80 and 92mm fans?

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
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I hear alot about Nexus and Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm fans and Panaflo L1A 120mm fans, but rarely about 80mm and 92mm fans. Any recommendations or links that may better inform me?
 

alanore

Member
Jan 1, 2006
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What do you want to know about them?
Generally they just have smaller diameters so have to spin quicker to shift the same amount of air, which means there noiser.
 

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
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sorry I wasn't very specific
I'm looking for recommended 80 and 92mm fans that aren't tornado noisy, but move a good amount of air. Maybe nexus, yate loon, panaflo?
 

Ping to the Pong

Senior member
Dec 5, 2005
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the panaflos will probably be your best best for noise to CFM ratio and they usually come in 3 speeds, low, medium and high so you can pick the right one for you, but if you want the quietest, then Nexus fans are the way to go. I havent really heard much about 80 or 92mm yate loons though.

if you want cheap, really quiet 80mm fans, try these out: Sunbeam 80mm Chrome LED fans. i own some of these and and they are just as quiet as the panaflo low speeds. I could do without the chrome and leds since they system it went in didnt have a window, but they are cheaper then panaflos and nexus and stealth fans.
 

Gamingphreek

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
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80mm:
[*]Panaflo 12L/L1A : Excellent CFM:Dba; Pretty Quiet, ramps down very smoothly, Long Life with little motor noise due to the HydroWave Fluid bearing
[*]Nexus 80mm: CFM:Dba almost as good as the Panaflo, Very Quiet, ramps down very slowly, low CFM
[*]Acoustifan, Pabst, and Antec are all decent

92mm:
[*]Panaflo 12L/L1a : Very nice CFM:Dba, not nearly as good at 92mm or higher as at 80mm, noticable vibration and slightly more motor noise
[*]Nexus 92mm: Same as 80mm only a lower frequency makes the fan appear even quieter, higher CFM cools better. Arguably the best 92mm out there if you like a quiet PC
[*]Same as above

120mm:
[*]Antec Tri-Cool: 3 Speeds; decent CFM:Dba ratio, on lowest speed the fan is fairly quiet, but has more motor noise than the Nexus or Yate Loon.
[*]Nexus 120mm: Extremely quiet, fan ramps very smoothly with very little motor noise. You might be better off with a Yate Loon (see below)
[*]Yate Loon: Not quite as quiet as the Nexus but they are the same fan. The Nexus merely has an inline resistor, which limits the fan speed. Much cheaper. Used in Seasonic PSU's.
[*]Panaflo, Cooler Master, Delta Triple Blade are all good. The Panaflo is not nearly as good as the legendary 80mm fan

Fans to stay away from:
[*]Any Thermaltake: Very very distorted specs, lower quality fan, IMO too flashy. Bad CFM:Dba ratio in reality.
[*]SilenX: Moves hardly any air, and still generates a noticable amount of noise. Very pricey. You are much better off with Pabst or Nexus

Sunon is ok but they are standard fans. No frills, not generally very quiet, but solidly built nonetheless.

-Kevin

Edit: Hmm i wanted to type CFM/Dba but it came out as smiley faces lol. For every smiley please subsitute for CFM/Dba
 

twitchee2

Platinum Member
Dec 29, 2004
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coolermaster 120mm led fans have a good CFM/dba ratio aswell. they are almost inaudable at 7v
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,685
136
The L series panaflos are the gold standard of quiet fans, the ones that everything else is judged against. Some are quieter, some push more air, but none really do both at the same time. Besides that, they are extremely dependable and long-lived.

They often come un-tailed, meaning no plugs on the ends of the wires, but many vendors furnish them with tailed leads for a small premium. Most of the panaflos available in this country lack rpm sensing, which is a source of noise, anyway. Not that you need it with panaflos- they just run...

Check out hte articles at www.silentpcreview.com
 

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
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thanks for the fast responses, nice summary gamingphreek.

1 question still. What other 120x38mm fans are good besides the Panaflo L1A here. The case can take a 120x38 both back and front, its the antec slk3000b.

Case Layout

back fan <--------------would i want a 120x38mm back here?
?

side fan
80mm Panaflo and


?
front <------------ a 120x25mm up here, to cause some
negative airflow? or should i put the same
fan as the back one?
thanks
 

Gamingphreek

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
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Well you generally want the same amount of air per cubic foot going into your case to be the same as the amount going out.

So if you are putting 150CFM into your case, you want to get as close to 150CM of exhaust.

I have found with the P180, that you can deal with just exhaust though.

Well first i would rip out that 80mm Panaflo, because a side blow hole is unneccesary and generally very noisy. Buy 2 Antec Tri Cool fans. Put one on intake in the front, and one exhausting the air to the rear. That Panaflos for 120mm, as i said early, are no where near as good as their 80mm counterparts. I would highly recommend the Antec, or Nexus over Panaflo at the 120mm segment.

-Kevin
 

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
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But im having a hard time finding any other 120x38 other than panaflo's. I'm having a hard time finding any others.
 

Gamingphreek

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
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Check SVC.com, Newegg, EndPCNoise.com, FrozenCPU, and Jab-Tech.

I cant think of any more off the top of my head but if you need more feel free to post or PM.

-Kevin
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
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Click on the link in my sig. I still have a few of those nice Sanyos left. Buyers have been uniformly pleased with them.

. I also got a really nice Nidec 92mm from bgmicro.com. sidewindercomputers.com has some nice 92s too. GalvanizedYankee will probably drop by and tell you about them.

.bh.
 

GalvanizedYankee

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2003
6,986
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Because Zepper called my name into this thread and I told you, OP, via PM reply that my thoughts would be posted here, I do it.
Poorly manufactured fans need extra bearing clearance to make-up for inaccurate machining. That is why some sleeve or ball bearing fans will click more than others when undervolted. Remember the shafts are quite small and that dictates tight running clearances. Quality of manufacture and materials does no come cheap when buying retail.

There is an exception....High speed fans, those over 3000rpm need high speed ball bearings. By their nature these bearings are fitted a little on the loose side in the races. This can contribute to clicking when undervolted. It can make them extra skreechey at 12V because the bearings will sing. High speed sleeve bearing fans I would avoid because of increased noise as the fan ages.

The stock ADDAs out of my Lian Li were 80x25mm, drive 30cfm and worked for a year with no increase in noise. They were replaced with ADDA 80x25mm HyPro bearing fans driving 31cfm. These were a little quieter and are high end gear but expensive. Bought from Mouser.com @ $9 each. That's all I know about 80mm fans because now I will mod all 80 case fans to 92mm. The exception being the blow-hole if there is one will be left at 80mm. No sensor wire on either fan type.

Nidec 92x25 from BGMicro.com, $3, 12V@.29A. Starts/runs at <4V, starts with the noise at about 7.5V. Nice quality ball bearing fan w/sensor wire. I had one thrown in with a $30 order just to check it out. No application yet. I guess cfm at about 60+. It would be easy to look up with the part# at BGMicro.

Panaflo 92x25M-BX, from SVC.com, $4, 12V@.2A. Starts/runs at <5V. Pretty quiet up to 9V. At 12V drives 48cfm@30dBA. Since it has the BX at the end of its # it has a sensor/tach wire. Very nice 92x25 fan, most highly reccomeded if 48cfm is what you need. At $4....A steal. ( I say this with no warm feelings for Panaflo )

Papst 92x32, from Allelectronics.com, $3 iirc. Had one thrown in with an order awhile back. Papst is a resepected name but this bad-boy is a clicking beast at all voltages. It is a two wire fan,ie, no sensor wire. Sadly it's junk for me. It's fan could be cut out and the frame used for a spacer for a good fan. Absolute crap to be avoided.

Sanyo Denki 92x32,from sidewindercomputers.com, $5. 12V@.31A, 55cfm. It has three wires but no tach wire. Very nice fan, starts/runs at 4V, the noise comes on at 8.5V. This is the smoothest fan I have ever held at 12V, it is vibration free. No clicking when undervolted. If held 3" from my ear there is a click to be heard but lets get real :D
Good gear=Reccomended.

Delta Triple Blades from Sidewindercomputers.com=not cheap but very good fans. I have three in my current project. 92x25@40cfm, 92x38@57cfm,92x38@79cfm. All will reliably start/run @ 3.5V. All have sensor/tach wire. The sweetest of the lot is the 57cfm job. Not vibration free like the Sanyo Denki or NMB below but real close.
Most highly reccomended.

NMB 92x32 from Sidewinder, $5, 12V@.63A. This is a thermally controlled fan, at 80F it is silent. Max out-put is 69cfm. This is a Dell fan and through them costs $100+. The thermistor can be jumped and the fan put on a controller. I've bench tested it. It will start/run at <3.5V. Yeah, it's real noisy at 12V but is vibration free, just as good as the Sanyo Denki listed above. At 6 to 7V it's not silent but not bad either. The blades are very aggresive as it's made to suck ducted air off an Intel HS. I'm going to install a different thermistor on long leads and just play with the placement of the temp sensor.
Very good NMB fan. It would make for a crazy cfm HS fan. A steal at $5.
Reccomended for the OCer or deaf.

All the above is from hands on experiance. All testing was done with a Sunbeam Rheobus.

I have two Panaflo 120x38s a 86cfm and a 114cfm neither are near as sweet running as the Sanyo Denki 120x38@103cfm but this thread is about 80s and 90s. So no comment on those.

The Akasa fan line has just come into the Startes and maybe worth a look. They are not $5 fans.

I liked GamingPhreek's first post in this thread because it parallels things I have heard and read.

Sunday I ordered a nibbler from Jab-Tech.com and it hasn't arrived yet. Never used a hand nibbler but they are the ticket for opening 80mm fan ports to 92mm. I use a die grinder or hacksaw but they generate alot of metal dust, a nibbler doesn't. Cost? $8.


...Galvanized











 

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
170
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0
Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Because Zepper called my name into this thread and I told you, OP, via PM reply that my thoughts would be posted here, I do it.
Poorly manufactured fans need extra bearing clearance to make-up for inaccurate machining. That is why some sleeve or ball bearing fans will click more than others when undervolted. Remember the shafts are quite small and that dictates tight running clearances. Quality of manufacture and materials does no come cheap when buying retail.

There is an exception....High speed fans, those over 3000rpm need high speed ball bearings. By their nature these bearings are fitted a little on the loose side in the races. This can contribute to clicking when undervolted. It can make them extra skreechey at 12V because the bearings will sing. High speed sleeve bearing fans I would avoid because of increased noise as the fan ages.

The stock ADDAs out of my Lian Li were 80x25mm, drive 30cfm and worked for a year with no increase in noise. They were replaced with ADDA 80x25mm HyPro bearing fans driving 31cfm. These were a little quieter and are high end gear but expensive. Bought from Mouser.com @ $9 each. That's all I know about 80mm fans because now I will mod all 80 case fans to 92mm. The exception being the blow-hole if there is one will be left at 80mm. No sensor wire on either fan type.

Nidec 92x25 from BGMicro.com, $3, 12V@.29A. Starts/runs at <4V, starts with the noise at about 7.5V. Nice quality ball bearing fan w/sensor wire. I had one thrown in with a $30 order just to check it out. No application yet. I guess cfm at about 60+. It would be easy to look up with the part# at BGMicro.

Panaflo 92x25M-BX, from SVC.com, $4, 12V@.2A. Starts/runs at <5V. Pretty quiet up to 9V. At 12V drives 48cfm@30dBA. Since it has the BX at the end of its # it has a sensor/tach wire. Very nice 92x25 fan, most highly reccomeded if 48cfm is what you need. At $4....A steal. ( I say this with no warm feelings for Panaflo )

Papst 92x32, from Allelectronics.com, $3 iirc. Had one thrown in with an order awhile back. Papst is a resepected name but this bad-boy is a clicking beast at all voltages. It is a two wire fan,ie, no sensor wire. Sadly it's junk for me. It's fan could be cut out and the frame used for a spacer for a good fan. Absolute crap to be avoided.

Sanyo Denki 92x32,from sidewindercomputers.com, $5. 12V@.31A, 55cfm. It has three wires but no tach wire. Very nice fan, starts/runs at 4V, the noise comes on at 8.5V. This is the smoothest fan I have ever held at 12V, it is vibration free. No clicking when undervolted. If held 3" from my ear there is a click to be heard but lets get real :D
Good gear=Reccomended.

Delta Triple Blades from Sidewindercomputers.com=not cheap but very good fans. I have three in my current project. 92x25@40cfm, 92x38@57cfm,92x38@79cfm. All will reliably start/run @ 3.5V. All have sensor/tach wire. The sweetest of the lot is the 57cfm job. Not vibration free like the Sanyo Denki or NMB below but real close.
Most highly reccomended.

NMB 92x32 from Sidewinder, $5, 12V@.63A. This is a thermally controlled fan, at 80F it is silent. Max out-put is 69cfm. This is a Dell fan and through them costs $100+. The thermistor can be jumped and the fan put on a controller. I've bench tested it. It will start/run at <3.5V. Yeah, it's real noisy at 12V but is vibration free, just as good as the Sanyo Denki listed above. At 6 to 7V it's not silent but not bad either. The blades are very aggresive as it's made to suck ducted air off an Intel HS. I'm going to install a different thermistor on long leads and just play with the placement of the temp sensor.
Very good NMB fan. It would make for a crazy cfm HS fan. A steal at $5.
Reccomended for the OCer or deaf.

All the above is from hands on experiance. All testing was done with a Sunbeam Rheobus.

I have two Panaflo 120x38s a 86cfm and a 114cfm neither are near as sweet running as the Sanyo Denki 120x38@103cfm but this thread is about 80s and 90s. So no comment on those.

The Akasa fan line has just come into the Startes and maybe worth a look. They are not $5 fans.

I liked GamingPhreek's first post in this thread because it parallels things I have heard and read.

Sunday I ordered a nibbler from Jab-Tech.com and it hasn't arrived yet. Never used a hand nibbler but they are the ticket for opening 80mm fan ports to 92mm. I use a die grinder or hacksaw but they generate alot of metal dust, a nibbler doesn't. Cost? $8.


...Galvanized



wow, very nice, thanks galvanized

 

Liver

Senior member
Aug 8, 2004
575
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0
good information here regarding fans.

what is your opinion on the thermaltake 130mm fan? it has favorable reviews on silentpcreview. mine is on its way, will play with it.

also i have read that having intake fans and exhaust fans at the same time can create more noise due to turbulence (aside from having more fans). And paradoxically actually decrease your overall bulk airflow in the case. this because both fans will almost never be in synch so air will not have that smooth somewhat laminar flow. i believe this is concern ONLY with low fans speeds and mainly getting it quiet. at higher fan and higher noise, i guess you will not care about the added turbulence noise.

sorry to deviate from the original question, and thanks for the recommendations on the 80mm fans.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
0
0
Turbulence in itself is not a bad thing for PCs. Without it, you would have more dead spots (eddies) in your case. I've been thinking of how to rig a very slow rotating, oscillating fan to mount somewhere inside a case just to keep the air thoroughly stirred up.

.bh.
 

taterworks

Member
Dec 7, 2003
102
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0
Most Thermaltake "silent" fans will not pass as "silent" by most users - only those who are used to Vantec Tornado and Delta Black Label fans all their lives. For a while, they did have genuine Panaflo fans on their Silent Boost heatsinks.
 

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
170
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0
so far are my only good options for 120x38 Sanyo denki's and possibly panaflo?

have checked svc, tekgems, frozencpu, jab-tech, and another site Galvanized recommended for NMB fans.

oh i remember, the other site is sidewinder

-What fan filters would you guys recommend for an 80 and 120mm fan?
-would a fan filter impede airflow alot, especially on a 120x38 sanyo denki?
 

GalvanizedYankee

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2003
6,986
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I'm quite pleased with the 103cfm Sanyo Denki 120x38s I have. They are way too heavy for a HS and would provide too much air at 12V. But for case fans they are superb.

At 5V they are transparent but move good air. At 7V they are just starting to make themselves known. For the price, you will find none better. Plus they have a sensor feed wire. They are vibrationless..:thumbsup:


...Galvanized
 

msi or epox

Member
Jul 15, 2005
170
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thanks, it's decided then. Sanyo Denki's.
a side air duct isn't worth it? even if its the panaflo L1A?