For as much as I've written about case and cooling performance in my time, the fans included with most of the cases and radiators that find their way into the TR labs have been good enough that I've never felt any urge to consider premium aftermarket spinners. That's become especially true as silicon process sizes have shrunk and chips have usually consumed less and less power to deliver a given level of performance. The slow-moving 120-mm and 140-mm fans in many modern cases move enough air quietly that only those with special needs really need to consider tearing out the included spinners from those enclosures.

Earlier this year, however, I was shaken out of my broad-spectrum stock-fan reverie by one of Corsair's ML120 fans. In a change of pace from the usual sleeve, rifle, and fluid-dynamic bearings, the ML series of fans uses magnetic-levitation bearings to minimize friction and noise from that component.