What might be the best option for some brightly lit but quiet 120mm case fans? Currently I have 3 Corsair ML 120mm white fans installed and I hate them! They are loud and barely illuminate the case...
Two of the most important specs of a fan are: cubic feet/minute (cfm), and noise rated in dB.
A rule of thumb for fan setups is: the bigger the fan is, the quieter it will run at the same cfm.
If you have a 120mm and a 140mm fan that both push 75 cfm, the 140mm fan will be quieter.
Another rule of thumb is that Noctua fans are generally quieter and more expensive.
Choose A Case Fan - PCPartPicker
PCPartpicker is a good place to look for hardware. Great navigation and each item has the prices from a few retailers, sorted for lowest.
120mm case fans: Choose A Case Fan - PCPartPicker
You can click the column headings as well, to sort the columns.
Got any do-it-yourself talent?
Noctua RGB Fan - The First Custom-Made Noctua RGB Fan (2019) - YouTube
Someone on Reddit sez:
"Buy some Noctuas then slap the Phanteks halos on, make any quality silent fan rgb instantly!"
I have no idea what a Phanteks halo is.
Last edited by ignatzatsonic; 16 Mar 2021 at 10:59.
My DYI skills have not been so good lately, lol. I saw some fans in a couple videos with blue LED's around them and they really popped! No idea what brand they are though.... I have an NZXT 510 case but the system looks pretty boring with the current case fans. Even with turning down the fan speed the thing sounds like a microwave.
Turn Normal Boring Fans Into Cool RGB - Phanteks HALOS RGB Fan FRAME - YouTube
Phanteks Halo demo.
Well FrozenCPU has ALL the fans...
Computer Fans and Computer Fan Accessories - FrozenCPU.com
Okay, so the Corsair ML120 fans are pretty quiet fans. According to the specs they are 25db fans and they move 47.3 cubic feet of air per minute. My Fractal X2 GP14's are silent at 19db and move 68.5 cubic feet of air. They are not RGB though.
Are you fans set to run at full speed? that's obviously going to increase the amount of noise they make. Standing about 1 foot from my PC, I cannot hear the fans. I have 3 x 140mm Fractal fans, a 120mm and 135mm fan in my Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU cooler, and I have a 3080 EVGA FTW3+ fan with 3 fans (which are about 100mm) and they are set with the OC switch to always spin (about 30% minimum).
Unsure on the brigtness setting on the ML120's. I'm not really into RGB, I don't like the Unicorn vomit look.
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