Durability sleeve bearing case fans? &need for HDD fan?

[Bluejay8]

Debating whether to buy case fans selling for $5 on special for $1 at www.nexfan.com (sleevebearing) or if it is best to pay a dollar or two more for ball beaaring fans? Will the sleeve bearing types be that much less durable to make them a poor choice?

Are HDD fans a smart option if only using HDD 7200 rpm units. Would the potential extra cooling help extend life of HDD?

Thanks for any comments

 

[corkyg]

Go ball bearing. Sleeve can crap out in 3 months, and the aggravation of changing them eats up the difference in cost.

As for HDD cooling, it is not a bad idea. I keep my HDDs in upper bay external mobile racks and can swap them out in trays. Those racks have their own cooling fans. I use all IBM GXP drives and have NEVER had any problems with them. I believe it is because mine run cooler.

 

[John]

I highly recommend the 80mm Panaflo's w/ hydro-wave bearing (ultra quiet) from bgmicro.com @ 2.75ea if you buy (10).

 

[Floydian]

Panaflo's are sleeve bearing, but because they are hydrowave, and some other crap, they last just as long as a ball bearing fan FYI - you can get some cheap quiet ball bearing fans at electronicsgoldmineelectronics goldmine -- the 1.39 NMB fans are super quiet, but you'll need to rewire them to a 3-4 pin connector or similar (svcompucycle.com has good prices on them)

If you want a standard fan with a regular 3 pin end, check out the deltas for 1.99. They're louder, but not significantly, definately not silent though

I have both of these fans, so if you have any questions PM me

Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[MWink]

It really depends on the fan. I've seen some cheap sleeve bearing fans run for years without a problem (in fact both my systems have 2 sleeve bearing fans that have yet to fail). I have also seen some ball bearing fans that died in no time.

For things like a PS, CPU, or chipset fan, I would get a ball bearing fan. For case fans, either is fine.