Case Fans, Which Ones?

[AStaley]

I'm looking to change the case fans for my case, the current ones work okay but make a annoying whine/hum and I can't adjust the speeds as they aren't PWM.

What are the best fans to go for, I originally thought the best would be Noctua NF-A14's but some are saying the Arctic P14's might be better as the front fans sit behind a dust filter?

Thanks.

 

[Armageus]

Either of the Noctua NF-A14 or the Arctic P14 will be a great choice, both have decent static pressure so ideal for behind dust filters.

Personally I'd go for the Arctic P14 PST PWM purely on cost (you can almost get 3 of them for the same price as 1 Noctua).

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Noctua NF-A14 PWM Fan - 140mm= £19.99
• 1 x Arctic Cooling P14 PWM PST Black Fan - 140mm= £6.95

Total: £32.96 (includes shipping: £6.02)​

​

 

[MrRockliffe]

I personally found Noctua to be a bit distracting. Not noisy, but the tone of the noise was annoying.

I’ve tried 4x P14 and found them noisy too.

Settled on BeQuiet Silent Wing 3s which have been awesome, and easy peasy to mount

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Between the Arctic P14 and the Noctua A14, I'd go with the Arctic. Not only is the price better, but the A14 I've found has a really bad (droning?) sound once you reach (a fairly wide region of) its low RPM scales (25-60%, almost like an aircraft about to take off, then at 65% onwards it becomes a lower hum, much easier on the ears, it starts to become noticable again at around 80% and onwards).

 

[ttaskmaster]

I'm looking to change the case fans for my case, the current ones work okay but make a annoying whine/hum and I can't adjust the speeds as they aren't PWM.

You should still be able to alter the speed.
If you're running these directly off your motherboard, there will be a setting in the BIOS to change from PWM mode to DC control, which then alters the voltage directly.

What are the best fans to go for, I originally thought the best would be Noctua NF-A14's but some are saying the Arctic P14's might be better as the front fans sit behind a dust filter?

Noctua are very good.
Arctic are reckoned to be almost as good and notably cheaper, but often with annoying noises at certain RPMs.
However, it depends more on the acoustics of your particular case than anything else. There's a lot of science to this, but the results are very subjective and really the only way to find the 'best' fans is to try some out in your build.
I personally favour the basic Corsair ML120 non-RGB version, though the Pro ones would have been better.

 

[AStaley]

Thanks for the replies, think I will give the P14's a go, the P12's on my Freezer II have been fantastic and are really quiet. I have used the Noctua fans before and as has been said they do have a whine at certain speeds which I seem to be sensitive to.

**Also with the P14's you can daisy chain them so I can use one cable to connect it to my motherboard.

 

[Radox-0]

Others have replied, but just gone for arctic myself few weeks back (though in 120mm size) on one of my builds for the first time and supremely impressed. Have a bunch of high end fans in other builds, silent wings 3, Noctua in various sizes and lines (normal, industrial and redux) and EK ones. The Arctic through the RPM range have no weird noise which some of my noctuas had at certain RPM, are quiet and feel well built. For the price absolute steal.

 

[Hakanese]

If you are going arctic PWM PST fans as they can daisy chain and work off a single header. The annoying hum begins around the 1000rpm mark, but above or below they are pleasingly quiet with good performance.
I have 16 of them running on my radiators

 

[Something Else]

I went with the P14 first and then decided to get the noctuas and honestly I'd say the arctic fans are better. sure the noctua fans feel like better quality but im not touching them and the performance of the arctic fans is bettter for the same rpm imo. I didn't hear the drone noise with the 140mm fans, only with the 120mm.

 

[AStaley]

So I tried to install the P14's but they won't fit the fan bracket they are a fraction to high, so I ended up installing Noctua A14's. My only annoyance now is that I'm using extensions and two Y cables to connect them to a single header, I'll have to see about getting a 3 way splitter and tidying it up a bit. Otherwise it's working well, case is relatively silent and even have slightly better airflow over my M.2 slots/RAM dropping their temps nicely.

 

[Trunkey]

I'm well impressed with my Lian-Li Uni SL120 you can clip up to 4 together (I'm using three on a 360mm rad) which then run off one fan header and I just use the Lian-Li software to set the speeds.

 

[Drumroll]

Every fan will produce some unwanted noise at some rpm. And their behaviour would change if too close to filter or mesh, and if the obstruction is at the front or the back.
Tried Phanteks, Noctua, BeQuiet, Lian Li and Arctic before. Quite some models.
The Arctic are very good, specially considering their price. Just decided to go with the BeQuiet Pure Wings because they were quieter closer to bottom filter on my O11 XL, and also quieter at the rpm the fans are 99% of the time (800-1200rpm).
Not impressed with the Phanteks, though. And they aren't cheap.