Quietest 120mm Fans

[mlhm5]

I have got a couple really noisy fans in my case and need to replace them.

If the quietest/silent are $30 are there some for $15 that are not quiet also?

 

[Zepper]

Fans are noisy relative to basic design choices and speed/CFM output. A lot of the highly touted "quiet" fans don't move much air, so there is no excuse for them not being low noise. Many fans that move significant air get pretty low noise if dialed back with a fan controller. But smooth, tight tolerance bearings aren't cheap. Designing a fan blade to be in dynamic balance over a wide rpm range isn't easy either. Check the fan reviews on silentpcreview.com and in the Air Cooling section of the XtremeSystems.org forum to get some perspective on the issue from both the noize freaks and performance freaks perspectives. You should be able to find something reasonably priced where the curves from both sides intersect.
. The Yate Loons from Petrastechshop are on the economy side and it's all up from there. I found some fans that can move nearly as much air as the great Sanyo Denki 1011 and is significantly lower in noise at several points (at least to my ears). See my review here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/ - the main review is under the black version. SVC has been selling them at the best price I've found, but their shipping can be high at least partly due to excessive packaging (of the fans by C-M) and extras which you may or may not need or want.

.bh.

 

[Sheninat0r]

Yate Loon D12SL-12 from PTS; ~$3.50 per fan, very quiet [see: SPCR].

So no, the most quiet fans aren't the most expensive, unless you count Noctua. Of the most-recommended quiet fans, Yates are the cheapest at $3-4 per fan, with Zalman [ZM-F3], Scythe [S-Flex and Slipstream], and Nexus [Real Silent 120mm, rebranded D12SL-12 at 1000RPM + slightly edited blades] in between at around $10 per fan iirc and Noctua all the way at the top with $20 and up per fan.

 

[Wolfcastle]

The quietest 120mm fan I have, I got from SVC. It's a CoolerMaster, and it's pretty cheap.

http://www.svc.com/saf-s12-e1-19.html

This fan should only be used when air movement can afford to be minimal. I have it running on the side of my case, and it's working just as intended.

 

[Zepper]

It's a waste of plastic and metals to make a 120mm fan that puts out only 11 CFM. Ridiculous.

.bh.

 

[Wolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Zepper
It's a waste of plastic and metals to make a 120mm fan that puts out only 11 CFM. Ridiculous.

.bh.

At least they can't be accused of exaggerating their performance/silence balance.

Additionally, there are some heatsinks that are really big and only require a tiny amount of air to be blown over it to be very effective.

I've found this fan to be extremely quiet, seriously.

With that said, this fan isn't for everyone, but there are people like me who'll find it's exactly what they're looking for. If you actually want some performance out of a silent fan, this is obviously not the way to go, but I'd hardly call it waste or ridiculous.

I can undervolt some 120mm fans to get the same effect, but I hate pulling out the cords to make it happen.

 

[Sheninat0r]

@Wolfcastle

If you could get a fan that blew 5x more air at the same noise level, why wouldn't you? The Noctua NF-S12-1200 gets 63CFM in open air at ~25dBA [SPCR data], below the noise floor of most homes. Too bad once the S12 gets any noticeable restriction, its CFM drops like a stone. Other quiet-type fans get anywhere from 20-40CFM at the same noise level, depending.

 

[Wolfcastle]

Honestly, I bought some stronger "quiet" fans, and they were anything but. Again, I concede that you can find fairly quiet fans that perform well. But I was looking for a nearly literally silent fan that didn't need a high CFM. I don't think any of the higher performing fans, even when they market themselves as silent, were really silent. I've seen a lot of companies play with their dB numbers and call something silent when it isn't. In the case of the Cooler Master, the CFM is so low that physically speaking, it can't be anything more than silent. So my stance is that fans that rate themselves as 20dB really isn't. I've tried a Hiper fan rated at that speed, and it was much louder when I actually tested it.

Now, if there really are fans that have the same noise level and performed better at a decent price, of course, I'd want that more. I was just pointing out a no-brainer for those who want true silence with no regard to CFM.

Your point is well taken, and I think we can agree to disagree since I don't have much more to say on that matter, and I'm happy with my current home set up with the Cooler Master fan.

 

[lightstar]

the silverstones are ~$20

 

[RallyMaster]

Originally posted by: Zepper
It's a waste of plastic and metals to make a 120mm fan that puts out only 11 CFM. Ridiculous.

.bh.

QFT.

Yate Loon D12SL-12s are FTW. Cheap, reliable (I've had two going strong for over a year with almost 24/7 usage) and push a lot of air.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The Antec tri-cool in my NSK4400 is very quiet on its lowest setting.

Check the big fan review at SilentPCReview.com to compare cooling, cost and quiet.

 

[Thraxen]

I prefer Nexus D12SL-12-BW fans myself. Very quiet even at full speed. In a quiet case you won't hear them at all.

 

[zod96]

Either a scythe slipstream fan or sflex fan. I have 2 scythe sflex 120mm 800 rpm fans in my system pushing about 34 cfm and their dead quiet. Here's another good place to look http://www.silentpcreview.com/article832-page1.html