Looking for silent top quality 80mm fan

Vallybally

Senior member
Oct 5, 2004
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Anyone have some experience, links, reviews, seller websites or tips on finding some top of the line 80mm quite fans? Inaudible (~20 dba) I'm looking for medium cfm capabilities. Barely audible (~25-30 dba) I'm looking for higher output cfm where I might replace my 4 average fans with 2.
 

Vallybally

Senior member
Oct 5, 2004
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CoolerMaster Blue LED 80 ----cfm 32 dba 25
Panaflo 80mm L1A ------------cfm 24 dba 21

This cheapo CoolerMaster here has a better ratio, but that brings to question is it legit or an exaggeration... cause these things are loud in my case.
 

Navid

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2004
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Originally posted by: Vallybally
CoolerMaster Blue LED 80 ----cfm 32 dba 25
Panaflo 80mm L1A ------------cfm 24 dba 21

This cheapo CoolerMaster here has a better ratio, but that brings to question is it legit or an exaggeration... cause these things are loud in my case.

Are you talking about the ratio of the cfm to dBa?
Assuming that is what you mean, that is not a valid way of comparing.
dBa is a log scale. So, 26dBa is twice louder than 20dBa. And 32dBa is 4 times louder than 20dBa. Adding 6 represents doubling.
But, CFM is a linear scale. To double the amount of air moved by 30CFM, you need 60CFM.

If you take that into account, the Panflo actually is better looking at those numbers. Now, whether those numbers are accurate or not is a different story that I don't know anything about.

Edit:
25dBa is 1.58 times louder than 21dBa.
32CFM only moves 1.33 times what 24CFM moves.
 

subdismal

Member
Feb 14, 2003
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I can tell you to stay away from the Vantec Tornado 120 cfm fans. I had two 80mm in my case on a fan controller and the noise was just so insane that I actually bought a set of headphones for gaming.

I've had some good results out of the CoolerMaster blue LED fan that VallyBally mentioned, however you still need more.

According to the reviews, I'm also going to give my vote for the Panaflow suggested. I'm actually going to order some of those soon ^.^
 

xbassman

Golden Member
Feb 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: Vallybally
CoolerMaster Blue LED 80 ----cfm 32 dba 25
Panaflo 80mm L1A ------------cfm 24 dba 21

This cheapo CoolerMaster here has a better ratio, but that brings to question is it legit or an exaggeration... cause these things are loud in my case.

I installed 3 Cooler Master's in my daughter's PC.
They are pretty quiet. Those specs are definately not exagerated like some you might see. <cough> TT <cough>

They are among the best of the currently available led fans.