Need New Fans + Fan Prices

alphaomega16 · 25 Nov 2019 at 00:11

Is it just me or have these gone up quite a bit in price, already lost one top fan a while ago but now the front intake which cools my hard drives is starting to make weird noises so thought id pick up a set of new fans, 2 for top and 1 for front as the side one is still fine.

I have this case (I don't believe manufacturer links are not allowed but if they are not I apologise)
https://www.zalman.com/contents/products/view.html?no=362

It says 140 for front as well as top so guess will go for that but I am unsure of what I have in the front currently I would have to measure.

Anybody have any recommendations to try and keep it under £50 for just 3 fans?

I believe the ones I have atm are Corsair SP's

Edit
My mistake, current fans are
Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition purchased in 2014 running 24/7 so had a good run.

£12 each back then lol

Edit 2
Also is there a Fan Controller that is able to just shut off fans, when not gaming it would be nice to be able to shut off the case fans since the PWM CPU fans are at their lowest.

Edit 3
Can these be used without 4 pin systems, my PC currently is 7 years old so don't have many fan points or pwm points they would be put into 3 pin connections that would reach without extensions.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akas...per-silent-140mm-fan-4-pin-pwm-fg-064-ak.html

This is my current Motherboard
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z77AGD65/Specification

tamzzy · 25 Nov 2019 at 00:41

no reason to change the fans if they're working fine tbh. minimal gains at best (at worst...a totally pointless sidegrade)
probably just suggest changing the faulty fan and that's it

a good budget option is the arctic p14 pwm pst (or the p12 for the 120mm version)

alphaomega16 · 25 Nov 2019 at 00:56

tamzzy said:
no reason to change the fans if they're working fine tbh. minimal gains at best (at worst...a totally pointless sidegrade)
probably just suggest changing the faulty fan and that's it

a good budget option is the arctic p14 pwm pst (or the p12 for the 120mm version)

I lost 1 top one right above my Noctua dual fan CPU brick so only got 1 running atm and the other one was a second hand one so I just figured if I was going to do front and put a new top one in I have to take the other one out first anyway (Need to push it to roof then slide it across as there is not enough room to put it through between side of case and the CPU Cooler) unless I take off the CPU cooler so may as well get it all done at once.

I never noticed that the fans were mostly double packs now as the text kinda cut that bit off when I bought them before they were all solos lol.

I could stretch for 2 of these and keep one in drawer as a backup if anything should happen in the future.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...ed-cooling-fan-140mm-dual-pack-fg-072-cs.html
Or these since they are only £1 dearer
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...netic-levitation-fan-dual-pack-fg-056-cs.html

But I honestly have no clue as I don't have the money to upgrade/tinker as often as I would like.

My current PC I ordered back in 2012
i5 3570k + Z77A GD65 Motherboard and still using the 8GB of Geil Black Dragon ram that came with it

I thought it was only around 5 years but apparently not lol.

I nearly upgraded last year, got a whole system checked and price matched and was ready to order but unfortunately some life stuff happened and it had to be put on hold.

tamzzy · 25 Nov 2019 at 00:59

if you are struggling for a budget...then stop wasting money on paying corsair's PR department lol

tamzzy said:
a good budget option is the arctic p14 pwm pst (or the p12 for the 120mm version)

alphaomega16 · 25 Nov 2019 at 01:04

tamzzy said:
if you are struggling for a budget...then stop wasting money on paying corsair's PR department lol

Sorry, I tend to levitate to brands that have proven to be good and reliable and to me (5+ years of 24/7 operation) and was still looking for options, only reason for my original price comment was due to the fact I didn't realise it was for twin pack I thought it was singular fan purchase.

I don't strictly need budget fans but the reason I listed the PWM fans in original post is because that is what is currently set as my CPU Fans as well as my exhaust all set on same profile via MSI's Control Center.

I did not know if I could use PWM on the 3 pins as mentioned above.

doyll · 25 Nov 2019 at 14:04

alphaomega16 said:
Is it just me or have these gone up quite a bit in price, already lost one top fan a while ago but now the front intake which cools my hard drives is starting to make weird noises so thought id pick up a set of new fans, 2 for top and 1 for front as the side one is still fine.

I have this case (I don't believe manufacturer links are not allowed but if they are not I apologise)
https://www.zalman.com/contents/products/view.html?no=362

It says 140 for front as well as top so guess will go for that but I am unsure of what I have in the front currently I would have to measure.

Anybody have any recommendations to try and keep it under £50 for just 3 fans?

I believe the ones I have atm are Corsair SP's
1
Edit
My mistake, current fans are
Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition purchased in 2014 running 24/7 so had a good run.

£12 each back then lol

Edit 2
Also is there a Fan Controller that is able to just shut off fans, when not gaming it would be nice to be able to shut off the case fans since the PWM CPU fans are at their lowest.

Edit 3
Can these be used without 4 pin systems, my PC currently is 7 years old so don't have many fan points or pwm points they would be put into 3 pin connections that would reach without extensions.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akas...per-silent-140mm-fan-4-pin-pwm-fg-064-ak.html

This is my current Motherboard
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z77AGD65/Specification

Phanteks PH-F140MP and PH-F120MP are quite good. 2-pack of PH-F140MP are £16.26 so £8.13 each. 2-pack PH-F120 are £14.99 so £7.50 each.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/two-...140mm-fan-radiator-performance-bu-003-pt.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/two-...120mm-fan-radiator-performance-bu-002-pt.html

With these fans you don't need any exhaust fans. I suggest 1x 140 front, 1x 140mm bottom, and 2x 120mm side intakes. Remove all PCie back slot covers to give better airflow around GPU toward back of case and use PWM or variable voltage fan headers to control them so they speed up/slow down with cooler fans. Block all opening not covered by intake fan in front, bottom and side panel so the air they are pushing into case has to flow through case to go out. Top vents often make CPU run hotter because heated air from GPU flows up over CPU to exhaust out top vents. Your side vents may change that some.

I don't know what fan headers your motherboard has and I'm not downloading the manual and extracting it to find out. You can look it up in your motherboard manual. Just because motherboard fan header is 4-pin does not mean it is PWM. Many on older mobos are not while some can be set to variable voltage or PWM.
Pin-1 is always ground
Pin-2 is power (12v for PWM or variable voltage)
Pin-3 is rpm
Pin-4 is PWM if header is PWM and will be labeled 'PWM', 'control' or similar.

If motherboard does not have enough PWM and/or variable voltage fan headers you can run 2x fans on single header or with PWM can use PWM splitter / hub with PSU power so motherboard PWM controls fan speed and PSU supplies power.

You might find guide in below link to how airflow works and how to optimize case airflow of interest.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

Jay85 · 25 Nov 2019 at 16:45

tamzzy said:
no reason to change the fans if they're working fine tbh. minimal gains at best (at worst...a totally pointless sidegrade)
probably just suggest changing the faulty fan and that's it

a good budget option is the arctic p14 pwm pst (or the p12 for the 120mm version)

This, the Arctic PWM PST fans are great. I run 4 of them on my rads and they are rated for high static pressure and best of all they can be daisy chained.

EsaT · 25 Nov 2019 at 16:52

alphaomega16 said:
Sorry, I tend to levitate to brands that have proven to be good and reliable

Then why is Corsair such miser in warranty length?
Arctic P-serie fans have 6 years as standard and PWM models have 10 year warranty.
While Corsair's standard warranty is 2 years and you need to pay arm to get 5 year warranty.
Also Corsair's QC certainly hasn't been up to the price considering how much there's been clicking etc noise issues in Finnish PC forum.
At one time it seemed like about every non-Pro ML fan people got was clicking model.

Noctua is another brand scammer with marketing used to sell bad design.
NF-F12 is overall the absolutely worst acoustics fan I've touched in 25 years of PC hobby.
In comparison Scythe's old cheap Slip Stream is masterpiece with its smooth vibration free running and noise profile.
Very affordable Slip Streams were for years one of the favorites of SilentPCreview and myself have had experience of about dozen Scythe's Slip/Glide Streams and quality has been very consistent.
Only couple of those have had any detectable vibration (good fans don't need rubber corners!) while Noctuas I've gotten bundled with heatsinks are like some miniaturized vibrating rollers.
NF-P12 had same total garbage motor, but at least its sound profile was nice except for some resonances of marketing notches at certain speeds.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-cooling-p12-black-case-fan-120mm-fg-04g-ar.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-cooling-p12-pwm-pst-black-fan-120mm-fg-04h-ar.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-cooling-p14-black-fan-140mm-fg-04m-ar.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-cooling-p14-pwm-pst-black-fan-140mm-fg-04k-ar.html
PST comes with splitter which is good for connecting for example both front fans into one header.
PWM versions also have 0rpm mode for below 5% PWM signal.

That board has 3 PWM capable fan headers: CPU and SYSFAN1&2

tamzzy said:
if you are struggling for a budget...then stop wasting money on paying corsair's PRBS department lol

Now it's correct.
I agree with this gentleman:
“Advertising is legalized lying.”
― H.G. Wells

alphaomega16 · 25 Nov 2019 at 17:26

doyll said:
I don't know what fan headers your motherboard has and I'm not downloading the manual and extracting it to find out. You can look it up in your motherboard manual. Just because motherboard fan header is 4-pin does not mean it is PWM. Many on older mobos are not while some can be set to variable voltage or PWM.

I understand, this is what the system fan page says for my motherboard

So I think I should be good, can get a splitter that takes power from PSU and connect them to 1, also make sure to add some extensions because the fan leads are pretty damn short lol.

alphaomega16 · 25 Nov 2019 at 23:54

Managed to record the sound if anybody wanted to hear it, I can remove the metal bit the fan is attached to and bring it outside the case so I was able to confirm it was definitely coming from the fan.

https://youtu.be/XpPR4kvoXC0

tamzzy · 26 Nov 2019 at 00:03

the bearing is worn

alphaomega16 · 26 Nov 2019 at 00:05

tamzzy said:
the bearing is worn

Ah is that what that is, will remember if it happens again. At first I thought one of my hard drives was on the fritz lol I was panicking real bad til I got the fan out to listen to it to confirm it was it.

Thanks for that info tamzzy

tamzzy · 26 Nov 2019 at 00:11

You could drop a couple of drops of lubricating oil and see if it helps...but don't put the fan over your components ofc

alphaomega16 · 26 Nov 2019 at 00:15

tamzzy said:
You could drop a couple of drops of lubricating oil and see if it helps...but don't put the fan over your components ofc

hehe, this one is currently the one just bringing cold air in and keeping my hard drives cool through the brutal summer (Usually 30c+ in my room for over a month solid), hopefully it will keep ticking til Sunday when I not doing nothing so I can take this opportunity to take the hard drives out as well as GPU and give the insides a good cleaning. Try to get as much as I can every month but with limited time its not a thorough job but I can take the time on Sunday to go nice and slow and get it nice and clean.

For the fans I usually like to just get a paint brush (clean, not used, purchased new just for PC) and get the stubborn stuff then give it a bit of a whirl with the compressed air to get all the loose bits away (whilst holding the fan blades ofc) but I can take the top and sides off case and give it a nice solid go this time.