I was messing around inside one of my computers one day after it had been running for a few hours, and that's when I remembered that I didn't install any fans in the front. I then wondered how much of a difference airflow would make on the hard drives, which were running fairly hot when I touched their surfaces.

Up until then, I didn't really have any problems running the computer, so no big deal, right? Well, maybe not for the moment, but high heat is pretty much synonymous with the shortening of hardware lifespan or component failure. So why take the risk of future damage to my three hard drives with hundreds of gigabytes of data?

Well, the first problem for me is that the enclosure is an Antec P150 (Reviewed Here).  It sports twin bays for a less common 92mm fan and I didn't have any 92mm fans. They are not exactly as common as the 120mm or 80mm fans in my experience and that's probably why I never installed anything there in the first place.  This was several months ago; yes, I was too lazy to drive to the store and pick some up. Then I conveniently forgot about the issue which brings us here today.

Choice of Fans

Try-2-B-Cool

So, being an Antec enclosure, it only seemed fitting that I get TriCool 92mm fans. Actually, I have taken a liking to them because of the three-speed fan switch that most generic fans don't even have. I've become a sort of noise control freak, so I tend to set things on low speed whenever I can. What's also nice about the TriCool is that they come with both 4-pin molex and 3-pin mini molex connections (via adapter) along with fan speed monitoring. Flashy LEDs weren't a particular deciding factor in my case because the P150 is fairly plain to begin with.