is it worth it to buy fancy fans?

[OceanDad]

I'm upgrading my pc. I have 130$

 

I have one exhaust fan and thats it currently, so I'm upgrading fans

 

would it be worth it to buy cool looking (and presumably good quality) corsair fans for all my money or should I buy a few cheaper fans and spend the rest on an SSD or something?

[Derrk]

i recommend upgrading performance over aesthetics, but its entirely subjective

id suggest getting cheaper fans and an ssd, especially if you have one already

[Juular]

If you really good quality fans then get ~20$ be quiet! SW3 or Noctua NF. Corsair fans (at least for the same price) are so-so. But for your average build you don't need even these, get Arctic dirt cheap fans (although they've failed on me, the whole pack of 5 so i usually don't recommend them but other people don't seem to have same problems), or be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 ~15$ fans for still very good quality (they're rifle bearing tho).

[WickedStarfish]

4 minutes ago, OceanDad said:

I'm upgrading my pc. I have 130$

 

I have one exhaust fan and thats it currently, so I'm upgrading fans

 

would it be worth it to buy cool looking (and presumably good quality) corsair fans for all my money or should I buy a few cheaper fans and spend the rest on an SSD or something?

if you dont have an ssd as the boot drive i would recommend that first

any fans should do tbh, though judging by your system specs you should probably have some intake fans to pair with your system as if you only have 1 exhaust fan for a 2080 super it might be struggling a tad to keep cool 

 

though looking through your computer specs (on your profile) i would reccomend going an ssd and an extra 8gb of ram

[Chiyawa]

Depends on how your system is configured, how much heat you want or need to get rid off, and other criteria like RGB or quiet fan or PWM.

 

For me, I'll go for a bunch of Cooler Master Sickle Flow 120mm, it's super cheap, provide a good cooling with 2000 rpm motor, churning a good amount of CFM and mmH2O.

[OceanDad]

1 minute ago, Derrk said:

i recommend upgrading performance over aesthetics, but its entirely subjective

id suggest getting cheaper fans and an ssd, especially if you have one already

 

Just now, WickedStarfish said:

if you dont have an ssd as the boot drive i would recommend that first

any fans should do tbh, though judging by your system specs you should probably have some intake fans to pair with your system as if you only have 1 exhaust fan for a 2080 super it might be struggling a tad to keep cool 

 

though looking through your computer specs (on your profile) i would reccomend going an ssd and an extra 8gb of ram

yep I'm planning on all of that, just waiting for the money lol (along with a new cpu so I'm not slightly bottlenecked)

 

just wondering what to do first with the money i have now. Looking at it all, I still want decent quality fans, rgb or not. If I did that, I'd only be able to get fans, and be a bit short on ram or a good enough SSD. So I feel like I might as well spend the extra bit for the bright lights, since I can't afford anything else along with the lesser fans anyway

[OceanDad]

5 minutes ago, Juular said:

If you really good quality fans then get ~20$ be quiet! SW3 or Noctua NF. Corsair fans (at least for the same price) are so-so. But for your average build you don't need even these, get Arctic dirt cheap fans (although they've failed on me, the whole pack of 5 so i usually don't recommend them but other people don't seem to have same problems), or be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 ~15$ fans for still very good quality (they're rifle bearing tho).

https://www.newegg.ca/corsair-co-9050072-ww-case-fan/p/N82E16835181130?Item=N82E16835181130 I was looking at these fans because of the sale, and they look neat, honestly. I feel like I should go for them because even if I got the cheaper be quiet fans, I wouldn't be able to afford anything else with the savings, really.

[WickedStarfish]

Just now, OceanDad said:

just wondering what to do first with the money i have now. Looking at it all, I still want decent quality fans, rgb or not. If I did that, I'd only be able to get fans, and be a bit short on ram or a good enough SSD. So I feel like I might as well spend the extra bit for the bright lights, since I can't afford anything else along with the lesser fans anyway

i would go with a like 120 - 240gb ssd and a couple Aer F nzxt fans (i think the Air P fans come with the x series aio's and i found them to be the best "feeling" fans i have used, by feeling i mean they have a sort of structure to them that feels like it would move air and be a tad flexable if needed)

[Juular]

3 minutes ago, OceanDad said:

https://www.newegg.ca/corsair-co-9050072-ww-case-fan/p/N82E16835181130?Item=N82E16835181130 I was looking at these fans because of the sale, and they look neat, honestly. I feel like I should go for them because even if I got the cheaper be quiet fans, I wouldn't be able to afford anything else with the savings, really.

They're on 'sale' for this price for a looong time already. Don't fall for that. They're not particularly bad or smth but if you really don't need RGB fans then buy higher quality non-RGB ones. Or get an SSD, you can get very fast 1TB SSD for this price like Pioneer SE20G or Inland Premium.

[OceanDad]

1 minute ago, Juular said:

They're on 'sale' for this price for a looong time already. Dont' fall for that. They're not particularly bad or smth but if you really don't need RGB fans then buy higher quality non-RGB ones. Or get an SSD.

but they are good enough for a system, not overly loud or anything, right? I'm fine with the RGB tax, because I'm a sucker for good lookin' RGB as long as the product isn't terrible in every other aspect

[Juular]

7 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

i would go with a like 120 - 240gb ssd and a couple Aer F nzxt fans (i think the Air P fans come with the x series aio's and i found them to be the best "feeling" fans i have used, by feeling i mean they have a sort of structure to them that feels like it would move air and be a tad flexable if needed)

Dunno what you mean by 'structure', these are your regular airflow fans, they wouldn't be very good for radiator mounting and i wouldn't expect them to be particularly quiet even as airflow fans.

2 minutes ago, OceanDad said:

but they are good enough for a system, not overly loud or anything, right? I'm fine with the RGB tax, because I'm a sucker for good lookin' RGB as long as the product isn't terrible in every other aspect

Yep, they're fine.

[Juular]

1 minute ago, Juular said:

Yep, they're fine.

But ... You can get a whole-ass case with preinstalled RGB fans from Phanteks for the same price or NZXT H510 Elite for just 50$ more so i still don't think they're anything close to a good buy. If you have a lot of cash lying around and all your other components are good already then go for it, otherwise reconsider.

[WickedStarfish]

1 minute ago, OceanDad said:

but they are good enough for a system, not overly loud or anything, right? I'm fine with the RGB tax, because I'm a sucker for good lookin' RGB as long as the product isn't terrible in every other aspect

i would go this way, as the phanteks p300's front fans are quite hidden (especially from the front or a forward angle) so the RGB goodness wouldnt really be seen

[Juular]

1 minute ago, WickedStarfish said:

i would go this way, as the phanteks p300's front fans are quite hidden (especially from the front or a forward angle) so the RGB goodness wouldnt really be seen

Uuggh, no, that's a QLC SSD, pay a bit more for TLC, it worth it.

[WickedStarfish]

5 minutes ago, Juular said:

Dunno what you mean by 'structure', these are your regular airflow fans, they wouldn't be very good for radiator mounting and i wouldn't expect them to be particularly quiet even as airflow fans.

i am not really sure what the right word is here, i have used 4 different radiators and the other 3 (deepcool, corsair, and cryorig) all have very weak and cheap feeling fans, the nzxt ones feel more "structurly sound"

[WickedStarfish]

Just now, Juular said:

no, that's a QLC SSD, pay a bit more for TLC, it worth it.

i only picked that one as it was relatively cheap and i have used basically the same one, just 120gb model and it has over 2000 hrs of working time on it and still works fine

[Juular]

1 minute ago, WickedStarfish said:

i only picked that one as it was relatively cheap and i have used basically the same one, just 120gb model and it has over 2000 hrs of working time on it and still works fine

It's not that it would fail or anything, QLC SSDs have very, no, VERY low sustained write speed, around 50 MB\s for this model IINM. That would make installing a new game larger than your average 2D indie the pain in the ass.

[Juular]

I would say that the only SATA SSDs even worth considering are Crucial MX500, Samsung 860 EVO and Team MS30, all maybe 5$ more than cheapest ones, but NVMe SSDs will be another 5$ more (but often they're the same price) and there's way more choice, just again, don't get QLC one (Intel 660p or Crucial P1).

[Quadriplegic]

There is no such thing as good quality Corsair fans. Maybe only their ML fans, but they get their performance out of high RPM, which means noise. 

Arctic P12 PWM PST fans are better than lot of so called "premium" fans and you can get a pack of 5 for around 30$.

[ravenshrike]

The first question is what case do you have. That determines the number of fans you will need as well as the type. Although it would be hard to go wrong with a 500GB SSD and some Pure Wings 2 fans for case fans.

[IcarusLSC]

I've used my Noctuas in six builds/cases now and they still work great. I have two systems mostly full of them for this reason. Had some of the stock fans in the cases I've done not even last a month before making noise. The Lain Li fans lasted a long while too, same with most of the Antec ones were decent (but loud.) Corsair ones lasted the shortest. Only ever had to replace one 5yr old Noctua and they sent a new one fast fast under warranty!

[n4da]

Buying good fans for my 8700K in a Meshify C was probably one of the most dumb investments I made. Just writing this as a warning for those willing to invest in fans. 

I started with CNPSx10 Optima cheap 120mm cooler, 2x120mm intake front , 2x120mm top exhaust, 1x120mm back exhaust, cheap fans from Arctic and Fractal Design (2 and 2)

I ended with Noctua D15S+120mm additional fan, 2x140mm intake, 2x140mm exhaust, 1x120mm exhaust. All fans Noctua PWMs. 

Temps... well... the CPU gained -5C, maybe -10C at 5GHz. The GPU, a 1070ti, maybe 1-2C lower. 

The overall price? Around 190EU.

I'd say just invest in delidding (if relevant) and change the GPU thermal paste if you're really bored, and at 1/3 price you get triple benefits, and stick with cheaper fans.

Oh about noise? Yes the Noctua are quiet at lower RPM. At higher RPM (60-70% and above), they're as loud as the cheaper fans I had. The Noctua cooler and fans are great IMO, I actually like them a lot, and their support seems amazing. Their packaging was also great. The price though, holy shit. 

[WoodenMarker]

On 12/8/2019 at 3:22 PM, n4da said:

Buying good fans for my 8700K in a Meshify C was probably one of the most dumb investments I made. Just writing this as a warning for those willing to invest in fans. 

I started with CNPSx10 Optima cheap 120mm cooler, 2x120mm intake front , 2x120mm top exhaust, 1x120mm back exhaust, cheap fans from Arctic and Fractal Design (2 and 2)

I ended with Noctua D15S+120mm additional fan, 2x140mm intake, 2x140mm exhaust, 1x120mm exhaust. All fans Noctua PWMs. 

Temps... well... the CPU gained -5C, maybe -10C at 5GHz. The GPU, a 1070ti, maybe 1-2C lower. 

You're running into diminishing returns once cooling is already adequate. A single front intake and rear exhaust is generally ample for most systems. There usually isn't much more to gain past 2 front intakes and a rear exhaust unless the system is particularly power hungry with more than one graphics card. 

Pretty good example here:

On 12/3/2019 at 8:37 PM, OceanDad said:

https://www.newegg.ca/corsair-co-9050072-ww-case-fan/p/N82E16835181130?Item=N82E16835181130 I was looking at these fans because of the sale, and they look neat, honestly. I feel like I should go for them because even if I got the cheaper be quiet fans, I wouldn't be able to afford anything else with the savings, really.

If you're in it for the looks, LL's are hard to beat. That being said, they're only okay when it comes to actual performance. The short fan blades aren't very good and you can easily get better fans for much less if you're not aiming for rgb. 

What are your specs? Is there anything about the current cooling that's unsatisfactory?