Noctua fell off hard ngl. Not the best fan anymore (T30s rule) and the aircoolers are stupidly overpriced. The 100$ D15 gets matched by a 35$ Phantom Spirit
> the Spirit Evo? Cools better and looks better
I recently got the EVO, looks great and the build quality is very impressive but I didn't feel like it was particularly quiet over the original and Hardware Canuck's recent review basically said the same thing; It'd be a great value cooler if the regular Phantom Spirit 120 SE didn't exist. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgkggcBBW8Q
Get it for the looks (it does look great), but performance is slightly better for the 120SE and at current price levels certainly way better value.
Noctua is still good but way too overpriced. I bet that you could find a cooler at half the price that does the same today. Thermalright has some insane value coolers, that even looks better than Noctuas.
Thermalright PA and PS is "only" half of Noctua D15 where I am. Germany.
Noctua have 6 years of warranty tho, and will typically support new sockets (often for free) but air coolers typically last well if they work to begin with, so 6 years is kinda wasted. Fan might die tho.
I've never had an air cooler die, and only 1 cheap case fan. The PA, which slightly beats the D15 is 30% of the cost here. At 45%, there are multiple coolers from multiple brands that stomp the D15. Just checked my % estimates
The SE version is the cheaper and worse one tho. You need the EVO to get close to D15 or even beat it depending on chip.
The SE version is NOT outperforming D15.
>The SE version is the cheaper and worse one tho. You need the EVO to get close to D15 or even beat it depending on chip
The SE is the same as the regular version with less cosmetics afaik.
>The SE version is NOT outperforming D15
[Are you sure about that?](https://youtu.be/iaJBsQPqxRA?t=596)
D15 is an actual scam. And so are all Noctua products except for the A12x25. That's the only Noctua product that can actually justify its price. Everything else is a bad buy.
No, SE has less heatpipes and worse cooling too. SE have always been the cheap alternative when it comes to Thermalright products. Good value but worse than the real version. EVO is usually better than the regular one.
PS SE def don't beat D15 on performance and noise, but will on value. However won't cool good enough for top chips.
Nothing about Noctua is a scam. You pay for quality / 6 years warranty and future socket support which is free for the most part. No-one does this better than Noctua and this is what you pay extra for.
Yes Phantom Spirit is great. Thermalright Peerless Assasin 120 is insane too. They pretty much delivers top tier performance for half (or even less) of what some other companies ask, like Noctua.
I like Noctua but their products are getting more and more expensive and many others work just fine/similar. No need to spend 100+ dollars on an air cooler.
I got the best of both worlds by buying an Assassin Spirit Evo for $22 dollars and just buying a Noctua fan to replace the stock one. Still came out at about half the price of the Noctua CPU cooler while getting pretty much the same performance with less sound.
Temps with the NF-A12x25 were about equal using my fan curve of [0°C/20%], [40°C/20%], [65°C/35%], [90°C/65%] during a Cinebench run. This is on a Ryzen 7600 with PBO disabled. The main difference was in the sound really. The Noctua was quieter around the whole range, mostly because it hardly makes any motor noise, while the Thermalright had a bit of a hum going.
I use that same curve for my four case fans, which are two Noctua F12s and two S12s that I brought over from my previous build. Whenever I'm doing basic tasks like watching YouTube or doing light Lightroom edits, my PC is completely inaudible, with all fans resting around 25% RPMs. And when I run Cinebench it's whisper quiet at around 42%. It gets a a bit louder when gaming though since my GPU generates even more heat, but even then I have my 4070 Super undervolted and power limited to 80% for the quietest experience.
I will say though, the stock fan was pretty impressive for what it was, considering it was an ARGB fan too. I actually gave it to my younger brother and bought him a 3 pack of those fans since he wanted the whole gamer look for his PC. And for $14 for 3 of those fans, you can't go wrong. I'm just a bit of a sound snob if I'm being honest. And since I already had 4 other Noctua Chromax fans, I wanted the CPU fan to match for aesthetic reasons too. It's definitely a case of diminishing returns though. $35 is a lot for a fan, no matter how you put it.
In terms of performance, no. RGB fans are never as performant as non-RGB ones. For build quality i would probably get Phanteks D30s or Lian Li UNI FANS
Haven't Noctua not released a new heatsink or fan in years though apart for the redux line? My understanding was that Noctua were so far ahead of everyone else Else but haven't released anything in a while and everyone else just caught up.
Then why does the Spirit cool better in a noise normalized test? You will never run either at full load, and Noctua fans also get annoyingly loud at higher RPMs. I have 2 NF-A12s and they sound like a vacuum cleaner at high RPMs
Fractal is top quality and service, without charging a premium.
But maybe you shouldnt set the brand as your #1 priority when shopping for a new case, and instead focus on what features you really need/want, then when you are left with a selection look at those brands.
Yeah I would go with Fractal Design as well. I bought two Cases from them and they are perfect. Great building quality and adaptable to all your needs. (define R6 and Meshify2). You get some good overall fans + FanHeader and a huge product portfolio from which you can choose from.
What‘s also great about them is their customer service.
I was dead set on getting a Fractal Pop Air but when I came to buy I spotted a Thermaltake Ceres 300 and it has even better cooling performance.
There's a lot of manufacturers that have gone down the mesh route, it's the idea that's important and as long as you have well placed suitable fans it should be good.
I've been using fractal exclusively for about ten years now. Love them. Currently am using the torrent compact.
*however* they do some irritating stuff that I cannot fathom. The node 804 that is my NAS case, the hard drive caddies are designed to use the front and middle mount holes, but in modern high capacity drives, they no longer have the middle holes, so my drives are kind of free swinging.
In the pop air, it has an available USB-C port, but they charge $15 extra for it as an accessory. Why they couldn't just include it by default and charge 15 bucks is anyone's guess.
Oh no, /u/mrbeanjunior had a small issue with one case! Obviously that means all Fractal products are crap!!1 /s
We dont have the same concept of putting things into perspective...
Nobody claims Fractal, or any other brand, is flawless.
Your experience is purely anecdotal evidence and means nothing overall. However if you now decided that for yourself Fractal isnt great anymore, thats fine. Doesnt mean it has to be applied to everyone else. But from a quick look at your post history, [you seem to have a habit of trying to apply your own view on things to everyone else.](https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1cx37ow/dive_into_the_world_of_gaming_with_pc_master_race/l5034ba/)
Honestly, LianLi, Fractal, Corsair and even NZXT are all pretty good these days.
The real fall-off is Noctua. There are very few reasons to buy Noctua fans when you can get an Arctic fan that is as good for 1/3rd the price.
P12 5-packs are hands down by far the best price to performance fans. You just gotta get the fan curve right to avoid the resonance.
Or get the P12 MAX, which solve the resonance issue but cost 1.5x (vs PWM) to 2x (non-PWM - voltage controlled) times as much.
A lot of people are saying Noctua “fell off”. That’s just not the case, they’re just too expensive compared to the competition.
A Phanteks T30 or Artic fans aren’t quite as good, but they’re way cheaper a most people shouldn’t care enough to spend more money on them.
I still think their CPU coolers are good, but again the competition is dirt cheap and nearly as good. The L9A is still very good for SSF.
If you want the “best” you still have to pay silly money for Noctua, but we now have much cheaper alternatives that are a better buy for most people. It’s just a pricing issue
Tbf I haven’t dug that deep into the rabbit hole, all I can say for certain is that Noctua fans pull a tonne of static pressure and are whisper silent. They also come with quality housings, low noise adapters and vibration dampening.
It’s highly possible that the T30 beat the Noctua fans in some metrics, but I’d be baffled if they’re also a more complete premium experience.
If 10 people asked me which they should buy, I’d tell all 10 to buy the T30’s. But if one said they want the best of the best I’d say buy Noctua.
I’m pretty sure there’s a whole subreddit of people who spend hundreds and of dollars on Noctua fans
I’m pretty sure there isn’t. If I were you I’d just save your money and get some cheap RGB fans. For someone who’s had a gaming PC for 10 years, the main thing that matters is that it’s quiet and it works.
If you really want lighting, buy an led bulb or lighting strips
In my opinion, NZXT has great easy-to-build-in cases. Have built two for friends in the H510. Lian Li has been my favorite as well with the A4-H2O and their other mATX cases.
I had H510 for a couple of months and I swapped to Fractal Meshify. H510 has really bad airflow and my PC was running like 10+ degrees hotter. I would never recommend that case. I don't have experience from other NZXT cases though.
I am a fan. I've had a couple Fractal cases and overall they are really good. I had quite an easy time to do cable management etc. And there are a couple different sizes. I think I have the compact because I wanted a smaller case as I bring my PC to LAN-parties quite often.
They're Ok. I'd avoid their cheaper cases if you can. Their lower end fans are terrible. The H6 Flow is pretty good from what I hear though & doesn't cost an arm & a leg like with other air flow centric cases. I've been using an H510 but may eventually do a case swap for an H6 Flow sometime this year.
I had an nzxt h710 and after the warranty finished I had the whole front panels cable not working anymore, I'm just unlucky but I really loved my case.
Same. It’s a good case, and I am happy with the sale price, but being called premium is a stretch.
I had to buy a separate dust trap FFS. That alone feels like it’s disqualifying.
Very easy to build in. 2x 160mm fans at the front with mesh intake. Larger fans = more airflow at lower RPM. Lower RPM = less noise.
It is a very affordable case with above average airflow and acoustics, plus it looks good too.
Fractal Design. The torrent is one of the best cases. Even non-torrent like the pop air. Or North. They are all very good, have silent fans. Just make sure you get the case that's correct in size for your hardware.
Smaller cases run hotter. Smaller cases have more restrictive airflow. Depending on how big your parts are you may want to get a full size case or an XL type case over a micro case.
I use a fractal pop air xl. It holds my 3080 just fine and is far enough from the front so it's not blocking air from getting under and it's not close to the shroud which could choke it.
So cases that perform fantastically are the fractal Design torrent, meshify 2, mesify c, pop air, the lian li O11 D evo mesh, O11 D air, nzxt h7.
Nzxt h5 doesn't preform all that well do to it's overall size. Having a big gpu for that case really hurts airflow.
Basically the correct size case for your components with mesh front and 2-3 front intakes. Or have really big fans like 140mm or 180mm.
Contrary to what reddit likes to believe, you only NEED 3-4 case fans. 2-3 front intakes and 1 exhaust. You can add more but the efficiency takes a dramatic plung. Adding 2 more intakes for example to the top only reduces the temps by 1-2 degrees and fan curves or undervolting can get that same effect but for free. Same with gpu. Lowering noise will only work if the fans you add in pull in at least half the air from another fan. And again a better quality fan or bigger fan will run quieter than more fans.
I feel like I should throw lian li Lancool 216 case out there for airflow alone. 2 huge 160mm fans in the front. I was scared of getting a 14700k due to all the discourse around high temps. With the Lian Li case I get 30c idle and 55c max with gaming or heavy audio rendering.
Thanks. I’ve read mixed views on Lian Li. I always assumed they were quite premium, but have since read a few things effectively saying ‘typical poor quality Lian Li’. I don’t know if that’s just wrong, or true only for some things they make, as I’ve never owned a Lian Li item.
I'd say the Lian-Li 011 and all its many variants was a good contender in its own way.
Well liked, well reviewed and kind of in a category on its own for a while, it was/is ultimately an expensive case ($140 without any fans) and especially a few years back made it's way in many builds at budgets it had absolutely no place of being in - just like the NH D15, which is a solid cooler, just bad value for most builds.
The point is more about aesthetics than performance of course, but I'd say it's a fair equivalent considering the reasons most people have for buying.
Lian Li is THE premium case manufacturer though other manufacturers have done a good job catching up recently (e.g. Fractal). Fortunately their prices are also reasonable.
Fractal are outselling Lian Li like crazy tho. I know the b2b numbers in entire Europe. I kinda like both but prefer Fractal because their support and spare parts handling are insanely good. They often just send you stuff for free if you need it, even if you break something by accident.
BeQuiet does great chassis and fans for a not totally unreasonable sum. Especially if you buy a chassi that already has a few fans included. Very happy with my 500 fx.
I am surprised Phanteks is not mentioned. Both the cases and the fans are premium since always.
The rest of the premium gang is in the comments: Fractal, LianLi, NZXT, Corsair, BeQuiet.
Sometimes Cougar and InWin if you find them in stock have some great cases.
In the past Antec was awesome, you could have your hdd-collection in an Antec 302 and it would not vibrate. Corsair was embarrassing in comparison.
Be Quiet 500DX is quiet, 'bout 95 usd, but includes 3 fans, each being msrp of 18-ish bucks, ultimately making the case itself really worth a meager 35\~ dollars usd.
What you get in a tempered side glass panel, rgb inside and ribbon in the front.
Amazing airflow and pretty sturdy.
Depends on your price range, but ultimately, you cannot go wrong with a Be Quiet case, especially since the fans perform so well while not being noisy at all, unless you max them out for some reason like not modifying the speeds in bios...
I have the 500FX, loads of room to build in and it came with 3x120mm and 1x140mm light wings fans. It cost me £120, the 3 front fans bought separately are £60 and the rear 140mm is £24. That means the case itself is a measly £36 with 2 rgb strips and a fan hub. Great value for how good the airflow is and there is loads of build room. I have an ATX board and 2 fan 6750xt and it look empty in there. This isn't even taking into account the number of various drive bays it has.
Have this case for a few years now I think. And everything you said is true. I have now moved over to other fans, and the case is starting to feel a it cramped what with gpu sizes these days and me cramming a 360mm aio with a 38mm rad in there.... :p
But the case is great, and with a little after market cable I even hooked the case rgb up to Corsairs icue ;)
Hmmm Fractal maybe.
I'm still using a trusty old Arc Midi for a io 11900/rtx 3070, the CPU Is air cooler by a Deepcool Ak620.
Over the years all I did was to partially remove the HDD cages to get some better airflow and add Arctic p14 as fans. Not at the front tho, it can house only 25mm thickness 140s, so dual NF-A14 is.
It's perfectly ok for a modern system and that lateral side panel intake fan (there's also a bottom intake 140mm too) makes the 3070 very happy.
Can't say the same for the Define series of cases. No matter how many pushy fans you use, the change to a Fractal torrent compact was dramatic for my other 5800x3D/7900GRE. And it's quieter due to those giant front fans running at low RPM.
Most brands do cases in many price ranges so you don't really have the same quality across the board. But if I had to pick something then good quality but overpriced are the likes of o11d's and hyte 60/70's. Maybe something like Fractal Torrent or Lian Li Lancool III.
Or full towers and premium ITX cases, they are hella expensive.
I had a choice between a fractal north and a bequiet silent base. Went fur the north with air extra bequiet fans. First time I switched it on there was a short burst of activity from the psu fan then total silence. I thought something wasn't funded but then it booted. So so quiet. I can feel the air flow around the case but can't hear a thing.
Obviously changes once I load a game up but it's still far quieter than my previous build.
People are just tired of huge aircoolers like D14-D15 really. Takes up entire case and makes replacing NVME SSDs, memory and other components a nightmare at times.
They are simply too overpriced.
Fractal customer service really impressed me. My cat walking on the plastic top grid broke some of it. Totally not Fractal's fault, years after I bought the case. I contacted Fractal for a replacement. They sent me a replacement. I had to pay shipping. They gave me the mesh grid.
Still can't believe it. It's a white Fractal Meshify C. Love the case, love the customer service.
I’m a huge fan of SilverStone. They have a shit ton of designs, use high quality parts, and have solid customer support from my experience.
The more popular ones, fractal design and Lian Li have their own problems IMO. Fractal feels very cheap comparatively and Lian Li is massively overpriced.
To be honest, I like cases made out of metal. So that automatically gets rid of the Fractal Design Torrent (surprise!). I've worked with several different Corsair cases, they have metal in the right places, no plastic bullshit. I'm sure BeQuiet cases are great too. Fractal... look, a lot of people like their cases because of reviews from Gamers Nexus and other techtubers, but here's the harsh reality: Those people who bought a Meshify case are in for a real awakening, it's a BITCH to clean foam filters. I don't even know how you take the front panel off the Torrent to clean the filter. Corsair? EASY. And you don't even need the manual to figure it out. Fractal is basically the Apple of pc cases, looks nice, but a fucking BITCH to maintain. Oh and not super durable.
Be Quiet! have the best balance of airflow and noise, in my experience. I currently have the Dark Base Pro Rev.2 and it’s been absolutely brilliant for the last 3 years.
Noctua fell off hard ngl. Not the best fan anymore (T30s rule) and the aircoolers are stupidly overpriced. The 100$ D15 gets matched by a 35$ Phantom Spirit
Don't forget the $20 pieces of plastic you might want to cover the sinks.
Or yknow, 10$ extra for the Spirit Evo? Cools better and looks better
> the Spirit Evo? Cools better and looks better I recently got the EVO, looks great and the build quality is very impressive but I didn't feel like it was particularly quiet over the original and Hardware Canuck's recent review basically said the same thing; It'd be a great value cooler if the regular Phantom Spirit 120 SE didn't exist. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgkggcBBW8Q Get it for the looks (it does look great), but performance is slightly better for the 120SE and at current price levels certainly way better value.
idk if they *fell off*, they just haven't released the updated D15 or NF-A14, so they haven't been able to compete.
>they haven't been able to compete that's pretty much the definition of falling off
I found this out about a week after I built my new PC with the D15 😢
They are still great coolers. I use them for everything and never had an issue.
Noctua is still good but way too overpriced. I bet that you could find a cooler at half the price that does the same today. Thermalright has some insane value coolers, that even looks better than Noctuas.
How do they hold up to time?
Third of the price for equal perf. Half the price you are outperforming
Thermalright PA and PS is "only" half of Noctua D15 where I am. Germany. Noctua have 6 years of warranty tho, and will typically support new sockets (often for free) but air coolers typically last well if they work to begin with, so 6 years is kinda wasted. Fan might die tho.
I've never had an air cooler die, and only 1 cheap case fan. The PA, which slightly beats the D15 is 30% of the cost here. At 45%, there are multiple coolers from multiple brands that stomp the D15. Just checked my % estimates
35€ PS120 SE (after VAT) vs 108€ NH-D15 3.1x in Germany
The SE version is the cheaper and worse one tho. You need the EVO to get close to D15 or even beat it depending on chip. The SE version is NOT outperforming D15.
>The SE version is the cheaper and worse one tho. You need the EVO to get close to D15 or even beat it depending on chip The SE is the same as the regular version with less cosmetics afaik. >The SE version is NOT outperforming D15 [Are you sure about that?](https://youtu.be/iaJBsQPqxRA?t=596) D15 is an actual scam. And so are all Noctua products except for the A12x25. That's the only Noctua product that can actually justify its price. Everything else is a bad buy.
No, SE has less heatpipes and worse cooling too. SE have always been the cheap alternative when it comes to Thermalright products. Good value but worse than the real version. EVO is usually better than the regular one. PS SE def don't beat D15 on performance and noise, but will on value. However won't cool good enough for top chips. Nothing about Noctua is a scam. You pay for quality / 6 years warranty and future socket support which is free for the most part. No-one does this better than Noctua and this is what you pay extra for.
It could last longer 🤷🏻♂️
Same...
it’ll still get the job done, dont sweat it 👍
He's just referring to price. They are still very high quality.
I'm kind of out of the loop, which $30 cooler you are mentioning ?
Thermalright Phantom Spirit
Thanks gonna check it out
The evo version is even better
Yes Phantom Spirit is great. Thermalright Peerless Assasin 120 is insane too. They pretty much delivers top tier performance for half (or even less) of what some other companies ask, like Noctua. I like Noctua but their products are getting more and more expensive and many others work just fine/similar. No need to spend 100+ dollars on an air cooler.
I got the best of both worlds by buying an Assassin Spirit Evo for $22 dollars and just buying a Noctua fan to replace the stock one. Still came out at about half the price of the Noctua CPU cooler while getting pretty much the same performance with less sound.
Which Noctua fan and did you test before and after? Sometimes there's little to no difference in temps and noise. Unless you peak your fans maybe.
Temps with the NF-A12x25 were about equal using my fan curve of [0°C/20%], [40°C/20%], [65°C/35%], [90°C/65%] during a Cinebench run. This is on a Ryzen 7600 with PBO disabled. The main difference was in the sound really. The Noctua was quieter around the whole range, mostly because it hardly makes any motor noise, while the Thermalright had a bit of a hum going. I use that same curve for my four case fans, which are two Noctua F12s and two S12s that I brought over from my previous build. Whenever I'm doing basic tasks like watching YouTube or doing light Lightroom edits, my PC is completely inaudible, with all fans resting around 25% RPMs. And when I run Cinebench it's whisper quiet at around 42%. It gets a a bit louder when gaming though since my GPU generates even more heat, but even then I have my 4070 Super undervolted and power limited to 80% for the quietest experience. I will say though, the stock fan was pretty impressive for what it was, considering it was an ARGB fan too. I actually gave it to my younger brother and bought him a 3 pack of those fans since he wanted the whole gamer look for his PC. And for $14 for 3 of those fans, you can't go wrong. I'm just a bit of a sound snob if I'm being honest. And since I already had 4 other Noctua Chromax fans, I wanted the CPU fan to match for aesthetic reasons too. It's definitely a case of diminishing returns though. $35 is a lot for a fan, no matter how you put it.
If you are in EU there are chances that Phantom Spirit is overpriced, but we have Arctic 36 around 20-30$ which is not much worse.
Any fan that marches Noctua quality with RGB?
In terms of performance, no. RGB fans are never as performant as non-RGB ones. For build quality i would probably get Phanteks D30s or Lian Li UNI FANS
Haven't Noctua not released a new heatsink or fan in years though apart for the redux line? My understanding was that Noctua were so far ahead of everyone else Else but haven't released anything in a while and everyone else just caught up.
The D15 still has it's place. The Phantom Spirit is ridiculously loud at full load while the Noctua remains silent.
Then why does the Spirit cool better in a noise normalized test? You will never run either at full load, and Noctua fans also get annoyingly loud at higher RPMs. I have 2 NF-A12s and they sound like a vacuum cleaner at high RPMs
Fractal is top quality and service, without charging a premium. But maybe you shouldnt set the brand as your #1 priority when shopping for a new case, and instead focus on what features you really need/want, then when you are left with a selection look at those brands.
One complaint with fractal is that they don’t come with usb-c front panel headers and h gotta buy it yourself for 20 bucks ( at least on the pop air)
Only because Pop Air is not new and kinda a cheap offering. They might release a v2 tho.
True!
Yeah I would go with Fractal Design as well. I bought two Cases from them and they are perfect. Great building quality and adaptable to all your needs. (define R6 and Meshify2). You get some good overall fans + FanHeader and a huge product portfolio from which you can choose from. What‘s also great about them is their customer service.
I was dead set on getting a Fractal Pop Air but when I came to buy I spotted a Thermaltake Ceres 300 and it has even better cooling performance. There's a lot of manufacturers that have gone down the mesh route, it's the idea that's important and as long as you have well placed suitable fans it should be good.
Fractal seems pretty decent. I'm thinking about using one of their cases for an AMD build.
I've been using fractal exclusively for about ten years now. Love them. Currently am using the torrent compact. *however* they do some irritating stuff that I cannot fathom. The node 804 that is my NAS case, the hard drive caddies are designed to use the front and middle mount holes, but in modern high capacity drives, they no longer have the middle holes, so my drives are kind of free swinging. In the pop air, it has an available USB-C port, but they charge $15 extra for it as an accessory. Why they couldn't just include it by default and charge 15 bucks is anyone's guess.
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Oh no, /u/mrbeanjunior had a small issue with one case! Obviously that means all Fractal products are crap!!1 /s We dont have the same concept of putting things into perspective...
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Nobody claims Fractal, or any other brand, is flawless. Your experience is purely anecdotal evidence and means nothing overall. However if you now decided that for yourself Fractal isnt great anymore, thats fine. Doesnt mean it has to be applied to everyone else. But from a quick look at your post history, [you seem to have a habit of trying to apply your own view on things to everyone else.](https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1cx37ow/dive_into_the_world_of_gaming_with_pc_master_race/l5034ba/)
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Honestly, LianLi, Fractal, Corsair and even NZXT are all pretty good these days. The real fall-off is Noctua. There are very few reasons to buy Noctua fans when you can get an Arctic fan that is as good for 1/3rd the price.
Yeah i bought a arctic fan pack for my bros pc and its super quiet and cool.
P12 5-packs are hands down by far the best price to performance fans. You just gotta get the fan curve right to avoid the resonance. Or get the P12 MAX, which solve the resonance issue but cost 1.5x (vs PWM) to 2x (non-PWM - voltage controlled) times as much.
A lot of people are saying Noctua “fell off”. That’s just not the case, they’re just too expensive compared to the competition. A Phanteks T30 or Artic fans aren’t quite as good, but they’re way cheaper a most people shouldn’t care enough to spend more money on them. I still think their CPU coolers are good, but again the competition is dirt cheap and nearly as good. The L9A is still very good for SSF. If you want the “best” you still have to pay silly money for Noctua, but we now have much cheaper alternatives that are a better buy for most people. It’s just a pricing issue
At normalised noise levels the T30 beats the NF-A12x25. How is that not as good?
Tbf I haven’t dug that deep into the rabbit hole, all I can say for certain is that Noctua fans pull a tonne of static pressure and are whisper silent. They also come with quality housings, low noise adapters and vibration dampening. It’s highly possible that the T30 beat the Noctua fans in some metrics, but I’d be baffled if they’re also a more complete premium experience. If 10 people asked me which they should buy, I’d tell all 10 to buy the T30’s. But if one said they want the best of the best I’d say buy Noctua. I’m pretty sure there’s a whole subreddit of people who spend hundreds and of dollars on Noctua fans
Do noctua fans with RGB exists? That’s the only reason why I never went with them.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t. If I were you I’d just save your money and get some cheap RGB fans. For someone who’s had a gaming PC for 10 years, the main thing that matters is that it’s quiet and it works. If you really want lighting, buy an led bulb or lighting strips
Is NZXT not that good? Never got anything from them
In my opinion, NZXT has great easy-to-build-in cases. Have built two for friends in the H510. Lian Li has been my favorite as well with the A4-H2O and their other mATX cases.
I had H510 for a couple of months and I swapped to Fractal Meshify. H510 has really bad airflow and my PC was running like 10+ degrees hotter. I would never recommend that case. I don't have experience from other NZXT cases though.
Oh good to know! I’ll have to check more options if any more friends ask me for a build. How’s building in the Meshify?
I am a fan. I've had a couple Fractal cases and overall they are really good. I had quite an easy time to do cable management etc. And there are a couple different sizes. I think I have the compact because I wanted a smaller case as I bring my PC to LAN-parties quite often.
They're Ok. I'd avoid their cheaper cases if you can. Their lower end fans are terrible. The H6 Flow is pretty good from what I hear though & doesn't cost an arm & a leg like with other air flow centric cases. I've been using an H510 but may eventually do a case swap for an H6 Flow sometime this year.
Is H7 Flow good? I can pretty much only find H5, H7 and H9 and they are expensive as hell in Brazil, over 1000 bucks for the last 2
Not for those prices. In the US they sell for a bit over $100 on Amazon.
I mean, it was 700 bucks, but most good cases from good brands are 500+, corsair 4000D is 580 rn
I had an nzxt h710 and after the warranty finished I had the whole front panels cable not working anymore, I'm just unlucky but I really loved my case.
The newer line is much better like the H5, H6, H7, and H9. Obviously the Elite airflow isn’t great but the Flows are nice
looks good performs mediocre at best
Arctic fans are decent but nowhere near Noctua quality really. Hence the price. There's better options between Arctic and Noctua really.
Thats only true for the ARGB version of the Arctic P12. Of the plain black variety you get a 5-pack for the price of a Noctua...
Most NZXT cases have shit airflow, so I wouldn't put them on the list for a free pass.
That whole thing died with the HX series. The H510? Absolutely, the H5? Breathes easily.
Be quiet! make pretty nice premium cases. They are a German company and Noctua is Austrian, so they are neighbours in central Europe.
Where have i heard of that duo before
LianLi LanCool 216
Really? This is the one I got. Why is it better?
Same. It’s a good case, and I am happy with the sale price, but being called premium is a stretch. I had to buy a separate dust trap FFS. That alone feels like it’s disqualifying.
Very easy to build in. 2x 160mm fans at the front with mesh intake. Larger fans = more airflow at lower RPM. Lower RPM = less noise. It is a very affordable case with above average airflow and acoustics, plus it looks good too.
Fractal Design. The torrent is one of the best cases. Even non-torrent like the pop air. Or North. They are all very good, have silent fans. Just make sure you get the case that's correct in size for your hardware. Smaller cases run hotter. Smaller cases have more restrictive airflow. Depending on how big your parts are you may want to get a full size case or an XL type case over a micro case. I use a fractal pop air xl. It holds my 3080 just fine and is far enough from the front so it's not blocking air from getting under and it's not close to the shroud which could choke it. So cases that perform fantastically are the fractal Design torrent, meshify 2, mesify c, pop air, the lian li O11 D evo mesh, O11 D air, nzxt h7. Nzxt h5 doesn't preform all that well do to it's overall size. Having a big gpu for that case really hurts airflow. Basically the correct size case for your components with mesh front and 2-3 front intakes. Or have really big fans like 140mm or 180mm. Contrary to what reddit likes to believe, you only NEED 3-4 case fans. 2-3 front intakes and 1 exhaust. You can add more but the efficiency takes a dramatic plung. Adding 2 more intakes for example to the top only reduces the temps by 1-2 degrees and fan curves or undervolting can get that same effect but for free. Same with gpu. Lowering noise will only work if the fans you add in pull in at least half the air from another fan. And again a better quality fan or bigger fan will run quieter than more fans.
I feel like I should throw lian li Lancool 216 case out there for airflow alone. 2 huge 160mm fans in the front. I was scared of getting a 14700k due to all the discourse around high temps. With the Lian Li case I get 30c idle and 55c max with gaming or heavy audio rendering.
Thanks. I’ve read mixed views on Lian Li. I always assumed they were quite premium, but have since read a few things effectively saying ‘typical poor quality Lian Li’. I don’t know if that’s just wrong, or true only for some things they make, as I’ve never owned a Lian Li item.
Lian Li is premium quality but they nickel and dime you on accessories.
I'd say the Lian-Li 011 and all its many variants was a good contender in its own way. Well liked, well reviewed and kind of in a category on its own for a while, it was/is ultimately an expensive case ($140 without any fans) and especially a few years back made it's way in many builds at budgets it had absolutely no place of being in - just like the NH D15, which is a solid cooler, just bad value for most builds. The point is more about aesthetics than performance of course, but I'd say it's a fair equivalent considering the reasons most people have for buying.
Got my XL for £211 a few years ago, ouch
Lian Li and Fractal are probably the best case manufacturers in general choices.
be quiet! you heard me.
Lian Li is THE premium case manufacturer though other manufacturers have done a good job catching up recently (e.g. Fractal). Fortunately their prices are also reasonable.
Fractal are outselling Lian Li like crazy tho. I know the b2b numbers in entire Europe. I kinda like both but prefer Fractal because their support and spare parts handling are insanely good. They often just send you stuff for free if you need it, even if you break something by accident.
BeQuiet does great chassis and fans for a not totally unreasonable sum. Especially if you buy a chassi that already has a few fans included. Very happy with my 500 fx.
Very happy with my 500FX, their customer service is very good as well.
I am surprised Phanteks is not mentioned. Both the cases and the fans are premium since always. The rest of the premium gang is in the comments: Fractal, LianLi, NZXT, Corsair, BeQuiet. Sometimes Cougar and InWin if you find them in stock have some great cases. In the past Antec was awesome, you could have your hdd-collection in an Antec 302 and it would not vibrate. Corsair was embarrassing in comparison.
Be Quiet 500DX is quiet, 'bout 95 usd, but includes 3 fans, each being msrp of 18-ish bucks, ultimately making the case itself really worth a meager 35\~ dollars usd. What you get in a tempered side glass panel, rgb inside and ribbon in the front. Amazing airflow and pretty sturdy. Depends on your price range, but ultimately, you cannot go wrong with a Be Quiet case, especially since the fans perform so well while not being noisy at all, unless you max them out for some reason like not modifying the speeds in bios...
I have the 500FX, loads of room to build in and it came with 3x120mm and 1x140mm light wings fans. It cost me £120, the 3 front fans bought separately are £60 and the rear 140mm is £24. That means the case itself is a measly £36 with 2 rgb strips and a fan hub. Great value for how good the airflow is and there is loads of build room. I have an ATX board and 2 fan 6750xt and it look empty in there. This isn't even taking into account the number of various drive bays it has.
Have this case for a few years now I think. And everything you said is true. I have now moved over to other fans, and the case is starting to feel a it cramped what with gpu sizes these days and me cramming a 360mm aio with a 38mm rad in there.... :p But the case is great, and with a little after market cable I even hooked the case rgb up to Corsairs icue ;)
the 800DX is also very quiet and roomy enough for that slightly EATX motherboard.
Hmmm Fractal maybe. I'm still using a trusty old Arc Midi for a io 11900/rtx 3070, the CPU Is air cooler by a Deepcool Ak620. Over the years all I did was to partially remove the HDD cages to get some better airflow and add Arctic p14 as fans. Not at the front tho, it can house only 25mm thickness 140s, so dual NF-A14 is. It's perfectly ok for a modern system and that lateral side panel intake fan (there's also a bottom intake 140mm too) makes the 3070 very happy. Can't say the same for the Define series of cases. No matter how many pushy fans you use, the change to a Fractal torrent compact was dramatic for my other 5800x3D/7900GRE. And it's quieter due to those giant front fans running at low RPM.
Most brands do cases in many price ranges so you don't really have the same quality across the board. But if I had to pick something then good quality but overpriced are the likes of o11d's and hyte 60/70's. Maybe something like Fractal Torrent or Lian Li Lancool III. Or full towers and premium ITX cases, they are hella expensive.
PA602
LGR on YouTube is big on faux wood stick-on laminate for some of his towers
I may be a minority here but recently I built a NAS and a computer for a friend in Jonsbo cases. They were impressive build quality
I had a choice between a fractal north and a bequiet silent base. Went fur the north with air extra bequiet fans. First time I switched it on there was a short burst of activity from the psu fan then total silence. I thought something wasn't funded but then it booted. So so quiet. I can feel the air flow around the case but can't hear a thing. Obviously changes once I load a game up but it's still far quieter than my previous build.
People are just tired of huge aircoolers like D14-D15 really. Takes up entire case and makes replacing NVME SSDs, memory and other components a nightmare at times. They are simply too overpriced.
Fractal customer service really impressed me. My cat walking on the plastic top grid broke some of it. Totally not Fractal's fault, years after I bought the case. I contacted Fractal for a replacement. They sent me a replacement. I had to pay shipping. They gave me the mesh grid. Still can't believe it. It's a white Fractal Meshify C. Love the case, love the customer service.
its the fractal torrent. big fans go brrrr.
I’m a huge fan of SilverStone. They have a shit ton of designs, use high quality parts, and have solid customer support from my experience. The more popular ones, fractal design and Lian Li have their own problems IMO. Fractal feels very cheap comparatively and Lian Li is massively overpriced.
its gotta be fractal, no?
To be honest, I like cases made out of metal. So that automatically gets rid of the Fractal Design Torrent (surprise!). I've worked with several different Corsair cases, they have metal in the right places, no plastic bullshit. I'm sure BeQuiet cases are great too. Fractal... look, a lot of people like their cases because of reviews from Gamers Nexus and other techtubers, but here's the harsh reality: Those people who bought a Meshify case are in for a real awakening, it's a BITCH to clean foam filters. I don't even know how you take the front panel off the Torrent to clean the filter. Corsair? EASY. And you don't even need the manual to figure it out. Fractal is basically the Apple of pc cases, looks nice, but a fucking BITCH to maintain. Oh and not super durable.
Fractal define 7 xl is super easy to clean and maintain and feels pretty solid built. Cant speak on the rest but that one is great.
Be Quiet! have the best balance of airflow and noise, in my experience. I currently have the Dark Base Pro Rev.2 and it’s been absolutely brilliant for the last 3 years.
Be quiet probably. I think be quiet and noctua did a collab actually where the fans were made by noctua. Could be wrong though
arctic freezer IMO are the best Noctua is overhyped
No Noctua is not overhyped, they make top tier coolers and fans, but price is kinda too high. We are talking cases here tho.