You can have all the powerful hardware to build your PC, but without the quality fans along with the correct number of fans to be used, your graphics card may crash or memory sticks may fail badly. Fans are very important to cool various components protecting the inside of the computer. But many have a common question whether to mount bigger-sized fans or smaller ones, additionally, how many fans does someone’s system need? The conundrum of using 2 x 140mm fans or 3 x 120mm fans throws this kind of debate. You need to know your system, kind of activities of yours, relative pros and cons of different sized fans before choosing one combination.
2 x 140mm Fans vs 3 x 120mm Fans – Which One?
There can be several considerations to make before deciding which one is better- 2 140mm fans or 3 120mm fans. The amount of airflow, noise, kind of users, quality and price of fans, etc. must be well thought of.
Noise
Most of the users would like to have a minimum of noise coming from their computer fans. It largely depends on the size of the fan. The smaller the fan size, the more the rotations from its wings. Hence, the 120mm fan would exert far too much noise compared to the 140mm fan. You can imagine the kind of noise the combo of 3 x 120mm fans will produce. In this case, I would say that the 2 x 140mm fans beat the 3 x 120mm combo.
Airflow
3 120mm fans are likely to push more air through the system’s ventilator when you compare the same with 2 140mm fans. If you play too many 4K resolution games or do lots of video editing, then there is a good chance that a good amount of heat is coming out of the processors (CPU and GPU). So, to cool down the internal components, fans should be able to direct much air in and out of the system. Hence, we can say that the advanced users should go for 3 x 120mm fans for proper air circulation whereas normal users will not require more than 1 or 2 140mm fans.
Quality
Quality is probably the most important aspect of choosing the right fan. An arrangement of good quality fans be it 120mm or 140mm, will always win against average quality fans.
Price
The price of a 140mm fan is naturally more than the price of a 120mm fan because of the size difference. But when it comes to adding multiple fans, in our case, 3 x 120mm fans will definitely cost you more than 2 x 140mm fans. However, the price also depends on the quality of the fan regardless of the size.
Conclusion
After considering everything, I can tell you that the 2 x 140mm fans are better in several aspects than the 3 x 120mm fans. The statement can change depending on the activities you carry out. Remember this, the good quality 3 x 120mm fans is worth having compared to average quality 2 x 140mm fans. But there are no competitions for good quality 2 x 140mm fans no matter how many fans you add with the 120mm arrangement.
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