What is the quietest case fan?

[rayjay]

Built a rig last Xmas and am quite happy with it, but I have an awful lot of noise from case fans (2), and I think I probably skimped a little. Can anyone recommend a good quality, low noise fan?
rayjay

 

[neuralfx]

Panaflo, i dont keep up with the model #'s, but the panaflo's are known for being some of the best quality, low-noise fans .. good luck ..
-neural

 

[oldfart]

I dont know if it's the "quietest", but a Panaflow L1A is very quiet. I have 3 of them in my system.

 

[TunaBoo]

Panaflos - go like this

L1A - Low
M1A - Medium
H1A - High
U1A - Ultra High

 

[LordUnum]

My Sanyo Denki's are pretty damn quiet, and push some nice air. A little better than the Sunon's I had in there.

 

[Ben50]

Pabst fans are generally known as the quietest case fans although they are much more expensive than a lot of other fans. Panaflo's are also good and quiet and don't cost as much. I bought a couple of 8cm pc power & cooling silencer fans which are rated 1600rpm, 28cfm, and 20db. I'm pretty sure those specs are better than the panaflos although I haven't actually heard either one so I don't know which one actually sounds quieter.

Check out Gizzo's Fan Page. It has a lot of different fans along with cfm and db ratings. Check the ratio to see which ones have the best cfm-to-db ratings. The PC Power & Cooling fan has the 2nd highest ratio behind a papst fan.

 

[Viper GTS]

Two good contestants, both of which I've owned:

QuietPC's 28 cfm @ 20 dba (Re-badged Papst/PC Power and Cooling, very quiet, but I think the 28 cfm is over-rated)

Panaflo's 24 cfm @ 21 dba (under case fans, 80 mm fans - Just got two of these Thursday, haven't built the system they're intended for yet. Seem very quiet, & push roughly = air to the QuietPC fan)

Viper GTS

 

[knutp]

I got 3 pabst 19 db 80X80mm fans. Although I should have had some more cfm instead of low noice. The system does make some noice, and I want to cool it down well enough... Im thinking of bying some 26db ones for my computer. Becuase im going to build a near silent pc soon, and to cool it down enough I might use the pabst ones I got.