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Seeking some good quiet 120x120x25 fans

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Ach3r0n

New Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2005
Currently I am using the Noctua P12 fan that came w/ the heatsink for my CPU. That seems to run pretty quietly and seems to be performing ok w/ 35C idle and 47C at load.

My 3 case fans are another story as they are old and near death. 2 of them are mounted to my HDD cages and are behind filters so I suppose I would benefit from higher static pressure fans there. The other is my exhaust fan with no filter.

By quiet I am thinking ~20dB.

The Yate Loons are the right price but a bit loud for me. I don't mind spending a few extra $. I looked at Scythe also but see a number of people complaining about an annoying "hum." (for the Slipstream and S-Flex series) SilenX's 72CFM @ 14dB seems fudged and I've heard they are not made well. XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 72CFM @ ~24dB?

Suggestions?
 
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SilenX iXtrema Pro 120x25mm 14dBA Fan
seem pretty good.
Been running one along with 2 x 80mm SilenX iXtrema fans.
All very quiet.
 
Hey Burebista! Could you link me to a good review site which compares the Gentle Typhoon and the s-flex fans please?

Gosh... I hate the name of that fan.
 
Sorry man, they're somehow new and I don't have a trusty review site to give you. :(
All I have are some various impressions gathered from our forums and worldwide forums. All impressions are positive. Very positive.
I'm an owner of Scythe S-Flex 800, KAMA PWM and Ninja original fan (a Noctua P12 too). All of these are virtually quiet under 800 RPM so I'd say that Gentle Typhoon would be the same.
IMO over 1000 RPM any 120 mm fan is not quiet.

I guess that someday I'll buy a Slipstream and Gentle Typhoon just to compare all of them with my own ears. :)
 
The S-flex 49CFM are "quiet" there not silent but you won't hear them if there inside the case. The 800rpm ones are damn near silent.

I've used a bunch of S-Flex fans and I really like them, high quality and reliability seems to be great.
 
After testing several fans (Scythe, SilenX, Noctua, Vantec, Corsair, Nexus, Thermalright), I don't see much difference in dba at the same RPM and fan diameter (More air, more noise). In my opinion, all the advertising about special bearings and fan blade design is just hype. Also the claimed cfm and dba numbers are often exaggerated. Some fans will make an irritating buzz, but this might just be poor quality control (bad luck).
 
After testing several fans (Scythe, SilenX, Noctua, Vantec, Corsair, Nexus, Thermalright), I don't see much difference in dba at the same RPM and fan diameter (More air, more noise). In my opinion, all the advertising about special bearings and fan blade design is just hype. Also the claimed cfm and dba numbers are often exaggerated. Some fans will make an irritating buzz, but this might just be poor quality control (bad luck).

Well the difference in bearings and blade design is science not hype, though there is some debate over which bearing type is best. Now the CFM and dBA ratings on the other hand ... I definitely thinking many companies are guilty of fudging these.
 
Bearing design certainly matters if you want to place your fan horizontally. Sleeve-bearing fans usually don't like being like that for too long.
 
Damn, almost forgot about those mad shrimps. I'm getting old. :(
So 30 x 120 mm fans roundup. It's not SPCR with their anechoic chamber but they're trusty.

That's gonna take some to review but thanks a lot. :) I like the sound recordings as it really does make a big difference based on the individual.
 
Wow burebista! That's one really comprehensive review. It also seems rather credible, with proper measuring instruments and a radiator to provide some airflow restriction. I won't be surprised if their margin of error is a mere 2% :D.

Edit- I really really love the fact that they included a video to let readers listen to the sound. However, I wished they used a better mic without that annoying white noise.
 
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Excellent review made me realise that cooling = noise also the deltas notorious for noise are actually ok on a controller in fact as quiet as anything else at low voltage then quieter as you raise the speed, so it seems the notoriety just comes from the fact that they are more capable of moving air at the top end so therefore bound to be noisier at top end but all in all a decent fan ............ just got to find a very good controller for them :)
 
I just put three of the 1000rpm scythe kama fans (sfdb bearing, cheaper s-flex basically) in my moms pc and they're pretty damn quiet. I've also tried the 800 and 1200 rpm s-flex fans. The 800rpm s-flex is so quiet you can hardly tell it's on but you can barely feel any air moving. The 1200rpm s-flex is a little loud imo but has respectable airflow. The kama 1000rpm is just about right and is also $3 cheaper than s-flex but has the same bearing I believe.

http://www.jab-tech.com/Scythe-KAMA-FLEX-120-mm-Silent-Case-Fan-1000-rpm-SA1225FDB12L-pr-4369.html
 
Scythe Gentle Typhoon. Noctua S12B FLX. Enermax Magma. Noiseblocker Multiframe.

Tossing my vote for the gentle typhoon, just got a smattering of these recently and the medium speed are a good combo of noise Vs CFM.

the high speeds are very quiet when not in a case but the moving air over fan grill holes make them a bit noisier but then thats normal for air flow regardless of fan.
 
I'm considering 2 of the Noctua NF-P12 for my intake fans (behind a filter) and a Noctua NF-S12B FLX as my exhaust fan. They are ugly as sin but I'm really pleased with the NF-P12 mounted to my heatsink and that's currently running without the adapter so it's at 1300 RPM. I'm not sure most of the other fans that are typically popular are really designed to cope with impeded airflow.
 
Noctua's arent the greatest fans and they aren't great for heatsink use either, they are fairly silent but their pressure is minimal.
 
Noctua's arent the greatest fans and they aren't great for heatsink use either, they are fairly silent but their pressure is minimal.

Interesting. My experience is only with this 1 fan (NF-P12) but it's working well and quietly as my CPU fan. Granted I haven't run any scientific tests but the reviews for them seem to be all positive also.
 
I think it's the static pressure that's the problem, they can struggle to push air through things, so they are ok as case fans, but with filters effiency would be dropped even more.
 
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