Cooling Replacement case fans - Last minute advice before purchase

Ok, I need three replacement 120mm case fans for my Antec P180b case.

Max budget of £50 with p&p
Quieter the better but not at the cost of cooling obviously

I’ve seen the two recommendations….:

Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 120mm - £10.21 (inc VAT) on Overclockers

And

Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225 C12B4AP-14 - £11.62 (inc VAT) on Scan

…..but you guys tend to have some other options and I wanted to get a little bit of last minute advice before I buy them because this weather isn’t doing my temps any good. One fan is Kaput, the bearings have all but gone in another and the last one has started it's death rattle.

I was sure I’d been looking around a post on the forum which went in to case fans but I can’t seem to find it now no matter what I search.

+rep as usual for all advice!


Oh, I’ll be ordering them tomorrow (Sunday 4th July), Monday at the latest.

Cheers all!

 

Both awesome choices but Gentle Typhoon has a shade or two more awesomeness.

 

The Scythe Gentle Typhoon will push slightly more air than the Sharkoon Golf Ball 1000rpm but will also be slightly louder. The Sharkoon 2000rpm fans have a great CFM rating but are also slightly louder again - best used with a fan controller or a voltage step down.

Look at this table (http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/120mmfans) to see a comparison between effectiveness and quietness.

Are you going to be running a fan controller? The reason I ask is that buying fans based upon quietness only may leave you exposed in times of high ambient (such as now in the UK). Is it worth considering fans connected to a fan controller. That way you can have quietness and awesome cooling performance when required.

The AKASA AK-FC-06-BK Gloss Black 3.5" Speed control for 3 fans is only £9.15 at Scan.

You could also look at the 120mm Akasa Apache Ultra Silent Fan HDB Bearing PWM fan which are also very good and quiet. These are PWM fans so you could actually run these in conjunction with your CPU fan with an Akasa AK-CB002 4-pin Molex to 3x4-pin PWM Fan Connector to get cooling as required.

Remember that you qualify for free delivery from Scan as a forum member.

3 x 120mm Sharkoon 2000 "Golf Ball" Quiet Case Fan + Akasa Fan Contoller = £40.50
3 x 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm + Akasa Fan Contoller = £44.01
3 x 120mm Akasa Apache Ultra Silent PWM + Akasa 3 x 4 pin PWM fan connector = £40.88

The Sharkoon 2000rpm fan is the same price as the 1000rpm fan @ Scan (£10.45).

 

These are both great case fans, the two best options really. The gentle typhoons offer better performance but more noise so it dpeends wether you think cooling or silence is more important.

 

I'd reccomend the scythe fans.

 

When people say the GT's make more noise, thats just the sound of more air moving, the fans themselves make very little noise, and I have 3 of the 1850RPM versions...

 

I just bought 5 of the Scythe's for my case, and a fan controller to take care of the extra noise over the Sharkoon. Sadly I can't give any hands-on opinions because they won't get here until Wednesday.

I don't know about in the UK, but the 1000rpm version of the Sharkoon was nowhere to be found States side.

 

I'd recommend the Akasa Apache.
Got one to replace the fan on my Titan Fenrir, which is now much, much quieter.

 

They (the Scythe 1450rpm's and the 1850rpm's) make slightly more noise than the Sharkoon 1000rpm's but are quieter (at full speed) than the Sharkoon 2000rpm's.

 

I have a soft spot for Yate Loons, they're not the most glamorous fans, nor the most powerful. But they're cheap, simple and work. Well.

I just stuck a 140mm 1000rpm fan in my case and it's pretty silent tbh. Pumps a fair amount of air too! Can't complain.

 

The GT's also have really good build quility too, the blades are quite thick, so they should be very robust

 

^ Agreed.

However, I think the option of the higher speed fans (e.g.the Sharkoon 2000rpm's) with either a fan controller or some step-down resisters would allow greater flexibilty in times of higher temps (like now) and would still be within budget.

It is easier to quieten a faster, high airflow fan with a controller or step-down resister than it is to increase the airflow of a quiet fan.

Ulitmately it will depend on just how much cooling is required by the OP I think but you can't go wrong with either the Scythe or Sharkoon options.

I have at least one of each of the Scythe, Sharkoon and Akasa Apache fans - I just don't have any of the 2000rpm Sharkoons and I wish I had bought them instead of the 1000rpm's. I removed the Sharkoon 1000rpm exhaust fan from my (admittedly poor cooling case) and put an Antec 3 speed TriCool in it so I had the option of increasing the fan speed in the current temperatures - at the cost of noise. Noise is easier to deal with temporarily; these temps won't last and I can put the quiet fan back in.

 

Those Tricool's are odd, they look like they should have LEDs in them. Good fans though, we used to use them a lot at my old work, as for the price they're fairly good.

 

Mine came with the case (Antec Sonata II) which I have had for years. Quiet case but poor cooling - no intake fans (well one but it is way inside the case and can't be used with my graphics card due to clearance).

Now you know why I have been banging on about cases in other threads. I like the look of the new Lian Li PC-9F though...

Excuse the thread hijack.

 

First of all, I've give as much +Rep as the forum would allow so I will get around to the last few guys in 24 hours or so! Thanks for all the advice.

I'll start by providing a little bit more information:

Two of the fans which came with my case are apparently Antec tri-cool's which are attached (some how, I've not poked around there just yet) to two speed controllers on the back of the case which amount to slider switches going from slow to high.

Other than that, I don't have a fan controller as the case seems to provide the cooling I need for this rig, obviously when all the fans are working.

I work my PC pretty damn hard quite often by running games like Stalker-SOC+Complete 2009 whilst watching stuff through VLC on my other monitor. My room becomes an oven but the temp never gets to dangerous levels, not even really that uncomfortable levels really.


So, as it seems like something I’ve overlooked, do I need to be conscious of the two fan controllers that come as part of the case when buying new fans? Like I said I’ve not seen how they connect with the fans as the fans came as stock and I just plugged them in to my PSU when assembling.

Again thanks for all the advice! I’m glad I came for some last minute advice now!

Here's my case spec with some info on the fans:
http://www.antec.com/specs/P180_spe.html

 

I'd just like to point out that the figures in the chart you posted are the manufacturer's rated noise values and as such should be taken with at least a tablespoon of salt - Bit-Tech has done experiments and reached very different results.

I'd read this if I were you: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/09/28/what-s-the-best-case-fan/1

The results may surprise you and might force you to reconsider your recommendations - the manufacturer's information never includes important information such as how far away the dB reading was taken from, or what resistance there was etc

 

If your fans are the stock ones that came with the case then the fan controllers mentioned are part of the fans. The TriCool has a built in switch that allows you to set the speed of the fan between low, medium and high. If, as you said in your first post, your fans are dying, then this built in fan controller will not be of any use as it will be permanently attached to the dying fan. When you replace the fan, you will not have a fan controller unless you buy one.

Looking at your case, I can see problems with buying the Akasa fan controller I mentioned in my earlier post. I don't think your case door will close with it installed in the 3.5" slot.

However, I would recommend buying some voltage step-down resistors with the new fans you choose so you can quieten them down if need be. The step-down resistors are only a pound or two each.

Agreed Bakes, I was just trying to show how there is a trade off between quietness and performance.

I think the OP has made some fundamentally sound choices in terms of fans, I would just question whether he needs more maximum cooling than those particular fan models can give - considering current ambient temps.

I suggest either 3 x 2000rpm Sharkoon Silent Eagle or 3 x 1450rpm Scythe Gentle Typhoon fans with 3 x step-down resistors such as this http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories/zm-mc1 or this http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories/resistors.

This will allow you to run the fans at the full speed when you need to or run them at slower speeds when you don't. Best of both worlds for the budget.

 

Wouldn't a fanmate 2 be a better choice? Same price and it's all variable.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories/fanmate2

 

Only issue with that is if you have a lot of fans. It's fine for one or two fans, but you'll end up getting swamped by them if you have more!, I would go for the resistor cable personally.

 

Good call. He could afford one for each fan and be able to dial exactly the cooling/quietness he needed.

Another bonus is that Scan sell these as well - he could buy everything at the same place and get free delivery.

3 x 120mm Sharkoon 2000 "Golf Ball" Quiet Case Fan (£31.35)
or
3 x 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm (£34.86)
plus
3 x Zalman Fan Mate 2 (£9.84)

Either fan choice is well within budget with the controllers.

The best controller choice is probably one in the 3.5" or 5.25" bay (with a flush facia) but these cost a lot more (e.g. this).