Best quiet case fans (2x140mm and 1x120mm)?

Nexus18 · 28 Jan 2021 at 09:54

As per subject title.

I see mixed reports on noctua, be quiet and those artic p14 fans.

Case - fractal meshify c
CPU cooler - be quiet! Shadow Rock 3
GPU - nvidia 3080 fe

Ideally want something much quieter, which delivers similar cooling. No RGB required.

Currently I am using the fractal default 120mm fan for the back and 2x120mm akassa apache fans at the front.

Got a custom curve set up for the case fans:

Nexus18 · 28 Jan 2021 at 12:37

Gone for 2x Arctic P14 Static Pressure 140mm PWM PST Fan and 1x120mm of the same kind.

Alex h · 28 Jan 2021 at 14:07

Ive got bequiet silent wings 3 lovely and quiet and do the job

doyll · 28 Jan 2021 at 17:00

Arctic P series are likely cheapest option and seem to be decent fans costing £5-7.00.
Phanteks PH-F120MP (1800rpm) / PH-F140MP (1600rpm) and PH-F120MP V2 (2200rpm) / PH-F140MP V2 (2000rpm) are good mid-price fans costing about £10-13.00 each.
be quiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM high speed are very nice. The normal speed version are only 1450rpm (120mm) & 1000rpm (140mm) while high speed are 2200rpm (120mm) & 1600rpm (140mm) costing £14-21.00 each.

Nexus18 · 28 Jan 2021 at 17:06

Yup from googling, it was hard to decide which ones to go with, some say they found these artic ones to be the best and better than their noctuas, others say be quiet is better and vice versa. Can't go wrong with any I suppose.

iniaes · 31 Jan 2021 at 12:38

alex h said:
Ive got bequiet silent wings 3 lovely and quiet and do the job

Be Quiet! Are generally noise optimised, so in some usage cases the likes of Noctua and Arctic give better flow/cooling for a little more noise.

I have 2x120 out and 2x 140 in Silent Wings 3s fitted. Not as quiet at full tilt as their 2s, but much more air flow which will help as I’ve just gone from a 150W GPU to a 350W card.

you can’t really go wrong with any of the fan brands you mentioned ( in my opinion ) unless you’re want to get political about it like in the GPU forum

Alex h · 31 Jan 2021 at 12:44

iniaes said:
Be Quiet! Are generally noise optimised, so in some usage cases the likes of Noctua and Arctic give better flow/cooling for a little more noise.

I have 2x120 out and 2x 140 in Silent Wings 3s fitted. Not as quiet at full tilt as their 2s, but much more air flow which will help as I’ve just gone from a 150W GPU to a 350W card.

you can’t really go wrong with any of the fan brands you mentioned ( in my opinion ) unless you’re want to get political about it like in the GPU forum

Yeh all perform decent mate and yeh the gpu forum can get very heated at times lol its been the same since i joined years ago

doyll · 31 Jan 2021 at 13:03

Almost any fan is better than stock case fans in Meshify C. The stock fans only make 0.88mm H2O @ full speed (1200rpm) which can hardly overcome grill and filter resistance .. resulting in very little case airflow.
Good 120mm case fans make about twice that much.
Silent Wings 3 make 1.79mm H2O @ 1450rpm
Arctic P 12 make 2.2mm H2O @ 1800rpm
PH-F120MP make 1.72mm H2O @ 1800rpm; 3.14mm H2O @ 2200rpm

Drumroll · 7 Feb 2021 at 10:11

They all should be fine. Difference would be at high rpm. At 70% +, one can be noticeably noiser than others.
If you plan to have your fans at 50, 60%, you can go with the cheaper one.
Tried the Pure wings at the bottom of the O11 and they're noisier than the P12 at the same rpm. Quieter elsewhere. But for some reason, at the bottom, at 40%, it's noisier than tip at 55%, front and side at 50%. All about balance, I guess.

Nexus18 · 26 Feb 2021 at 13:13

Well the fans arrived yesterday since they have been out of stock the entire time since the OP....

Unfortunately one 140mm is busted, power on, struggles to spin and then really loud clicking noise when it does spin so I've contacted the seller to get this replaced.

Not bad though, quieter than previous fans and temps seem better, just wish I could fix this problem I'm having where my case fans don't seem to drop below 1000RPM no matter what speed I set them too:

They ramp up ok without issues but won't drop. Have tried dragon centre, BIOS settings and the above fan control.

Drumroll · 26 Feb 2021 at 15:27

That's odd. The PWM would allow much lower speed. I would expect as low as 400rpm, if I can remember.
Just ensure the settings on BIOS favour PWM control, not auto, not power.

Nexus18 · 26 Feb 2021 at 15:39

Drumroll said:
That's odd. The PWM would allow much lower speed. I would expect as low as 400rpm, if I can remember.
Just ensure the settings on BIOS favour PWM control, not auto, not power.

Yup, been through the bios multiple times, tried auto, tried pwm, tried turning off/on the smart control but nada

It's doing my head in!

Nexus18 · 7 Mar 2021 at 11:04

Ok this is weird now..... Seems the back case fan is adjusting as required but the front 2 still won't drop below 1000??? :confused:

Shame as can just about hear the front 2 fans at idle.

Danny75 · 7 Mar 2021 at 16:45

Apparently they are linked to the GPU temp and presumably you've tried editing the curve already. How about making the GPU fans spin a bit at idle? That way the temp could go below 40C and affect the front fans just enough.

Personally I don't like case fans synched to a temp and ramping up and down.

Nexus18 · 7 Mar 2021 at 16:55

Danny75 said:
Apparently they are linked to the GPU temp and presumably you've tried editing the curve already. How about making the GPU fans spin a bit at idle? That way the temp could go below 40C and affect the front fans just enough.

Personally I don't like case fans synched to a temp and ramping up and down.

Yup did try switching to cpu but still won't go any less than 1000rpm and also tried having the gpu fans run to bring gpu temp down but still no luck. It's weird as the back case fan wasn't working either last week but something must have changed as it seems to be adjusting....

As per another thread I created a while back, this has been happening for a while even with other fans:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/msi-b450-tomahawk-pwm-fan-control-broke.18892398/

What do you do with your case fans?

Danny75 · 7 Mar 2021 at 17:19

Nexus18 said:
Yup did try switching to cpu but still won't go any less than 1000rpm and also tried having the gpu fans run to bring gpu temp down but still no luck. It's weird as the back case fan wasn't working either last week but something must have changed as it seems to be adjusting....

As per another thread I created a while back, this has been happening for a while even with other fans:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/msi-b450-tomahawk-pwm-fan-control-broke.18892398/

Oh that is odd yes, bummer.

Nexus18 said:
What do you do with your case fans?

Just very boring noise sweet spot for each case fan, set through BIOS. Fixed RPM. No genius setup sorry.