Cooling 120mm quiet fans for a BIX

I've had my watercooling loop up and running since last summer and while it's performing reasonably well, i'm looking to do a bit of overclocking again, and so am looking to run the single BIX rad in a push/pull config.

At the same time i'm going to see what i can do to reduce the overall noise of my whole system to the minimum i can, so am looking for 4 new 120mm fans to run in my antec P180 case. 1 front entry, one top exhaust and 2 for the push/pull on the rear mounted BIX rad.

My current setup uses the standard antec tri-cool fans on the top and rear rad (set to low and high respectively) and an akasa amber on the front (running 12V). I'm looking for the maximum performance for around 20db max per fan, and wondered what's the current fav's amongst you guys. I've been out of the scene for a while and so looking on the overclockers.co.uk site sees quite a few new fans to me. While they all have thier rated specs on there, i've learn't not to believe those and so want some real world experience as to whats going to be up for some decent performance in push/pull config on the BIX while still being quiet, and whats going to be ok for gentle airflow through the case for the entry and exhaust fans.

Cheers

Andy

 

YS-Tech 120x38 mm Fans?

They are quite loud, but put alot of air. You could also add a decent Fan-controller to help.

Also, Yate-Loon D12DSL (i think thats it?) are about £5 each and are very good fans.

 

Thanks for the recommendation mankz, but it's really the noise that im worried about, seeing as mu current antec's can put a decent amount of air, but are too noisy for my liking

 

Then Yate-Loons or Akasa Ambers.

 

Panaflo NMB-MAT RB-12025-L is still a good candidate with 64CFM at about 26dBA.

For really quiet fans, consider the AcoustiFan Dustproof (king of the quiet fans: 56.3CFM at 24.7dBA), Nexus (36.9CFM at 22.8dBA), Papst 4412 F/2GLL (41CFM at 18dBA). Kustom PC's sell a good range; Dorothy Bradbury will get you the best Panaflos.

 

Panaflo NMB-MAT RB-12025-L's are supposed to be very quiet once you undervolt 'em, furthering Nexxo's great list.

One question is, why are some 120mm fans so expensive? Those "dust-proof" AcoustiFan's are ridiculously expensive, and it seems like they're floating on a gimmick.

 

THe Dustproof fans are actually sealed against dust. I've installed a few 80mm examples in someone's PC once and they do feel solid and weighty; they run quiet too. The build quality is reflected in the price...

 

have a look at the sharkoon golfball fans. customPC's current faves...

(they were not particularly impressed by yate-loon...)

 

Thanks for the recommendations guys, the papst look good and i know they are good pedegree as we use them in a couple of places in the machines i work on.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with the Noctua NF-S12

Figures look too good to be true

Also cost isn't really an issue as this will be the only change made to my pc this year probably

 

Only 48CFM for 17dbA??? What about 90CFM!!! for just one more decibel? 18dbA.
Or go for the 14dbA ones at 72CFM.

The downside to these??? Very expensive. I use them in my system.

 

Do they really live up to the claims? The spec. sheet looks a bit ambiguous, with a voltage rating from 8-14V, yet only has 1 dBA and airflow rating.

 

I have no way of testing them, but I cannot hear them, and there is definitely a half decent amount of air coming out of them.
I don't know how they would fair up against a radiator though, as the pressure might be quite low, and the ratings are done in free air so are always higher than what you can get.

 

r4ch3t, i've heard that your right in terms of the free air vs pressure performance of those silenX fans, they were the ones i've heard bad things about before, with very over inflated flow figures, especially with any load on it.

Anyone got any experience with the noctua fans, if not then papst it is.