silent fans

[doomtrain]

hello, I'm looking for a quiet case fan to use as an exhaust. I would prefer a 120, and something that moves a reasonable amount of air, but noise comes before great performance.
Any suggestions would be great, thank you for the help.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

welcome to AT!

nexus are going to be some of the quietest fans, and pretty accessible, but they don't move much air at all. you should be careful when relying on a very low-flow fan. i'm using a noctua 120mm 1200rpm in my PS, it's a nice comprimise between quiet and wind.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page1.html

 

[Harvey]

You're talking about a contradiction of terms. By definition, sound is air motion, and cooling is function of the volume of the air flow.

The quietest fans will be be the largest in diameter because they can move more air at lower rotation speed so bigger is better. Some higher quality fans with better bearins will also make less noise so you should be looking for double ball or magnetic bearings.

After that, the noise will be determined as much by the way air is vented through the system and how well the case is sound proofed as it will by the fan, itself.

 

[Zepper]

You've been welcomed, so - Yup, only silent fan is an unplugged one.
.bh.

 

[doomtrain]

I'm not asking for silent, and I understand the trade off between noise and performance. Maybe i worded my post wrong. What i meant to say is that i will take a quiet fan over one that moves a lot of air. I've heard things about yate loon would they be something to look into or would the nexus be my best bet in terms of noise? Oh, and thank you for the welcome, I've been lurking on these boards for weeks, and finally decided to post something.

 

[Rubycon]

Text

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: doomtrain

What i meant to say is that i will take a quiet fan over one that moves a lot of air.

Wrong answer. From an engineering perspective, the FIRST job is adequate cooling, which is a function of how much air you move across the heatsink. A larger fan will move more air than a smaller one at any given rotational speed so, all other things being equal, a larger fan will tend to be quieter because it doesn't have to spin as fast to move enough air to do the job.

Heatsink design, noise reduction methods and and the airflow in your chassis will also impact the overall effectiveness of your cooling, but the first job IS cooling.

It's physics. Fry your chip, and you won't have anything making noise... or anything doing else. :shocked:

 

[doomtrain]

thank you for the link rubycon, much appreciated. And thank you harvey for trying to further clarify what fans i need for cooling, but I've decided that i want a quiter fan over one that moves a lot of air in this situation. And it is a for a case exhaust not an HSF, sorry for the confusion. I must be terrible at this forum stuff i feel like I've confused everybody who has tried to help me.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: doomtrain
thank you for the link rubycon, much appreciated. And thank you harvey for trying to further clarify what fans i need for cooling, but I've decided that i want a quiter fan over one that moves a lot of air in this situation. And it is a for a case exhaust not an HSF, sorry for the confusion. I must be terrible at this forum stuff i feel like I've confused everybody who has tried to help me.

Scythe Slipstream 500, 800 or 1200rpm fans.

 

[MarcVenice]

Harvey is just a little passionate about it doomtrain, don't worry about it I'd rather have SOME airflow in my case, with near silent operation, then no airflow at all. My 3 antec tricools are all set on low, meaning they are inaudible. You're always going to hear moving air though, no matter how quiet the ballbearings are.

 

[zorrt]

Personally I wouldnt use the Nexus for exhaust. They move too less air and I consider exhaust pretty important. I would use the Nexus to cool my chips IF my heatsink has wide spacing (Scythe Ninja). However I wouldnt use it on any heatsink with tight spacing (most thermalright products).

You might want to try Yate Loon. I've ordered a couple to replace my antec tricool on the case but I havent personally heard what they sound like. Just been told its fairly quiet.

Try looking up at silentpcreview.com. Theres some very good advice there on achieving quiet systems and still remaining pretty cool.

 

[boomhower]

Another vote for the yates. I a three of the low speed variety on my radiator and they were as close to silent as I could want, and dirt cheap to boot.($3.50 from jab-tech)

 

[Zepper]

Yate Loon D12SL closed corner and the similar D12SM are reasonably quiet especially if undervolted a bit. Best price/performance ratio around - boomhower shows where to get them. If you want to spend more and have the room for them, the new Scythe 38mm thick units (low and med speeds) are nice ones. The low speed Cooler Master fans that SVC.com sells in 4-packs are the same the C-M uses in all their cases and anything else that needs a 120 fan aren't bad either. The Global Win 120mm at SVC is nice too. And the C-M 110 CFM fan kits that SVC sells for ~$13. (best price around) are amazingly quiet at 7V and below for ball bearing fans. You can get a bit quieter if you are willing to pay the boutique prices (e.g. the Scythe with Sony fluid bearings) - I'm not. I've got a couple of Evercool 70mm fans - noisy at full voltage, but undervolt nicely. IDK about the 120mm units, but look at the nearby 80mm fan thread and check out Bluefront's posts for a link to his fan tests, interesting. Also go to silentpcreview.com for more fan tests - those folks are more than willing to pay boutique prices for an extra dB or two - again, I'm not.

There are some more, real-world fan tests in this thread at xtremesystems.org:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=170224 Vapor has several fan test threads links are in this thread.

See my review of the 110 CFM Cooler Master fan kits here: www.TechIMO.com/reviews/

Looks like that Zalman ZM-F3 looks like a winner (can be had for under $7. each per Froogle - the Egg wants ~$10.!), I checked eWiz, but shipping puts them out of contention - over $10. on a $6.00 fan... But I do have one of those Sanyo 1011 fans left. See my FS/T thread link below. Reasonable shipping rates too.

And BTW, I guess I'll have to eat my words on the Yate Loon fans. Y-L makes many versions of fans under the same model number. The testing on xtremesystems.org shows definitive differences. Resellers may have to order direct to be sure they get the ones with the proper options.

.bh.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Yate Loon D12SL closed corner and the similar D12SM are reasonably quiet especially if undervolted a bit. Best price/performance ratio around - boomhower shows where to get them. If you want to spend more and have the room for them, the new Scythe 38mm thick units (low and med speeds) are nice ones. The low speed Cooler Master fans that SVC.com sells in 4-packs are the same the C-M uses in all their cases and anything else that needs a 120 fan aren't bad either. The Global Win 120mm at SVC is nice too. And the C-M 110 CFM fan kits that SVC sells for ~$13. (best price around) are amazingly quiet at 7V and below for ball bearing fans. You can get a bit quieter if you are willing to pay the boutique prices (e.g. the Scythe with Sony fluid bearings) - I'm not. I've got a couple of Evercool 70mm fans - noisy at full voltage, but undervolt nicely. IDK about the 120mm units, but look at the nearby 80mm fan thread and check out Bluefront's posts for a link to his fan tests, interesting. Also go to silentpcreview.com for more fan tests - those folks are more than willing to pay boutique prices for an extra dB or two - again, I'm not.

There are some more, real-world fan tests in this thread at xtremesystems.org:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=170224 Vapor has several fan test threads links are in this thread.

See my review of the 110 CFM Cooler Master fan kits here: www.TechIMO.com/reviews/

Looks like that Zalman ZM-F3 looks like a winner, but I do have one of those Sanyo 1011 fans left. See my FS/T thread link below.

.bh.

zep how does the cm fan compare to the sanace in static pressure?

 

[Zepper]

My observations: Nothing beats the Sanyo in build quality. The Sanyo is 38mm vs the C-M's 25mm plus the sanyo uses up to 25% more current, so there is no comparison re. static pressure. The CM's motor is tiny relative to the Sanyo's. I find the C-Ms to be quieter to my ears. The Sanyo claims 6.6 mm H20 while the C-M claims 5.something - can't get the web site up right now - link from ny review on techIMO. Heck, I have it there in the specs - it's 5.6 mm. That spec is not on the package - in fact, some specs on the package don't even match the currently shipping units. But they are nice fans, I have a couple for cases that can't use 38 mm thick fans on intake and ask nefariouscaine who bought one of each from me. Sold my last two CMs to a fellow in Toronto a couple days ago.

.bh.