Best 120mm Fans For GPU Mining

With my recent post about keeping GPU temps low and warmer weather ahead, I decided to do some more research on which fans I should upgrade to. Previously I was just looking for fans with rubber pads to decrease the sound generate from vibration and a low price, however I really want to make my mining rigs as quiet as possible. To do this I turned to one of the best brands that makes fans.

Original Fans Purchased:

I originally was able to get APEVIA 512S-WB 120mm 5 pack for around $15. This was a cheap and decent option for just starting and allowed my cost of building down without much of a performance difference. However these fans were slightly louder then others on the market and I wanted to push more air through my GPUs this summer to help reduce the amount of maintenance needed while keeping the noise to a minimum. It was also more convenient that these fans came with both a 3 pin connector and a Molex connector.

Item Dimensions LxWxH:

4.72 x 0.98 x 4.72 inches

Power Connector Type:

3-Pin & Molex

Voltage:

12 Volts

Max Noise Level:

24.7 dB

Air Flow Capacity:

57.67 Cubic Feet Per Minute

The Fans I Upgraded to:

I did some research and watched many videos on which fans pushed the most CFM while generating the lowest amount of noise and came to the conclusion that I did not want to spend $140 on just 4 fans, but I still wanted to see a difference in GPU Temps. So I started looking into the budget Noctua fans and landed on the Noctua NF-P12 redux. These fans were only $14.90, about half the price of the more premium fans. They also come with a 6 year warranty and are more efficient and quieter. I did have to purchase some 4 pin splitters, and went with TeamProfitcom PWM Fan Splitter. These splitters are of decent quality and are better than ones I have purchased in the past.

Item Dimensions LxWxH:

4.72 x 0.98 x 4.72 inches

Power Connector Type:

4-Pin

Voltage:

12 Volts

Max Noise Level:

25.1 dB

Air Flow Capacity:

70.7765 Cubic Feet Per Minute

Temperature Difference:

If we look at the temperatures of each GPU with the APEVIA fans we can see that they are still running very cool and are nicely heat soaked as the up time on this screen shot is 5 days and 21 hours. These temperatures are more than reasonable for a mining rig.

2060 Super temps: 53c & 44c

3070 Temps: 54c LHR & 55c non LHR

3060TI Temp: 51c

Temps Before:

Temps After:

If we check the temperature of each GPU after installing the new fans we can see an improvement. Now the uptime for this screen shot is ONLY 4 minutes and not enough time to really let the cards heat soak, but I did check the temps after 3 hours of running and noticed a 2-3 degree drop.

Best orientation for Fans:

At my last job I managed a mining farm of over 100 GPUs and also managed my own mining rigs when I got home. This gave me plenty of experience and time to test both pushing air past the GPUs and pulling air through the GPUs in both open air frames and server cases. From my real world testing I can almost guarantee that setting the fans up to push air past the GPU will have better results. The logic behind this, other than the hours of testing I did to optimize temperatures on many rigs, is that pushing the air past the GPU will allow for a surplus of air and help you direct cooler air to the GPUs. Whereas pulling air will remove the warm air but will force the case or open air rig to pull air from all other directions, allowing it to bring back in warmer air.

The Premium Fans:

I can't promise these fans will deliver better results or be worth purchasing over the other mid range fans miners recommend. I can say that on paper these fans might be more efficient and generate less noise.