Review on ARCTIC BioniX F140 - 140mm Gaming Case Fan with PST Technology, Ultra-Quiet Motor, Computer, Fan Speed: 200–1800 RPM - Grey by Robert Hole

Pros: - Affordable price - Subtle but attractive design - No RGB! :- The silicone frame has seams and some imperfections. (Photo incl.) - Motor is a bit noisier than what I'm used to in the arctic - 3-phase motor means fan speed is reported as 1.5x actual speed. - Silver screws? Come on, at least add some black ones. Why did I choose this? I recently changed the airflow setting a bit which resulted in better temperatures for all my components. Unfortunately this means I have 5 intake fans and only one exhaust fan on the back of the NZXT H700i case. I have a nice red black and white theme in my build and all my fans are black and white. The Arctic F14 that I had in the back of my case, which is usually my fan, just can't get enough air out to balance the massive amount of air getting into my case while gaming or rendering. Finding quality black and white fans that can move enough air (quietly) to be useful in my situation can be a challenge. I've trusted Arctic for dozens of gaming and office builds for over 10 years and they've never let me down. They are affordable, quiet, reliable and work very well in most applications. So I bought this based on CFM rating, aesthetics and brand loyalty. So how is it? What makes Arctic fans so compelling is their return on investment. This fan is $5 more expensive than the regular Arctic F14 fan, but it looks pretty cool, comes with a braided cable, and promises to move a lot more air. The fan is relatively well assembled. There are several flaws in the molding of the silicone fan frame. The stitching runs along the entire inner perimeter of the fan, but when the blades are spinning they are not visible. Not so much, but there are better fans out there for a similar price. The performance is fantastic. As you approach max RPM, this thing moves a ton of air. That's very impressive and I've already seen the temperature difference. Then the engine. The new three-phase motor in these fans tricks most monitoring programs (and the BIOS) into reporting that these fans are spinning almost 1.5 times faster than they actually are. So the maximum RPM is listed as 2800 RPM when in fact it is closer to 1800 RPM. Take this into account and adjust the fan curves accordingly. This fan has a very wide speed range and is practically silent up to about 1500 rpm. Also, things get a little sketchy, but that might have more to do with my case than the fan itself. I don't think this fan is particularly fond of blowing air through the honeycomb grille on the back of my case (NZXT H700i for reference). At 1500+ RPM (note: actual RPM, advertised RPM is 2300) the fan made a very noticeable hum (see pictures). I don't mind the sound of air escaping from the vents, but the engine noise was pretty annoying. However, I noticed that without any limitations, even when I ran the fan at full speed, it was a bit quieter. I spent quite a bit of time trying different mounting positions until I was able to reduce the noise as much as possible. Initially, I mounted the fan on rubber mounts (which, honestly, Arctic now recommends avoiding after reading the marketing material on their website). I decided to replace them with the provided plain silver screws and move the fan up a bit to ease the restriction the fan was struggling with. This resulted in significantly less engine noise*, which is still audible even at low volume and without headphones. Overall: I think these are attractive, inexpensive fans that work very well. They come in a variety of colors to suit almost every body type (except blue). Give those fans a chance to try out your next gaming-focused build, make sure you have a 10-year warranty on those bad guys, and put the money you saved over Noctua or Corsair buying into other components.* The last two screenshots show a spectrum analyzer that roughly shows what frequency of noise these fans produce at the two selected speeds. They are marked accordingly. At 1530 rpm the engine makes a noise with a frequency of 211 Hz. At 1720 rpm the engine makes a noise with a frequency of 264 Hz. Obviously the frequency of this sound increases as the fan speed increases and vice versa. If you want to know exactly what those frequencies sound like, find an online tone generator and see for yourself.