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Need new case fans, would prefer quiet then cooling. So I need some advice

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JCE3000GT

JCE3000GT

Member
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Joined
Feb 5, 2015
Location
DFW TX
Hi all. I've got an Antec DF-85 case and I would like to replace/buy fans for every fan slot to create the best cooling and airflow as possible. I live in a hot area so from late April through late October the room is pretty warm (78~83ºF) so I need some help with my cooling and airflow in the case.

My case has these slots for fans:
- 2 x top 140mm fans
- 2 x rear 120mm fans
- 3 x front 120mm fans
- 1 x side 120mm fan to cool graphics cards

My #1 priority is sound level followed by CFM. 3rd on my list would be durability. What are my options? I do have 2 Evermax 120mm fans that are super quiet but with only 2 of them I don't know if they really make a difference with cooling or not.

Thoughts?
 
Certainly more is better with fans, up to a point. What are your current temps when idle and under load? That will be informative. Good air in, bad air out, and if you're already accomplishing that you may want to look at other cooling options such as H2O. There are a lot of fan manufacturers offering every combo of air flow, fan speed, efficiency and quietness. MagLev fans are the latest (just bought one myself this weekend to install and 'test' in my system; I've got a fan with issues that I'm replacing) so maybe more later on that but the reviews look promising for longevity and dBa on it. The fan blades themselves from various manufacturers offer a variety of marketing blurbs about flow and quietness as well.

This from 2014 is a little dated but a good overview.

Did you enjoy our 'blizzard' the past few days?
 
Robert17 said:
Certainly more is better with fans, up to a point. What are your current temps when idle and under load? That will be informative.
Click to expand...

I haven't run them since I upgraded my mobo/CPU. I'll run Fallout 4 for a while to get some baseline readings and update the thread.

Good air in, bad air out, and if you're already accomplishing that you may want to look at other cooling options such as H2O. There are a lot of fan manufacturers offering every combo of air flow, fan speed, efficiency and quietness. MagLev fans are the latest (just bought one myself this weekend to install and 'test' in my system; I've got a fan with issues that I'm replacing) so maybe more later on that but the reviews look promising for longevity and dBa on it. The fan blades themselves from various manufacturers offer a variety of marketing blurbs about flow and quietness as well.

This from 2014 is a little dated but a good overview.
Click to expand...

I'm not worried too much on the CPU as it seems to be fairly cool in my conditions even with the stock cooler it came with. I did have water cooling on my old build but I don't think I want to do it again. I just don't have confidence in water coming out and frying my system. I was constantly worrying about it. Plus, this air cooler seems to be well received so I'm likely to update the cooler I got with my i5 if the temps get too high after replacing all of my case fans.

Did you enjoy our 'blizzard' the past few days?
Click to expand...

My joints and allergies hated it, but, I otherwise enjoyed some of it. :)
 
Those Enermax look inviting as does the price. If you've got the mounting holes for the 140mm, basic physics says that the larger fan will move more air at lower speeds than the 120s.
 
1. Remove your rear grill. This will allow air to leave your case silently. Also, any pull fan on a heatsink pushes out the now-empty hole, and pulls case air with it. See this post to see how effective doing this can be.

2. Remove all slot covers.

3. The NF-A-14 is a great fan. I use two NF-A14 ULN fans a half meter from my head. A cheaper alternative is the TY-47A SQ from Thermalright. I included the Noctua and the Enermax fan in my omnibus fixed-speed 140mm fan review here. A more up-to-date review, including the same fans with some others, is here. The nice thing about the first review is that the charts are arranged by name. The nice thing about the latter review is that the fans are arranged by output. Noise is in both reviews.

4. There are a zillion 120mm fans. I tested 23 models of fixed speed fans here. I reviewed 120mm PWM fans here. The fans are arranged by output.

You pick a point for noise and decide if the output is good enough. If the fans don't push enough air, you relax your noise limits until you reach an output you like. It's not rocket science.

We have a lot of good reviews on our site. Search for them.
 
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if i could go back i would get noctua pwm fans and not waste my time on any of my previous ones. the only other good fans i've found were scythe s-flex with sfdb bearings but i don't think they exist any more. noctua redux pwm all the way. 6 year warranty, super long life, vibration reduction, and no weird noises.
 
Noctua fans have been among the best available for years. People in the home theater forums were using them to keep gear cool, silently and reliably, before I starting building computers (7 years ago?) You can get the wrong fan from Noctua, but you won't get a bad fan from them.
 
I can second the Noctua's. If you have a good PWM controller, the 3000 rpm noctua 120mm PWM PPC fans can spin as low as 3000 rpm when you want silent or upwards of 3k when you want airflow, gives you a lot of room for cooling. As I'm over by Lake Ray Hubbard, I know all too well the kind of heat we get here in the Great state of Texas, sometimes I wish it would make up it's mind though.
 
I swapped out all my fans for the Corsair Quite Edition fans a while back. They are definitely quite, and they push a good deal of air. For the price, they're a great option.
 
Thanks all. I like my Enermax with the audio level but my main concern was always build quality since the fan blades and shroud felt pretty thin. Does Noctua use thicker more quality materials?

Alaric said:
When I was in Texas I was told that if I didn't like the weather to stick around for an hour-it'll change. LOL
Click to expand...

That's pretty much true, mostly for Northern Texas. We could have temperature swings in excess of 70º back and forth. Last week it was 11ºF at my house and a couple days later it was 75º. LOL That's one reason why we all get sick so often.

Jeff G said:
I swapped out all my fans for the Corsair Quite Edition fans a while back. They are definitely quite, and they push a good deal of air. For the price, they're a great option.
Click to expand...

What sort of prices are we talking and would you say they put out more or less air than Noctua's or Enermax's?
 
From my experience, Noctua has one of the highest build quality levels on the market. At least in consumer grade.

Delta enterprise grade fans are built better, but that's because most of those go into crazy RPM ranges.
 
JCE3000GT said:
What sort of prices are we talking and would you say they put out more or less air than Noctua's or Enermax's?
Click to expand...

I've never used Enermax, so I can't comment on them. But the Noctua's are probably a little better than the Corsair fans. When I bought mine (I shopped around a bit) I was able to buy two of the Corsair AF140 fans for the same price as one of the Noctua's, so I went with them for the price savings. I have their SP fans on my radiator and AF fans on my case.
 
Ya to be completely honest if you don't care about looks then get the Noctua if you want quiet. I have The Corsair Magnetic Levitation Pro fans and they are pretty darn quiet and look cool and can go as high as 2400 rpm and they move. At low levels they are QUIET. I like them a lot but I was really impressed with my friends Noctua. It's not a huge difference but at higher speeds they are a little bit quieter. And the big one is they are cheaper.
 
Thanks guys. Looks like I'm going to spring for some Noctuas then! Hit all my main three points. :D Need to wait until I get a little more $$$ since my bonus was smaller than I expected today. I might get another one later this month or early next month so cross fingers!
 
t1nm4n said:
I can second the Noctua's. If you have a good PWM controller, the 3000 rpm noctua 120mm PWM PPC fans can spin as low as 3000 rpm when you want silent or upwards of 3k when you want airflow, gives you a lot of room for cooling. As I'm over by Lake Ray Hubbard, I know all too well the kind of heat we get here in the Great state of Texas, sometimes I wish it would make up it's mind though.
Click to expand...

Did you mean to type "300 rpm?"
 
trents said:
Did you mean to type "300 rpm?"
Click to expand...
I think he did. One too many zeros. I have a pair of those suckers in 140mm, as rad/intake fans and they are great. Downside is if you don't tame them, they are crazy loud. Using my PWM Mobo header is rough keeping em calm, but they really move some air. For reference, using them without a filter, at max speed, and no fan on the CPU cooler, I got my FX8320e up to 4ghz. Not too shabby for the case I'm in, and no fan on a 212evo [emoji14]

 
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