Vantec Stealth fans are definitely louder than the PC Power & Cooling Silencer fans

[Salvador]

Hi.

I just bought a Vantec Stealth fan for my power supply project because I needed a 3 wire fan with an rpm lead if I wanted the fan control to work on the Antec power supply that I have.

Well.. Before I performed surgery, I wanted to test out the Vantec fan to make sure that it worked first. Once I snip the wires, it's mine regardless.

Anyway.. I plugged it in and it's not so quiet. For the heck of it, I decided to go grab one of my PC Power and Cooling Silencer fans to compare and the Silencer is definitely quieter. I even got two other opinions on this with a little blind test.

Neither fan is noisy or objectionable, but the Vantec definitely makes more noise. Someone is lying about the db rating because there is no way that the Silencer is 20 db if the Vantec is 21 db. Either the Silencer is quieter than 20 db or the Vantec is louder.

I just wanted to post this for those of you wondering which fan was quieter.

I was going to install the Vantec for the rpm lead, but now I'm going with plan B by and routing the wires outside the power supply and hooking it up to the molex connector (bypassing the PS fan control). In order to use the Vantec with the rpm lead, I needed to snip the wires and solder it to the Antec power supply "harness". Guess I won't have to do that now.

Sal

 

[keyeye]

Thanks for the info. Been waiting for someone to give a report on them. Is it the pitch that makes them louder?
dBa are difficult to interpret between manufacturers, as always.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I was just about to hit the "buy now" over at Coolerguys for these fans. How much louder are they? It looks like they're cheaper
than the Vantec Stealths. They also have lower RPM but equal CFM...


They must have some damn good engineering to run 450 RPM slower and have equal CFM. Do you think I'm skeptical here?

How much quieter does the 1dB(a) sound to you? Could PC Cooling be lying about their CFM?

 

[Salvador]

They sound very similar, but the motor noise is greater on the Vantec's. More than 1 db's worth IMO. I can barely hear the Silencer with my ear to it, but I can definitely hear the whine of the motor on the Vantec Stealth 80 mm.

These fans are nothing like the Sunon hair dryers, but the Silencer is noticeably quieter than the Vantec to my ears. I just wish that I had a Panaflo L1a to compare to right now. If it were my money though, I'd get the Silencer if you want to spend around $10-$12 a fan and if you wanted to cheap out, go for the Panaflo. I've had the Panaflo's in the past and there was nothing objectionable at all about them.

I still want to get my hands on a Papst quiet fan and see how those are. I just can't see myself spending around $30 for a fan though.

What blew me away was how loud the Adda high speed fan was as the stock fan in the Antec PS because I have their quieter (medium and low speed fans) 50 mm fans and they are great for a 50 mm fan. Once again, it's not screaming hair dryer, but it sounded like my pc was a wall mounted A/C unit by comparison.

Sal

 

[Salvador]

The CFM seemed very similar between the two fans. I noticed more of a difference in noise level than air flow. The Vantec's aren't objectionable, but they are noticeably louder than the Silencers.

I had two people listen and asked them which fan was louder. Both had no trouble saying, "this one is louder" to the Vantec Stealth.

Sal

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Cool. I'll pick up the P/C one's then. They're about $4 cheaper and look to have the same CFM/dB. Thanks!

 

[Salvador]

I don't mean to beat this to death, but I feel like I've been taken. I feel like most of my money went to the marketing and the fancy box.

Since I can't return this fan, I wanted to make use of it somewhere. I just got done installing it in the intake of my work pc here at home. I had put a PC Power and Cooling Silencer in the front to quiet things down a few months back and it did. I didn't want to mess with the PS or the CPU because of warrantee reasons, even though they are pretty loud (it's a custom built that my boss had built for me), so I figured that I'd ad least replace the front intake fan and make the front of it quiet.

Anyway.. I just got done swapping fans and I fired it up to surf the internet a bit more before I head for bed. This fan has made this system noticeably louder. So much so, that it reminds me of the generic fan that came with this system.

I guess that's my assessment of the Vantec Stealth. It acts and sounds like a regular, oridinary, generic 80 mm case fan at a premium price with fancy packaging and a catchy name. Don't get taken. If you do try one of these, make sure you can exchange it for a Silencer or a couple of Panaflo's.

I'm going to have to take this thing out now and put the Silencer back in. I have no place for this $10 mistake now.

Anybody want to buy an almost new Vantec Stealth 80 mm fan?

Sal

 

[Salvador]

Ahh.. I just switched back. That's better. Now I can definitely hear the whine of the stock Duron Coolermaster HSF and the refrigerator sound of the generic PS. The front intake sounds like a dead spot and the only time I can hear the Silencer is when I have my ear right up to it and then I can't tell if it's my intake fan or the whine of the CPU fan coming through the front.

The Vantec is not horrible, it's just oridinary and certainly not Stealth. You'd probably be better off picking up an Antec fan or something if you are looking to buy one of these. I've got a few of those in the box from when I pulled mine from my Antec case and replaced them with the Silencer fans. The only thing that I miss about my Antec fans though is the pass through, so I don't tie up my molex connectors from the PS. I had to add a couple of Y-splitters because I was running out of plugs.

I won't post any more. I'm getting carried away with this.

Sal

 

[Salvador]

Sorry.. Had a bit too many cocktails last night.

I still stand by most of what I said though. The Stealth was clearly more audible than the Silencer. Take from that what you want, but I would think that if you want a case full of quiet fans, I'd opt for the Silencer's over the Stealth.

Cheers.

Sal

 

[Neurofreeze]

The PCP&C Silencer fans are fairly well known for not pumping out the spec'd CFM at its RPM. There's only so much more efficient fin design can do, it's more a matter of calculus and physics than engineering ingenuity, so that significantly lower RPM gives it away. Compare it to the Papst 8412NML (2050 RPM, 26.5 CFM, 21dB). There's no doubt that Papst fans have fantastic quality (for an insane price), but even that fan is 2050RPM. Check any fan with similar CFM, they're all ~300RPM greater than the PCP&C's stuff.

As for the Vantec, I hear they're just rebadged Nidec's, and Nidec seems to embelish specs a tad (just a tiny bit though, not on the order of Thermaltake).

Not to say either are particularly bad fans, but I highly doubt they're as good as they say they are.

 

[DrVos]

I feel the same way about Vantec's there is no way in hell they are anywhere near 20 dBA. What a waste of money.

My current PSU setup is a panaflo 80mm 5volted with a 92mm 5volted no-name fan. The setup is pretty darn near silent, but i dont feel comfortable with the lack of air moving inside. I bouht a papst 12dBA fan from Plycon for about $20 plus shipping. Not cheap by any means, but it maybe what im looking for in a psu fan. I will relay my findings this weekend, when i install the fan

 

[tazdevl]

Ummm... one thing to remember is that you might also need to give the fans a bit of time to break in... dual ball bearing take a while y'know.

Nidec does make a solid fan and if you look at most server racks, you'll see a nidec fan in there.

Specs tend to vary because testing conditions vary @ each manufacturer. Who knows that conditions are like then they test the fans. Also everyone pushes specs up a bit... nature of business and not just this business in particular.

 

[Conroy9]

I agree with the complaints about the vantec stealth
Both of my stealth fans have more of an annoying hum than either the ys-tech or panaflo, even though the ys-tech may have a little more overall noise. I can't stand the hum.

I read so many good reviews about the vantec stealth and bought two, but now I'm very disappointed.
I just got a papst 19.5CFM@12dBA fan and will try it out next week

 

[paralazarguer]

The antec smart fans are also complete BULLSH*T!!!! They're very loud. In fact, they're louder than the two LOW RPM stock fans that came with my case. I have two of them and they're ASSTASTIC! Don't go near these ripoffs!

 

[tazdevl]

I'll say this again since most folks don't seem to get it... dual ball bearing fans take a while to break in before they quiet down.

Also, IMO spending $20 on one case fan for a slight decrease in noise levels is a waste of money.

 

[paralazarguer]

okay...I've been running them for close to three months. The break in should be done. I don't just have 1 fan

 

[tazdevl]

Your fans are made by Antec... the fans we are talking about are made by Vantec. Two different companies and different products.

 

[Conroy9]

well, i'll toss a vantec into my secondary computer and let you know in a month

 

[tazdevl]

LOL, well I've had mine in for about a week... can't say how long I've left my comp on each day... but I can say that they have quieted down a fair bit since I put them in. Anything with ball bearing in it need a break-in period... that's the name of the game.

 

[Salvador]

Still louder than the PC Power and Cooling fans even after break in.

Sal

 

[theNEOone]

remember that decibel ratings are on a logarithmic scale. when you jump from 20db to 30db, you're talking about a 1,000x increase in sound intensity, so 1db increase pumps out more noise than one would imagine.

 

[GiZzO]

Great info Salvador!
I haven't had a chance too play with the Vantec/Nidec fans myself but i'll take your word for it. Its the pitch you complain about that stands out in Nidec fans, as nidec does have there own distinct sound. I wouldn't put down Nidec there one of my fav, the Sleeve-NBR series are better for low speed i have the DO8A-12PM Sleeve-NBR 21.0db / 26.7cfm the sleeve version of that model is very quiet same as the Panaflo L1a but not as quiet as the PCP&C Silencer.

GiZzO's Fan Database Page

 

[stonecold3169]

Originally posted by: theNEOone
remember that decibel ratings are on a logarithmic scale. when you jump from 20db to 30db, you're talking about a 1,000x increase in sound intensity, so 1db increase pumps out more noise than one would imagine.

not exactly, but your point is taken... 10db= a double in perceived loudness, like a sound at 30db would be 2x the sound at 20db, and so on... every single db adds up big time

 

[theNEOone]

Whoops, made a mistake there ***opens physics book*** Sound at 30db is 10x as intense as sound at 20db, not 1000x (or 2x ). Yah, so the point was basically that the perceived increase in sound intensity is more than the decibel scale assigns.

 

[gltyrian]

regarding the vantec vs the panaflos... i got two systems here..one dominated by teh stealths and the other dominatedby the panaflos..and i must say..the panaflos are more quiet.. almost inaudible.. the vantec is a li lmore audible...

one thing my friend had problems with was that he said the vantec fans were VERY loud if u use them on a case side window/exahust.. im not sure if its only his tower..but if anyone comes across it too..maybe we can get some sort of consensus