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Although often overlooked, cooling is one of the most important aspects of building a computer. You want a beefy CPU cooler — or an all-in-one liquid cooler — but you should pay attention to the general airflow in your case, too. To make sure everything moves along as smoothly as possible, we've rounded up the best PC fans for your build. cerberus pc case
Here are our favorite PC fans for 2024.
Noctua has been making some of the best fans and coolers for almost 20 years and it isn't showing any signs of slowing. Its NF-S12B Redux-1200 fan is an excellent example of that. It's high-powered, quiet, and features a unique blade design to maximize airflow without introducing additional noisy turbulence.
For those who don't like Noctua's typical brown and cream color scheme, this fan ditches that in favor of a uniform grey aesthetic that can be accented by colorful anti-vibration mounts (sold separately) if you choose.
It's not quite as quiet (say that three times fast) as Noctua's best fans, but they're so much more expensive than this that it is far easier to recommend.
If you want a PC that lights up exactly how you want it, picking RGB fans like the Corsair LL120 is a great idea. These give you complete control over your lighting setup, letting you pick from infinite colors, choose color animations and patterns, and sync up with other parts of your PC's lighting.
Each fan has 16 RGB LEDs, so the potential for color changing and patterning is much higher than with most other RGB fans. You also get PWM control, so you can manage the fan's speeds minutely yourself or with a detailed fan curve through companion software.
You can control these with your own fan controller, but they work best with Corsair's Lightning Node Pro, which can manage several fans at once and provide consistent performance and lighting throughout your PC. If you have other compatible Corsair RGB products, you can also use Corsair's iCUE system.
If you want a fan for your new watercooling loop to help cool the radiators down, you need fans with high static pressure. While there are a range of excellent fans for that job, the newest hot kid on the block is the Thermaltake Toughfan EX12 Pro. These combine the impressive cooling performance and static pressure delivery of the classic Toughfan design, with the latest innovations in fan technology for a truly advanced, modern fan.
It comes with built-in silicon dampening to further reduce noise levels, and has a simple connect mechanism for its PWM fan header using a magnetic clasp. The fan blades themselves are magnetic, too, which lets you swap the direction of your fan's airflow in just a few seconds by turning the fan blades around. This is far easier than taking out the entire fan, and can make it much easier to work with in compact systems.
The fan blades are made from a liquid crystal polymer, further reducing noise levels and vibrations. It's a little expensive at over $30 per fan, but if you want a super silent water-cooling setup, they're well worth the cost.
Noctua makes another appearance with an unassuming cooling device that proves you can get high-quality components even if you're building a tiny PC. Smaller computers have less thermal headroom, so their parts must be as efficient as possible. Noctua's NF-A12x15 does an excellent job of keeping the cool air in while pushing the hot air out. And it manages to complete the transfer in a shorter package.
The 120mm fan is only 15mm deep, making it the ideal solution for microATX and mini-ITX cases and other builds short on space.
The Noctua NF-A12x15 is sturdy while being relatively quiet, and it's affordable as well.
The be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 fan is the perfect choice if you want a quiet, effective fan for cooling a high-performance system. This fan is tuned to spin up to 3,000 RPM, so you can get some serious air moving if you need to, but its real strength is in its silent operation. At lower speeds, it's whisper quiet, thanks to its long, effective fan blades, and fluid-dynamic bearing motor for reduced vibrations. Silicon mounts help weed out the last of them, too.
It's a little more expensive than some fans, but it works well as both a standalone and radiator fan, thanks to its high static pressure. It looks good, too, with a clean black paint job and textured fan blades that help it stand out from the competition without the need for garish RGB lighting.
If you just need a bunch of good enough fans to fit in your PC to make it look good, cool well, and not get too loud, then Thermalright has you covered. Its TL-C12C-S are very, very affordable — so much so that we had to double-check the price elsewhere to make sure this wasn't some third-party reseller trying to scam us. But, nope — you really can get these fans for less than $10 each, and they still offer strong performance and pretty RGB lighting.
They don't have fancy magnetic connections or advanced polymer blades you can swap out and reverse, nor do they have an RGB lighting setup that is as fancy as some of our other options. But they offer effective cooling capabilities, don't get particularly loud unless they're really cranked up to high speed, and look great thanks to classy RGB lighting. It's the entire blade, too, not just some side-mounted LED.
These are the best fans to install in a new PC to improve cooling. You can always swap them out for something higher-end later.
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and explainers to help everyone understand the hottest new hardware and software in desktops, laptops, and on the web. He's also written articles on how to make your PC more efficient for the summer, and how he fixed his backpain with an annoying pop-up app.
Although Jon covers a wide range of topics at DigitalTrends, his particular focus is on PC components and peripherals, keeping our lists of best power supplies and best ergonomic mice up to date, as well as breaking down how to install the latest graphics cards to boost your gaming performance. He's also written gaming performance guides, and made sure that the crypto traders out there are using the best wallets for their digital tokens.
Alongside DigitalTrends, Jon also writers for Forbes, Lifewire, and Microcenter, has authored two novels, and provided back story and dialogue for a handful of games. He's an amateur game developer, and has made a few game prototypes in his spare time -- with a little help from ChatGPT. Jon's also an avid board gamer, getting in regular games of epic tabletop fare like Twilight Imperium and War of the Ring where he can. He's a father to two kids who recently discovered the joys of Pokémon, and keeps his aging French Bulldog cross busy on regular walks.
If you don't really have the patience to build a gaming PCs from scratch, buying a pre-built one is an excellent option that will take out a lot of effort and time. While it's true that you could potentially build a cheaper PC, there are a lot of excellent desktop computer deals that more than make up for it, especially from big names like Lenovo and Dell. Luckily, there are a lot of great options out there, although it can be a bit hard to find something good, which is why we've gone out and collected some of our favorite options, including some that can play the best PC games on the market.
Once you've grabbed a pre-built, check out gaming monitor deals for a chance to save on a nice display. If the machine you pick up needs some upgrades, you can save with GPU deals, SSD deals, and RAM deals. Best gaming PC deal for entry-level gamers Lenovo Legion Tower 5 -- $850 $1,330 36% off
There is no shortage of gaming PCs on the market, and there’s definitely no shortage of gamers dying to experience their favorite titles with as little lag and as much responsiveness as the CPU and GPU can dish out. We’re betting you’ve probably heard of computer brands like Dell and HP, and we wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve seen your fair share of Alienware deals. These are fantastic Windows machines, but one company that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is iBuyPower.
These gaming PCs are built to tackle most gaming needs and tend to offer better pricing than the competition. We also came across the following iBuyPower offer while vetting through Best Buy deals: When you order the iBuyPower Scale Gaming Desktop PC, you’ll spend $750 when this model normally sells for $900.
You already know from the title but I just have to say, I love the RGB design on this desktop gaming PC. No, it doesn't offer much to performance -- which is a real shame -- but it does add style points and in a well-placed spot, that's a big deal for your office or gaming room. And if you’re looking for a powerful new gaming rig for your home, this Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop is packed with the latest hardware. You get all of that for $2,500 instead of $3,200. With a significant discount of $700, this is one of the best gaming PC deals around and certainly one not to be missed if you’re looking for a permanent setup. If that sounds like you, keep reading and we’ll break down all the hardware and reasons why you might wish to buy.
Why you should buy the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC Alienware makes some of the best gaming PCs you can buy with a penchant for high-end setups which are great investments for a long time to come. With the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop, you get all the hardware you could possibly want. Never mind all of that, for now. The tasteful RGB adorns the front of the case, which you can see in the image, and although the glass side panel is tinted, you can also see the illuminated fan and components inside. Sexy, I know.
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