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Welch
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Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:47 pm

Curious what some of you guys are doing for say.. 120mm or 140mm fans these days. I know designer fans are all the rage now like the fairly newer Corsair fans that took them 3-4 years to design (Its a fan, really 3-4 years...). I'm using these fans for office machines, not my home/gaming rig. That said, they simply need to be fairly quiet and move enough air to keep i3/i5 systems using integrated graphics.

$12.72 for a 4 pack, that seems decent pricing wise.
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Bea ... landtec-20

I've used these ones I'm pretty sure, just not sure how well they did for reliability, otherwise they seem to get enough good ratings to warrant a little over $3 per fan. Again these will be used for office machines that having failing fans in NZXT cases. For future reference... While I like the NZXT Source 210 Elite for its price and features... the included fans are lucky to make it to 2 years. I've got an office full of them that are going out, a few of which full on seized.

Open to suggestions... is there a better mouse trap?
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Captain Ned
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:51 pm

Go with the ball-bearing version linked in your Amazon listing for even more durability. Business-class machines will probably be designed for 120mm vs. 140mm.
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Welch
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 2:10 pm

Ahhh, yes Sleeve vs Ball Bearing, how could I have forgotten this topic :|. Its been too many years since I truly tweaked anything in case to that level. For the extra 4-5 bucks, it makes sense. The other ones are rated to 50,000 hours, which is a little over 5 1/2 years, more than enough. I'll bet these NZXT fans were sleeve, explains their failure type and low life span.
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Captain Ned
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 2:22 pm

The only way to get better bearing life is a Fluid Dynamic Bearing (Scythe S-Flex, Panaflo), but then you're spending $17/$20 per fan, not 4-pack. If you want to spend a day or three geeking out over fans and fan accessories, look no further than http://www.frozencpu.com. If they don't have it, I'm not sure it exists.
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 3:05 pm

I suppose I fall into the category of using "designer fans".

I like the Silverstone Air Penetrator series. I found this video fairly compelling.

Newegg does give bundled prices for the fans, but it definitely doesn't get near the prices you listed in your opening post.

Silverstone AP141

Silverstone AP121

Silverstone Air Penetrator Series

They do have some cheaper than the ones I linked, but they often compromise by ditching a fluid dynamic bearing for a sleeve bearing.
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The Egg
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:48 pm

I generally go with the Antec Tri-Cool DBB and use the "low" setting. I'm sure there are better performing fans, but I'm lazy and don't really care to do the research for "meh" improvements. I've also used Antec's "TrueQuiet" variants, which are indeed a bit quieter, but I believe use a sleeve bearing.
 
LoneWolf15
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 6:02 pm

When you choose fans, going by "cheapest in a multi-pack" probably isn't going to get you great fans.

My go-to fans are generally either specialty ball bearing, or fluid-dynamic bearing. And by buying good quality fans, I end up with ones that last a long time. I don't buy fans for "designer's" sake. I buy them so I don't have to buy new ones regularly, ones that run quietly for years without getting noisy over time, and still push a reasonable amount of air.

Examples:
Scythe Gentle Typhoon - Nidec balanced ball bearing. These are some of the most solidly-built fans I've ever owned.
Scythe S-Flex - Sony fluid dynamic bearing. I have probably six of these in two systems. None have failed and they are probably four years old, old enough that Scythe has replaced their line with the similar Scythe Kama Flow 2.
Bitfenix Spectre Pro - fluid dynamic bearing (I have several of the 200mm models). I bought these for size, but they make smaller ones.
NMB (formerly Panasonic) Pana-flo - oil bearing. No longer the quietest, but still among the best built motors. Only issue --fan blades are sharp and shatter easily if they encounter an obstruction. I ran a 60mm one from an IBM PCjr in one of my systems for half a dozen years through multiple generations of processors and mainboards.

If you want cheap, buy cheap. If you want good, buy good. You're not likely to get both. Also, as Captain Ned mentioned, FrozenCPU is a great place to find fans. Just make sure you search for the 5% off coupon.
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biffzinker
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:35 pm

Cougar Turbine CFT12SB4 120mm Case Fan 4-Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553009

or if you like orange
Cougar Turbine CF-T12S4 120mm Case Fan 4-Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553008
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Welch
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 9:31 pm

I'm wanting to buy decent, not great.. not even really good. The reason being is that this is a corporate environment and the customer in question would loose their minds if I told them good fans were going to cost near $20 each.

I settled on the $17-$18 4-pack that Captain Ned suggested, the Ball bearing version of the cheapo's I listed at the start. If they are rated for 50,000 hours and make it to even 30,000 + then I'm good.
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TwistedKestrel
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sat Nov 01, 2014 11:10 pm

As my machine squeaks for a good ten minutes now after turning it on, this thread is relevant to my interests.

biffzinker wrote:
Cougar Turbine CFT12SB4 120mm Case Fan 4-Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553009

or if you like orange
Cougar Turbine CF-T12S4 120mm Case Fan 4-Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553008


"Bearing Type: Hyper spin"

:o
 
biffzinker
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sun Nov 02, 2014 1:37 am

TwistedKestrel wrote:
As my machine squeaks for a good ten minutes now after turning it on, this thread is relevant to my interests.

biffzinker wrote:
Cougar Turbine CFT12SB4 120mm Case Fan 4-Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553009

or if you like orange
Cougar Turbine CF-T12S4 120mm Case Fan 4-Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553008


"Bearing Type: Hyper spin"

:o


Rated for 150,000 hours so I'm going to guess no sleeve bearing.
Was looking at case fans earlier myself figured 7.50 per fan for a 4 pack at 30.00 why not.
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:09 am

Just replaced a quartet of cheapo Yate Loon ball-bearing fans that had siezed up in one renderfarm cabinet.

24hours x 365days x ~4years = 35000 hours of bearing life, so even cheap and nast bb fan seems to last a decent amount of time.
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sun Nov 02, 2014 3:56 pm

Welch wrote:
I'm wanting to buy decent, not great.. not even really good. The reason being is that this is a corporate environment and the customer in question would loose their minds if I told them good fans were going to cost near $20 each.

I settled on the $17-$18 4-pack that Captain Ned suggested, the Ball bearing version of the cheapo's I listed at the start. If they are rated for 50,000 hours and make it to even 30,000 + then I'm good.


Just a question --if it's a corporate environment, aren't they using corporate machines (e.g., Dell, HP business line)?

All of that stuff is usually covered under three-year warranty for business-class systems. I encourage our customers to switch to business desktops if they aren't running them, as it allows for standardization and consistency, unlike my home network, where I build the desktops. Dell and HP will usually use long-life fans like Sanyo-Denki or others.
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Captain Ned
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sun Nov 02, 2014 4:10 pm

LoneWolf15 wrote:
Just a question --if it's a corporate environment, aren't they using corporate machines (e.g., Dell, HP business line)?

From Welch's OP, I think he went homebrew for his office boxen. Sounds like that if there's a warranty, it's coming out of his hide.

For me personally, the 6 Scythe S-Flex 120mm 1600 RPM jobbies have been spinning 24/7 since July 2007 without a complaint. When I start to hear them, that tells me it's time to remove a cat or three from the inside of the box.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
Welch
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Re: Cheapest Multi-Fan Packs - Recommendations

Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:39 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
LoneWolf15 wrote:
Just a question --if it's a corporate environment, aren't they using corporate machines (e.g., Dell, HP business line)?

From Welch's OP, I think he went homebrew for his office boxen. Sounds like that if there's a warranty, it's coming out of his hide.

For me personally, the 6 Scythe S-Flex 120mm 1600 RPM jobbies have been spinning 24/7 since July 2007 without a complaint. When I start to hear them, that tells me it's time to remove a cat or three from the inside of the box.


Homebrew is right, and the machines run great (i3-2120 through 4th gen i3), 8gb RAM and the more recent versions have 250gb SSDs. While Dell can beat the price, their quality didn't without spending more than it was worth. I warranty all of the machines for my builds for 1 year, but I'm obviously not going to do it to the day. The ones that are having fans that are making noises now are those Elite Source 210. The N200 cases are fine and the Corsair 200R have been great as well so far. Its just not worth throwing a 20+ fan into a machine as it won't pay itself off for as long as they have the machines.

On my own machine at the house, i'd probably go with the higher end stuff if there were sound/cfm/longevity benefits. The fans that came with my Corsair 400R are a bit louder than you'd expect even from day one. Otherwise they have been working fine for around 3 1/2 years.
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