Why are good case fans so expensive?

I used to be able to get the nice dual ball bearing 120mm Rosewill case fans for about $5 on sale. Then they discontinued them for some reason.

I used to buy them for builds, replacements, etc. Never had a single one go out or start making noise.

I just recently ran out of my stash from the last time I bought a bunch of them.

Now about the cheapest I can get are $10+ each when on sale.

/RANT

Capitalism. Supply and demand. Reasons.

KazeoHin said:

Capitalism. Supply and demand. Reasons.

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Yep. The enthusiast market is too small for most fan makers to bother, so there few that do serve the community charge higher for doing so. The cancellation of Gentle Typhoons is a great example. Nidec essentially didn't even bother licensing out their fans again after Scythe lost it because they figured it wasn't worth the trouble. When buying items like fans the quantities needed to get a manufacturer's interest is probably in the 10000s to 100000s. Less than that and they don't even care.

Well, I found some 140mm dual ball bearing fans that claim a max of 153cfm for $12 a piece so I ordered 4.

Can't imagine how loud they would be at full speed though.

Nothing like spending $48 for fans and $34 for a fan controller that can handle the power draw.

I really wanted a fan controller that I could set the fan speed by temp, but everything I could find like that either had a stupid low power limit or had a bunch of horrible reviews about them dying, being DOA, or the touch screen flaking out.

How freaking hard is it to make a reliable, well designed product?

cyclone3d said:

I really wanted a fan controller that I could set the fan speed by temp, but everything I could find like that either had a stupid low power limit or had a bunch of horrible reviews about them dying, being DOA, or the touch screen flaking out.

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Isn't that what PWM controlled fans are for? The fans are controlled by the motherboard based on temps.

FWIW, good fans are a niche product and are priced accordingly. It seems like we're not using the same definition of good though. You seem to be after high CFM. Most people these days are after quiet.

Stereodude said:

Isn't that what PWM controlled fans are for? The fans are controlled by the motherboard based on temps.

FWIW, good fans are a niche product and are priced accordingly. It seems like we're not using the same definition of good though. You seem to be after high CFM. Most people these days are after quiet.

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My definition of a good fan is a reliable fan. Controlling the speed can make them quiet.

Problem with controlling via the motherboard is that the motherboard I am using for this build has a single 4-pin header for the CPU fan and a single 3-pin for a case fan. Yay for Micro ATX.. and the fact that it is the board that supports the fastest available hardware that will still work with Windows 98SE.

Anyway, from my experience, dual ball bearing fans are the only ones that really hold up over a long period of time. No, I didn't need that much CFM, but why not as the only cheaper 140mm or 120mm dual ball bearing fans I could find were only $1-2 cheaper per fan?

I could have gotten super crappy "silent" low max rpm fans that had sleeve bearings for as little as $2.50 a piece, but I would rather not have to be replacing fans every few months because they start to seize up and/or rattle.

Even all this gimmicky, liquid dynamic, etc. stuff is just a sleeve bearing with a fancy name/gimmicky "new tech". Oohhh, let's build a fan that has an oil reservoir to oil the bearing so it will last a bit longer. Yay, like stuff like that hasn't been around for 40+ years.

My main rig is running mostly Rosewill dual ball bearing fans. With the motherboard controlling them, they are silent. Max rpms on those is 2000. No point in getting "silent" fans unless you have no way to control the speed.

Now I wouldn't mind checking out some of those mag-lev fans, but no way am I paying $25-30 per fan.

Most cooler and radiator fans make excellent case fans. Often ball bearings make more noise then sleeve, and like you said, we only have 2 kinds of fan bearings .. except for maglev bearing fans and they are too new for me to trust just yet. Good sleeve bearing last a very long time. I've used lots of them over the years with fancy names, with 'fluid' or 'floating' in them. I have several TY-140 fans about 5 years now that run 24/7 in vertical and horizontal applications still going strong. I haven't had one go bad yet. But I have several ball bearing fans I can hear bearing ticks / rattles in.

Phanteks fans are quite good. I use lots of Thermalright TY-14x series fans, and they now make a square version of them that are available in Europe, but I haven't seen them in USA yet.

KazeoHin said:

Capitalism. Supply and demand. Reasons.

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Fixed. Just about nothing WRT computer parts pricing is supply/demand.

HDDs and RAM this millennium are excellent examples, heck even gasoline prices rise and fall due to wall street gambling. Last time gas hit $4USD-$5USD/gallon, there were no shortages and no lines at pumps. Hydrocarbons were still plentiful. There wasn't even drop in demand much.

Stereodude said:

Isn't that what PWM controlled fans are for? The fans are controlled by the motherboard based on temps.

FWIW, good fans are a niche product and are priced accordingly. It seems like we're not using the same definition of good though. You seem to be after high CFM. Most people these days are after quiet.

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3 wire fans can also be controlled by the motherboard. The nice thing with PWM fans with LED's is that the LED brightness stays the same regardless of the fan speed since the fan is always getting 12 volts.
3 Wire LED fans dim when slow and get brighter when they spin faster.