I'd agree with Disco_P - large (140mm), slow (<800rpm) fans ftw.
I'm not sure it's worth spending silly amounts on the "high end" brands like Noctua!
Su
Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15s are the best!
Mine are not.![]()
They are, you just find them not to be due to various reasons.
This is the whole problem with fan recommendations. Noise is so subjectively perceived that any recommendation is basically 100% worthless.
Someone will say a fan is 'silent' at >1000RPM, when in practice that is basically impossible. But maybe they have a room with higher ambient noise, or maybe they have worse hearing, or maybe they just don't can't about noise that much?
It's such a minefield that without full detailed analysis of noise level and noise quality (frequency spectrum) all these comments put you in no better position at all. The only way to really get low noise is to set a fan to as low a RPM as you can get away with. Someone mentioned <800RPM, but even that is too fast if you really want really low noise. My 2 Noctua's are definitely audible at ~800RPM. Personally all mine run at 550-570RPM during idle and only increase while gaming (To around 700-900RPM depending on load).
This should be given some perspective. The room my PC is in is currently showing a noise level of ~20dB with the PC running. By all accounts an extremely quiet room. Some people could easily have a room 10dB+ higher than this even with a PC off during the day (this room increases to 24dB during the day). That 10dB would buy you a lot of room for a fan to sound 'silent' to one person, but be actually loud to someone like me.
They are, you just find them not to be due to various reasons.
This is the whole problem with fan recommendations. Noise is so subjectively perceived that any recommendation is basically 100% worthless.
Someone will say a fan is 'silent' at >1000RPM, when in practice that is basically impossible. But maybe they have a room with higher ambient noise, or maybe they have worse hearing, or maybe they just don't can't about noise that much?
It's such a minefield that without full detailed analysis of noise level and noise quality (frequency spectrum) all these comments put you in no better position at all. The only way to really get low noise is to set a fan to as low a RPM as you can get away with. Someone mentioned <800RPM, but even that is too fast if you really want really low noise. My 2 Noctua's are definitely audible at ~800RPM. Personally all mine run at 550-570RPM during idle and only increase while gaming (To around 700-900RPM depending on load).
This should be given some perspective. The room my PC is in is currently showing a noise level of ~20dB with the PC running. By all accounts an extremely quiet room. Some people could easily have a room 10dB+ higher than this even with a PC off during the day (this room increases to 24dB during the day). That 10dB would buy you a lot of room for a fan to sound 'silent' to one person, but be actually loud to someone like me.