How to determine fan size?

[nocrapman]

Could anyone tell me which dimensions to measure - sides or diagonal - that would determine the fan size I need for my old computer case. Which is a good fan brand/model to go with for a 120mm and 80 mm case fans? I know there has to be a compromise between airflow and noise... so just dont want to buy the strongest and stay up nights. I'd appreciate all of yours' comments. Thanks.

 

[letdown427]

Measure the sides, they're the fan sizes.

Go for 120mm if you can. You can fit a fan into a case, even if it doesn't have the attaachemtns. I've put a 140mm in mine, I'll link you to the thread, it has pics lol.

Here ya go

Also, looking at your sig, you might wanna try to sort out the 9800pro first. I've gt one too, and I had to sort that fan out, it's just SO noisy. If you're going to keep that fan, you might aswell get massive airflow high rpm fans, as they won't drown out that little gpu fan lol.

 

[ricster2000]

Yes, fan sizes are measured along the sides. I hear Nexus fans are the quietest (but that means less airflow), but since i live in the UK, those are very difficult to obtain. Instead, i opted for the Akasa Amber fans, which are amazing (barely louder than nexus fans, but more airflow).

letdown427, what do you recommend using to replace the 9800pro stock fan? I too have that graphics card, and its so loud that changing any fans in my case won't make a difference!

 

[nocrapman]

Thanks guys... thats what I thought it was - ref to sides. The 9800 is loud as hell, but it scares me to tinker with it. It's so small yet so noisy. letdown427: What is the silent maxx. Is that a a hard drive cooler in the 5.25" bay? Are you guys happy with the 9800 - or are u thnking of going PCIe soon. As funny as it is, my card works better in my MB with a Agp set-up as compared with PCI - in the test run by AnandTech. I am definitely holding out for a while, especially till the high end cards become a little cheaper.

 

[bdww00]

hmm ah the 80s are the size of minidiscs and 120s are size of cds