Cheap, Quiet, Good Static Pressure, 140mm Fans?

[FluffyNuggets]

I'm wondering if there's a 140mm fan out there that meets all those requirements?

Currently I have a 3 Cougar Vortex Hydro 140mm fans on a Alphacool UT60 420 radiator and they all seem to be making an annoying buzzing sound all the time now. So I'm looking to replace them with better and possibly cheaper fans. I really don't want to pay $20 for each fan since its not in my budget right now.

Also, if possible, is there 120mm fans that also meet this requirement? I will be running all the fans on a fan controller so they need to be 3-pin.

Probably an impossible request but I figure I'd ask. Also I'd like for the fans to be sold through amazon to avoid paying shipping and so I can get them sooner.

Thanks!

[Ghost]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/36488-best-140mm-radiator-fans/

[FluffyNuggets]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/36488-best-140mm-radiator-fans/

I already know how to find good 140mm fans but I can't seem to find any that are cheap, quiet, and with good static pressure. All I can find are fans $20+, weak static pressure, or loud.

[Jebonia]

I already know how to find good 140mm fans but I can't seem to find any that are cheap, quiet, and with good static pressure. All I can find are fans $20+, weak static pressure, or loud.

It is not happening. You are contradicting yourself. high quality features and low price.

[FluffyNuggets]

It is not happening. You are contradicting yourself. high quality features and low price.

So the only fans out there that are quiet with good static pressure all cost $20+?

 

Kinda ridiculous to pay that kind of money for a case fan. I've already paid $20 each for the Cougar fans and those didn't even last a year before messing up.

 

Also, I never said "High Quality".  

[Ghost]

Cougar fans and those didn't even last a year before messing up.

You could try to RMA them.

[FluffyNuggets]

You could try to RMA them.

I tried to get in contact with Cougar and I cant seem to. I'm just irritated since I paid $110+ for these fans and they don't work right. I spent so much money for watercooling for silence and now the fans make an annoying sound. 

 

Would it be possible to use 120mm fans on the radiator with some sort of mounting bracket or would that be a bad idea?

[Ghost]

Would it be possible to use 120mm fans on the radiator with some sort of mounting bracket or would that be a bad idea?

They do exist and people do use them.

 

Let me recommend you the Noctua A14s. Amazing fans. Personally own 5 of them.

[FluffyNuggets]

They do exist and people do use them.

 

Let me recommend you the Noctua A14s. Amazing fans. Personally own 5 of them.

I've thought about buying them but I'm just not sure. How is Noctua at honoring warranties? 

 

If I put those on the 140mm radiator do you think it would be fine to use SP120's for the other radiators?

 

Are the A14's better in pull or push? I prefer to put them in pull just so I don't have to see their ugly browness. 

[AraSarkisyan]

you could try Yate Loons, they fit the cheap and high static pressure part....

[FluffyNuggets]

you could try Yate Loons, they fit the cheap and high static pressure part....

I thought about those but I can't find them on Amazon. Trying to avoid paying shipping since I don't want it to end up costing almost as much as Noctuas. 

[Ghost]

I've thought about buying them but I'm just not sure. How is Noctua at honoring warranties?

If I put those on the 140mm radiator do you think it would be fine to use SP120's for the other radiators?

Are the A14's better in pull or push? I prefer to put them in pull just so I don't have to see their ugly browness.

Put them in pull if you prefer it that way. I haven't benchmarked with these fans in both orientations so I don't know which is best performance wise.

Warranty support is amazing.

[AraSarkisyan]

I thought about those but I can't find them on Amazon. Trying to avoid paying shipping since I don't want it to end up costing almost as much as Noctuas. 

Performance PCS! 

[FluffyNuggets]

Put them in pull if you prefer it that way. I haven't benchmarked with these fans in both orientations so I don't know which is best performance wise.

Warranty support is amazing.

Do they make any kind of rattling sound when mounted vertical? The Cougar fans all either make a grinding sound or rattling sound when mounted vertical. 

 

Are they dead silent? To me that is the absolute most important thing to me next to cooling. I find the Cougar's to be semi loud even when run on the lowest setting on my fan controller. I can't hear the fans in the bottom or the front on the SM8 but since the 140mm radiator is at the top of the case sitting on the floor next to me I hear those the most. 

[Jebonia]

So the only fans out there that are quiet with good static pressure all cost $20+?

 

Kinda ridiculous to pay that kind of money for a case fan. I've already paid $20 each for the Cougar fans and those didn't even last a year before messing up.

 

Also, I never said "High Quality".  

Well quiet and good static pressure are high quality features.  I guess you can try random cheap fans then post a review for future people looking for the same requirements 

[Ghost]

Do they make any kind of rattling sound when mounted vertical? The Cougar fans all either make a grinding sound or rattling sound when mounted vertical. 

 

Are they dead silent?

Noctua fans excel at low RPMs. I can't tell you how quiet they are without proper equipment.

 

And they work perfectly vertically.

[FluffyNuggets]

Noctua fans excel at low RPMs. I can't tell you how quiet they are without proper equipment.

 

And they work perfectly vertically.

I was just wondering how loud they were just going by ear. Like if your computer was sitting on the floor next to you, could you hear them. If so, was it just the sound of air moving or could you hear the fan spinning?

 

I'm fine with hearing the light sound of air moving but right now I hear the fan spinning and air moving with these fans. They are rated for around 20dB but they sound pretty loud for being a quiet fan. I have no idea what the actual dB is since I don't have equipment to check. I guess I could use the dB app on my phone but who knows if that's accurate. 

 

 

Well quiet and good static pressure are high quality features.  I guess you can try random cheap fans then post a review for future people looking for the same requirements 

Not really looking to just buy some random cheap fans and roll the dice on if they work. If I had disposible income to just buy random stuff for no reason then I wouldn't be here asking for cheaper fans. Instead I would just buy the Noctua fans and never bother asking for recommendations on a good fan. I already know what fans are good, but that wasn't my question. 

[Ghost]

I was just wondering how loud they were just going by ear. Like if your computer was sitting on the floor next to you, could you hear them. If so, was it just the sound of air moving or could you hear the fan spinning?

 

I'm fine with hearing the light sound of air moving but right now I hear the fan spinning and air moving with these fans. They are rated for around 20dB but they sound pretty loud for being a quiet fan. I have no idea what the actual dB is since I don't have equipment to check. I guess I could use the dB app on my phone but who knows if that's accurate. 

Put in ear plugs for 2 hours and then take them out. You will probably hear your neighbors PC running. Perception of sound is relative to a lot of things. Personally, I can hear fans spinning but they aren't undervolted and I have 5 different types of fans in my system. Could be any of them.

 

30db is a Whisper Quiet Library at 6'

[FluffyNuggets]

Put in ear plugs for 2 hours and then take them out. You will probably hear your neighbors PC running. Perception of sound is relative to a lot of things. Personally, I can hear fans spinning but they aren't undervolted and I have 5 different types of fans in my system. Could be any of them.

 

30db is a Whisper Quiet Library at 6'

Yeah, I know asking somebody how loud something is isn't always a good idea because every person hears differently and have different tolerance to noise. 

 

If 30db is a whisper quiet library at 6' then these fans are definitely louder then that. I can hear them a good 15ft away so they have to be much louder then they advertise them to be. 

 

So if I buy the A14's which ones do I buy? They have FLX and ULN versions of them. I can get the ULN version for $18.74 and the FLX version is $21.99. 

 

Also, If I was to spend the extra money to get the Noctuas should I replace all my fans with them?

[Kazie]

Considering you mentioned static pressure as a prioritized attribute, your choices of Noctua are between the A14 PWM and A14 FLX.  The FLX comes with adapters so you can lower the RPM of the fan thus it being quiet-er, but of course, you do loose performance when you do that.  Having said that, any PWM fan will do the same thing without the need of adapters (hence the advantage of PWM).  Money should be on the A14 PWM.

 

After reading how unsure you seem to be about making a decision (I don't mean that as an insult, so please don't take it that way), my advice is that you order at least 1, and get a feel for the fan.  Truth is Noctuas quality is above and beyond. Expensive, sure, but justified.  Once you get a feel for that fan, make the best decision for yourself.

 

FYI - at low db levels, the acoustics of a fan are all about the hum that they make. Its tremendously subjective, so I would never go by anyone else's opinion. Your ears will tell you whether you can stand something or not.

[FluffyNuggets]

Considering you mentioned static pressure as a prioritized attribute, your choices of Noctua are between the A14 PWM and A14 FLX.  The FLX comes with adapters so you can lower the RPM of the fan thus it being quiet-er, but of course, you do loose performance when you do that.  Having said that, any PWM fan will do the same thing without the need of adapters (hence the advantage of PWM).  Money should be on the A14 PWM.

 

After reading how unsure you seem to be about making a decision (I don't mean that as an insult, so please don't take it that way), my advice is that you order at least 1, and get a feel for the fan.  Truth is Noctuas quality is above and beyond. Expensive, sure, but justified.  Once you get a feel for that fan, make the best decision for yourself.

 

FYI - at low db levels, the acoustics of a fan are all about the hum that they make. Its tremendously subjective, so I would never go by anyone else's opinion. Your ears will tell you whether you can stand something or not.

Well it's not that I'm unsure about what I want, I just don't know if I have the money for it. I wasn't planning on replacing my fans until they starting making a horrible sound recently. I'm sure the Noctuas are great fans since everybody recommends them. I just want to make sure I can get the performance from them at the noise level I desire. 

 

I'm just a bit skeptical now considering my fans are rated for low dB but they aren't quiet at all. They also have around the same static pressure as the Noctuas but I find they don't do all that great of a job moving air. Even when used as just a case fan, it seems they move good amount of air if you put your hand close but if you move your hand further away there doesn't seem to be any air moving. I don't know how much different Noctua fans are when it comes to this sort of thing since I'm not really familiar with all the technical stuff with fans. 

 

So if the Noctua fans actually move a good amount of air a greater distance and have better static pressure then I'm all for it. 

 

Is the static pressure on the Noctua AP-14's even that great? I see it's only around 1.4 which seems pretty low compared to the likes of the SP120's 3.0 or whatever it is. I know my fans are supposedly around 1.2 I think but who knows if that's even close to being true.

 

Pretty much I just want to make sure I'm going to get an improvement if I'm going to pay $60+ on fans. Paying an insane amount of money for just a case fan is ridiculous to me if I'm not going to gain anything from it. I know before WC I bought a bunch of cheap $8 Cooler Master Silent Case Fans and then I upgraded all 8 fans to these Cougar Vortex fans and there was absolutely zero improvement in temps and only a slight reduction in noise. Just want to make sure I don't make the same mistake twice buying fans that don't perform any differently. 

[Kazie]

Well... let me be blunt about something.

 

Cheap will never equal performance + quiet. Its just not going to happen.  

 

Cheap WILL equal performance at the cost of sound, or sound at the cost of performance. 

 

$$ fans, get you a higher level of both, but truth is that expensive fans wont necessarily outperform certain cheap fans due to the fact that you just physically need RPMs to push enough air.  The Gentle Typhoons (which im sure you have heard about) are the king of rad fans because of their RPM vs Static vs Sound ratio.  Noctuas come close, but they typically dont go over 1500 RPMS. If you were to get them higher than that, they would outdo a gentle typhoon, but at the cost of sound which pretty much takes away Noctuas claim to fame (other than being fantastically built).  I realize I am making refference to 120mm fans, but I do so to put things into context.

 

At 140mm, there simply arent that many choices available unfortunately. The AP-14s (PWM) have 2.0 static pressure.  Is it a huge jump over 1.4-5? Certainly not, but the trick (and the reason for the $$) is they manage to get that extra level of performance without the noise increase.  That balancing act + quality build + Noctuas reputation for just being plain awesome is where the premium comes from.  Are you going to be blown away by the difference? Not if you are in a tight budget and you have certain expectations over what your spending is "supposed" to get you.

 

All that said, I can tell you something from personal experience. I only use Noctua and/or GTs exclusively. At some point I figured, WTH, ill spend the money and learn my lesson if it doesnt work.  I have yet to regret ever making that decision. Mind you, I dont like loud, so to me sound is a priority.

[FluffyNuggets]

That's a very good explanation.

I already dumped a ton of money into my current fans so I could avoid replacing them a short time later. Well that didn't exactly work out since they didn't even last a year.

I'll probably just pick up the Noctuas for the 140mm and some SP120's for the 120mm. I guess the good thing about the Noctuas is I can just run them off my PSU since they come with adapters.