the same concept, in a way.

I am not going to cover old ground with the ways of fan controlling, but, I will recommend Arctic Cooling F12 PWM fans. ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186033 ) They are very quiet fans at an affordable price-point, that have the ability to be "daisy chained" built into their design. In other words, without any splicing or hubs, you can connect multiple fans together to work off from only one 4-pin header on your motherboard. (If you don't have another 4-pin header, use a 3-pin header and Speedfan to automatically control their speeds.) If $10 per fan is a bit much for you, just remember that you don't have buy them all at once, you can buy, say, two for starters, and add onto the chain as you go.

Because I managed to stumble upon them: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233104 these should have a rifle-type bearing. If you get them, you're still stuck with the conundrum of how to get four 3-pin fans hooked up and going, but, still, I thought I would link them.
 


No i mean if i buy a 3 pin hub, would i be able to manually control the speed of each 3 pin fan connected to the 3 pin hub. The 3 pin hub would obviously be connected to probably a 3 pin header
 


That's what I was trying to explain, no you can't get PWM control with 3-pin fans, no matter how you connect them. The PWM function, to my understanding, is carried by the 4th wire, which 3-pin fans don't have.
 


Wow thanks for all that info, really cleared some stuff up. I think im just going to get some 3 pin fans and get a NZXT SENTRY 2 Accessories 5.25-Inch Touch Screen Fan Controller. I was thinking of getting the Cooler Master 120mm Silent Case Fan 4-in-1 Value Pack, but i really like the ones you linked to at the bottom, because they have Fluid Circulative Bearings. So to get this last thing straight, Sleeve bearings are not good to be mounted like on the top or bottom of a case(vertically), but Fluid Circulative Bearings are ok for that?
 
Yes, standard Sleeve bearings shouldn't be mounted horizontal (sideways, laying down, whatever you want to call it) because their design doesn't guarantee that the lubricant won't pool to one side. Modified sleeve bearings (rifled, hydro-dynamic) are designed to compensate for that issue. Fluid Circulation Bearing is just a marketing gimmick and basically means rifled, as far as I know, so they should be good for horizontal mounting.

Either way, best of luck in your endeavors!