Replacement for Fractal Define R4 140mm stock fans

[Potenza]

A few days ago I ditched my humming Lian Li PC-A05 for a Fractal Design a Define R4. So far I'm very pleased with the sturdy case. Looks nice, great quality and a pleasure to work with.

The 140mm fans that came with it are less impressive, though. They do the job and aren't extremely loud, but there's room for improvement. I want to use the in-built fan-controller, it's a tiny and pleasant thing to work with. So basically, I'm looking for a 140mm fan that is inaudible at 5V but capable of creating a decent airflow. Any recommendations? The SPCR-recommended 140mm fans list is rather minimal and getting slightly outdated.

I mostly like Noctua, but the characteristic colour-scheme turns me off. Therefore the Noctua NF-P14s redux-900 seems a good option. I'm also interested in Noiseblocker BlackSilent PK1, they seem excellent as well. Anyway, all input is extremely appreciated!

[CA_Steve]

If your motherboard can control 3 pin case fans, I'd suggest the Antec True Quiet 140's. Great tone, pretty darn quiet. If you just hook them up to your R4's switch controller, they'll only drop to 550-600rpm in the low position. You can read more in my signature or just pop straight to the post.

[Potenza]

Thanks, mate. I've been toying around with fans being controlled by my motherboard. Unfortunately, it's not great at that. I've tried controlling several fans (Nexus, Scythe, Fractal,...) with SpeedFan and the bios, but the succes was always limited. That's why I was very happy with the simple, straightforward fancontroller in the Define R4. It just works.

Anyway, I might try those Antecs, but I would really like to try those Noctua redux fans. No one has used these?

[Leopardi]

If your motherboard can control 3 pin case fans, I'd suggest the Antec True Quiet 140's. Great tone, pretty darn quiet. If you just hook them up to your R4's switch controller, they'll only drop to 550-600rpm in the low position. You can read more in my signature or just pop straight to the post.

Can those be placed in bottom/top slots? I'm looking to put one in the bottom position. And why not phanteks which were praised?

[lodestar]

As an alternative to the Antec True Quiet 140mm you could consider the Noctua Redux 140mm 1200 PWM. The Redux has a nominal range of 300 to 1200 rpm. Potentially it can allow lower idle speeds than the True Quiet without compromising on a faster speed if demands on the system require it. With older motherboards which may only have a single PWM header it will require a PWM splitter cable. But just replacing the exhaust fan with the Redux by using a simple PWM Y cable could make a big difference. The existing exhaust fan could then be deployed elsewhere, either to the bottom position or as an intake. Together with the existing intake fan it could be run at the minimum setting on the case fan controller to provide a steady but fairly quiet level of background air flow.

[Abula]

I'm also interested in Noiseblocker BlackSilent PK1, they seem excellent as well. Anyway, all input is extremely appreciated!

While the PK1 is an excelent fan tonally, it has its drawbacks, like you cant undervolt it, or doesnt have much effect, at least on mine.



While the Antec True Quiet 140s, have a very good range of operation, depending on the motherboard it can be drop off to 200rpms and scale up to 800rpms,



Sadly i dont own any of the Noctua Redux, the 140s seems more using the design of the P14 that SPCR had as their reference fan, not like the newer A14, but in my experience Noctua has very good range of operation, specially for PWM fans and their coolor scheme of the redux seems attractive for most, so if thats important to you, then i think its a good option, just a matter of deciding into if you want PWM or 3pin voltage controlled.

[lodestar]

Yes, the Noctua Redux 140mm square frame fans are all based on the P14. There are four versions: 300 to 1200 and 450 to 1500 rpm PWM, and 900 and 1200 3-pin.

[faugusztin]

The 14cm Noctua redux 1200RPM (non-PWM) has this range according to my board :

[lodestar]

The PWM Redux P14S 1200 has just a touch less top speed and lower speed ranges of

20% 311 rpm
30% 447 rpm
40% 585 rpm
50% 723 rpm

which is similar to the 3-pin version apart from the 20% level which could be accessed with just BIOS control if the Asus Silent profile or similar is used. Using Asus Fan Xpert+ drops the 20% figure by about 100 rpm to 208 rpm at 17% duty cycle. In a system, again using Fan Xpert+, the lowest speed I saw was around 250 rpm. At these very low speeds this fan is eerily silent.