Phanteks M25 G2 RGB, although not being the quietest fan, offers a properly complete feature set that makes a compelling case for forgiving its performance shortcomings. The RGB is gorgeous and it comes with an infinity-mirror hub. The fans can also clip on to each other, daisy-chaining in a not-quite-wireless fashion but certainly better than the competition. The fan even comes with plastic covers for the screw holes for a tidy appearance. It also responds correctly to a 0% PWM duty signal.
Pricing sits at $36.99 for a 3-pack, which is a surprisingly good price if you consider the amount of effort that went into their design. It may not be the quietest fan, but it sure is the prettiest and comes with most bits and pieces to complete the set.
Arctic’s P12 Pro lights up bright and uniform, offering a fantastic visual spectacle. It also comes with a proper Zero-RPM implementation, but that’s where its feature set ends.
This fan costs just $28.49 in a 3-pack, which is a mighty good deal that’s hard to pass up at $9.50 per fan.
It would come as no surprise if I said that Arctic’s P12 Pro was the winner of this test, but I’m not sure about that. The P12 Pro RGB is clearly the best performer, but it was a tad unbalanced and had some light high-pithed whining. It also clicked a few times upon startup, but most of the fans did that. Mechanical noises.
If you’re looking for the best value offering, the Arctic P12 Pro RGB is hard to pass up with the 3-pack costing just $9.50 per fan.
The Light Wings LX, although being the second-place fan in testing for noise levels, is my favorite of the bunch. Why? It’s clean! It makes a crisp, clean sound —just a whoosh, with no extraneous noises on top. It’s a slightly louder whoosh, but a clean whoosh. Of course, that’s not to say it may be your favorite. Personally, I’m sensitive to these kinds of noises, and I’m willing to pay a little extra for a clean-sounding PC, but that little bit extra is quite a bit if you tally it up over multiple spinners.
Costing $15.97, this puts the be quiet! Light Wings LX right on the edge between budget and mid-range RGB fans.
If, on the other hand, you’re someone who doesn’t mind noise too much, and wants to build something that you’re truly proud to show off, Phanteks’ M25 G2 fans do away with the focus on silence, and prioritize looks with bright RGB, an infinity mirror, seamless daisy-chaining, and even a mechanism that clips the spinners into one unit and covers for the screw holes.
I’m someone that works many hours a day in silence, with my open air PC on my desk near me, so I’ll prioritize silence any day of the week. But if you’re a gamer, keep the PC on the ground, or wear a headset all the time anyway, the quality of the RGB may be far more important.
If there’s one clear conclusion I can draw from this batch of testing, it’s that Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB is on my do-not-buy list. It offers no real redeeming features to make up for its shortcomings – it produces a dirty, inconsistent noise, performs disappointingly compared to the competition, has no Zero-RPM mode, and even the RGB doesn’t look all that great. It doesn’t even come with vibration-damping rubber pieces on the corners.
I honestly don’t understand what it’s doing in Fractal Design’s product portfolio at all, other than making the company’s other fans look good. And the wildest thing is, it’s also the most expensive fan tested here, at $17.16 a piece.
In this respect, fans are much like tires for cars: they come in all shapes and sizes, each with different purposes, from different manufacturers, and they all seem to do the same thing. And much like tires, in the world of fans there are a few great ones, many good ones, and some to avoid entirely.
Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-13/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Niels Broekhuijsen Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
sauve.richard Admin said: We pit five budget-friendly RGB fans against each other, in tests that don’t quite lead us to a clear winner. The most complete isn’t the best performing. There is, however, one clear loser that might be worth avoiding. Budget RGB Fan Roundup: Are cheap PC fans always this bad? : Read more Link to article doesn't want to load. Really interested in reading it! About an hour after posting this comment, seems it's been fixed. Thanks guys! I'd be curious to see how some of the super cheap Thermalright fans do, but you covered the major brands 😀 Still, some of them are 5 arbg fans for $20, which is insane. Reply
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