Silent case fans - Scythe Kaze Flex or Nocturna?

Associate
Joined
24 Mar 2006
Posts
1,026
Location
UK
I recently upgraded my case to Lan-li Lancool Mesh 2 Performance. The case is great, if not a little larger than I was expecting, but it has taken 30 degrees of my CPU temperature compared to my old 2001 case that I had been using for 20 years.

Due to the size of the new case, and the bottom mounted PSU, I have been forced to move the PC from the floor to the desk and it is now about 70cm from my ear, with a perforated case. The sound isn't too bad as all the fans are new, but I would like to get the case as silent as possible when not gaming.

I've been researching various 140mm case fans and the ones I seem to have settled on are the Scythe Kaze Flex Square PWM 140mm fans. These seem to have the best price (especially via OCUK) to performance to volume ratio at £11 per fan + shipping.

I'm also interested in the Artic Cooling P14s and possibly the Nocturna range if they are completely silent, however I have read mixed reviews about the noise of the later.

As I have a mesh case and don't overclock, I'm not worried about performance above all else, what I'm looking for is the quietest 140mm PWM case fan that I could replace the three stock fans that came with the case with.

Are the Scythe the quietest fans out there, or is it worth spending a few pounds extra on the Nocturnas?
 
The Lan-li has a fan controller which the 3 case fans are connected to. This allows low, medim, high, and auto (PWM) speeds, I usually use PWM or low, with PWM being the quietest\slowest fan speed when idle. I was just thinking that maybe the overall fan noise could be reduced further by getting 'silent' fans rather than the stock fans which came with the case
 
Do you monitor the fan rpm at that setting?

Yes, I get just under 700RPM across the three case fans (they are all linked to the same fan header via the fan controller) which keeps the CPU around 28 degrees. CPU fan is 630RPM, its a BeQuiet Dark Rock 4.
 
Back
Top Bottom