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4-pin PWM fans that won't break the bank?

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Mpegger

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
I plan on upgrading most, if not all the fans in my current server to PWM types, to allow the motherboard to control the fan speeds. However, most of "good" and recommended 120mm PWM fans are around $20 each, and my server houses 8. Not exactly a wallet friendly price range for just a bunch of fans, and I haven't been able to find anything cheaper (around $10 or so) except occasional "sales" which drop the price to around $15-18. Still not quite budget friendly.

Does anyone have any recommendations for something that won't break the bank, and aren't screamers? (I'm also trying to quiet the server down by using PWM fans, since the fans will more then likely be running around 40-60% the majority of the time.)
 
You haven't specified what size but my guess is the standard 120mm.

The only PWM fans I can think of on top of my head are the Helix120 fans from Swiftech. Great bank for your buck budget radiator fans. My guess is you can use those as case fans as well and they aren't that loud either.

Here's a list of some PWM fans on the egg.

Here's another list from Frozencpu. Use the feature up top to start at the lowest price.
 
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At that low end, you won't get much advantage from variable speed.

Out of the list, it looks like the BitFenix Spectre is cheap yet reasonable quality, but possibly underpowered for higher end machines. What are your hardware specs?

You might also consider redesigning the system to use fewer but better fans. A $20-30 name brand fan (Delta, Nidec, or Sanyo) easily does much better than 2 or 3 $10 "lesser brand" fans.
 
NewEgg seems to be at the higher end of the price range for all their fans, with names of companies I've never even heard of on the low end. I found Performance-PCs have some decent looking 120mm PWM BitFenix Sceptre for about $10, but I have not found any reviews on those fans.

My main concern for the file server, is to get the air moving, and be quiet. It's nothing more then a file server with a couple of VMs running on it to serve up media in various ways. 10+ hard drives is what produces the most heat in the system. Everything else is mostly idle. I don't need 2 or 3 screamers for such a system that sits in the same vicinity as me. It already has 2 really poor 80mm fans in the 2 drive cages that make more noise then everything else in the system. I'm going to mod the rear housing of those drive cages to use 120mm fans to still move the air over the drives and quiet it down considerably. The 120mm fans that are in it are actually acceptable, but they are all standard 3-pin fans. Either I can invest in a expensive automatic fan controller for all these fans to help keep things quiet when full speed is not needed, or I can invest in PWM fans and just let the motherboard control them (though obviously not as good as a dedicated fan controller could with individual temperature sensors).

I'm still up in the air about this, since the cost of PWM fans is turning out to be more then the cost of a Aquero fan controller, which I could use with the current fans and others I have laying around.
 
Looks like a buck converter controlled by the motherboard would be your best solution. It's just a few dollars (maybe $30 or so if you include all the tools) if you're willing to learn some electronics.
 
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