I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of you guys run Noctuas!!?
Don't shoot me down but from what I have read, heard, researched they are a) excellent, reliable well supported fans. b) Noisy as hell at high speed. c) good at pushing air, (at high speed). d) bloody expensive especially if you are buying 8 or so!!!!!
Soooooooooo.
If most of you are throttling them down to sensible noise levels, they are not running full tilt and are not pushing their full amount of air through...... Are there other, slightly cheaper, just as reliable, quiet fans that may end up running towards their top end more of the time but that would push as much air and do as good a job?
As far as overclocking goes I don't mind flexing the muscles of he system but I am never going to try to max the system out and will prefer a comfortable environment, (quiet and well cooled) over all else.
I appreciate that for high overclocks having the extra capacity is valuable but the noise and cost involved make it a pointless excercise for me.
Thanks for the point towards Martins and Skinnee!! Had a good mooch around their articles and followed several items that lead to them from Google.
Sadly a lot of the links I find including these sites seem to have last been visited about 3 years ago. Finding up to date info is more difficult.
Should probably be a new thread ide but It would greatly help peple like myself if there was a standardised way of testing fans. ie, all fans tested at 1000rpm for noise, airflow etc and then their top and bottom measurements as bracket guidlines?