In an effort to further increase cooling in my tiny gaming PC setup, I decided it was time to change the little 80mm fan that came with the case and upgrade to two 80mm units. I decided to chuck the stock 80mm unit because it wasn’t a PWM unit and went with another Arctic fan, the Arctic F8 PWM. I chose to go with these because I’ve already been having a pretty good experience with the Arctic P12 PWM units I’ve been running.
With this install, I also had to pick up a fan splitter since these Arctic F8 PWM fans did not have daisy chain plugs like the Arctic P12 PWM units did. I went with the JBtek PWM fan splitters since it was on sale at Amazon and they were cheap. They are also braided so they look pretty nice.
Anyways, these Arctic F8 PWM looks pretty nice too. I opted for the all-black units since they went with the theme of my build. There’s also a black and white unit where the fans are white instead. In case you’re wondering, the F line of fans is different from the P line of fans in that the F is built more to provide better airflow through open spaces. The P on the other hand are pressure optimized fans, used more for items like radiators or through dust filters.
To optimize the airflow for the air being pushed out of the back of the case, I did remove the PCIe slot covers where the two fans sit so it would be more open.
One issue I ran into is because of the case I’m running. The SAMA IM01 states that you can run 2x80mm fans in the rear, which is actually not true, or at least not the way you would think. First of all, there aren’t even enough holes for screws in the back to accommodate 2x80mm fans. I had to rig them to fit by zip-tying both fans together and then only screwing in the top fan completely and the bottom fan with just two screws. Luckily, these fans don’t seem to rattle or vibrate.
Aside from that, both fans just barely fit. They sit really snugly and are super quiet. Even at higher speeds, they are still pretty quiet so overall, happy with the update and any issues I had weren’t with the fans but the case itself.
SHOP LINK
- ARCTIC F8 PWM – 80 mm PWM Case Fan
- JBtek All Black Sleeved PWM Fan Splitter Cable 1 to 2 Converter, 2 Pack
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