Recommendation good value pressure optimized 140mm fans

[norritt]

Hey guys,

 

I'm looking for some good value pressure optimized Intake Fans for my case. So far I've been going with rather expensive ones (Noise Blocker eLoop b12-4) which turned out to have deficient build quality. Remembering that very low budget Fans (Xilence Redwing) in my previous rig, did an awesome job throughout the computers entire life span I'm looking for a more buget oriented solution again.

 

Which good value 140mm Case fan providing an airflow of at least 160m³/h, better would be 200+ m³/h can you recommend?

 

P.S.: I don't care much about the operating noise, anything below this noise level qualifies as silent in my book.

[m0k]

I remember Gelid has/had a solid 140 and 120mm fan runs at 1000rpm or less. good balance between static pressure and airflow (also quiet)

i cant remember the model name but it has a black frame with white blades
and was available with 3pin and 4pin models

[norritt]

@mok: Thanks, I you're probably talking about The Gelid Silent Pro 14, unfortunately the fan doesn't provide the minimum required airflow but only ~81cfm which is a little less than 140m³/h.

[CeremonialSnips]

Depends, where are you located?  I would go to some local shops, see what they will recommend, but I'm old fashioned and actually like to browse brick and mortars.  If silence is not an issue then really any old brand would be acceptable..... I would look for something with a warranty though, just in case they are utter crap and die in a month.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

Ek vardar

[norritt]

@CeremonialSnips: I live in germany. Usually the local shops have like one or 2 brands in stock, If you're shopping for components you usually do it online - we have some distributors who are even specialized in cooling supplies and offer pretty much anything you can think of i.e. caseking.

[m0k]

22 minutes ago, norritt said:

@mok: Thanks, I you're probably talking about The Gelid Silent Pro 14, unfortunately the fan doesn't provide the minimum required airflow but only ~81cfm which is a little less than 140m³/h.

81cfm = 137.61m3/h

are you really going nitpick over 3 m3/h

[norritt]

39 minutes ago, norritt said:

Which good value 140mm Case fan providing an airflow of at least 160m³/h, better would be 200+ m³/h can you recommend?

@mok: It's 23m³/h below my *minimum* requirement

[norritt]

12 minutes ago, Nacho Marco Segui said:

Ek vardar

Wow didn't even know that brand yet. Their 140mm coolers seem to be quite hard to get hands on (at least in germany). I've been able to find the
EK-Furious Vardar FF4-140 for 21€, which definitly meets my requirements. But with a look @ the price tag I probably also could just go for the Noctua AF14-3000 (costs around 5€ more).

 

I was hoping to stay somwhere around the 12€ mark. 

 

Anyhow in case it comes down for me to go for the premium segement again would you still recommend the Ek Vardar Fans before the Noctua Industrial grade ones?

[WoodenMarker]

What are you doing that needs that much airflow?

[norritt]

3 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

What are you doing that needs that much airflow?

I'm a lazy person - so I'm trying to maintain positive pressure in the case to keep dust out. So the front intake fans need to pull in more air than the rear fans and the PSU exhaust.

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, norritt said:

I'm a lazy person - so I'm trying to maintain positive pressure in the case to keep dust out. So the front intake fans need to pull in more air than the rear fans and the PSU exhaust.

Filtering your intakes will keep dust outside of the case. 

Have you tested whether you have positive or negative airflow? Jayztwocents has a video on Youtube showing how to test for it using incense.

[norritt]

41 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Filtering your intakes will keep dust outside of the case. 

Yes my case is a Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl so the front intakes are filtered.

 

41 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Have you tested whether you have positive or negative airflow? Jayztwocents has a video on Youtube showing how to test for it using incense.

Thanks fo the hint I saw the video, but didn't test it that way (mostly because I don't have incense at hand right now). Also I don't have a windowed sidepanel. I assume when I use incense the intakes will pull in the smoke then my Noctua NH-D14 will move it right towards the CPU block and then pass it to the rear fan. The top fan mounting points are closed, so the only other path the air can take would be out the filtered bottom intake for the PSU. But that one is pretty much blocked by the PSU so I don't think theres a lot going on there.

 

Instead I used some very thin piece of paper like this and positioned it in front of the PCI-Slot covers, for testing. It is just barely moving, so if I have positive pressure at the moment its still pretty low and a lot closer to neutral than I want to. Currently I have 2x120mm front intake fans providing an airflow of 150,3 m³/h each.

 

Edit: So that means 300m³/h in total

 

 

[WoodenMarker]

2 minutes ago, norritt said:

Yes my case is a Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl so the front intakes are filtered.

Thanks fo the hint I saw the video, but didn't test it that way (mostly because I don't have incense at hand right now). Also I don't have a windowed sidepanel. I assume when I use incense the intakes will pull in the smoke then my Noctua NH-D14 will move it right towards the CPU block and then pass it to the rear fan. The top fan mounting points are closed, so the only other path the air can take would be out the filtered bottom intake for the PSU. But that one is pretty much blocked by the PSU so I don't think theres a lot going on there.

 

Instead I used some very thin piece of paper like this and positioned it in front of the PCI-Slot covers, for testing. It is just barely moving, so if I have positive pressure at the moment its still pretty low and a lot closer to neutral than I want to. Currently I have 2x120mm front intake fans providing and airflow of 150,3 m³/h.

Unless you're using some fancy measuring equipment, measuring how much air is actually coming in isn't feasible.

Advertised specs are usually in a best-case scenario with no obstructions and will be different depending on the use-case. 

For example, the amount of airflow will be decreased by ~40% by the average case fan grill. It's even worse with a flat front panel like with the Define R4. Fans with more static pressure sacrifice in obstructed airflow for its design but maintain airflow in restricted areas.

If you're still getting dust around where air may be seeping in, you could try lowering your exhaust fan speeds. 

[norritt]

19 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

If you're still getting dust around where air may be seeping in, you could try lowering your exhaust fan speeds.

The exhaust ist the Fractal Design Silent R2 140mm fan that came with the case. It is running at only 1000RPM so I guess there is not much room to lower that, especially since we want to get the hot air the NH-D14 pushes towards it to get out of the case ASAP. The other exhaust is the PSU fan which I don't have direct control over. In idle its probably turned completely off most of the time.

 

If my ears arent deceiving me the bearings of my Noiseblocker eLoop B12-4 might just die on me again somwhere down the road during the next 6 months or so. Which fans would you propose to replace them?

[WoodenMarker]

47 minutes ago, norritt said:

The exhaust ist the Fractal Design Silent R2 140mm fan that came with the case. It is running at only 1000RPM so I guess there is not much room to lower that, especially since we want to get the hot air the NH-D14 pushes towards it to get out of the case ASAP. The other exhaust is the PSU fan which I don't have direct control over. In idle its probably turned completely off most of the time.

If my ears arent deceiving me the bearings of my Noiseblocker eLoop B12-4 might just die on me again somwhere down the road during the next 6 months or so. Which fans would you propose to replace them?

1000rpm isn't that low. I run my Noctuas a little over 200rpm. 

What's wrong with the eLoops?

[norritt]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

1000rpm isn't that low. I run my Noctuas a little over 200rpm. 

The fans on my NH-DH14 are set to 100% even in idle (so between 1200 and 1300RPM). I don't want the exhaust to considerably slow down the airflow.

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

What's wrong with the eLoops?

The bearings are garbage I've already got the 2nd set here. Four of them dying over a course of 3,5 years because of a defective bearing isn't that great. And even if blacknoise has honored their 6 years warranty till now sending replacements takes forever (like a month), which means I either need a 2nd set of fans or run my system without the front intakes for that period of time.

[WoodenMarker]

16 minutes ago, norritt said:

 

The bearings are garbage I've already got the 2nd set here. Four of them dying over a course of 3,5 years because of a defective bearing isn't that great. And even if blacknoise has honored their 6 years warranty till now sending replacements takes forever (like a month), which means I either need a 2nd set of fans or run my system without the front intakes for that period of time.

Have you tried using eLoops elsewhere in push instead? They're not optimized for pulling like in the case of being a front intake in a Define R4. 

[norritt]

No haven't tried them in any other setup. If they can not do the front intake job they are of no use to me and have to go getting us back to the question of what to use as replacement.

[WoodenMarker]

3 hours ago, norritt said:

No haven't tried them in any other setup. If they can not do the front intake job they are of no use to me and have to go getting us back to the question of what to use as replacement.

If you really don't care about noise, you could get 2000 or 3000rpm ippc NF-A14's.