SILVERSTONE FM121 120mm Case Cooling Fan

Pros: Move a lot of air
Silent when compared to other 100+ CFM
Inexpensive

Cons: Poor quality, see others.

Other Thoughts: My computer is watercooled and I bought 4 of those to push more air in my radiator. 3 were OK out of the box. On the 4th one, the plastic of the blade hub was cracked on the center bearing shaft. It didn't turn at all, the only thing holding it back was the magnet. Ok, minus 1 egg.

Just came back from work less than 24h later to notice some annoying noise from my computer. When set on lowest settings, one of the 3 remaining is the culprit. It goes away if I increase the speed by only 5-10%, but still... Minus another egg.

But I WILL RMA the 2 defective ones, even if I end up saving only 2-5$ from the price of a new fan, and I WILL buy at least 1 spare to keep going if another fails.

Because of the pros.

Pros: Plenty of kick to FORCE air into a case (my use, see Other Thoughts).

Fan controller nice addition to "tune" air flow, providing tradeoff of flow to noise.

Would not put one of these in an HTPC, but if cooling is your primary concern, this is it. Besides, having worked in a server room for many years, bit immune to fan noise.

Cons: Sheepishly admit it took me a couple of minutes to figure out where to connect fan controller. There's a SHORT black wire 2 pin connector for this on the fan; controller wires plenty long to reach.

Also admit, on receipt, thought Newegg had shipped the wrong fan. Had ordered both the FM121 and FM121-B fans. BOTH have FM121 on front of box; displayed fans both white. The side of the box has the [silver | black] (for fan controller color) noted.

Other Thoughts: Have 2 Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS4UM+B external 4 bay cases. Even with the on-board rear exhaust fan set to high, disks, on PROLONGED transfers, start to heat up above my comfort zone. The case's front door drops down flat, and the front disk retaining bracket can be removed. A 120mm fan sits quite nicely on the laid down front door.

Have an expansion bracket PCI power panel w/(3) 4 pin power connectors on back of computer case, with an Okgear 48" 4 pin molex sleeved fan cable extension run to external case shelf.

1. First try: Cooler Master R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan which I had on hand. While it might be fine for removing dead air inside a case, not the "throughput" I was looking for.

2. Second try: Silverstone Air Penetrator AP122 120mm Case Fan. While its "directed" air flow was a bit stronger (using the "hand test"), still not the "throughput" I was looking for.

Now I did what I should have done in the first place: used Newegg search tools to look for HIGH CFM 120mm fans.

3. Third try: Silverstone FM121-B 120mm case cooling fan. WINNER. ADDED bonus: the INCLUDED fan controller. Even at 50%, plenty of "push" to force air into the case. If a disk starts to run hot, can just crank up the fan.

Certainly no louder than the on-board fan when on-board set to high.

Not using the included "3rd monitoring wire" as it's being used to cool an outside case.

Might even play around with "tuning" noise, adjusting exhaust fan speed (3 speeds) and this intake fan for optimum cooling/noise level.

Bottom line: if you need to force air somewhere, this fan can do it.

Pros: high air flow, sturdy plastic, variable control, good hardware included. Fans are great and push much more air than my old setup. Bought two for intake and exhaust on full tower case and they're keeping everything much cooler than the stock case fans. Case has brackets that slip over the fan housing and snap on, the fan housing had no problem with the extra stress of the bracket. All wires were long enough and the control nobs feel sturdy.

Cons: Be sure to use 4 Pin power supply lead as the two wire aux power from my PSU would not allow the fan to get up to full speed. Once it did the noise was huge but the fan also moves a lot of air so give/take on that. The box didn't have any English instruction nor did the box contain any installation instructions manual. No big deal but thought i would mention as it didn't seem to work off the AUX power two wire connector I tried first. Ended up installing the power control nobs to lessen the noise, MOBO did not seem to be controlling the fan noise well enough for my small space. Bought two fans, small drill hole and i added both control nobs to a single bracket for convenience, would be handy if that bracket was stamped for a second nob so you wouldn't need to drill. Also bracket is smaller form factor than standard expansion slot. Mounted in the old 3/5in floppy bay above my actual 3.5in floppy bay and had to do some bending to make the bracket fit.

Other Thoughts: minus one egg for no instructions indicating that to get the most out of the fan you need to use the 4wire power take off from your PSU, the two wire will not allow fan to get up to full speed. Also bracket was a pain to work with as it required being bent to adapt to case mount points.

Pros: These fans are perfect. Very high airflow at a very reasonable decible level for such performance. Sure to most people these might be a little noisy but you can always turn them down a little bit with the provided fan controller. I have a full tower case and havent had any problems with the lengths of any of the cords. If your prime need is cooling and you dont need or want any fancy led lights then these are the ones for you. In fact they are the only fans I will use as they have amazingly long life spans for such high spinning fans.

Cons: No real cons as Ive never had any problems with these over the 4 or 5 years ive owned silverstone fm121 fans.

Other Thoughts: They have the best price/performance of any of the fans ive seen...and trust me ive looked at alot of fans.

Pros: -Moves a decent amount of air
-White matches my case
-Relatively quiet
-Fan controller included

Cons: -Individual fan controllers.. Kind of pointless when you have 4 fans..
-One fan I received didn't even have a molex/4 pin connector and the 3 pin connectors won't work with my case 3 pin connectors..
-I have a 600t case and I was replacing the stock back exhaust fan and 2 fans on my h100i but the ONE fan I was able to get working moved about the same amount of air as stock.. It made much less noise than my stock fans but not enough to justify almost $20 per fan.

Other Thoughts: I would recommend these if you don't plan on using the typical small 3 pin fan connectors. At least mine did not work.

Pros: Very good cooler, blows air and keeps my CPU at low temps even at max load.

Cons: Noisy when the CPU is under full load and is blowing at max speed. More than I expected by a long shot.

Other Thoughts: Buying a good noise dampening case will cut the volume down to a reasonable level. Would definitely buy more of these for case cooling.

Pros: This fan was a good fan. I have owned it for the last five years and it kept my case cool well.

Cons: The fan speed control on this went out rather quickly, after a moth or two. Would only go from med speed to full speed and in big steps instead of smoothly. The fan started out really quite but slowly over time it got louder and louder until the other day I took it out and retired it.

Other Thoughts: This fan was a good fan but I wont really miss it.

Pros: Fast fan

Cons: non so far

Pros: I have these fans in more than one computer and have moved them each time I build. Love them. I like the fan controller for comps that don't have one installed. They are even good for HS I have not noticed any pressure reduction going thru fins in a comp with push pull. Even cools of NB and first Video card. Very sturdy and well made. Going on 3 years with these. They really hold up.

Cons: I wish they were not white. I would also love longer wires to the controller since I have a large bench rack and things are not always so close.

Other Thoughts: I have bench style cases or uncases for all my comps so I would know if these were too loud. I hang one over my ram slots and full blast them. Not loud. Fully speed adjustable. Very nice.

Pros: I have these fans in more than one computer and have moved them each time I build. Love them. I like the fan controller for comps that don't have one installed. They are even good for HS I have not noticed any pressure reduction going thru fins in a comp with push pull. Even cools of NB and first Video card. Very sturdy and well made. Going on 3 years with these. They really hold up.

Cons: I wish they were not white. I would also love longer wires to the controller since I have a large bench rack and things are not always so close.

Other Thoughts: I have bench style cases or uncases for all my comps so I would know if these were too loud. I hang one over my ram slots and full blast them. Not loud. Fully speed adjustable. Very nice.