I've got a stack of fans to my side and various different ones in my system. I'm contemplating selling them all and just buying 5 of the same new fan and stop tinkering. I have a p180, which has 2 intakes and 1 top exaughst (so 3 case fans). The rear exaught has my H70 which uses 2 fans in a push/pull format. I realise the best fans for my h70 may be different from the best case fans as they'll need high static pressue to work on the rad. I'm a silence nut, so I want quite quite fans. Currently my h70 is using two S-Flex fans on 7volts. The case is using 3 Antec tri-cools on low. My 4890 is currently cooled by two 120mm Yate Loons, these have been some of my favourite fans, they are truely silent although they havn't ever had much of a test as my graphics card has a huge accerlo cooler strapped to it. ------------------------------------------ SPARES: 2x of these. Which despite brilliant reviews are loud! And on 7volts they push sod all, so I'll take them as a start point say they have to better! 1x Xigmatek HDT-S1283 fan, cant find much on the fan, only the coolers it comes with. 1x Zalamn F3 1x Akasa DFB122512L (Blue LED fan) 2x Thermaltake thunderblades
In my own experience the best 120mm fan I've had is the Be Quiet! Silentwings USC. It has rubber mounting pins exclusively and can not be screwed to the case. That's the only real limitation other than that the fan comes with a nice long 3 pin header fully braided. Great build quality. It's definitely worth picking one up to take for a test drive!
Using two of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm-akasa-ak-274cb-4bls-crystal-blue-4-led-fan myself for front intake fans on my Antec 100. Very very impressed with their noise levels - completely silent even when up-close.
How about these? They won the Custom PC fan labs a while back http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120m...9-db(a)-case-fan-367-cfm-the-best-of-the-best I've got 4 of them in my PC and they are very very quiet
I have 3 sharkoon silent eagle 1000 fans, and I was thoroughly impressend by both build quality and noise levels (then again it's my fist build, soooooo)
i would have to recommend enermax t.b. silence just received mine today and even at full wack they are as silent as possible 11db really are amazing and i highly recommend.
My current AKASA isn't great and is rated almost identically, which puts me off. These have a great rep, I was hoping something form the new generation fo fans might have beaten them by now - do the golf ball 'cones' stop you using them the other way round (i.e. stick out)? Purrdy, although I have no windows etc to see them, but will look into reviews. I imagine these are very similar to the golf balls. Poor static pressue - so not for the H70, but as case fans they look a good choice. How did you even manage that?
Noctua fans are the best of the best. Minimal vibration, ultra quiet motor (due to the SSO bearing system), and the air it wipes to move, doesn't make any sound due to it's special blade engineering. 6 year warranty too that's like 2 computer builds. My computer is so quiet, you don't know if it's On or OFF if you close your eyes, in a ultra quiet room. Well I hear my GPU fan, which is the loudest thing in the computer, in term of fans. SilentX, BeQuiet, Enermax.. are all fans I tried. They were all loud, even at minimum speed. Yes, they are quiet compared to 2$ fans... but too loud in my book. You won't be disappointed.
the apache's are great for heatsinks, i just replaced the titan fenrir fan and i pretty much get better performance at 1300rpm than the stock at 2200
Pretty much anything will be more silent than Antec Tricools. My experience is : 1) white Nexus fans - ok-ish, but they don't push much air. Yate Loon is Nexus OEM btw. 2) Gelid fans - pretty much same as white Nexus 3) Fractal Design fans - noisier than the two above 4) Enermax Magma - brutal fans, but for silence freak like me the whole usable voltage range drops to 4-7V. Anything higher and they push too much air. 5) Enermax T.B.Silence - nothing extraordinary, have holes at side (whole eneramx writing on each of 4 sides is a one giant hole where air escapes. Noise is a bit worse that white Nexus fans at same RPM. Plus they start to die pretty soon (half year or so). 6) Enermax Cluster - nice, but same air escape issue like T.B.Silence, plus they don't push too much air. 7) Noctua fans - the newer ones (FLX i think) is acceptable, but that color... Sorry Noctua, but unless you switch from your brown color scheme, your fans have no place in my computers. 8) 12cm Air Penetrators - very nice fans, they push a bit more than the Clusters, and they are silent (you can't hear the fans, just the air). Can't really say what would be the best choice for H70, but for case i would say go with Air Penetrators if you want more directed air, Noctuas if you want total silence (at cost of lower airflow) or Enermax Magmas if you have a good fan controller (read T-Balancer bigNG or comparable).
I find tricools a useful comparison tool, most of us have experienced them. At low they are pretty much silent, anything that comes in at that volume I'm happy with - although they push no air at all as low! which is the problem. Apaches are out, found afew reviews and thread around the net saying that they arn't really that quite, a few people compared them to Tricools, said they shifted much more but sounded abotu the same as a tricool on medium. Scythe Gentle Typhoons have come up alot, but cost a pretty penny! Air Penetrators, not many reviews out yet, opinion seems to be that they are a great case fan, but lack static pressure for a rad. They're on offer right now as Aria, so may grab then as case fans.
I'm guessing good old Yate Loon D12SL-12 don't cut the mustard anymore? the Aria deal is mighty tempting!
It must of been the helicopter they were talking about. I have 6 tricools in my case and three in a 300 and the Akasa fan was as quite or quieter than the tricools. Quite a few people have then on here and will only have good things to say about them.
Gentle Typhoons have one issue i seen on few videos and which would drive me insane - sometimes they whine when you are changing voltage. Considering i have automated fan controller which changes fan speed very often, even a barely noticeable whine would drive me insane . What i mean ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLgJomTh74w - 0:45, 1:03, 1:25 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm6jlrqifQE - 0:35, 0:46, 1:00, 1:07-1:17,1:32-2:08, 2:27-2:43, 3:00-3:15, 4:46-5:00 and so on. Before you will say it's that specific measurement technique, look at next video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI1sMslHy0w - same noise at 0:55, 1:03-1:10, 1:13, 1:22, 1:31, 1:40
Still a great fan but not a quite as other. 2 pounds is a might fine price. I was thinking about getting 5 or 6 but its only one per order
Noctua NF-P12 make great silent case fans when using the 900rpm wire (ULNA mode). Although I am seeking something equally silent as the NF-P12 for the H50 but with more static pressure as I think 37.3 CFM is a bit pants to keep the temps under control. It can go up to 75c on load :/
