It's stunning how good these $11 RGB fans are

Information technology'due south stunning how good these $xi RGB fans are

(Image credit: Imad Khan)

Building a PC in 2021 is expensive. Thanks to component shortages caused by the Covid-xix pandemic, plus continued tariffs on Prc, gamers are left having to pay a premium. It doesn't assist that scalpers are taking reward of the situation, buying up all inventory as soon as retailers run across Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 restocks. As of publishing, about a year after launch, a $699 reference Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 is selling for over $one,600 on eBay.

Afterward months of hunting down components at decent prices, plus some Amazon Prime 24-hour interval deals and connections I've made over the years as a announcer, I had everything I needed to build a modern, powerful computer. I did have to spend two nights camped out in forepart of a Micro Heart, which was not fun.

While the case I chose, the Cooler Master NR200P ($129 on Amazon), did include some case fans, they looked generic and didn't have the RGB pop I was looking for. I then started researching good quality RGB fans just to discover that the Corsair QL120s, probably the best on the market per reviews, were needlessly expensive. One fan costs $40, and I needed four.

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I refused to pay over $160 for case fans. It just was non worth information technology to me, no thing how much I wanted the inside of my computer to radiate like Baskin Robbins' Wild 'N Reckless sherbet.

There were other brands with less proper name recognition than Corsair as well selling on Amazon. But after some Googling, I came upon Gelid Solutions and its new Stella Frost fans. What initially attracted me to these blowers was its glacier "ice" design that glowed on both sides.

The other thing that attracted me was the toll. On Gelid Solutions' website, the fans are listed for $xi USD. I decided to order four.

Aircraft costs unfortunately cut downwardly on the savings, adding an additional $25 to the total as the fans were beingness sent from Gelid'south facility in Hong Kong. Still, $69 was cheaper than $150-plus.

I reached out to Gelid Solutions to acquire more most the company and these fans. Co-founder VC Tran emailed me back. He offered to send me some fans every bit press samples. For total transparency'south sake, he did cancel my original club.

Per Gelid's Most United states page, the company was founded in 2008 by Gebhard Scherrer of Switzerland and Tran. The company proudly boasts its Swiss roots, claiming that those origins have led the company to create products with the same quality and attention to detail as Swiss watches. Looking on Reddit, I found much praise for the company's GC-Extreme thermal compound. I can't say if that extends to its entire product portfolio, but reviews on Amazon of other Gelid products seemed good.

It took a while, but the Stella Frost fans did get in. The all-white fans accept 24 ARGB LEDs, double brawl begetting and a noiseless motor. That's 10 less LEDs than the Corsair QL120s, although the max speed is slightly college at one,600 RPM versus 1,500.

Upon installing the fans, I was stunned at the comeback in noise and ambient temperature. Don't get me incorrect, the default Cooler Master fans were fine, but were a tad on the loud side. But afterwards adjusting some fan curves and letting the Stella Frost'due south settle in, I was stunned at its muted circulation.

When performing more than idle tasks, the Stella Frosts did an splendid task of pushing hot air out of the case. While every figurer is different, both my CPU and motherboard temperatures were more stable. On average, my CPU, an AMD Ryzen five 5600X, sabbatum at 46-degrees Celsius, and my motherboard at 39.

Gaming performance was also good. Even when playing a demanding title like Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 4K with Ray Tracing effects on, CPU and motherboard temperatures hovered at around 65 and 46-degrees Celsius respectively. Sure, the fans did spool upward, but that's to be expected.

Now, I should make it clear that I personally haven't compared the Stella Frost'south to the QL 120s by Corsair. I'm certain the Corsair fans perform excellently. TweakTown gave the fans a 96% rating. But even then, information technology's difficult to justify that price when there are proficient performing alternatives for a fourth of the toll.

At the moment, the Gelid Solutions Stella Frost fans tin exist ordered straight from the visitor'south website. The company confirmed to Tom's Guide that the Stella Frosts would be making its way to Amazon in the coming weeks.

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Imad Khan is news editor at Tom's Guide, helping direct the 24-hour interval's breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a full-time freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Mail and ESPN. Outside of work, yous can find him sitting blankly in front of a Word document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new book.