I need fans.

[digitalwanderer]

Anyone seen any good deals on 120mm fans, non-illuminated or LED.

I'm planning on moving my computer off the floor and on to my desk behind my monitor, but it has two blue LED front fans I'd have to replace so I don't have a light shining behind my monitor at me.

Any suggestions? I'm not looking for cheapies, I'm looking for good ones at a good price. Move a lot of air and not too noisey, but I'd take more cooling over a little noise any day.

I'm only seeing deals on LED ones, which I do NOT want. I'm not picky on color or anything, they'll be inside.

I'm definitely replacing two, I might replace 7 or 8 though so if there's a bulk deal I ain't against it.

Thanks in advance, and I'm curious what this thread will evolve in to. I'm guessing water vs air cooling...

 

[Malo]

I'm sure there are just as good fans out there but I tend to stay with good quality ones that have for years proven their worth to me. I only ever buy Noctua case fans for my PCs. And yes you can get black ones that aren't the two-tone brown Noctua is famous for. They're usually around $25 each.

https://www.newegg.com/noctua-chromax-black-swap-case-fan/p/1YF-000T-000D9?Item=9SIAADY6J02427

 

[Albuquerque]

Yeah, I came in here to post literally the same fan Malo just did.

I just finished my own PC build a month or so ago, and I tried to reuse a decent set of 120mm SilverStone fans. Turns out the years have not been kind to them; both had bad bearings and would rattle, not keep RPM, or sometimes wouldnt' even start if the PWM wasn't strong enough. My new Chromax black 120mm is quiet AF unless you have it cranked to 100%, it moves plenty of air, and it isn't all RGB-orgied out.

 

[digitalwanderer]

My wife would castrate me if I spent $25 on a fan, I was hoping for under $10. :/

 

[Malo]

I'm not looking for cheapies, I'm looking for good ones at a good price.

My wife would castrate me if I spent $25 on a fan, I was hoping for under $10. :/

These two comments are in conflict. If you want decent fans, you have to pay. If you think under $10 is not a cheapie and a good one then it's possible you're stuck in an alternate universe.

 

[digitalwanderer]

These two comments are in conflict. If you want decent fans, you have to pay. If you think under $10 is not a cheapie and a good one then it's possible you're stuck in an alternate universe.

Nope, I'm looking for a deal. I know it's hard, but sometimes I get lucky.

I'm gonna poke around some more later, let you know what I find.

 

[Albuquerque]

You OK with $13? Noctua here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CG2PGY6

 

[Davros]

Lian Li SL120 4 fans with only 1 connector

 

[digitalwanderer]

I watched that one when it came out, thought it was a fantastic idea.

I just had my son help me out a bit and I moved my computer to my desktop. Gonna see if the light annoys me or not, because spending money on fans WILL annoy my wife.

(My son held my monitor while I repositioned it's arm base, that's why I got help. It was either that or unmount my monitor first, and this was hella quicker!)

 

[WhiningKhan]

I'm your fan!
I'm not cheap, not too noisy but I can move a lot of air (unless I watch what I eat). Increasing air flow tends to add noise though.
Yeah, I'm not too bright either. Overly bright fans can be irritating.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Lian Li SL120 4 fans with only 1 connector

I put nine Lian-Li UNI SL120 fans (three intake fans on the bottom, three exhaust fans on the top, 1 rear exhaust fan on the back and 2 pre-installed on water radiator into my recent PC build and it's not just a gimmick, it is genuinely makes the install faster with less cabling, plus the management of the fans - if you hook them into the fan bank controllers - much easier.

I really didn't care much for RGB but the cost of RGB/ARGB/LED fans, GPUs and RAM is either negligible or not even an option, so I sprung for ARGB across the board. Whilst being careful to buy components that were compatible with ASUS Aura Sync, if I had known what a pain in the arse installing all the software in the right order, bollocking about with BIOS settings, failing.. uninstalling, re-booting, re-testing, googling the issues, uninstalling software again and rebooting and re-installing, I would never have bothered.

So what what I done with all this RGB? It's just set to white.

It took as long to setup all the RGB software as it did to build the PC. Just mental.

 

[BRiT]

Found this warning, guess using all the leds uses more:

Do not connect more than 10 UNI FANs (device up to 21W) to the controller (UNI HUB) when performing white static color. To connect more devices, please update to L-Connect 2 (reference to update guide) and use 2 or more controllers.​

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Found this warning, guess using all the leds uses more:

Do not connect more than 10 UNI FANs (device up to 21W) to the controller (UNI HUB) when performing white static color. To connect more devices, please update to L-Connect 2 (reference to update guide) and use 2 or more controllers.​

I wonder what the issue is. I have four controllers (one is redundant) but I'm also using L-Connect 3. The fan/RGB management issue on the PC is due to lack of a single standard and the need for so much proprietary software installed in the right order.

ASUS's Aura Sync feels the closest to the standard (and it works with Philips Hue) but even then I found that to control my Corsair Dominator Platinum ARGB DDR5 RAM sticks, I needed to install a plug-in for ASUS's Armoury Crate software, and before I could download that 8mb download, I needed to install the gigabyte-size iCUE software from Corsair. Both of these "obviously" needed to be installed before installing Armoury Crate, or you had to un-install everything, reboot and start over. Before Corsair's iCUE software could "see" my Corsair RAM sticks, I also needed to change a BIOS setting that was disabling "SPD Write" and I don't even know what the hell that is.

It was similar for the Lian-Li fans and water-cooler, you need to initially install Lian-Li's L-Connect 3 software and make sure it can see everything, only it couldn't "see" the ARGBs on the radiator, only the ARGBs on the connected controllers for the UNI SL120 fans, but when I installed all the software in a very precise order, the ASUS motherboard (an ASUS ROG STRIX Z690 Wifi) could see everything.

How TF do 'regular consumers' get any of this to work?

It's an absolutely mess.

 

[orangpelupa]

How about cheap no-brand fans from aliexpress?

IME random weird chinese fans are durable enough. I hadn't even got 1 that dies on me.

Look for low rpm, at the largest dimension your case can accommodate.

Even better if the fan and motherboard supports pwm so you can just set them at lowest speed.


Or if you want branded, cooler Master fans are cheap too. But not sure how cheap it is in the US. In my place it's almost as cheap as random Chinese brand fans

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Look for low rpm, at the largest dimension your case can accommodate.

Bigger, slower fans are preferable if noise is a consideration. And if you don't mind replacing less-expensive failed fans, then I think going for low-cost no-brand names makes a lot of sense.

It's worth remembering that many brand name items supplied via some channels have a fair chance of being counterfeit unless supplied though reliable channels. Amazon definitely isn't a reliable channel in many counties any more. I.e., you can spend more for a brand name component sand still end up with a cheaper counterfeit version unless buying from a legitimate supplier.

 

[orangpelupa]

Bigger, slower fans are preferable if noise is a consideration. And if you don't mind replacing less-expensive failed fans, then I think going for low-cost no-brand names makes a lot of sense.

It's worth remembering that many brand name items supplied via some channels have a fair chance of being counterfeit unless supplied though reliable channels. Amazon definitely isn't a reliable channel in many counties any more. I.e., you can spend more for a brand name component sand still end up with a cheaper counterfeit version unless buying from a legitimate supplier.

IIRC there was even cases of counterfeit microsd card despite it was sold and fulfilled by Amazon, a few years ago

 

[Davros]

I wonder what the issue is.

Probably because static white is all the leds on full all the time and therefore the most power hungry mode

 

[digitalwanderer]

I am so over RGB, I think I was over LEDs and then RGB just became the go to thing for all things PC gaming!
They're obnoxious, distracting, and just raise the price of things too much. I wish they'd go back to quality not meaning having RGB on it.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I am so over RGB, I think I was over LEDs and then RGB just became the go to thing for all things PC gaming!
They're obnoxious, distracting, and just raise the price of things too much. I wish they'd go back to quality not meaning having RGB on it.

On good quality RAM and fans, the additional cost of LEDs is negligible. It's really when you put RGB onto something that is aiming for the budget market, that the cost is noticeable.

 

[digitalwanderer]

On good quality RAM and fans, the additional cost of LEDs is negligible. It's really when you put RGB onto something that is aiming for the budget market, that the cost is noticeable.

Don't care, still hate it.