- Oct 23, 2000
- 9,188
- 753
- 126
Three of the six 120mm fans in my Corsair Carbide Air 540 case are threatening to die at any moment. They have been "growling" quite a bit lately. A drop of light oil on the spindles has them mostly spinning OK right now but I'm sure it won't last so I need to start looking at replacement options.
The case has mounts for three 120mm or two 140mm fans on the front, two 120mm or 140mm on top, and one 120mm or 140mm on the back. It is currently running with three intake on the front, 1 exhaust on the back, and intake on the top front and exhaust on the top back. Both top fans were exhaust previously but I noticed a small drop in CPU temperature when I swapped the top front fan to intake. I suspect that's because it was pulling cool intake air away before it could get to the CPU cooler.
I'm thinking about probably replacing all six of the fans since three of these cheap fans are dying and I wouldn't be surprised if the other three give up in the near future as well.
I don't know if it would be better to go with six 120mm fans again, or five 140mm instead, or even just eliminate the top two completely and have two 140mm in front and one 140mm in back.
I really don't care at all about RGB or static lighting, but don't object to having it as long as it's not obnoxiously bright. The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite motherboard has four 4-pin fan connectors, so PWM control could be nice, but since the computer runs at 100% utilization 24/7 for distributed computing projects, the fans will probably run at full speed most of the time as well. Also, super quiet is nice but not a high priority and not worth a high price since I really need to keep the budget reasonably low to avoid wife "aggro", and the current GPU fan is pretty noisy anyway so the computer won't be silent no matter what the case fans are doing...
I've read several suggestions in other posts here, and while there are some good recommendations, most of the ones I've seen would make the cost quite a bit higher than what I want to spend. $20+ per fan is definitely too much for this situation if I need to purchase 5 or 6 new fans. I know that it limits my options, but I'd like to keep the total cost under $50.
A really low cost option that has pretty good reviews is this Arctic F14 5-pack from Amazon for $32.95. The biggest concern/question for me is if they are reliable enough that I won't just end up having to replace them again in the near future.
Or if removing the top two fans completely (and maybe just sealing off the open vent there) is feasible, then three slightly more expensive fans could also fit in the budget. Maybe something like the Be Quiet! PureWings 2 or Noctua NF-P14s.
I'd appreciate any suggestions to help me decide what to do.
The case has mounts for three 120mm or two 140mm fans on the front, two 120mm or 140mm on top, and one 120mm or 140mm on the back. It is currently running with three intake on the front, 1 exhaust on the back, and intake on the top front and exhaust on the top back. Both top fans were exhaust previously but I noticed a small drop in CPU temperature when I swapped the top front fan to intake. I suspect that's because it was pulling cool intake air away before it could get to the CPU cooler.
I'm thinking about probably replacing all six of the fans since three of these cheap fans are dying and I wouldn't be surprised if the other three give up in the near future as well.
I don't know if it would be better to go with six 120mm fans again, or five 140mm instead, or even just eliminate the top two completely and have two 140mm in front and one 140mm in back.
I really don't care at all about RGB or static lighting, but don't object to having it as long as it's not obnoxiously bright. The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite motherboard has four 4-pin fan connectors, so PWM control could be nice, but since the computer runs at 100% utilization 24/7 for distributed computing projects, the fans will probably run at full speed most of the time as well. Also, super quiet is nice but not a high priority and not worth a high price since I really need to keep the budget reasonably low to avoid wife "aggro", and the current GPU fan is pretty noisy anyway so the computer won't be silent no matter what the case fans are doing...
I've read several suggestions in other posts here, and while there are some good recommendations, most of the ones I've seen would make the cost quite a bit higher than what I want to spend. $20+ per fan is definitely too much for this situation if I need to purchase 5 or 6 new fans. I know that it limits my options, but I'd like to keep the total cost under $50.
A really low cost option that has pretty good reviews is this Arctic F14 5-pack from Amazon for $32.95. The biggest concern/question for me is if they are reliable enough that I won't just end up having to replace them again in the near future.
Or if removing the top two fans completely (and maybe just sealing off the open vent there) is feasible, then three slightly more expensive fans could also fit in the budget. Maybe something like the Be Quiet! PureWings 2 or Noctua NF-P14s.
I'd appreciate any suggestions to help me decide what to do.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter