What Fans Should I Add To My Case?

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warustar

warustar

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Jun 6, 2013
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Hello everyone. I am looking to add extra fans to my setup's chassis but I'm not sure what are the best fans to add. I also have to add one more 120mm fan to my 212 Plus CPU Cooler, or I could just take out the stock cooler and just replace both spots. But I might actually end up changing the entire cooler some time soon.

I want the absolute best case fans in terms of silence, cooling, and quality; for a reasonable price.

Fans that I'm debating between taking silence and cooling into consideration:

Noctua NF-S12B
Scythe Gentle Typhoon
CoolerMaster SickleFlow (I read continuous mixed reviews of these either being loud or quiet...it's really confusing)

I seriously cannot choose which ones to use for my case. Noctua seems always to be on my number 1, everytime I see reviews, but they have so many models for case fans that I just don't know what the newest 120mm model is.

The fans need to be as silent as possible but supply reasonable cooling.
My case is a Phantom 410 Mid-tower. I still have not added any extra fans. It's just the fans that the manufacturer supplied when I got the case.

The exact list of fans that need to be added are:

Front (under mesh): Another 120mm or I can take out the first 120mm fan already there and just put a 140mm

Side: 120mm or 140mm (1)

Top: 2 x 120mm/140mm (came with 1 140mm)

I'm not sure whether or not to go with 1 140mm or 2 120mm for the Front for silence and cooling purposes. It's quite a difficult decision.

[strike]Plus, I need one more 120mm fan to add to my 212 Plus CPU Cooler.[/strike] To be honest, I thought about the whole CPU Cooler deal, and I was just thinking to throw in some extra money for a new cooler overall, which I'll probably dedicate a separate thread for.

My current system specs are as followed:

Computer Chassis: NZXT Phantom 410 (WHITE) [w/ 3 fans]
CPU: AMD FX-8350 FX-Series Eight-Core Processor Edition, Black AM3+ (4.0GHz by default)
CPU Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heat Pipes
Motherboard: ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800)
Power Supply: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500w Power Supply
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SIGNATURE2 2048MB GDDR5 (Base Clock: 1072 MHz)
Hard Drive: WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache
Display: ASUS 24" (1920x1080) LCD/LED
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Here are my current system temps with pretty much nothing but having this forum open and listening to music:

tempswaru_zps0205e82c.png


Just looking for some suggestions, really.

Thanks in advance,

Waru


 
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bgunner

bgunner

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Feb 13, 2009
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For the CPU cooler the fans should be a matched pair for efficiency meaning the same Static pressure and CFM's. As for the case fans Go with the 140's because they move more air at lower speeds which means quieter fans. As for which fans Its hard to say as you want quiet. I personally did a set of these in my other case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103078 and i can't hear them at all while the PC is running But that PC has a stock AMD cooler in it so I hear that fan instead.

EDIT: I should mention when I bought those fans I got them for $5 each on sale.
 
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M

mrangel

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I have the same Cooler Master 212 Evo cooler.

I, at first, was looking into the Nocturas, ect, ect. But I ended up buying the VERY inexpensive Cooler Master 120mm R4 Series fan for only $9.99 from Microcenter. Talk about super quiet. I thought I needed to have 5 fans to keep my case cool, but with just the EVO with dual fan setup and the stock exhaust fan on my Thermaltake Commander case, my CPU runs well below the rated operating temp, and its OC'd!

Just my opinion, you don't have to spend a lot to get a lot if you do some research.
 
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warustar

warustar

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I'm rather inexperienced with liquid cooling and pretty paranoid from what I have read online. I heard it requires a lot of consistent maintenance. I would rather avoid it, but I know it's really good cooling. If I'm going to buy a liquid cooler anyway, I would just go for a Corsair.
 
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warustar

warustar

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In terms of actual cooling, how is your experience with those fans? A few reviews on Newegg talk about poor airflow as well...anything about that?



I absolutely agree on that last statement. It saves a lot of money... I'm sure the cheap fans you guys have suggested work absolutely fine. Just gonna keep digging away until I find the right one!
 
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slomo4sho

slomo4sho

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You wont find a Corsair water cooler for $15 any time soon :)

Nonetheless, there really isn't anything to no maintenance contained water loop. All you do is install the heatsink like you would a regular heatsink and then also mount the radiator to one of the available fan slots. Installing the radiator is as easy as installing the fans in your case :)
 
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warustar

warustar

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Sorry about that. What I meant was, I would rather spend the extra money to get a Corsair water cooler. Also, do you have to change any liquids or content for the water cooler or do you just leave it as is? And how much of a positive impact can it have on my CPU temps. I am running a build with an FX-8350 Vishera running at almost 4.1GHz with no OC'ing.
 
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slomo4sho

slomo4sho

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The Seidon 120m is factory sealed and comes with a 2 year no maintenance guarantee so there is no work involved once installed. 4.0GHz is the base clock of that CPU, do you plan on actually overclocking the chip? The Hyper 212 Plus is comparable to the Hyper TX3 in this chart:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Seidon-120M-CPU-Cooler-Review/1782/6
 
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warustar

warustar

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Wow, not bad at all. To be honest, I thought about it a bit (the benefits of spending a little more to get a good cooler), and I actually don't mind spending up to a maximum of $100 bucks (if necessary) for a new CPU cooler sometime soon. I will make a seperate thread about a new cooler. The Seidon seems pretty cool. I will look into it some more.

As far as case fans go, I'm still not sure whether or not to go with a 140mm to replace 2 120mm fans for better cooling and silence. What do you think of that?
 
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slomo4sho

slomo4sho

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I understand that you want a quieter PC but this can be accomplished with modest fans set at low rpm. Beyond the noise level, do you actually plan on pushing the system further and what are the current temps and the complete system specs?
 
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warustar

warustar

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Quiet, and cold as well. What fans exactly are you referring to? The ones linked to earlier? o:
To be honest, I do have a few plans of pushing it further, but not anytime soon. I want to be confident with my hardware before going on that route.

My current system specs are as followed: (They are also in the first post as well)

Computer Chassis: NZXT Phantom 410 (WHITE) [w/ 3 fans]
CPU: AMD FX-8350 FX-Series Eight-Core Processor Edition, Black AM3+ (4.0GHz by default)
CPU Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heat Pipes
Motherboard: ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800)
Power Supply: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500w Power Supply
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SIGNATURE2 2048MB GDDR5 (Base Clock: 1072 MHz)
Hard Drive: WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache
Display: ASUS 24" (1920x1080) LCD/LED
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Here are my current system temps with pretty much nothing but having this forum open and listening to music:

tempswaru_zps0205e82c.png
 
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warustar

warustar

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Also, case fans can get really overrated for the price and performance which is what makes it so hard to choose from.
Noctua seems to be the top of the line in quality and silence, even airflow for about 25 bucks each 120mm fan. At the same time, CoolerMaster's Sickleflow fans are rated #1 on Amazon and get the same kinds of reviews as Noctua does for about 7 bucks each 120mm fan.

I'm quite stuck.
 
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Michael-CCH

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I would really get some gentle typhoon's if you had the money. They're about 15$ a fan but they work amazing, I reckon them as the most efficient and silent fan out there. One bad thing is that they have unsleeved cables but that's not a big problem. So if you had 15$ to spend on a pair I'd go with the gentle tphoon.

Here's a video on how quiet it is, but if your not aiming for quiet you could go for a Corsair SP120 which is also in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOByLEBHSDs
 
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warustar

warustar

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GentleTyphoon is a really awesome fan after reading a few reviews and seeing that video and others. It's definitely on my list with Noctua fans now. Noctua is really confusing to look at because they have more than about 3 different models for 120mm case fans. I just don't know which is the newest. But I was really surprised at the GentleTyphoon's silence at a reasonable RPM.
 
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Michael-CCH

Michael-CCH

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I was going for the noctuas but they're not my taste, but if you don't really care about the looks. Go for NF F12.
 
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warustar

warustar

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Do NF-F12's work as case fans too? I always read about people using them to substitute CPU Cooler Fans like the 212 EVO/+.
 
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slomo4sho

slomo4sho

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You can accomplish your goal without investing a lot of money. Your board has a total of 5 fan headers including the CPU fan header. I would recommend just having a total of 5 fans in your case (including the CPU fan) and having them all connected to your board and using the bios settings to limit the fan speeds.
 
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warustar

warustar

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I guess that sounds like a fine idea to me. There's always time to upgrade with ever-changing hardware, I suppose. However, what would you suggest in terms of keeping my system colder?
 
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