Arctic's new fan-cooled fans might be for servers but I want a gaming rig full of them for the ultimate cooling kudos

HardwareCoolingArctic’s new fan-cooled fans might be for servers but I want a gaming rig full of them for the ultimate cooling kudosWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Arctic Cooling)

A rendered image of a server rack, showing three Arctic S12038 cooling fans in a row

Cooling fans in servers don’t have an easy life. They’re jammed into a tiny space and typically run full-pelt all day long. Should one fail, it’s not a quick task to replace them either, so anything that can be done to keep them running longer is a must. Cooling experts Arctic reckons it has the ultimate solution there: fan cooling your cooling fans.

Yes, you read that right: a cooling fan that has a cooling fan to cool the cooling fan. The main cooling fan, not the extra cooling fan. That apparently doesn’t need a cooling fan but I do wonder at what point in the future we’ll see cooling fans' cooling fans sporting an additional cooling fan. Okay, I’ll stop now.

Arctic’s newS8038 and S12038 seriesof server cooling fans (viaTom’s Hardware) all sport an additional itsy-bitsy fan in the central hub. Its purpose is to lower the operating temperature of the bearings, helping to prolong their lifespan. Where a typical gaming PC’s air wafters will spool up and down, only occasionally running at full RPM, those in a server will usually be called upon to blast as much air as possible at all times.

Not that they’re particularly expensive: Arctic is selling theS12038-8K for €19(a fraction over $20). I’m very tempted to buy one just to mess about with but the inner child in me keeps looking at my main PC’s case and giggling at the thought of it being loaded to the hilt with them. It’s a Fractal Design North XL which can fit up to seven 120 mm fans so with a full complement of S12038s, I’d technically have 14 fans in my PC.

And since they’re PWM fans, I could run them at their lowest rotation rate (800 RPM) and probably be fine, noise-wise. Well, fine-ish, because these really aren’t designed to be as quiet as possible. The vibrations would be awful, too, because that’s never much of a consideration in server cooling fans either.

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Still, I’d probably be able to cool any CPU with such a setup. ACore i9 14900Kat 300 W? Pah, not a problem. Not sure that the long-term hearing loss and raging wrath of my partner would quite justify it, though.

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Best AIO cooler for CPUs: Keep your chip chill.Best air cooler for CPUs: Classic, quiet cooling.Best PC fans: Quiet and efficient.

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