Best 120mm case fan for the money?

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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Oct 14, 2013
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Im looking to buy 4 120mm fans for the side panel of my 600T can anyone tell me what would be the best 120mm fans I can get, make sure their quiet aswell as good airflow and maybe LEDs?
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Oct 14, 2013
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the Corsair ones don't seem to have the best airflow according to reviews but they looks pretty cool. the Noxtua ones have a horrible color which just won't go well at all with a white edition 600t. Would you happen to have any other reccomendations?
 
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C

Calculatron

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I never have any luck with side fans; a lot that I try seem to make an added high pitch noise from trying to suck all that air through all those little holes.

If you're going for a matching color scheme - white - try some Enermax Cluster fans. They have a white LED, and are more than respectable performers (even if you put them on a radiator).

Cougar also makes great LED fans, although they are markedly more expensive, and I am not sure if they have any in the color scheme you may desire.

For non-LED, I usually recommend Arctic F12 fans. They're good performers for their price-point, but more importantly they are really quiet.
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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The LED fan you told me was said to be noisy at times, a bit too bright and the bearing wore. I looked at the other two which seems like good candidates
Couger: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553005
Artic:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186033

Im leaning towards to couger because of its more 5star reviews than the artic not to mention the looks of it. My only concern is can I connect these to my mobo and if not how would I connect these to my PSU?

*Edit. Noticed the Couger comes with 3 to 4 pin adapter and my CX600 has 4, 4 pin connectors so I should be fine
 
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Gizmotist

Gizmotist

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If u want to spend a little bit more for the cougar fans, these are little better

Due note, there is some negative feedback with place the cougars with radiators and when horizontal. I do not know as I dont own any yet
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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I plan on putting the fans on the side panel of my case, not really sure what PWM is aswell
 
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ksham

ksham

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The Corsair AF120 has good airflow. What reviews are you reading? Also, quiet + best airflow don't work together. You need to compromise there. Alternatively, there is the BitFenix Spectre Pro, Silverstone AP121, Gentle Typhoon, Cougar Vortex.
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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I only manage to find one 3 pin connector on my motherboard so I don't think PWM would do me any good. Which is begining to concern me when I do my transplant to a 600T which has 2x 200mm fans an 1x 120mm fan
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Well after googling a bit I realised the 600T has a fan controller that can support up to 4 fans if I'm correct. According to this: http://www.corsair.com/blog/how-to-identify-your-graphite-series-600t-fan-controller-cables
I'll connect the 2x 200mm fans, the back fan and my cpu fan to those 4 red(read the blog to see what im talking about, red,green wires ie.) wire. then connect the green molex wire to my PSU. This should provide power for the fan controller as well as the 4 connected fans and I also should be able to control the power level on these fans. My mobo has only one 3 pin connector. and after using up one of the 4x Molex connectors on the PSU ill be left to add 4 more fans.

The side panel of the 600T can support 4 more 120mm fans so my plan is to buy 4 of the couger PWM fans, connect 3 to the PSU and since I would have used up all my 4 pin connectors I would put the remaining one into the only 3 pin slot into my mobo.

Would this work out? or would the last fan have varying speeds because the mobo would be changing the fan speed while the other 3 would be on 100% because they're connected to the PSU? btw I'll be using a CX600W PSU
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Firstly the Case comes with 3 Fans. 1 200mm fan in the front, 1 200mm fan on the top and 1 120mm fan in the rear.

My mobo has a cpu fan aswell.
Thats 4 fans in total so far.

My PSU, the CX600W comes with 4 pin/molex connectors
My motherboard only comes with ONE 3-pin slot

Read this: http://www.corsair.com/blog/how-to-identify-your-graphite-series-600t-fan-controller-cables

Ok I will connect both 200mm fans, the 120mm fan and the CPU fan aswell to the cables highlighted in red(read the blog) Then I will connect the molex cable highlighted in green to one of the four molex connectors in the PSU.

This leaves me with three molex connectors in the PSU and that one 3-pin connector on the mobo.

The 600T's Side panel(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/IJWvb5GUrLA/hqdefault.jpg)
can hold an extra four 120mm fans

So, I'll purchase four Cougar PWM fans your told me about. They come with a 3-pin to molex adapter but the fan uses a 3-pin cable. I'll connect them like this.

3 of these Cougar fans will be connected to the adapter and then connected to the remaining 3 molex cables in the PSU. The remaining cougar fan will be connected to my mobo. All four of these cougar fans will be placed on the side panel of the 600T.

Would this setup work out and would the remaining cougar fan connected have speed control while the other 3 cougar fans don't? or will they all have speed control?

Notice after reading this, this should add up to 8 fans, 4 Cougar fans, 2x 200mm fans, 1x 120mm rear fans and the CPU fan
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Oct 14, 2013
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that is a good idea but then that would leave one of the 3 pin cables connected to the fan controller empty, connecting the cougar fan to that would just be odd, probably wouldn't reach and is probably as messy
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Ok I've re -done my Configuration. They are four lines on the for the fan controller each one supporting 11.5-11.75W
Line 1: 200mm Front
Line2: 200mm Top
Line 3: 3-pin Y splitter, 2x 120mm Cougar fans
Line 4: 3-pin Y splitter, 2x 120mm Cougar Fans

CPU 4-pin fan connected to mobo
Rear 3-pin fan connected to mobo

How's this configuration? Just read up never to connect the CPU fan to the fan controller and noticed the CPU fan on my current mobo is connect to a 4-pin slot.
 
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C

Calculatron

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I am actually higher interested in this statement, and if you can provide me with the source, I would be most appreciative.

As for the fan configuration, I'll deal with that later. (Tomorrow, when I finally get enough sleep.)

However, I did want to deal with two important topics that are tied very close together. Cougar fans are kind of renown for their poor PWM circuitry. Oftentimes, when running by PWM, they fan motor will emit a high pitched noise that is noticeable. Not in a oh-dear-lord-what-is-that-noise-I-am-going-to-murder-someone-to-make-it-stop sense, but in a my-that-is-an inconvenience sense. Running at full tilt, it is no issue, and running while controlling the RPM via voltage is also not an issue; just when running the fan while controlling the fan speed via RPM. It really really really really sucks, because Cougar fans rock pretty hard across the board otherwise.

That said! Usually, with a 3-pin fan, it is possible to control its RPM through voltage. My motherboards support this, but I have heard that not every motherboard has 3-pin fan headers that support this. Merely hearsay, and I haven't had the chance to research it thoroughly yet. Either way, it is only through the motherboard (or third-party aftermarket hardware fan-controller) that variable fan speeds can be achieved. Fans connected directly to the PSU will run 100% all the time.
 
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BlankInsanity

BlankInsanity

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Calculatron

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Okay, after looking things over, the 3-pin Y-splitter plan should work. Hopefully things work out for you.

Another thing I forgot about the Cougar fans, on the rumor about how you can't mount them horizontally, I know that it isn't true. They have a (proper) Fluid Dynamic Bearing, which circulates the lubricant; mounting directions do not matter. You would have to have a seriously defective unit for this to happen. This honestly shouldn't be an issue for any quality fan these days, because sleeve bearings are becoming a thing of the past; not too many companies are carrying them these days, and when they do, they usually are an older model. (Cooler Master, by the way, is one of those companies.)

I'm going to keep looking into this Enermax Cluster issue; I'll see what I can find.
 
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D

decidence

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I don't agree with this. I recently got a response from Cougar regarding their fans and they actually indicate that none of their fans are meant to be run in a horizontal configuration and performance will likely suffer. Whether they were just trying to shove an answer down my throat quickly or not is another question.

Please take a look at my recent threat as it contains quotes directly from Cougar: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2128449/mount-cougar-fans-horizontally.html

 
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