What are, in your opinion, the best 120MM fans on the market? - Hardware & Software

I've got quite a large sum of cash and I was going to buy some GT 1850 RPMs to replace my current fans, but unfortunately they're not in stock. Are there any other fans you guys recommend?

What use are the fans going to be put too? Where are they going to be put? How loud are you fine with them being? Any specific color of fan, or fine with black fans?

[QUOTE=Awt2 x;30092204]What use are the fans going to be put too? Where are they going to be put? How loud are you fine with them being? Any specific color of fan, or fine with black fans?[/QUOTE] A watercooling rad. I'd prefer that they be as quiet as possible while moving as much air as possible. I don't really care about the appearance as long as there's no LEDs or anything like that.

Watercooling is trouble unless you have some like $300 kit... I speak from experience. Regardless, any brand should do you fine as long as you properly maintain your computer.

Any brand that ships rubber mounts with it will do fine. Personally I have a thing for Noctua but they're quite overpriced. [editline]28th May 2011[/editline] Scythe gentle typhoons are a classic, but I don't know if you get rubber mounts with them.

Noctua is most likely best if you want silent fan with high airflow, but i have to agree that they're quite overpriced.

Delta Fan all the way :downs: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835213001[/url] 5400 RPM, 240 CFM

Deltas. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BeTVOgVkAA[/media] Not the quietest fan though. [editline]28th May 2011[/editline] Dam you Bohb!

This is the beastiest Delta Fan: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGJ42w02EU[/url] It is essentially two fans in one with coaxial fan blades rotating in different directions.

Hah, delta. Have some san ace, bitches. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQY2OjSCaME[/media]

They totally need to replace the blades with propellers.

You do know the San Ace is 40 a piece?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKF16kQimWs&[/media] What the fuck. Sounds like the PC gonna fly away.

[QUOTE=chipset;30095538]Hah, delta. Have some san ace, bitches. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQY2OjSCaME[/media][/QUOTE] :wtc: I thought Delta's fans were insane...

Nocua makes some of the most quiet fans I've ever used. I picked up one of their 80mm fans for my server (Which needs to be on 24/7, 5 feet from my head) and it does an excellent job at keeping the two hard drives under 25-35 degrees.

Going on a RAD, I would suggest the GT's.. as they have a high static pressure which is good for the RAD. Right behind that, I say go with the Noctua's, they are a great fan, and they are quiet. We have them in both of our HTPC's in the house, and we don't hear anything from them. Those are the only two fans I could suggest, but I would highly recommend waiting on the GT's

Hmm, Newegg says they've been deactivated...Should I just get them from some other site?

The Ones I saw on new-egg said out of stock. hmm. But, I can only see the 1450's. I would order them from somewhere else if you can find them. They defiantly are an amazing fan.

+1 For Noctura. I use them in my water cooled rig on my rad, they are very quiet. Just make sure you have a fan controller.

I don't really think Noctua is overpriced as I believe nobody can deny you get every penny of your money in performance and quality, but most people don't need/benefit much from this extra quality and a GT or one of the many other quiet fans on the market will do. Basically most $10+ fans will do great. Worthy of note too is that normal sleve bearings don't like being mounted horizontally, they wear out quickly. Most high quality fans shouldn't have this problem though. Just stay away from cheap fans, it might looks like a sweet deal but those things vibrate like hell and will start producing noise in no time.

[QUOTE=chipset;30133393]I don't really think Noctua is overpriced as I believe nobody can deny you get every penny of your money in performance and quality, but most people don't need/benefit much from this extra quality and a GT or one of the many other quiet fans on the market will do. Basically most $10+ fans will do great. Worthy of note too is that normal sleve bearings don't like being mounted horizontally, they wear out quickly. Most high quality fans shouldn't have this problem though. Just stay away from cheap fans, it might looks like a sweet deal but those things vibrate like hell and will start producing noise in no time.[/QUOTE] Looks like I'm the only one with bad experience with Noctua then. I used to have a 140mm fan and it started clicking. I used to have a 120mm fan which I had to RMA 2 times. I still have their cooling block (with 2 120mm fans) that performs the same as intel stock cooler. And not to mention they are the loudest things in my pc. Some unbranded 1000 RPM 12cm fan is quieter than my Noctua fans.

[QUOTE=Halflifefan84;30159192]Looks like I'm the only one with bad experience with Noctua then. I used to have a 140mm fan and it started clicking. I used to have a 120mm fan which I had to RMA 2 times. I still have their cooling block (with 2 120mm fans) that performs the same as intel stock cooler. And not to mention they are the loudest things in my pc. Some unbranded 1000 RPM 12cm fan is quieter than my Noctua fans.[/QUOTE] how many times have you broken a mirror?

The two 120mm noctuas cooling my cpu are insanely quiet and have been running for one and a half years.

[QUOTE=Halflifefan84;30159192]Looks like I'm the only one with bad experience with Noctua then. I used to have a 140mm fan and it started clicking. I used to have a 120mm fan which I had to RMA 2 times. I still have their cooling block (with 2 120mm fans) that performs the same as intel stock cooler. And not to mention they are the loudest things in my pc. Some unbranded 1000 RPM 12cm fan is quieter than my Noctua fans.[/QUOTE] Noctua uses fluid bearings on all of the fans if i remember right, those don't start to click. Well ofcourse you could've been extremely unlucky and get 2 bads fans, though i highly doubt that. Could you elaborate yourself more on the cooling block you have from them ? Also do you know how to correctly apply thermal paste or did you use it at all ? Noctuas do make noise but pretty much only audible noise you get from them is the noise caused by the high airflow. Hmm did i just get trolled or he's just lying because can't afford Noctua fans? I'm extremely happy with my 2 12cm Noctuas on their NH-U12P SE1366 cooler, which has been running pretty much 24/7 for a year now.

The Arctic F12 is insanely quiet for the price (can generally pick them up for £5 each), and pushes a fair bit of air. Out of the 9 fans in my PC, the only quieter fan is the one in my Corsair HX750 PSU. Even on maximum speed they are more than acceptable; nowhere near as loud as my CPU or GPU fans under load.

[QUOTE=TheTiger;30162428]Noctua uses fluid bearings on all of the fans if i remember right, those don't start to click. Well ofcourse you could've been extremely unlucky and get 2 bads fans, though i highly doubt that. Could you elaborate yourself more on the cooling block you have from them ? Also do you know how to correctly apply thermal paste or did you use it at all ? Noctuas do make noise but pretty much only audible noise you get from them is the noise caused by the high airflow. Hmm did i just get trolled or he's just lying because can't afford Noctua fans? I'm extremely happy with my 2 12cm Noctuas on their NH-U12P SE1366 cooler, which has been running pretty much 24/7 for a year now.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/Satane123/IMAG0206.jpg"]That's the pc.[/URL] I have the exact same cooler and I've had it for about 1 year. I tried it with MX-2, AS5 and I tried pretty much any technique I could think of (spread, dot, horizontal and vertical line, cross ,...) (and got pretty much same results as with the stock cooler - 45 idle, 70 load i7 920) The 140 I mentioned used to be in the power supply (stock fan broke), but it kept clicking (probably caused by the insane temps in there) so I replaced it with a noiseblocker blacksilent pk-2 which's been working fine now for about 6 months. The noctua 140 lies broken somewhere in my room to this day. The other 120 wasn't the same as the ones that came with the cooler but one of these : [img_thumb]http://xsreviews.co.uk/modules/FCKeditor/Upload/Image/NocNFS12/stock.jpg[/img_thumb] Can't be seen on the picture but it's mounted next to the HDD's. This thing is still clicking and I can hear it right now. And I don't hear the HDD's, I powered it without it beeing mounted once and it was clicking.

I am sorta hijacking this thread, but i wanted to ask you guys what you think of the Noctua NF-P12 fans? i was planning to pick up 3 of those for my server, since the server stands 2 meter away from my bed i need silent fans.

[QUOTE=Kialtia;30163222]I am sorta hijacking this thread, but i wanted to ask you guys what you think of the Noctua NF-P12 fans? i was planning to pick up 3 of those for my server, since the server stands 2 meter away from my bed i need silent fans.[/QUOTE] If you have the dosh, Noctua is undeniably great. [editline]31st May 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Darkimmortal;30162455]The Arctic F12 is insanely quiet for the price (can generally pick them up for £5 each), and pushes a fair bit of air. Out of the 9 fans in my PC, the only quieter fan is the one in my Corsair HX750 PSU. Even on maximum speed they are more than acceptable; nowhere near as loud as my CPU or GPU fans under load.[/QUOTE] While the Arctic cooling fans are quite good for the price, the lack of rubber mountings really bugs me. I have three of them in my case, they do vibrate quite a bit and since I had three mounted side by side in the top of my corsair 800d, they resonated and caused some horrible noise. I had to buy rubber screws and run them down to 7 volts to keep it on level with everything else in my computer. With the rubber screws the final price was on level with a 120mm fractal design or nexus fan, both of which ship with rubber/silicon screws. On their own, and with a fan controller, sure. But in any enviroment where vibrations and resonance could be a problem, aim higher.

[QUOTE=chipset;30163664]While the Arctic cooling fans are quite good for the price, the lack of rubber mountings really bugs me. I have three of them in my case, they do vibrate quite a bit and since I had three mounted side by side in the top of my corsair 800d, they resonated and caused some horrible noise. I had to buy rubber screws and run them down to 7 volts to keep it on level with everything else in my computer. With the rubber screws the final price was on level with a 120mm fractal design or nexus fan, both of which ship with rubber/silicon screws. On their own, and with a fan controller, sure. But in any enviroment where vibrations and resonance could be a problem, aim higher.[/QUOTE] No issues in my NZXT Phantom with standard screws, only vibration comes from my F3 and F4 hard disks.

This is unrelated, but the Phantom is a pretty nice case actually.