Greetings to the Tek Syndicate team! I am curious as to everybody's personal favourite case fan, as I was given a define r4 for christmas, and thought I'd load this baby with all the fans it could fit. Thank ya'll very much and I hope you continue to produce fabulous content.
Previously my absolut favorite was the Scythe Slip Stream 120mm's at speeds like 800 or 1200 RPM. So smooth and undervolted extremely well as needed. But now yeah with a Define R4 here too it's all about 140mm fans, and my experience with Scythe's 140mm fans have been annoying with ticking defects on most samples. On the other hand the standard fans from Fractal Design that comes with the newer cases are not bad. As long as they're undervolted a little bit they fit my needs. Together with a motherboard or controller that allows for turning fans completely off at low temperatures, I'm going with the Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm fans for now. When bought separately they come with an alternative resistor cable and silicone grommets, to soften their tone even further.
While ther are nice expensive fans like the Noctuas or Be Quiet, I don't see the need to pay twice as much for something that makes the same amount of noise as a half decent cheaper fan run at sensible speeds.
Unless doing some really heavy overclocking or running triple SLI/CF however I don't think you'll need to fill up all the fan mounts. For most gaming systems, including something like an i7 and a Titan, a setup like two fans in the front and the single exhaust in the back using Silent Series R2 fans are fine. Even if hooked up to the built in fan controller set to medium.
Having a low noise main system is so nice. Though I hear some solve it by keeping a headset on at all times. :-)
Mine are Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1400rpm.
I've got them for my watercooling and they run quieter and cooler than Noctua nf-f12s
Air Flow:
120 mm: Corsair Air Series AF120 (Performance or Quiet Edition)
140 mm: Noctua NF-A15 PWM
Static Pressure:
120 mm: Corsair Air Series SP120 (Performance or Quiet Edition)
Delta AFB1212GHE-CF00 120mm Case cooler sadly no longer sold by newegg Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm Case Fan and again sadly not sold by the egg anymore.
Don't own any but noctua fans are always good. Quiet while having great performance, or so I've heard. Bit expensive though
nzxt case fans. I can not even hear them run during the daytime and they cool great