Super Quiet 120 fans for a 240 rad?

NachT · 28 Sep 2017 at 16:33

Hey all,

I know this question has been answered a lot, but I'm at a loss for what fans to get for a 240 rad. My main goal is for silence over performance.

There's just so many to choose from, and nearly all of them claim to be silent.

Anyone had any decent ones?

BaroUK2 · 28 Sep 2017 at 20:13

Normal breathing is 10dba

Atari · 28 Sep 2017 at 20:33

I've got three NF-S12 Redux fans for my intakes (the 1200RPM ones), they're damn quiet when they're at about 500-600RPM, but they get loud at 1200RPM obviously. They do also push some decent air, though they won't be good for a rad.

Legend · 28 Sep 2017 at 22:27

I'd highly recommend BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 or NB-eLoop Fan B12. Both extremely quiet, although NB's can be noisier if placed too close to a fan filter (like a couple mm or less)

gupsterg · 28 Sep 2017 at 23:07

I went Arctic Cooling F12 PWM, 6 of. I use them on MagiCool G2 Slim 360mm, 2 of. Build is ThreadRipper 1950X with GTX 1080. Cracking fans at £4 a piece, rads also.

Basically this round up of 120mm fans made my mind what to get.

ubersonic · 29 Sep 2017 at 08:59

Had good experiences in the past with Scythe Slipstreams and Gentle Typhoons. If you have a decent motherboard it will be able to control 3pin fans via voltage which works better than using PWM fans if you're aiming for silence.

Bear in mind of course that there's more to silence than volume, the pitch/frequency of the noise will determine how annoying it is and that's subjective.

VKleita · 29 Sep 2017 at 11:58

ubersonic said:
Had good experiences in the past with Scythe Slipstreams and Gentle Typhoons. If you have a decent motherboard it will be able to control 3pin fans via voltage which works better than using PWM fans if you're aiming for silence.

Bear in mind of course that there's more to silence than volume, the pitch/frequency of the noise will determine how annoying it is and that's subjective.

This, thus why 140 MM fans are becoming more popular but its difficult to explain that they don't move much more air but "sound better" due to lower pitch

Difficult to explain but once you have heard it, you wont ever want to go back.

orbitalwalsh · 29 Sep 2017 at 12:38

silent wings... i run mine at 80% idle and 100% under load and cant hear them haha

Svack · 29 Sep 2017 at 14:21

I have Corsair SP120 Quiet Editions,
They seem pretty good and are quiet even when running flat out, but I suspect they probably match Silent Wings 3 for performance and make slightly more noise.

Reality|Bites · 29 Sep 2017 at 16:50

Why do the Corsair SP140's have lower static pressure compared to the sp120's? surely 200rpm's less on the 140's should make that much of a difference?

Dempsey22 · 29 Sep 2017 at 19:24

I have SP120s x 4 on my radiator , jet engines on full. Never have them running 100% though.

VKleita · 30 Sep 2017 at 11:59

Reality|Bites said:
Why do the Corsair SP140's have lower static pressure compared to the sp120's? surely 200rpm's less on the 140's should make that much of a difference?

Larger area.

More air been moved but divided by more surface area.

It will actually cooler better due to more surface.