AF120's + ML120 or all ML120's?

Slazyel · October 5, 2017

Hi guys,

I want to know if the AF120's are good enough. I'm planning to buy one ML120 and 2 AF120 to cool my case. The ML120 will be in the rear, and both the af's will be in the front. On top i already use a Seidon 240P AIO.

I have a 7700K and plan to overclock it. Right now, where i live, ML120 PRO costs $27.50 and AF120 costs $11. For reference, the nonpro ML120, which packs with two fans costs $45 here.

intender · October 5, 2017

I have 3 of the ML 120's and 1 af120 in my main pc. I have 2 of the ML120's on my radiator and they move a ton of air and are somewhat quiet when kept below about 1700rpm, but they are really loud above that. At full speed they sound like my computer is going to take off and fly away. under 1300rpm they are fairly silent. At 1000 rpms they are quieter than the AF120 at the same speed and still move more air. The AF120 is used as a rear exhaust in my main pc, and I have 2 of them in another computer and they have a whine to them then annoys me when running fast so I keep it on a fixed speed at around 1000rpm's. I use a commander mini to control my fans and keep them on quiet mode and even under full load it stays pretty quiet and the temps on my 6600k @ 4.5ghz runs around 60C on my h105. I only crank them up higher when benching at higher speeds.

Slazyel · October 5, 2017

10 minutes ago, intender said:

I have 3 of the ML 120's and 1 af120 in my main pc. I have 2 of the ML120's on my radiator and they move a ton of air and are somewhat quiet when kept below about 1700rpm, but they are really loud above that. At full speed they sound like my computer is going to take off and fly away. under 1300rpm they are fairly silent. At 1000 rpms they are quieter than the AF120 at the same speed and still move more air. The AF120 is used as a rear exhaust in my main pc, and I have 2 of them in another computer and they have a whine to them then annoys me when running fast so I keep it on a fixed speed at around 1000rpm's. I use a commander mini to control my fans and keep them on quiet mode and even under full load it stays pretty quiet and the temps on my 6600k @ 4.5ghz runs around 60C on my h105. I only crank them up higher when benching at higher speeds.

So what would you recommed? I forgot to say that 3 AF's and no ML is an option too.

intender · October 5, 2017

The AF's are not bad fans. If the price difference turns you off, then go with the cheaper ones. The AF120's are not loud fans even running at high speeds, its just the whine. And they might not all do that, it could just be the batch that mine came from because I dont remember reading about it in any of the reviews I read about them. I had all the af120's in my main pc for a while, but needed some fans for my htpc so I bought the ML120's for my main rig and moved the AF's to the other pc. No one else seems to notice the whine that they make at high speeds, but it drove me insane with my PC right next to my head. But again, the ML120's are obnoxiously loud at high speeds, and will require custom fan curves to keep them at lower speeds under speeds under load.