what cfm should case fans should be for 120mm for good airflow

[BeefyTank77]

is 45 cfm good enough?

its a generic brand with 45 cfm return on it

[jaslion]

What fans? 45 cfm is fine really as long as the case is airflow friendly. 45 course at 100% which you dont want

[podkall]

Do you already have the fans, or are you buying them?

[Bitter]

For a radiator static pressure is as important as overall airflow, you have to be able to push the air through the restrictive radiator after all. My go-to recommendation for radiator fans would be the Arctic P12 Max. They're inexpensive, they're well built, they're readily available, they push good airflow with high static pressure, and even at full speed their sound is very inoffensive. They're typically around $10-12 USD per fan.

https://www.arctic.de/us/P12-Max/ACFAN00280A

[BeefyTank77]

1 hour ago, podkall said:

Do you already have the fans, or are you buying them?

need to buy anything less then 25 usd. 3 fan pack

[BeefyTank77]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

What fans? 45 cfm is fine really as long as the case is airflow friendly. 45 course at 100% which you dont want

good airflow case only. why less then 100%

 

[thrasher_565]

most fans lie about the cfm goold old 69 cfm...

 

good fans that are quiet at like 2150 rpm

[Bitter]

14 minutes ago, BeefyTank77 said:

good airflow case only. why less then 100%

 

The P12 Max is also a great case fan, the standard P12 moves about the same amount of air at a lower RPM with less static pressure and is also a good case fan. The standard P12 is available in a few color combinations and with ARGB, it also comes in a 5 pack if you need that many. If you want a really cheap but pretty looking ARGB fan then the GeLid Stella or Stella Frost has OK airflow, is very inexpensive, and has really good looking ARGB colors with rings on both sides of the fan.

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, BeefyTank77 said:

good airflow case only. why less then 100%

 

For noise reasons

[podkall]

3 hours ago, BeefyTank77 said:

need to buy anything less then 25 usd. 3 fan pack

do you already have a case? some cases come with fans included

[avidgamer121]

6 hours ago, jaslion said:

What fans? 45 cfm is fine really as long as the case is airflow friendly. 45 course at 100% which you dont want

really? the 40cfm on my fan seems average to me now as summers have arrived at my cpu and gpu both are hitting 75c at full load despite temps went down like 4C in winters when i bought it.

 

3 hours ago, Bitter said:

The P12 Max is also a great case fan, the standard P12 moves about the same amount of air at a lower RPM with less static pressure and is also a good case fan. The standard P12 is available in a few color combinations and with ARGB, it also comes in a 5 pack if you need that many. If you want a really cheap but pretty looking ARGB fan then the GeLid Stella or Stella Frost has OK airflow, is very inexpensive, and has really good looking ARGB colors with rings on both sides of the fan.

wow p12 max could have been a better option for me as well, just to make my pc survive this summer i bought Corsair ML120 Pro LED it's also good, but because i don't like lights and RPM is significantly higher (2400 vs 3300) cfm 83 over 75 and 1 more year warranty, the site i ordered the fan from isn't showing cancel option (maybe after shipping? not sure) but i think i can return it at doorstep.

[Bitter]

21 minutes ago, avidgamer121 said:

really? the 40cfm on my fan seems average to me now as summers have arrived at my cpu and gpu both are hitting 75c at full load despite temps went down like 4C in winters when i bought it.

 

wow p12 max could have been a better option for me as well, just to make my pc survive this summer i bought Corsair ML120 Pro LED it's also good, but because i don't like lights and RPM is significantly higher (2400 vs 3300) cfm 83 over 75 and 1 more year warranty, the site i ordered the fan from isn't showing cancel option (maybe after shipping? not sure) but i think i can return it at doorstep.

For what it's worth a pair of P12 Max dropped temps on my 120 AIO in an ITX system (push/pull) by almost 20C at the same wattage as the Coolermaster fans the AIO came with originally, Masterfan 120 AB which is 43 CFM @ 0.96 mmH₂O vs 81 CFM @ 4.35 mmH₂O for the P12 Max. Noise db is only slightly higher but tone of noise is a lot better. Pairing those fans with an AIO was a terrible choice on the part of Coolermaster, totally hosed the performance.

On my larger tower PC I'm running Noctua P12 Redux and they're OK but for the speed they spin they're LOUD at full speed but they do move impressive air for only 1700 RPM it's just the tone of noise is very wooshy white noise heavy where as the P12 Max at almost double the RPM are a lower tone of woosh which is more pleasing to my ears. It's all very subjective of course!

[avidgamer121]

1 hour ago, Bitter said:

For what it's worth a pair of P12 Max dropped temps on my 120 AIO in an ITX system (push/pull) by almost 20C at the same wattage as the Coolermaster fans the AIO came with originally, Masterfan 120 AB which is 43 CFM @ 0.96 mmH₂O vs 81 CFM @ 4.35 mmH₂O for the P12 Max. Noise db is only slightly higher but tone of noise is a lot better. Pairing those fans with an AIO was a terrible choice on the part of Coolermaster, totally hosed the performance.

On my larger tower PC I'm running Noctua P12 Redux and they're OK but for the speed they spin they're LOUD at full speed but they do move impressive air for only 1700 RPM it's just the tone of noise is very wooshy white noise heavy where as the P12 Max at almost double the RPM are a lower tone of woosh which is more pleasing to my ears. It's all very subjective of course!

i just found out by little research that arctic one is 27dba and corsair 37, so it can't be that bad.

[Bitter]

2 minutes ago, avidgamer121 said:

i just found out by little research that arctic one is 27dba and corsair 37, so it can't be that bad.

P12 Max is 37db at full speed.

NF-P12 Redux is 25db at full speed.

The tone of noise on the Noctua is a higher pitch and more annoying to me despite the lower volume. That's what I meant. Pure volume is only part of how noise can be irritating.

 

[BeefyTank77]

7 hours ago, podkall said:

do you already have a case? some cases come with fans included

top fans for case

[podkall]

5 minutes ago, BeefyTank77 said:

top fans for case

if you already have fans in case, there's no need for more, nothing is usually overheating when you have good case and few fans, even just 2,

 

only reason you'd want case fans is for aesthetics, or if your PC gets so specifically hot that you need all airflow there is, most thermal problems also aren't caused by lack of fans.