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Quietest fans?

Darg

Darg

Darg

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2006
Posts
6,302
Location
London
Hi, personally I'm only looking for an 80mm fan to attach to a Noctua NB heatsink for my new P5N-E SLi but I'm sure other people would like to know which fans are the quietest in other sizes too.

So, quietest fans around for 70,80,92 and 120mm? And any other sizes you might wish to offer suggestions for.
 
The Noctua 120mm fans make no noise at all, except for the air moving obviously. The Akasa Amber is silent also from what Ive heard.
 
Anyone got a good 80mm?

Getting a mix of Noctua and Zalman cooling solutions at the moment.

Noctua NB cooler and CPU cooler,
Zalman NB HS for the SB.
80mm Zalman for the Noctua NB,
Zalman VF900-CU for my gfx.

I think it'll be nice, quiet and efficient air cooling.
 
I just got a pair of 80mm Arctic Cooling AF8s. They're the quietest fans I've ever used. :eek:

If I were in the market I'd go for the Noctuas or perhaps the 120mm version of these AC fans.
 
I've got a broken 80mm which is completely silent!

Seriously, what use is the noise measurement without an airflow one? You also need to know the static pressure as airflow is dependent on the resistance in front of it.

Thus, a 19dba/20cfm 80mm fan when faced with gargantuan densely-packed heatsink might only achieve 5cfm while another one which is seemingly not as good might actually get more airflow.

My own long-term preference for 80mm fans is the Mechatronics ones which do 53cfm at 39dba at 12v which is obviously too loud but run very nicely indeed at 7v. Also the YS-Tech "Silent" 80mm fans sold by OCUK are good.
 
Noctua are quiet, but would be crap on a heatsink because of low static pressure.

Best 120mm fans? Yate loons.

I've tried pretty much every 120mm fan going and the yates are what I stick with. No motor noise and cheap! £3.50 each :)
 
Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM these shift some air! and are pretty quiet due to the special bearings. i have a 1600rpm and it makes less noise than my 80mm akasa amber when on full speed (both at 12v) the 1200/800rpm ones are probably inaudible
 
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Can anyone tell me if there are any fans that can be connected to the 4-pin motherboard header for the CPU fan?

This would be useful for those buying Thermalright 120s that need additional 3rd party 120mm fans.
 
No that 4 pin is an Intel thing and bloody gay. I've seen people mod the cablesand focre 3 pins on there!

Just use a 120mm fan and cable ties neatly. Yate Loon DSL12 @ 7v totaly silent and plent of cfm's
 
Drazic said:
No that 4 pin is an Intel thing and bloody gay. I've seen people mod the cablesand focre 3 pins on there!
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You shouldn't need to mod the cables, should you? It should be backwards compatible.

Also, PWM fans are not going away. It allows for more precise control of fan speed thus leading to quieter fans.
 
Darg said:
Can anyone tell me if there are any fans that can be connected to the 4-pin motherboard header for the CPU fan?

This would be useful for those buying Thermalright 120s that need additional 3rd party 120mm fans.
Click to expand...
I have the thermalright 120 with the akasa amber 120mm fan and you can put the three pin on the four pin connector, works just the same.
 
Mekrel said:
Noctua are quiet, but would be crap on a heatsink because of low static pressure.

Best 120mm fans? Yate loons.

I've tried pretty much every 120mm fan going and the yates are what I stick with. No motor noise and cheap! £3.50 each :)
Click to expand...
I've got a nexus 120mm and it's really quiet, but it doesn't shift enough air for me. I'm thinking of a yate loon will be ideal for me... OCUK don't sell 'em tho. Did you get yours from the US? £3.50 seems awfully cheap. ;)
 
bris said:
I have the thermalright 120 with the akasa amber 120mm fan and you can put the three pin on the four pin connector, works just the same.
Click to expand...

I have the exact same setup and it runs very quiet with no high temps.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
I've got a nexus 120mm and it's really quiet, but it doesn't shift enough air for me. I'm thinking of a yate loon will be ideal for me... OCUK don't sell 'em tho. Did you get yours from the US? £3.50 seems awfully cheap. ;)
Click to expand...

Yes I got mine from the US. Got to love the dollar to GBP conversion rate.

Shipping was cheap aswell, USPS and obviously light.
 
Mekrel said:
Yes I got mine from the US. Got to love the dollar to GBP conversion rate.

Shipping was cheap aswell, USPS and obviously light.
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It's pretty much 2:1 right now! I've found a few places that do 'em, but I don't want to break any rules so I better not mention any names. :) Great fan at a great price tho... can be used in a case or works well on a heatsink also. :) They also do a 140mm yate loon now, but I'm not sure if it is any better than the 120mm.
 
Try and get fans that move a decent amount of Air. When I built my old system I had 4 80mm Silent Fans and the Machine always overheated. Putting propper fans in the machine solved the problem. In my opinion 80mm Fans are too small to be truely 'silent'. Better to get a fan that shifts a decent amount of air and put a fan controler on it so you can vary the speed to something you like
 
SilenX fans are the best I have come across, only necessary for a very quite pc. They are around £10-12 each but you get what you pay for and they have a very good choice for fine tuning noise to airflow ratio.

80mm x 15mm - 11dBA - 18CFM Fan

80mm x 15mm - 14dBA - 24CFM Fan

80mm x 25mm - 9dBA - 20CFM Fan

80mm x 25mm - 11dBA - 24CFM Fan

80mm x 25mm - 14dBA - 32CFM Fan

120mm x 25mm - 11dBA - 46CFM Fan

120mm x 25mm - 14dBA - 72CFM Fan

120mm x 38mm - 14dBA - 60CFM Fan

120mm x 38mm - 18dBA - 90CFM Fan
 
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