Quietest fans for a radiator?

NirK · 4 Sep 2015 at 23:41

D1craig said:
I have the vardar 2200rpm version and they are the most noisy things in my case. They are not as bad as the h60 aio stock fan but get pretty noisy when they go past 1500rpm.

I should have listened to my bird and gone with the noctuas (the more expensive fan).

Any fan will get noisy 1500rpm+ its impossible not to.

dacads · 5 Sep 2015 at 11:19

NirK said:
Any fan will get noisy 1500rpm+ its impossible not to.

Yep which is why I aim for low RPM fans for silence, but something like 1200RPM will probably still be noticeable. You have to make a bit of a compromise to get performance.

I aim for under 1200RPM and below 21dBA rating usually but you have to take it with a pinch of salt. Motor usually makes the most noise but they can be inaudible on good quiet fans.

dreamcat4 · 8 Sep 2015 at 12:46

The Noctua NF-A15 PWM is the one I went for. There are other form-factors / sizes of the same thing. But that one in particular seems to have a lower RPM than the other ones.

ttaskmaster · 8 Sep 2015 at 14:58

dacads said:
Yep which is why I aim for low RPM fans for silence, but something like 1200RPM will probably still be noticeable. You have to make a bit of a compromise to get performance.

Can you not just turn them down until you're happy with the volume?

dreamcat4 · 9 Sep 2015 at 13:52

Not all mobo manufacturers provide decent enough PWM fan control to specify min / max values. So it depends.

However if you go for the specific fan I mentioned (with it's fan-slower accessory), the maximum RPM @ PWM 100% will be hard-capped at 900rpm. So then you are assured it's not ever going to be more than a certain loudness regardless of the PWM signal / mobo / BIOS settings situation.

Or you can get yourself a dedicated PWM fan controller thingy. No idea if they're worth it but other people have them.

ttaskmaster · 9 Sep 2015 at 14:01

dreamcat4 said:
Or you can get yourself a dedicated PWM fan controller thingy. No idea if they're worth it but other people have them.

I got a manual one for that reason - There are times when I'm happy to ramp it up and others when I get very picky about what is/isn't too loud for the given situation. Takes only a moment to twiddle a couple of dials.

Combat Fighter · 9 Sep 2015 at 16:46

My fans are now all Noctua IndustrialPPC PWM for rads and case airflow.

They are expensive but definitely to my ears are the best sounding fans I've used (and I've been through quite a few makes recently). At idle you wouldn't know my rig is on it's that quiet, but that was my main goal. I've got 8x 120mm (bottom rad) and 3x140mm (top rad) + 4x 140mm for as intakes/exhaust.

When I add it up it comes to quite a lot of money just for fans but hopefully they will keep me going for year and years trouble free and for the sound/performance well worth it to me.

dreamcat4 · 9 Sep 2015 at 17:31

My system only has 1 noctua fan. The other one is in the PSU which has a 'slim' 13mm x 120mm fan. There was some rumor that noctua will come out with slim fans next. I hope that is true so I can also replace the PSU fan. For same reasons it would also be nice to replace GPU fans with Noctua but the size is different there. 92mm or something?

Joe! · 9 Sep 2015 at 18:17

Combat Fighter said:
When I add it up it comes to quite a lot of money just for fans but hopefully they will keep me going for year and years trouble free and for the sound/performance well worth it to me.

Even if they don't, a 6 year warranty is plenty.

But, thanks for this. Just purchased 3x NF-F12 for my case and 2x NF-A14 for my radiators, glad to see they're as quiet as I've heard.

dacads · 9 Sep 2015 at 22:34

ttaskmaster said:
Can you not just turn them down until you're happy with the volume?

You can but performance won't be as good as a fan built for low rpm

Kei · 10 Sep 2015 at 09:33

Maybe it's me, but I don't find noctua fans impressive at all. Once they are run slow enough that they are virtually silent, they have little in the way of flow. The industrial PPC versions are much better than the others but not really worth the extra expense. The old Gentle Typhoon is significantly better, producing a lot more flow at similar noise levels. I've never found another fan quite as good, as they are remarkably well balanced with no rotor wobble at all. There is so little resistance in the bearings that they keep spinning for around 30 seconds after switch off which i've never seen any other fan manage. Best of all is that they are now available again in all black via dazmode darkside. (in the uk from mayhems) There is supposed to be a pwm version in the works too.

dreamcat4 · 10 Sep 2015 at 11:05

That one looks just like the EKWB vardar

dacads · 10 Sep 2015 at 11:28

I have the Scythe GT AP-13 (1150RPM) and even at full speed you can't hear it.

Kei · 10 Sep 2015 at 14:30

dreamcat4 said:
That one looks just like the EKWB vardar

What do you think EK were trying to recreate? After scythe had a bust up with nidec, the gentle typhoon disappeared from the retail sector. It's only since dazmode negotiated a deal with nidec that they have returned albeit from a limited number of suppliers for now. I'll be buying some to replace the phanteks, bequiet and noctua fans I've got.

dreamcat4 · 10 Sep 2015 at 14:49

So they're not actually the same fans as each other then? The thing is that I know how / where to get the EKWB fans from. It's really hard to find the original GT ones to order them.

dacads · 10 Sep 2015 at 17:23

I'd stick with EK or another fan, as they are cheaper and EK also has a braided cable. Noiseblocker is another great company.

You can find the darkside GT but it costs £20, a premium I'd rather not pay, especially considering it's bog standard OEM.

dreamcat4 · 10 Sep 2015 at 18:31

OK thanks.