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It's often the case that when you choose fans for your gaming PC, you have to compromise somewhere. Do you want the best cooling performance? Cool, you may run into some noise pollution. Do you want the quietest fans possible? Alright, but there are only a handful of brands that produce truly non-noisy fans. Oh, but you also want RGB to match the vibe of the rest of your build? Same here, but that'll set you back more money.
NZXT, up until now, has sold individual fan ranges that cater to all of these priorities, but the brand has now launched a new range of Performance Fans that aims to give you a bit of everything. All it took was some innovation in how these vital PC components are put together.
“The new range of performance fans delivers the highest airflow and static pressure of any fans we have ever designed, while simultaneously incorporating advanced materials and technologies to maximize cooling and minimize noise,” said Felix Guerra, NZXT's SVP of Product Generation & Engineering.
“Unlike many high-performance fans on the market that focus only on cooling capacity, NZXT Performance fans combine top cooling performance with sleek design and simple installation, making it easy for anyone to add exceptional airflow performance to their system.”
While I haven't tried these new fans out yet, I find it hard not to be impressed with the nitty-gritty hardware innovations that have gone into their architecture. They utilize a liquid crystal polymer that has more rigidity than NZXT's other fans, which means that the fan blades and frame should be more flex-resistant, supposedly keeping noise levels to a minimum.
The gap between the ends of the blades and the inside of their frame has also been decreased to prevent air leakage, which makes me optimistic that these fans will be as efficient as possible. This is a similar change that Acer made with the latest iteration of the Predator Orion 7000, and its cooling was truly excellent.
A hybrid magnetic levitation and fluid dynamic bearing system keeps the rotor of NZXT's new fans stable. If that sounds gloriously extra to you, we're on the same page, but as someone who's been burned by one too many overly loud and unstable chassis fans in my time, I'm very excited to see the results. If anything, this might help NZXT's Performance Fans to have a longer lifespan.
While the new line of Performance Fans doesn't have a reverse option (reverse fans mean you can orient them with a bit more versatility without losing their aesthetics), I'm a big fan of the design work that's gone into them. The RGB strips along the sides of the frame are a little more subdued than other RGB fans, but they run along both the intake and exhaust sides, which means that no matter which way you face them in your PC, you'll get the benefits of ambient, colorful lighting.
For ease of installation, NZXT has doubled down on its single frame design, meaning that if you need two fans or a set of three, you can get them in a single, locked-in frame with no daisy-chaining cable work required. If you don't have an NZXT motherboard though, you will need to invest in a Control Hub to get the full suite of fan curve control, RGB customization, and system-wide RGB sync available through NZXT Cam.
- Check out more PC fans at Amazon
- NZXT RGB Core fans: $39.99 at Amazon
- NZXT F120X: $44.99 at Amazon
Not done scoping out your next rig? Check out the best graphics card, the best RAM for gaming, and the best SSD for gaming.
