okay i got a quickie

[phatstyl]

what is the difference between tailed and untailed fans?
lookin for the price/noise/performance factors!
thakns for your time

 

[mlchang]

"Tailed" means that the fan has some sort of power supply connector plug thingy on the end. This could be a 3 pin molex for motherboard headers or it could be a 4 pin Molex for PS connectors.

Untailed means that the fan has only bare wires that you will have to either crimp into some connectors or use with a fanbus or solder or something.

So to sum up, tailed = connector attached and untailed = bare wires

The terms have nothing to do with noise, performance, etc... of the fan.

 

[phatstyl]

ah, here i was thinking the fan blades were extra curved, lol thanks for the clarification!

 

[mlchang]

Noise is the dB measurement and performance is the CFM measurement.

dB(A) = decibels which is a measure of volume. The A is for average.
CFM = cubic feet per minute which tells you the volume of air that a fan can move

dBA - the lower the better
CFM - the higher the better

So for example = a delta 60mm fan that spins at 6800-7000 RPMs has these specs...
46.5 dBA
37 CFM
This is really loud, but it moves a lot of air.

A nice quiet Panaflo 60mm L1A has these specs
24 dBA
14.1 CFM
This is really quiet. 20dB is about the volume of a whisper. So this is maybe 1.5 times as loud as a whipser (Humans perceive 10dB increase as roughly double the volume.)

So the delta is over 4 times as loud as the Panaflo, BUT it moves A LOT more air. It also has this annoying high pitch to it (the delta).

Anyway, people here seem to like Panaflos. They're okay. Addas are okay too. Sunon's decent. Basically any fan will do as long as it fits into your noise/CFM requirements I think.

Sidewinder computers has some samples of what fans sound like here.

So another thing to think about is the type of noise made...bigger fans may be loud, but they are at a lower pitch so that it's not as annoying. Bigger fans also move more air for the same amount of noise usually. So like a 80mm Panaflo H1A moves 39.6CFM at 32dBA which is more air than a delta but with less noise and at a lower pitch.

Also, where you mount the fans will affect the noise/flow made by them. Most of these measurements are just taken with bare fans in air. If you were to mount them behind those punched out grills in most computer cases, then flow will generally go down, while noise will go up. So that's why you see a lot of modded cases with the grills cut out.

Anyway, hope this is helpful

 

[mitaiwan82]

lower decibels doesn't mean it's better necessary. just means it's quieter. right....

 

[mlchang]

Well, lower dB is quieter, and to most people that is better.
I assumed that phatstyl felt this way which is why I wrote it like that.
"dBA - the lower the better"
If you are looking for a quiet fan, then the lower the dBA the better. This is true.

I didn't mean to imply that a lower dBA fan was absolutely a better fan. Notice that I also say...
"CFM - the higher the better"
Then I mention that you have to find a fan that fits "your noise/CFM requirements." Compromise between the two.
Is that more clear?