Curious what are some recommendations for some 140/120/80 size fans... My case setup ( although the bottom mounted fans may or may not happen....depends on how much heat the raid card pushes ) is as follows There are 3 140mm fans in the front that will be pushing air into 4 backplanes ( 3x 4-in-3's [ they have 80mm fans ] ) and 1x 4-in-1 which will be pulling that air into the case ( so that there's constant cool air going across the drives ) The top 140mm will be reduced to a 120 to house the H80's RAD in the top and there's one more 120 which is the rear exhaust. The only thing that's still in the air and just depends on how hot it gets in the case will be bottom mounting 2-3 120's to pull cool air in from the bottom Now for the question.... what is a good fan that is quieter than the current spec ( 28 *rated* db on the 140's... the 80's are pretty loud so I'm sure anything would be quieter... and would love to know a good one for the 120's ) but also pushes a lot of air ( especially the 120's ) Preferably not too expensive either... Thanks.
Don't know what will be the computer specs, but i think there's too much intake and not so much exhaust on that project. You'll end up with too much air inside the case and not much getting out. My PC fan config is: Intake: 140mm Front (came with the case) 140mm Side (came with the case - but was at the top) Exhaust: 120mm back (came with the case) 2x 140mm top (Aerocool Shark's - http://www.aerocool.com.tw/index.php/products/accessory/39-fan/69-shark-bk14 ) I haven't found noctuas around here and scythe were too expensive. Those Aerocool Sharks were recommend and i quite liked them. They are decently priced, silent and have a great CFM. As for pushing air from the bottom, i don't think it's necessary at all. Would only add it on a full size case and only if there were high temperature issues. PS: That case on the picture still has PSU at the top? Would be nice to invest on a new case, with good airflow and PSU at the bottom. Sometimes a case can be the one to blame when it comes to bad airflow and high temperatures. I've seen people replacing a case with lots of fans for a newer one with just 3 (1 intake + 2 exhaust) and the computer was running way cooler (and with less noise).
with the 140's on the front I'd have to modify the door to support the 120's which I don't know how easy it'll be... I've heard of using noctuas but while I was trying to figure out a lot of factors ( noise, cfm and cost ) the noctuas didn't do so hot... http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/331629-28-cooling-roundup-2012 I was using that link as a base for my resources and it has most of the "top most purchased" fans there but was hoping it'd get updated to include some of the newer fans out there... My case is the one in the picture... Lian Li PC-P80 ( aka full with tons of room ) so the only issue I was concerned with was heat generation on the raid card. The raid card being a 3ware 9650SE 12ML. I didn't find any issues with the layout of the PSU so far ( and the current test system in there is running pretty cool as it stands ) so for now I think it's alright. As for intake:exhaust ratio I've always followed the positive airflow track for less dust buildup in the case ( I use to have a case with similar setup as yours... 2x exhaust 1x intake and it failed miserably at cooling... could have been the case though ) The actual hardware will be asrock motherboard with a i7-3820 and 8x4gb sticks ( unless ram gets cheaper )....had to go with the corsair h80 cooler because regular fan coolers wont fit with the ram layout thats on the new 2011 motherboards. The video card is still undecided but it'll probably be something mid-range. The current track of air is the intake pulling air from the front door into the backplanes which are pulling that air into the case ( so it keeps the drives cool ) and the 120 in the back will be the exhaust while the h80 rad will be top mounted with both 120mm pushing the air out. I think the loudest fans ( oddly enough are *not* the 40mm.... ) are the 80mm on the larger backplanes... so if there are any suggestions for that size that would be great. Thanks again for the advice... hopefully I'll be buying some replacement fans for the setup. I think the biggest problem I have ATM is with loudness ( mostly from the 80's on the backplanes )
