Good 120mm case fans for the front side?

[TudorF]

I've built a new system in a Riotoro CR1080 case. The case came with its own Riotoro red 120mm fan on the front side, then I added another of the same because I thought it'd be good to have matching fans.

But after one day of using them, I have to say they are too noisy.

I was thinking of adding some 120mm Noctua fans in the front, I already have an 80mm Noctua added on the exhaust/back side.

I'm interested in what are people's suggestions for some case fans of 120mm that are both efficient and very silent.

 

I can find some models at my local retailer like the Noctua NF-A12x15 FLX for about 20 bucks.

If you have great experience with some other models, which ones did you use?

[WoodenMarker]

Have you tried lowering fan speeds?

Budget?

[Demonic Donut]

Arctic P12 fans are excellent and around $10 each.

 

All fans are loud, imo, if at full speed. Lowering rpm is a good way to mitigate noise, if the temps don't come up too high at the same time.

[TudorF]

@WoodenMarker50 bucks max.

@Demonic DonutThanks, I'll check that Arctic one out.

[WoodenMarker]

On 5/19/2021 at 1:05 AM, TudorF said:

@WoodenMarker50 bucks max.

@Demonic DonutThanks, I'll check that Arctic one out.

Arctic P12 PWM's are hard to beat for the price. 

If you don't mind spending more, SW3's are quieter: https://www.emag.ro/ventilator-be-quiet-silent-wings-3-120mm-bl064/pd/DZS7VSBBM/

NF-P12 Redux are also a good alternative: https://www.pcgarage.ro/ventilatoare-radiatoare/noctua/nf-p12-redux-1300-pwm/

[Mark Kaine]

On 5/19/2021 at 5:17 AM, Demonic Donut said:

All fans are loud, imo, if at full speed

Thats true i guess , but i honestly cant hear my noctuas between 900-1000rpm, more than that and i will hear them for sure though. Its just they barely run more, only while gaming and even then its still not exactly  loud.  Bequiets are louder at same rpm for example.

 

14 bucks, same as in europe, apparently

 

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-redux-1700-high-Performance-Award-Winning-Affordable/dp/B07CG2PGY6

 

 

[Demonic Donut]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

Thats true i guess , but i honestly cant hear my noctuas between 900-1000rpm, more than that and i will hear them for sure though. Its just they barely run more, only while gaming and even then its still not exactly  loud.  Bequiets are louder at same rpm for example.

 

14 bucks, same as in europe, apparently

 

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-redux-1700-high-Performance-Award-Winning-Affordable/dp/B07CG2PGY6

 

 

I agree that Noctua makes some of the best fans. Every fan in my case is a Noctua. My GPU has 2 P12 redux fans on it as well, they are great fans and quiet too. But man am I spoiled with the extras that the full price fans come with.

 

I just tend to recommend the Arctic fans for people on a budget. 3 fans are better than 2 etc.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Demonic Donut said:

But man am I spoiled with the extras that the full price fans come with.

heh, i bought 3 Y cables from noctua  for 7.50 I believe, otherwise i dont need the fluff and I really like the grey/black scheme of the redux. I dont even use the extra anti vibration pads that came with my (black) noctua cpu cooler.

i mean i dont really know how the arctic compare but they look a bit flimsy and i definitely prefer  how the redux look.

And for 14 theyre really ok, not the cheapest, but then you get what you pay for.

 

1 hour ago, Demonic Donut said:

I just tend to recommend the Arctic fans for people on a budget. 3 fans are better than 2 etc.

Yeah, i dont disagree there

[TudorF]

6 hours ago, Demonic Donut said:

My GPU has 2 P12 redux fans on it as well, they are great fans and quiet too.

Wait, I'm not sure if I misunderstood or not. Is it possible to replace the fans embedded in the graphics card or disable them, then use your own fans to cool the GPU?

I've just built my computer a few days ago, I used a Noctua NH-D9L cooler and it's so silent you can't even know it's there.

 

The only fans that are noisy are those from my GTX 1650 which kick into gear every time I fire up a game or do some rendering in an Adobe program.

If they could be disabled and replaced with better ones, that'd be great. Though, I'm not sure I'd want to risk messing with the GPU enclosure.

[Demonic Donut]

2 hours ago, TudorF said:

Wait, I'm not sure if I misunderstood or not. Is it possible to replace the fans embedded in the graphics card or disable them, then use your own fans to cool the GPU?

I've just built my computer a few days ago, I used a Noctua NH-D9L cooler and it's so silent you can't even know it's there.

 

The only fans that are noisy are those from my GTX 1650 which kick into gear every time I fire up a game or do some rendering in an Adobe program.

If they could be disabled and replaced with better ones, that'd be great. Though, I'm not sure I'd want to risk messing with the GPU enclosure.

It's common for people to remove dead GPU fans and replace them with case fans. You can pull your shroud and directly mount fans to the cooler, a lot of people just use zip ties etc. I found in my testing that they were more quiet and ran cooler than the stock fans.

 

I bought a Morpheus II cooler and put that on my 5700xt though.

[TudorF]

@WoodenMarker

@Demonic Donut

@Mark Kaine

I didn't get some decent case fans yet, after asking here for some advice.

But in the meantime I changed my mind and I was considering some ARGB ones, because they can look good if you set the colours on something that's not too showy and I was also hoping that if I have some LEDs inside the case, I can see the components better if I need to.

 

Anyone knows some good ARGB fans? Do I need a controller to be able to turn the LEDs off if I don't need to look inside?

I was checking out these two:

 

ARCTIC BioniX P120 A-RGB

ARCTIC P12 Black A-RGB

 

I'm not sure how they compare in actual performance (not paper specs) with plain Noctuas, that's why I'm asking. If they're not that great, I could go with the best Noctuas for the case, then add some ARGB LED strip inside if I want to be able to see inside the case.

[TudorF]

Actually nvm those are pressure-optimised fans, they're not the best for a case.

Might just go with some good Noctuas and call it a day.

[Jeppes]

That case looks so choked that pressure-optimized is what I would pick.

[TudorF]

37 minutes ago, Jeppes said:

That case looks so choked that pressure-optimized is what I would pick.

It's choked on the exhaust side, yeah, because there's only room for one 80mm fan. I got a Noctua NF-R8 80mm on that vent.

 

 

As you can see from this ^ pic you can only install 2x120mm intake fans (front) and an 80mm on that tiny vent.

But there's some room for additional stuff on the bottom, I could place a radiator there at some point. And on the top, there's another opening, where the air pushed by the graphics card fans can get out.

Basically, the airflow on this case looks like this:

 

There's also another opening on the left side, in that chamber where the PSU is, it looks like this:

 

 

So the case is not really a hot box, it has grilles on each side, but they're not aligned in a way that would push air directly from one side to the other.

 

I don't have any major issues with temps right now, so there's no hurry to have any special solution to bring temps down right now.

But I'm still running with just one fan in the front, the one that came with the case, and it's a pretty bad one (very noisy when it kicks into gear).

So I wanted to get a pair of good ones, maybe some ARGB ones, not sure if it's worth.

Well, yeah, those Arctic ARGB ones are pressure-optimised. This means they will push air in a very focused way, but only the bottom one will actually have a practical effect, because the volume of air pushed in that area will run into the heatsink of the Noctua cooler. The top one would just push air into the end side of the graphics card, so it won't do much.

 

[CaptainRye]

I replaced all my case fans with be quiet! Silent Wings 3 (PWM, normal speed) and my computer is scary quiet now... https://www.amazon.com/quiet-BL067-SILENTWINGS-1000RPM-59-5CFM/dp/B01JMEDDYY?tag=linus21-20&th=1&geniuslink=true (I think I did the LTT affiliate link right, please don't sue me)

[TudorF]

@CaptainRyeI got those bookmarked too. I'm thinkin of either going with them or some Noctuas.

But I was also considering maybe going with some ARGB memes, like the ARCTIC BioniX P120 A-RGB.

Was curious if anyone tried those, if they're any good or if I should stick with plain ones for the intake.

[Jeppes]

14 minutes ago, TudorF said:

It's choked on the exhaust side, yeah, because there's only room for one 80mm fan. I got a Noctua NF-R8 80mm on that vent.

 

 

As you can see from this ^ pic you can only install 2x120mm intake fans (front) and an 80mm on that tiny vent.

But there's some room for additional stuff on the bottom, I could place a radiator there at some point. And on the top, there's another opening, where the air pushed by the graphics card fans can get out.

Basically, the airflow on this case looks like this:

 

It has tiny holes in the front like CoolerMaster q300l/q500l. Airflow fans perform well only if no obstructions like Meshify 2 without dust filer, Phantes pxxxa-line and such.

[TudorF]

@Jeppes

So what kind of fans would do well on the front side, as intake fans? The front panel is a metal grille that has a textile mesh behind it probably as a dust filter. I could try remove that mesh and just leave the metal grille, maybe.

Do you think this ARCTIC BioniX P120 A-RGB would do well? It's a pressure-optimised fan.

If not I could go with some Noctua, I've heard good reviews for the NF-A12x25 PWM, but this one is one of the priciest case fans. Not sure if it's worth it, it's a great one if you need to keep the RPM really high, because they're way below the level of noise generated by other fans from the competition. But under 1000 RPM, there's not that much of a difference between these expensive ones and more reasonably priced ones.

[Daethz]

On 5/18/2021 at 10:17 PM, Demonic Donut said:

Arctic P12 fans are excellent and around $10 each.

 

All fans are loud, imo, if at full speed. Lowering rpm is a good way to mitigate noise, if the temps don't come up too high at the same time.

I just got the poop brown Noctua A12x25's, they are incredibly quiet for getting up to 2000rpm

But they are also incredibly ugly and $30 a piece

[narrdarr]

phanteks mp120/mp140 are also a really nice

[Ralfi]

20 hours ago, TudorF said:

@CaptainRyeI got those bookmarked too. I'm thinkin of either going with them or some Noctuas.

But I was also considering maybe going with some ARGB memes, like the ARCTIC BioniX P120 A-RGB.

Was curious if anyone tried those, if they're any good or if I should stick with plain ones for the intake.

After researching for a bit, I decided to get the ARCTIC BioniX P120 A-RGB Bundle. They arrived today.

 

I’ve just started installing them in my new case which also arrived today, so I hope to have them working over the weekend & report back.

 

Here’s some progress shots…

[Ralfi]

Bit of an update. 
 

For the most part, these fans are decent. Good airflow & pretty quiet at typical RPMs. There’s a slight hum at around 1300rpm, but mine mostly spin at 800rpm so I avoid it. I’ve also tweaked the fan curve as per Arctic recommendations here, so they don’t spin up until the CPU hits 65°.

 

Here are my typical idol temps…

 

Using a basic smartphone dB meter, I averaged 37dB in front of the case & 28dB at seating distance (110cm).

 

A big positive with these fans is their modular connection, so you only need one splitter cable from one fan to connect to an ARGB & PWM motherboard header. My motherboard has 2 x ARGB headers & plenty of PWM headers, so I had no issues here. This prevents the need to use the supplied Hub & Remote, but if your motherboard doesn’t have any ARGB headers, you can connect the Hub to an older 12v RGB header & the Hub will convert all fans to ARGB, so most scenarios are covered.

 

The RGB side of things seemed to go ok. I love the look of these fans, especially in a white case. The Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 software is basic, but it does the job. If you’re like me & prefer singular & static colours, it’s all you need.

I did notice the 3rd fan in sequence didn’t match the first two when using rainbow patterns, but thankfully, these patterns make me ill, so it doesn’t bother me, although I’ve queried Arctic, & will be looking forward to their response. I may have a faulty modular pin link…

 

Oh, I should mention the main thing that irked me was their thickness - not directly, as they fit easily in this case, but they were 2-3mm too thick for me to move the HDD cage to the front placement, which then meant my PSU cables were harder to store & manage under the PSU shroud. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it would’ve been much easier if I had that 50mm to work with. You can see the fans protruding in the photo below & the space I could’ve gained by butting the HDD cage next to them if they were a few mm thinner…

 

 

So, thus far, I’m enjoying my first foray into the RGB realm. I still have more to go (mouse pad & new gaming mouse ), but just keeping it subtle, without sacrificing much performance.

 

Any questions, fire away.

 

[TudorF]

@RalfiNice setup. Did you test if the front fans make a difference for temps, like, by disabling them and comparing temps with and without them running?

Good to know that I wouldn't need to buy the controller too, since I can only fit 2 of these fans in the front and my mobo does have one ARGB header and one RGB header for PWM fans. So I suppose it will work without a controller too.

 

I saw reviewers say these fans are pretty thick, did you have any trouble fitting them in the case? Since you have a 4000D Airflow, I suppose not, that's a big case.

Yeah, I'm also planning on setting them only on one colour or maybe two, I don't want to turn the PC into a Christmas tree.

[Ralfi]

24 minutes ago, TudorF said:

Did you test if the front fans make a difference for temps, like, by disabling them and comparing temps with and without them running?

No, but I can do that tomorrow. My guess is that idle temps will be slightly higher, but under load temps should be much higher. Though I haven’t really pushed them yet - I’ll need to run some benchmarks with & without to see how they go.

 

26 minutes ago, TudorF said:

did you have any trouble fitting them in the case?

Nah, plenty of room in this case. Very easy to install them actually. It’s just the problem they caused with the HDD cage placement that caused a slight domino effect of a slight hassle, but not too bad.

 

28 minutes ago, TudorF said:

Yeah, I'm also planning on setting them only on one colour or maybe two, I don't want to turn the PC into a Christmas tree.

Yeah, so you’ll be happy with their glow then. They really look nice imo. The only pattern I’d use is the ‘breathing’ one, but those rainbow effects are not for me…  

[NorKris]

9 hours ago, TudorF said:

@RalfiNice setup. Did you test if the front fans make a difference for temps, like, by disabling them and comparing temps with and without them running?

Good to know that I wouldn't need to buy the controller too, since I can only fit 2 of these fans in the front and my mobo does have one ARGB header and one RGB header for PWM fans. So I suppose it will work without a controller too.

 

I saw reviewers say these fans are pretty thick, did you have any trouble fitting them in the case? Since you have a 4000D Airflow, I suppose not, that's a big case.

Yeah, I'm also planning on setting them only on one colour or maybe two, I don't want to turn the PC into a Christmas tree.

Get Arctic P12 ARGB. Trust me