Which of these 4 fans is best ?

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the_bears

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I've been looking over the past few days on what case fan to take, and I'm perplexed to how many of them are and the differences in price, RPM, CFM, size etc... All of this made my 10 minute search turn into 5 days of research.

I've decided between

Noctua NF-AF14 FLX (30 €)
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm (29 €)
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High Speed Edition (27 €)
Arctic F14 PWM (7 €)

Any opinions on which one do you guys think is best ?
I'm basically looking for a fan with good airflow for cooling my case compononents especially the GPU since I plan to overclock it, and want to cool it as much as possible. I don't mind the noise also because I'm wearing headphones all the time.

Also if anyone has any better 140mm fan suggestions, let me know and reasons for it.

Thanks.
 
Solution
Aeacus
Since your case can support up to 9x 140mm fans, you can create lots of different setups with your fans.

Do you also plan to use stock 2x 140mm fans that came with the case? And do you have an AIO in there? If so, how big and what's it's location (top, front, bottom and intake or exhaust)? I take that your case doesn't have a side window and there's not much point to go with LED illuminated fans, right?

After knowing that additional info, i can say which setup would be most optimal for case airflow.
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If you want performance then how about Noctua industrial 3000 RPM fan?,
specs: http://noctua.at/en/products/product-line-industrial/nf-a14-industrialppc-3000-pwm

It offers great performance while being noisy as hell. A little less noisy fan is the 2000 RPM version of Noctua's industrial lineup.

Arctic F14 PWM is a good and quiet case fan. I have Arctic F12 PWM fans in use in my AMD build and i'm pleased with the performance they produce. Though, Nocuta industrial fans are still at the top by the performance.

If you also want to have some eyecandy with LED illumination then Corsair ML140 fans are a great choice,
specs: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/cooling/ml-series-fans?fansize=140mm%20x%2025mm

I have 3x ML140 fans in use in my Skylake build and i'm happy with them. While they don't have as much performance as Noctua industrial line, they come quite close while providing some eyecandy too. The most what i like about my Corsair ML series fans are their huge RPM range, flexibility to use them as a case or rad fan and mag-lev bearing in them.
 
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Since both Noctua industrial lineup fans i suggested here are 4-pin, you can reduce the RPM of the fans. 3000 RPM fan can spin as slow as 800 RPM while 2000 RPM industrial fan can spin as slow as 500 RPM.

Here's also 2000 RPM industrial fan specs: http://noctua.at/en/products/product-line-industrial/nf-a14-industrialppc-2000-pwm/specification

The same is with Corsair ML140 fans. They also have huge RPM range from 400 to 2000 RPM.
Just to keep the noise down, i've set my front ML140 fans to spin at 700 RPM while the rear ML140 spins at 1100 RPM.
 
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Noctua are generally considered the top of the line (hence why they don't care that their color is brown, because that's how you know its a Noctua). Though I only recommend them if you are seeking the quietest fans. There are plenty of fans that move just as much air but are louder.

The Be Quiet! fans are supposed to be good as well but I've never used them.
 
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Ok, thanks for the replies guys.

These are the fans which I'm having trouble in choosing from, which of these ones would provide most airflow into the PC to keep the temps down ?

Noctua NF-AF14 FLX
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High Speed Edition
Arctic F14 PWM
Corsair ML140 Pro
Fractal Design Silent R2 140mm
 
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If you want best airflow then you'll need to look at CFM (cubic foot/minute).

Stats from official sites:
97 CFM - Corsair ML140 Pro
77.57 CFM - BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High Speed Edition
74 CFM - Arctic F14 PWM
68 CFM - Noctua NF-AF14 FLX
66 CFM - Fractal Design Silent R2 140mm
59.5 CFM - BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm

Edit:
If all you want is airflow then the best is Delta PFM1412DEB7V (140mm, 4-pin)
specs: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/delta-electronics/PFM1412DEB7V/603-2044-ND/6580734

At 6500 RPM and 70 dB(A), it produces whopping 282.3 CFM. Though, with it, you'll need quite a powerful fan controller since it consumes 3.9A and 46.8W while fan headers on MoBo are rated for 1A and 12W.
 
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i personally pick fans based on their air pressure and not how much they blow per minute. i also choose fans with wide blades over fans with more blades. only two companies that do this for me are CoolerMaster and Noctura.



 
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SP (static pressure) fans are good when you have restrictions in airflow (e.g rad, dense filter), since they have enough power to push air through restrictions. While the AF (airflow) fan is good for moving big amounts of air in a case that doesn't have much airflow restrictions.

Another set of specs, this time static pressure:
3.0 mmH2O - Corsair ML140 Pro
2.16 mmH2O - BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High Speed Edition
1.51 mmH2O - Noctua NF-AF14 FLX
1.08 mmH2O - BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm
1.0 * mmH2O - Arctic F14 PWM
0.84 mmH2O - Fractal Design Silent R2 140mm

* While there's no info on Arctic Cooling homepage about how much SP Arctic F12 PWM has, in this review here,
link: https://us.hardware.info/reviews/7186/4/high-static-pressure-case-fans-test-the-best-120mm-and-140mm-fans-for-your-radiator-or-cpu-cooler-test-results-static-efficiency-140mm-fans
Arctic F14 PWM performs equally good to the BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm and we can assume that Arctic F14 PWM has static pressure of about 1.0 mmH2O.

Specs;
Arctic F14 PWM: https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/f14-pwm.html
Corsair ML140 Pro: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/cooling/ml-series-fans?fansize=140mm%20x%2025mm
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm: http://www.bequiet.com/en/casefans/717
BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High Speed Edition: http://www.bequiet.com/en/casefans/723
Fractal Design Silent R2 140mm: http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/case-fans/silent-series-r2-140mm
Noctua NF-AF14 FLX: http://noctua.at/en/nf-a14-flx/specification

Since Corsair ML series fans have great airflow with strong static pressure and huge RPM range, i have in total of 6 Corsair ML series fans inside my Skylake build, 3x 140mm and 3x 120mm. I also have 3x NZXT AER140 RGB fans in there too for additional eyecandy. (Full specs with pics in my sig.)
 
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Ok, I've decided between SW3 HS 140mm PWM and Corsair ML140 Pro, but for the Silent Wings 3 High Speed one but the reviewer at thermalbench says there are some problems with it (PWM) and that buyers should go with the 3 pin one, any opinions on this , this is the last dilemma I have before I buy?

The review:
http://thermalbench.com/2016/10/21/be-quiet-silent-wings-3-120-mm-high-speed-fan/4/
 
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On the page 3 of that review, the 2 first images show clearly the issue with PWM control over the DC control with Be Quiet! SW3 HS 140mm PWM.

The issue with PWM control is that at the 10.8V the fan spins about 1250 RPM while at 12V, the speed jumps to 2100 RPM. While with DC control, at 10.8V, the fan spins about 1875 RPM and at 12V the speed increases to the max speed, about 2100 RPM.

The same site has also reviewed Corsair ML140 fans and Corsair fans doesn't have that issue with PWM control,
link: http://thermalbench.com/2016/07/29/corsair-ml140-pro-140-mm-fan/4/
 
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Got 2 ML140 Pro as intake fans. Awesome fans. High performance and not very loud. Obviously at high speeds you can hear them, but while playing I cant hear anything with headphones. Even tried manually setting them to 100% to test and there is no way I can hear them while playing.
Keep in mind that what you hear is the air being blown by the fans and that makes noise no matter what fan you have. Some a bit louder than others but not huge differences.
The MLs are very good in Airflow, Static Pressure and low noise. A mix very hard to find with such good numbers in the same fan.
Expensive as hell though.
 
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Let's see the specs of said fans,

Airflow
104 CFM - Noiseblocker eLoop 140mm B14-3 *
97 CFM - Corsair ML140 Pro
82.1 CFM - Phanteks PH-F140SP
68.1 CFM - Phanteks PH-F140MP

Static Pressure
3.0 mmH2O - Corsair ML140 Pro
1.57 mmH2O - Noiseblocker eLoop 140mm B14-3 *
1.62 mmH2O - Phanteks PH-F140MP
1.33 mmH2O - Phanteks PH-F140SP

* Do note that for Noiseblocker eLoop fan specs, i used the B14-3 fan specs. For other fans in the series: B14-1, B14-2 and B14-PS, the performance is lower.

Specs:
Noiseblocker eLoop 140mm B14-3: http://www.blacknoise.com/datas/downloads/datasheets/TData_eloop140_de_en.pdf
Phanteks PH-F140MP: http://www.phanteks.com/PH-F140MP.html
Phanteks PH-F140SP: http://www.phanteks.com/PH-F140SP.html

I'd still go with Corsair ML140 series fans just because the balanced power both in airflow and static pressure. And LED in them is cherry on the top (if you go with LED version). Though, their premium price is mostly due to the mag-lev bearing used in them.
 
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Phanteks PH-F140SP is a good AF fan with a decent SP. For cooling standpoint 3x Phanteks PH-F140SP will move more air than 2x Corsair ML140. Unless you have considerable restrictions in airflow and static pressure fan is needed.

Even the solid front panel is considered as an airflow restriction (e.g Corsair 750D) while the front panel with grille is better suited for AF fan (e.g Corsair 750D Airflow Edition),
750D: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/obsidian-series-750d-full-tower-atx-case
750D AF edition: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/obsidian-series-750d-airflow-edition-full-tower-atx-case
 
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Thank you Aeacus for all the replies.

I forgot to mention that my case is Fractal Design Define R5, and all fans will be used for airflow and not on radiator and won't be blocked by anything, so I'm still curious which option would provide more airflow, the 2 NB or Corsair fans or 3 Phanteks fans ?
 
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Since your case can support up to 9x 140mm fans, you can create lots of different setups with your fans.

Do you also plan to use stock 2x 140mm fans that came with the case? And do you have an AIO in there? If so, how big and what's it's location (top, front, bottom and intake or exhaust)? I take that your case doesn't have a side window and there's not much point to go with LED illuminated fans, right?

After knowing that additional info, i can say which setup would be most optimal for case airflow.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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