Youtuber builds 15 mini fans into a 120 mm fan - because he can

Kevin Hofer

18-3-2026

Translation: machine translated

What do you do when you have too many miniature fans and too much free time? You build what is probably the most pointless - and at the same time the most fascinating - PC fan in the world.

I've been following the Youtuber «Major Hardware» for years. His fan creations are legendary. In the latest video, he says that he hasn't had a «stupid» idea for a fan project for a while. Now he has finally got creative again.

His ambitious plan: to build a 120 mm fan from 15 individual 30 mm mini door fans. It is based on Noctua's legendary NF-A12x25. The idea comes from a toy UFO belonging to his children. Major Hardware notices that the tiny motors inside move a surprising amount of air. He asks himself the question: How many of these small fans make a large one? And how can they be arranged so that the piece looks good?

Fanhattan Project

A quick calculation: 14 to 15 mini fans with a diameter of 30 mm each cover roughly the same area as a single 120 mm fan. Major Hardware creates a framework on the PC that takes the dimensions into account and prints an initial prototype.

This test does not go entirely smoothly. Several motor mounts tear, one breaks off completely. The creator simply forgets the cut-outs for the anti-vibration pads. Version two has to be produced before he can even test it. And it's a tough one: equipped with 4.5-volt motors and fully assembled, Major Hardware aptly compares his work to the first atomic bomb of the Manhattan Project.

The frame consists of a raised dome so that all 15 fans fit into the 120 × 120 mm grid. To ensure that the airflow is not obstructed by disruptive cable runs, Major Hardware runs the entire cabling along the outside of the frame.

Great, but not practical

In the acoustics test, with the microphone positioned around 200 mm in front of the fan, the construction reaches a whopping 73 dB - i.e. as loud as road traffic. The sound profile is relatively flat «» , according to the Youtuber - but the bottom line is simply «a really loud fan». So nothing for those seeking peace and quiet.

In the heat test on an older Intel Core i7-7700K, overclocked to 4.9 GHz and 20 minutes under load, the original NF-A12x25 delivers a final temperature of 69.5 °C - the 15-fan monster reaches around 69 °C.

The result is as astonishing as it is absurd: The much more complex, significantly louder custom-built design cools about as well as Noctua's optimised series classic. Will Noctua take this as inspiration for the next product line? Probably not.

Kevin Hofer

Senior Editor

kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.ch

From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.

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