looking for silent 80MM fans

I'm trying to quiet down my PC a bit. I have 4 80MM exhaust fans that were supposed to be "silent". Well, they are FAR from silent. the 4 of them together sound like a freakin wind tunnel. Anyone have ideas on 80MM fans that are near silent? I don't care about massive airflow because there are 4 of them. Thanks!!!

J>

Personally like the Vantec Stealths. Got 7 in my case at the moment and they're not too noisey at all.

2050 RPM / 27 CFM / 21dBA

Try the thermaltake Thunderblade 80mm fan(blue LED) they have 21 dba, avg speed of 2000 rpm, and move 27.8 cfm/
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-125&depa=0
i have 2 in my machine

- Feuer Frei

I have used both the Vantec Stealths and PC Power & Coolings silent fans and have been very pleased with both of them.

Panaflo L1a are great fans.

Have you thought about running your current fans at 7v? It would be free, and would probably quiet them down a good bit.

i have been running them at 7v. they are very crappy fans to begin with and push allmost no air at 7v and even then they're pretty noisy.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html

I go there when I need quiet.

I'd add Arctic fan 3 to that list. Perhaps it hasn't been tested by silentpcreview, but it's good. TC version is easily moddable to manual and TC+manual adjustment. Some Noiseblockers are also nice. Panaflos are known to be good and quiet.

If you want budget solution - I recommend Arctic fans - TC or ver. 3 TC. They are good and CHEAP. I can buy them for better price than most of no-names. If you an spend more cash I'd also consider Noiseblocker (that was probably model "2") and Panaflos.

There are far and away the quietest 80mm fans I've been able to try, and I've tried a lot of fans:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556017028.html

There were intended to be a PC Guys packaged version of the Vantec Stealth 80mm, but somebody screwed up and used a great fan instead of the raspy Nidec BetaSL found in the Vantec boxes. This is a Mechatronics fan, and I've found Mechatronics to be the best. The specs are bogus, it does not push 31cfm. I'd guess 21cfm. But the are quiet, quiet, quiet. At 7V they would actually absorb sound

This gets my vote at 23 dBA (I use this in my PC Power and Cooling PSU since it's inaudible)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3673&item=6732644167&rd=1


Although it's 3dBA louder than the one Larva posted, I believe Sanyo Denki's are the best fan you can get, that's why Intel uses them on their heatsinks due to durability.

I really like the quality of sanyo fans, and use them for certain applications, but not the noise-sensitive ones. I find Mechatronics fans to exhibit the best airflow/noise ratios, and they are of top quality also.

That 80mm you listed is a little stouter fan than the one I listed. Yours is a 29cfm fan (if the specs are right), where mine is probably 21cfm. If it really does 23dB at 29cfm that's great performance, but it also seems too good to be true.

And in the end the (crippling) difficulties inherent in quantifying "loudness" with a single number make side-by-side comparison mandatory. I may buy some of those Sanyo 80s just to add to the collection and test.

Hey thanks alot for all the ideas guys. I really don't have the time to go out researching fans, and the 80's i have were advertised as "silent". HA, what a joke. I used to spend a great deal of time looking into things like this but lately i've been so busy...

SSSam, I think you have a winner there. Price can't be beat and i like to order from ebay and pay with paypal. I got some of those 120MM muffin fans from dockguys on ebay, i've been VERY pleased with them. For 120's they are very quiet and push a good deal of air. Think i'll be putting in for 4 of those tonight!

Thanks again!!

J>

Vantec Stealths

Vantec Stealths all the way. I'm running 3-80mm for intake and one 120mm for exhaust. These fans are almost silent and yetstill have good airflow, not to mention Vantec Stealths have the best dba\cfm ratio I've seen. They are a bit more expensive then some fans but well worth it. You can find the 80mm Vantec Stealth for around 8 for 9 USD. All in all these are the best fans for silent computing.

I ordered four of the sanyo's SSS linked to. I will give them a shot. 80MM fans are not too expensive. If they don't work out i will migrate them to another machine and try something else. I have several PC's running 24/7 in my basement and they can be just as loud as they want without bothering me. . The one in my living room however...........

J.

larva said:

That 80mm you listed is a little stouter fan than the one I listed. Yours is a 29cfm fan (if the specs are right), where mine is probably 21cfm. If it really does 23dB at 29cfm that's great performance, but it also seems too good to be true.

Click to expand...

It's not to good to be true, Trust me on this, I have this fan and its virtually inaudible, to hear it you need to put your ear next to it. You know Sanyo Denki makes 100's of different fans. IMHO Sanyo Denki and Papst are the best.

Here's a list of just the 80mm Fans Sanyo Denki makes(They make 122 different models of 80mm fans alone):
http://sanyodb.colle.co.jp/product_db_e/coolingfan/dcfan/cooling_dcfan.html

Here's a list of the best Sanyo 80mm fans money can buy. (If you see them for sale, let me know cause I've been looking to buy them for some time)

http://sanyodb.colle.co.jp/product_db_e/coolingfan/dcfan/cooling_dcfan.html

I have a Thermal Take Smart Fan 2, it is adjustable, and when I have it adjusted to the point where it is inaudible it still moves a decent amount of air. The Thermal Take SF2 and the Enermax Adjustable both have high airflow to noise ratios and are adjustable. The Thermal Take's 120mm SF2 is does not perform nearly as well as the Enermax.

To be honest, I only have first hand experience with the 80MM thermal take, the rest of them are just numbers. I have seen a fan review done at some hardware site that was pretty credible and they rated both of these fans high on the charts. I might have some 92mm Enermax's on the way soon though. Then I will know what the deal is with these. If they just have some "exagerated" numbers, or if they really perform up to their claims. I hope they do, because from the numbers they look pretty impressive in terms of a CFM to noise ratio.

I apologize for not being able to give direct links, but these catalog terminals only allow me to have one window open at a time. You can look at www.thermaltake.com and I beleive it is www.enermax.com.tw or something similar. www.newegg.com also has them.

Although I might add that the Sanyo's are pretty good too as I have seen numerous members recomend them. I personally have not owned one or actually read reviews, but as I said, they seem to be pretty good. SSS and Larva I can see proving that in this thread.