120mm quiet cooling fans - good airflow for minimal noise?

[KyleY]

I'm considering the following case fans and was wondering which may provide the best airflow with the least amount of noise. I'll put one as an intake in my case and one as an exhaust. I also may use one on top of an XP-120 or Scythe Ninja if I don't get the Zalman 7700-Cu for my CPU.

Nexus Real Silent D12SL-12:
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/shop/product.php?productid=16285&cat=266&page=1
Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E Silent Fan:
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/shop/product.php?productid=16394&cat=266&page=1
Yate Loon D12SL-12
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/shop/product.php?productid=16354&cat=266&page=1
Akasa Amber Series Ultra Quiet:
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ak12amseulqu.html
Thermaltake Silent Wheel A2330 130mm (only as an exhaust fan):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811999144

At the least, are any of these fans I should avoid? I haven't heard much about the Akasa fans - anybody using them? Thanks in advance,
--Kyle

 

[Orcishhuman]

I'd recommend the Nexus fan, very quiet and it moves air (not like some quiet fans who don't really improve airflow).

 

[Ping to the Pong]

all those fans would be good choices except the silent wheel. Its a decent fan, but TT never has the right specs for their fans. The Scythe one looks new, it says it has a lifetime of 150,000 hours?! wow, thats like 3 times the lifetime of ball-bearing fans. Looks like Sony is getting into the computer fan industry. Actually, the spec on the S-Flex fan appears to be pretty good, why dont you give that one a shot and let the rest of us know how good this fan really is. If not, id stick to Nexus.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

At http://www.silentpcreview.com/ you will find very though testing of 120mm fans.
If true silence is what you seek... Look there for the truth.

I use*quality*ball bearing fans that will undervolt well on a Sunbeam Rheobus.

In low and medium speed the Delta Triple Blade fans will reliably start/run at 3.5V. They
don't move any real air but they are inaudable. Now that's quiet.

For intake I use a Sanyo Denki 120x38 103cfm@39dBA *but* at 5V it moves very good air at 1200rpm and is inaudable at 12" in free air. This gives my rig much needed air flow
in mid-summer heat and noisless operation in the evening or during cool weather.


...Galvanized

 

[MegaRoll]

Those S-FLEX fans seem to good to be true...

 

[Ping to the Pong]

not too sure but the Arctic Cooling fans are all fluid dynamic bearing fans and they are really quiet. Im pretty curious, maybe ill pick one up myself just for testing. I have a 120mm nexus laying around somewhere so ill be able to compare it....

 

[suszterpatt]

Though they're not available in the US, the GlacialTech SilentBlade deserve mentioning too. Rated at 19dB and 37 CFM, and it's damn right inaudible while moving plenty of air.


In light of that, I wouldn't be so quick to judge the Scythe fans either. The hydrodynamic bearing ArcticCooling fans look promising as well.

 

[keldog7]

I find it hard to compare fans because they each provide different airflow for a given noise level. The Nexus fans, for example, at 12V usually run at about 1000RPM, and produce somewhere just over 20dB of noise...but their airflow isn't exactly huge. You then have to consider that you can undervolt a loud fan to 7V or 5V (or use a FanMate), making it (again) quieter, yet pushing (again) less air.

It might be easier to look at the noisiest part in your machine - probably the video card - and check how much noise it makes. If the vid card makes 45dB or so, you won't really be able to hear the difference in a case fan from say 22dB to 27dB (just throwing out numbers here).

In my case, I took a really quiet vid card (30-odd dB), and added Nexus fans at 12V. I can hear air moving if the rooms is silent, and thats about it.

Galvanized suggestion is a good one (silentpcreview) - though I found that their fan benchmarks are a bit old. At least the will be able to give you exactly what you want - a ratio of airflow to noise.
-A