[PaulKeeble]

They just never last. Arctic fans perform really well especially for their price but they all seem to develop problems. I have probably bought about 15 different Arctic fans from the F and P range and none of them survived 5 years, most were dead or developed noise within 1-2 years. Noctua on the other hand the old 80mm fan from the early 2000s still works just fine and remains quiet. Noctua fans are crazy reliable, they cost more too but I would suspect over the life of the fan they end up similar priced or cheaper.

[ahartmetz]

Arctic fans seem to last 10+ years for me. I haven't bought any recently though and I run them at 500 rpm or so, that's my strategy: many and large fans, running slowly.