Picking Case Fans

[LordHood2]

When picking fans, what kind of things should one look at to determine if the fan is a good, bad or great fan? And how should specs like "1200rpm 35cFm+/-5" be interpreted as? Basically I'm looking to compare the fans that come with the case I will be using in my upcoming build (Rosewill Challenger U3) and the fan included with the Corsiar H60 against other available fans. I just dont want a situation like the one I'm in now where I buy a 120mm fan, but it turns out it doesn't really seem to do anything besides turn. (Referring to the Rocketfish 120mm fan I bought for my current PoS pc. Can't feel any air moving more then 3in away from the fan).

Thanks for the help.

[BigPhatPaulie]

That seems to be the case for any good fan as well. once you get about 3in away or more the column of air from the fan disperses and you can no longer feel it. Doesn't mean its a bad fan thats just how it seems to work. The rating system usually works like this. As an example lets say the max rpm the fan in question will spin is 1200RPM. At that rpm the fan will be pushing 40 CFM (theoretical) +/- 5. All this " +/-5" means is that expect the cfm rating to be between 45 and 35cfm. As for good fans there are many. Coolermaster, scythe, noctua, bitfenix etc all make a good case fan. It all just depends on what you want to spend vs what you need in a fan

Hope this helped

[powerbench]

My best results have always been with Noctura as upgrades. I am not sure that is a common consensus as i hate the colour scheme but they seem to be working well.