Too much case! Need help with fans!

[CorvusDove]

I saw the Thermaltake WP200 go on sale on Amazon for effectively the price of just the W200 on a flash sale. I'd been drooling after a case with so much room in which to work, so I snagged it. It was, of course, after I assembled the base frame of this case that I discovered I don't have nearly enough cooling fans to fill this case out. I'm moving the following from an Antec Twelve-Hundred:

i7 2600k @ 4.76ghz (Air) Noctua D15 Cooler on ASrock Extreme4
16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3
EVGA GTX 1070 FTW @ FTW-Stock
1x Intel Sata III SSD (OS, Core Apps) 120GB
1x Generic SATA III 500GB SSD
1x 3TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD
1x 1TB Corsair SSD (in hotswap bay)
1x 2TB Western Digital 7200RPM HDD
1.2KW Antec PSU
1x Internal HDD/SDD hot swap bay
1x LG BD-RW
1x 5.25" Bay USB HUB (2/3)
1x Soundblaster X-Fi (Internal)

I also plan to add a second computer to the other side of the case that won't be nearly so powerful, but heat will obviously be an issue. Drives for both machines will be on the 5.25" bays on the left side of the case. Power supplies will be stowed in the P200 section of the case with cables raised up through the ports at the bottom of the W200 section. This leaves up to 16 fans to obtain for the P200 section (6 bottom, 8 sides, 2 fore) and 22 in the W200 section (8 top, 8 one side, 4 fore, 2 rear). I can also add 4-6 fans to the bottom of the W200 section but I don't see that actually doing anything other than inhibiting airflow from the P200 section.

No matter what, I'm about to spend a lot of money on fans, but I'm not sure which approach is best, or even necessary. Every fan mount can hold a 120mm or 140mm fan, and the ones on the side can also be 3x 200mm instead of 4x 120/140mm. The top can hold either up to 8x 120/140mm or a single row of 3x 200mm fans straddling the middle of the case. I'm overwhelmed, especially since this will be expensive; what size fans should I use for each fan array to get the best cooling/cost? 30+ fans is hard to sort out! I've been looking at Solar Eclipse fans in the 120mm range.

 

[maxfly]

check out the yate loon 120 and 140s at performance pcs. you can usually pick up the 140mm high fans on sale for $6-7 they perform very well for the price point.

that is a great looking case. i was going to get either it or the lian li 600wd but ended up getting the x71 instead. have fun

 

[CorvusDove]

I decided that due to the availability of packs, I'm going the 120mm route (as I also want LEDs). The challenge now is finding 36 of the things for underneath $300.

 

[CorvusDove]

In cooling fan shopping hell, Lyft doesn't provide service here.

I'm in cooling fan hell. I gave myself a budget to affix fans to my new Thermaltake WP200 case, and this bad boy takes around 36 120/140mm fans. Unfortunately, that budget doesn't seem to be working out too well; I went in expecting maybe $200 in fans at most, but the only way I seem to be able to swing that is if I use a dedicated PSU with all of the fans connected via molex connector adapters, and the fans I found even close to my budget are all 120mm fans that drop their lighting if even slowed down the tiniest bit. That would be these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071FT1PCP

That's why this is hell. If this was just some closet build, I'd go find some old Sunon Tornados or more modern similarly ridiculously noisy hovercraft fans and just run the fans flat out. Instead, it's in the corner of my living room as a piece of furniture on castors, supporting my VR system. I want LED fans that are blue, purple, and teal (purple is the only must). I want this machine to look like the fans are giving off magically-dyed Cherenkov radiation and, with the help of other LED strips in the case, look like if you opened the case door you might expect to find tiny cyberpunk exotic dancers inside.

I've run into three major issues with the build, and I'm beginning to understand that I have to surrender my grip on my wallet to get past them, but I want to optimize the build so that where I can use a 3-pack of cheap fans that have to be kept running full speed, I can do so with no regrets. I thought I had better understanding here than I did, but my minor questions aren't getting me there.

The rig has two sections; the W200 primary case and the P200 as an expanded module/base. To keep the center of gravity low, I had planned to put heavy objects like the PSU, older HDD, and aesthetic power bricks (and probably a network switch connected to any PCs in the case) in the P200 section.

I won't watercool at this time, just because I prefer air cooling, and because replacing a Noctua D15 with a water block on a 2600k is sort of pointless.

Fan configuration, by section, can be as follows:

W200 (Upper)
Front: 4-7x 120mm or 140mm
Back: 2x 120mm or 140mm
Top: 8x 120mm or 140mm (can take 3x 200mm, but that seems like it would cripple exhaust with so many fans below it)
Right Side (Left has a window): 8x 120mm or 140mm, or 6x 200mm

P200 (Lower)
Front: 1x 120mm or 140mm
Left SIde: 4x 120mm or 140mm
Right side: 4x 120mm or 140mm
Bottom: 6x 120mm or 140mm. (2 slots taken by PSUs)

The answer is 42. In this case, referring to, well, this case and the maximum number of fans supported at 120/140mm.

I'm certain 42 100% running case fans from a cheap company probably would sound like a jet taking off. I have some extra PSUs laying around and was planning on tying all of the cooling and lighting to a dedicated PSU. I also suspect this means one, if not two, manual fan controllers in the faceplate on the upper deck (W200).

My real question is, which fan controller(s) should I use, and which LED fans (both sizes and units) are best suited *for the money* in each position? Are there places where I should just run uncontrolled fans? This case will contain at least two computers.

 

[ehume]

Get Yate Loon LED fans. Find a compliant supplier. You ought to get a discount on a large order, and a break on shipping. Order 50 fans so you can make spare of the ones that click the most. Good luck.

 

[CorvusDove]

Get Yate Loon LED fans. Find a compliant supplier. You ought to get a discount on a large order, and a break on shipping. Order 50 fans so you can make spare of the ones that click the most. Good luck.

I actually have Amazon Prime and was going to roll through that, but those fans don't really have the look I'm going for. There are so many fans that I can put form over function in this case (within reason) and was hoping someone knew who I could reach to possibly get a bulk price on the various circular LED pattern fans (similar to what I linked) without the fans doing their job badly.

I have decided to use Molex-to-8-fan PCB's to run some of the fans flat out from a dedicated PSU; I don't see any reason to speed control the fans that will be pointed at power supplies and HDDs on the bottom. I'm still in the market for fans I can control on the upper deck though.

 

[Dlaw]

You can always grab a couple of RGB LED strips for $5-$10 for lighting. Cheap LED fans are usually not very good in the noise-to-airflow department, and like you've discovered, the LEDs are almost always powered by the same current driving the fans. Therefor, if you lower the voltage to slow the fans, you'll dim the LEDs as well.

I'd grab the Yate Loons and a couple of strips.