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However, PWM won’t work if you connect a PWM fan to a three-pin fan header. If you want to use PWM, make sure you connect your four-pin fan to a matching four-pin header when installing it. How Many Case Fans Do You Need?
At the lower performance end remain the Alseye Xtreme X12, which not only provide the lowest performance, but are also many times louder than the next two fans at the lower performance end. The be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 and the Fractal Design Aspect 12 do not offer high peak performance, but they remain quiet enough on uncontrolled full power that they do not attract negative attention. Observation over all results Speaking of moving air, the stat you want to keep your eyes out for is “CFM,” which stands for “cubic feet per minute.” The higher the number, the more air the fan can move, the better. That said, fans with the highest CFM also tend to be loudest.If you’re building in a case that supports larger fan sizes like the Fractal Torrent and its 180 mm front fans, then you’ll almost always want to take advantage and use the largest fans possible. Especially if, as with the Torrent, the case already comes equipped with them. Passive CPU coolers, however, have no fans. The biggest advantage is the completely silent operation. The heat is conducted into the heatsink and discharged from there into the surrounding air. Since air, without additional airflow, is a poor conductor of heat, passive coolers need to have quite large heatsinks to achieve adequate cooling performance, yet are not as powerful as active coolers. Active CPU coolers have a fan, which ensures continuous airflow to dissipate the heat generated by the CPU. The larger the fan diameter and the higher the speed of the fan, the better the cooling performance. Since an increase in the speed also causes an increased noise level, it is important to find an appropriate balance between the fan diameter, fan speed, and size of the heatsink for an effective CPU cooler.
Low Profile coolers (also known as top blowers) are active coolers, which usually use a slightly wider and flatter heat sink on which a fan is mounted. The airflow is thus directed directly toward the CPU / motherboard. The advantage of this cooler is the more compact design, which makes it more common in smaller PC cases. In addition to the CPU, other mainboard components (memory, controller) are cooled slightly, too. The easiest way to tell between the two fan types is by looking at the fan connectors: PWM fans use four-pin connectors, while DC fans use three-pin ones. Fans and fan headers are interchangeable, meaning you can connect a three-pin DC fan to a four-pin PWM connector (or vice versa). The be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4, ENDORFY Fluctus 120 PWM ARGB, and Arctic P12 are not the overall winners, but deliver very solid results in all tests. Most of the fans on our list use PWM, or pulse width modulation. PWM allows for fine-grained control of fan speeds without manipulating fan voltage. The main advantage of this approach is that it lets you slow fans down and even stop them without any adverse effects. Most voltage-controlled fans will stall below 5 volts, which stops them from working at ultra-low speeds. So PWM is important for achieving those 200 to 500 RPM speeds that silence enthusiasts may want.
Mounts
The same benefits of more airflow at lower RPMs apply to 180 mm fans, but with the bonus of some truly impressive airflow if you crank the fan speeds up. In the budget range, I had particularly counted on the Arctic fans, with the P12 and P12 Max also delivering upper-class performance at a very low price. The Arctic F12s unfortunately don’t quite make the cut of their 140mm sisters and lose out significantly to the P12 models. Let’s take Arctic’s 140 mm P14 and 120 mm P12 for example. The P14 boasts 72.8 CFM of airflow and 2.40 mm-H2O of static pressure at 1700 RPM. The P12, on the other hand, offers 56.3 CFM and 2.20 mm-H2O at a slightly higher 1800 RPM. The fans from the brands Noctua, Corsair and the majority of the models from be quiet! do not stand out much in this 120 mm case fan test. Overall, these brands fill the midfield, which is not a bad performance by any means, but just not an outstanding victory that might have been attributed to them without the comparison. At least it is noticeable that the Corsair QL120 does better than the 140 mm models from the corresponding parallel test. Conclusion Quiet yet powerful case fans: Cooler Master Mobius (bottom left), MSI Silent Gale P12 (bottom right), DeepCool FK120 (top left) and Arctic P12 (top right)
By far the weakest fans in this test remain the Alseye X12, apart from that the last places are occupied by the NZXT F120 RGB and the Alphacool Aurora Rise. Case fan at maximum power Overall, we think that the Arctic P12 and P14 are some of the best PC case fans to come out in recent years. Both prove that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get quiet, high-performance fans for your rig. In this test, the temperatures and the noise development are added together. Therefore, it is not surprising that the fans that combine good performance with low noise are at the top. Cooler Master’s Mobius 120 in the regular and RGB versions are at the top together with MSI’s Silent Gale P12. Those who would have expected the Noctua NF-A12x25, which is considered revolutionary and has received a lot of praise, to be at the top will be somewhat disappointed in this case. While these offer good performance as case fans and are quiet, they are definitely beaten by other models in this area. There are two types of PC case fans: static pressure fans and airflow fans. Static pressure fans excel at pulling or pushing air through restrictions such as dust filters, radiators, and drive cages. On the other hand, airflow fans work best at moving air as fast as possible, at the cost of reduced performance through the restrictions mentioned above. The three DeepCool fans are therefore also the budget recommendation for very quiet systems. The FK120, FC120 and CF120 do not give much in this comparison: They offer decent performance even at low speeds.We think most average gamers will be more than happy with the Arctic P12 PWM or P14 PWM. They’re quiet, high-performance fans that compete with Noctua’s offerings at less than half the price. Of course, if you want the prestige of a high-end, premium fan, then Noctua’s NF-A12x25 PWM and NF-A14 PWM are still the fans to go for. Just remember that you’re not paying entirely for the performance there. The MSI Silent Gale P12, DeepCool CF120, and Cooler Master Mobius 120 still perform very well in the 120mm case fan test, even when nearly inaudible. The Cooler Master Mobius 120P ARGB are thus also the strongest RGB fans in this test run, are followed by the RGB version of the DeepCool FC120 and the ENDORFY Fluctus 120 PWM ARGB. I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of the Cooler Master Mobius before the case fan review of the 120mm fans, and I was definitely surprised by them. The same goes for the MSI Silent Gale P12s, which at first glance seem similar in design to the Noctua NF-A12x25s, but perform better as case fans. Due to the lower maximum speed, they fall a bit short in the final test, but they offer excellent performance in a normal volume setting.
Adding two top intakes reduced CPU temperatures by a single degree and raised GPU temperatures by the same amount, although that may just be run-to-run variance. Even if it isn’t, a single degree Celsius reduction in CPU temps isn’t worth the additional cost of two extra fans. Although nicer fans still aren’t that expensive (relative to other PC components), you still get what you pay for. Ball bearings, often found in the least expensive fans, tend to fail more often, while sleeve bearings are a step up in quality and longevity, and fluid bearings tend to be the most reliable, with the longest lifespans. Unlike most PC components, fans are mechanical systems meant to run continuously for years, so get good ones! The NF-A12x25 PWM and the NF-A14 PWM are static pressure-focused fans, but they also offer more than enough airflow to make them viable for every position in a PC case. We particularly like the NF-A14 as an all-purpose cooling solution. Its 82.5 CFM of airflow trumps even some airflow-focused fans while still offering a decent 2.08 mm-H2O of static pressure for pulling air through dust filters and other intake obstructions. First, make sure you measure your PC case to make sure the fan you want will fit in the mounts your case has. Standard sizes range from 80mm to 250mm, and you’ll generally need larger fans for larger PC cases, since they’ll need to move more air. 120mm and 140mm also (normally) have the same mount size, and larger fans are generally quieter and move more air.Arctic’s P12 and P14 pressure-optimized case fans aren’t the outright best-performing fans you can buy, nor are they particularly premium. But what they do offer is virtually top-tier performance for budget-tier pricing. They’re incredible value, and we think that makes both of these fans excellent choices for almost any PC builder out there. A surprisingly high performance has the DeepCool CF120, which achieved the best temperature results at the RPM, but due to the higher volume they are found a bit further down the list. The very loud and weak Alseye X12 attracted negative attention. Case fan at uniform 31 dB(A) Value is all well and good, but what if you have the money to spare and want a truly premium case fan? If that sounds like you, you’ll want to make a beeline for Noctua’s NF-A12x25 PWM and NF-A14 PWM case fans. They’re modern classics of the case fan world for good reasons. Another thing to keep in mind is that fans are generally specialized for one of two things. Either they are optimized to move a high volume of air (generally with large blades and high RPM) or generate high static pressure. High-airflow fans can run into problems when used in a case with restricted airflow – that’s what high static pressure fans are for.
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