Noob Question: Case Fans

[Sharpbladez]

I need to replace the case fans that came with my computer & Im confused about how to pick the right ones. Do I just measure my current ones & pick out new ones based on that? or is there more to it?

[force18]

If your case isnt too old then the manual/box should actually say the dimensions of your fans to replace them with. My cool master stryker case you can find all the mm of the fans and most times you can just replace those, but there could be more then just that depending on how many amps and how many you plan to hook up to your motherboard or using your psu etc. I replaced my top fan that was 200mm with 2 140mm noctua as it died and my case specs said i could fit those etc and they all lined up fine.

The other thing is you want to know which way to face them to make them exhaust or intake fans as this could affect your air flow etc. I hooked up the 2 case fans at the top right to the power supply to not draw too much power from the mobo as some of the new fans can take up lots and some people have said it can hurt the mobo or throttle it.

[Miyagie]

I need to replace the case fans that came with my computer & Im confused about how to pick the right ones. Do I just measure my current ones & pick out new ones based on that? or is there more to it?

If you want to be sure, make some photos of your pc and post them here.

[Sharpbladez]

k neither of those responses helped. i need 2 cheap & quiet fans that are close to the dimensions: 4.72 x 4.72 x 0.98 in I guess I want 4 pin connector. i dont know what else matters. Ive spent an hour looking on amazon and i cant find a decent match.

[Arkura]

k neither of those responses helped. i need 2 cheap & quiet fans that are close to the dimensions: 4.72 x 4.72 x 0.98 in I guess I want 4 pin connector. i dont know what else matters. Ive spent an hour looking on amazon and i cant find a decent match.

By the looks of things you were running with stock fans until you had to replace one fan. Basically what I look at first is the RPM of the fans, if they are either the same or if I can find a fan with higher RPM then the better. (More RPM means more air coming in or going out depending on push or pull config)
And dont worry to much about power consumption, if you're just replacing a fan and you're not buying a rocket engine for your computer you should be good. Just make sure it looks like a fan still xD

[Lollis]

Any 120mm fan will do and depending on the type it's either going to be a molex 4pin (actually a 2 pin) or a special fan power connector.

Decent cheap fans with controls or lighting cost around £5-8 each (around $10) the slightly more premium quality ones are around £10 each ($14) but you can often get them in packs of two or more. Standard bell-and-whistle-less 120s can be as low as £3 each too ($5) but these aren't always listed as 'silent'

Corsair/Cooler Master/Silverstone are probably your best choices. Last time I bought some I got a pair of Cooler Master SickleFlow for around £6 each, although I have got a new case between now and when they were used they were still a pretty quiet fan.

Someone will more recent purchases could probably help you better (and the fans I bought look to have increased in price, likely due to being out of manufacture now or something)

[Alantor]

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-F12.../dp/B00650P2ZC

I actually just installed some A14s yesterday. Expensive but premium, i'm happy with the purchase. They are only useful if your mobo supports PWM though (look for your mobo manual on the internet.)

Some info that you might want to read:

https://www.howtogeek.com/303078/how...w-and-cooling/
https://www.howtogeek.com/275339/how...iet-operation/

[Shakadam]

k neither of those responses helped. i need 2 cheap & quiet fans that are close to the dimensions: 4.72 x 4.72 x 0.98 in I guess I want 4 pin connector. i dont know what else matters. Ive spent an hour looking on amazon and i cant find a decent match.

FYI absolutely no one anywhere measures fan dimensions in inches. I stared at those numbers for a good 15 seconds trying to figure out wtf you had measured before I spotted the "in".

[Sharpbladez]

Follow up on this topic: I bought 2 of these: https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-F12.../dp/B00650P2ZC - for the front of my case. I just installed them & I connected them to SYSFAN1 & SYSFAN2 (4pin connectors) on my motherboard. I also went into the BIOS & set them to use PWM & checked the "Smart Fan" options.

My question is, did I do everything correctly? They are running nice & quiet so far