Best performing low RPM quiet fans?

[iiNNeX]

Okay I know that is a lot to ask, but bare with me.

 

Currently I am stuck between the Noiseblocker lineup, in particular have been noticing pro watercooling builders using the NB BlackSilent PRO PL2 for 120mm and NB BlackSilent PRO PK2 for 140mm, and the Noctua line up, being the Noctua NF-F12 2000RPM PWM IP67 fans for 120mm and the NF-A14 I think they were, again 2000rpm PWM IP67 fans.

 

Cost is no factor, for me in this comparison, I am basically look for a black fan that has great radiator performance, in particular Black Ice radiators as that is what I think I will be going with and reasonably low noise.

 

I plan to run the fans at 800rpm to 1000rpm max depending on how loud they get at 1k.

 

Thank you

[paddy-stone]

I think the noctua will be good for that... I am a big fan of theirs (pun unintended) and have been fitting their fans for a low noise computer for a few years now. I actually have one of their 2000rpm 140mm fans in the post to me right now and will give it a good test out over the range of RPM in my case.

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

I think the noctua will be good for that... I am a big fan of theirs (pun unintended) and have been fitting their fans for a low noise computer for a few years now. I actually have one of their 2000rpm 140mm fans in the post to me right now and will give it a good test out over the range of RPM in my case.

I have always had their fans, the industrial with brown edges which we can finally swap for black, red yellow or blue now ,however I was told that they won't be as good for radiators as some of the competition...

 

Also people like Singularity Computers (one of the best watercooling youtubers out there imo), never seem to use them, which is strange ?

 

It's always a noiseblocker, corsair or ek fan that I see on there. EK's fans are almost as expensive as noctua so the deal breaker can't be the price ?

[ChrisCross]

10 minutes ago, iiNNeX said:

good air pressure at low fan rpm is in general a hard thing to archieve.

the nf-f12 are one of the best with a pressure of 2,61 @ 1500rpm.

but if you want something all black the only thing i can think of are the bequiet silent wings pure with 1,8 @ 1350rpm

[desertcomputer]

4 minutes ago, iiNNeX said:

I have always had their fans, the industrial with brown edges which we can finally swap for black, red yellow or blue now ,however I was told that they won't be as good for radiators as some of the competition...

 

Also people like Singularity Computers (one of the best watercooling youtubers out there imo), never seem to use them, which is strange ?

 

It's always a noiseblocker, corsair or ek fan that I see on there. EK's fans are almost as expensive as noctua so the deal breaker can't be the price ?

The main reason pc builder such as singularity PC don't use them because 99% of people don't like the color of the fans and most customers just goes for looks not quiet. Personally Noctua is best of best ... 6 year warranty meaning you not going have to replace them down track and spend more money. 

[alexyy]

Gentle Typhoons if you can find them.

 

 

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

The main reason pc builder such as singularity PC don't use them because 99% of people don't like the color of the fans and most customers just goes for looks not quiet. Personally Noctua is best of best ... 6 year warranty meaning you not going have to replace them down track and spend more money. 

What's wrong with the colour though ? The industrials are already black, they just have the ugly edges, which you can change to black as they offer them in different colours now.

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, alexyy said:

Gentle Typhoons if you can find them.

 

 

They never made them here in the UK, and are extremely rare. However they have been rebranded and released as a new fan by a different company. It's now called:

 

120mm Nidec - Gentle Typhoon Performance Radiator Fan - 1850rpm, 58cfm - Black Edition

 

Source: https://mayhems.co.uk/fans/120mm-nidec-gentle-typhoon-performance-radiator-fan-2150rpm-68cfm-black-edition/

 

However they are definitely not what I would call quiet, and basically perform the same as EK Vardars give or take a degree.

[alexyy]

3 minutes ago, iiNNeX said:

They never made them here in the UK, and are extremely rare. However they have been rebranded and released as a new fan by a different company. It's now called:

 

120mm Nidec - Gentle Typhoon Performance Radiator Fan - 1850rpm, 58cfm - Black Edition

 

Source: https://mayhems.co.uk/fans/120mm-nidec-gentle-typhoon-performance-radiator-fan-2150rpm-68cfm-black-edition/

 

However they are definitely not what I would call quiet, and basically perform the same as EK Vardars give or take a degree.

They were on Scan last week I just checked and now unable to find them but they were listed as "Scythe Gentle Typhoons 1850rpm" so I'm not sure what's going on with them. 

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, alexyy said:

They were on Scan last week I just checked and now unable to find them but they were listed as "Scythe Gentle Typhoons 1850rpm" so I'm not sure what's going on with them. 

Well I mean they are still Gentle Typhoons, but not Scythe anymore, Nidec instead. Whatever it is it's the same fan, and you can get it in all black  now which is great. I will do some reading up on them and see if they can stack up next to the noctuas in terms of noise ( i know performance won't be an issue).

 

Thanks mate

[Senzelian]

Here is what I would do:

[iiNNeX]

1 minute ago, Senzelian said:

Here is what I would do:

What would you rate the BeQuiet's performance like compared to say an EK Vardar fan ? 

[Senzelian]

Just now, iiNNeX said:

What would you rate the BeQuiet's performance like compared to say an EK Vardar fan ? 

I'm sure the Vardar performs better, because it reaches a much higher RPM.
But if you want to get the most quiet fan on the market, then there is no way around be Quiet.

And soon the Silent Wings 3 will be available, the only fan that actually uses a 3 phase / 6 slot motor to reduce noise.

[iiNNeX]

9 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

I'm sure the Vardar performs better, because it reaches a much higher RPM.
But if you want to get the most quiet fan on the market, then there is no way around be Quiet.

And soon the Silent Wings 3 will be available, the only fan that actually uses a 3 phase / 6 slot motor to reduce noise.

I meant at low RPM, I would never run any fan at max RPM and sadly all the marketing stats that they show us such as CFM and noise are at full blast. I need a 1000RPM comparison if that exists anywhere... Thermalbench.com has a lot of fan reviews but its hard to choose one from there as they all have their cons. 

 

I know there isn't a perfect fan but... I need to go and listen to some fans at a pc shop perhaps that stocks noiseblockers and vardars, to compare to my noctuas. I was even considering a more silence orientated case as well actually..Speaking of which: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/be-quiet-dark-base-900,news-53066.html

[Senzelian]

6 minutes ago, iiNNeX said:

I meant at low RPM, I would never run any fan at max RPM and sadly all the marketing stats that they show us such as CFM and noise are at full blast. I need a 1000RPM comparison if that exists anywhere... Thermalbench.com has a lot of fan reviews but its hard to choose one from there as they all have their cons. 

 

I know there isn't a perfect fan but... I need to go and listen to some fans at a pc shop perhaps that stocks noiseblockers and vardars, to compare to my noctuas. I was even considering a more silence orientated case as well actually..Speaking of which: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/be-quiet-dark-base-900,news-53066.html

I haven't tested my Silent Wings 2 against Noiseblockers. All I can tell you is that I can't hear them at around 800 RPM and even three of them on an open test bench at full speed are hardly noticeable in a 20m² room. If they're still to loud, wait for the Silent Wings 3. Just keep in mind that you'll need some kind of radiator grill to be able to use them effectively on a radiator.

 

Btw.: Here is the review of the SW2 by Linus if you're interested.

 

[paddy-stone]

Got my extra noctua fans today, 2 more NF-A14 1500RPM and 1 of the NF-A14 industrial 2000 RPM... so now my case is completely noctua fan based to replace the 3 corsair 140mm fans I had, must say that the noise is now more of an "air" sound than a coil whine, especially on startup. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with corsair fans, but they are not as quiet as noctua. The temps on idle are around the same TBH, but I can barely hear my system now and even when I increase the RPM on the fans it is still pretty good noise wise. I ran a test of all the fans on max including the CPU fans and it still was only equivalent maybe to a quiet-ish desk fan, so when it gets hotter here and I actually have a deskfan going also, I won't notice the noise of the computer, even on max

 

ATM I have 2*1500RPM fans on intake @PWM or set to 50%, 2 more of those on the CPU cooler in pull/push config @PWM ... and 1*industrial 2000rpm on venting set to PWM or 50% too. TBH I would maybe even lower those figures if I could, dumbass MSI board that will only let you set to 40C or above in PWM or 50/75/100%  I won't be buying an MSI board again anyway, I want more useful control of the fans via BIOS than that. I know I could get a fan control unit, but I have had them in the past and they are a PITA if you just want the fans to auto ramp the speed when you hit certain temps. I'll just be looking at a nicer board next time. Could be soon, depends on whether I think skylake is worth the jump, the x99 option with a 5820k is looking promising, but will wait to see what prices the new boards are going to be. I might just wait another year or 2 and buy instead, I also have to see about selling this rig in entirety too, it's a nice rig, but more and more people want a cooloing loop these days even if it doesn't get better performance as such, they just want "ooh pretty" comments, LOL .   No offense to anyone with a cooling loop, if you use it to squeeze more performance out of the system or just a decent performance but cooler, I can see the value in it, just not when it's purely for aesthetics really.

[iiNNeX]

57 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Got my extra noctua fans today, 2 more NF-A14 1500RPM and 1 of the NF-A14 industrial 2000 RPM... so now my case is completely noctua fan based to replace the 3 corsair 140mm fans I had, must say that the noise is now more of an "air" sound than a coil whine, especially on startup. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with corsair fans, but they are not as quiet as noctua. The temps on idle are around the same TBH, but I can barely hear my system now and even when I increase the RPM on the fans it is still pretty good noise wise. I ran a test of all the fans on max including the CPU fans and it still was only equivalent maybe to a quiet-ish desk fan, so when it gets hotter here and I actually have a deskfan going also, I won't notice the noise of the computer, even on max

 

ATM I have 2*1500RPM fans on intake @PWM or set to 50%, 2 more of those on the CPU cooler in pull/push config @PWM ... and 1*industrial 2000rpm on venting set to PWM or 50% too. TBH I would maybe even lower those figures if I could, dumbass MSI board that will only let you set to 40C or above in PWM or 50/75/100%  I won't be buying an MSI board again anyway, I want more useful control of the fans via BIOS than that. I know I could get a fan control unit, but I have had them in the past and they are a PITA if you just want the fans to auto ramp the speed when you hit certain temps. I'll just be looking at a nicer board next time. Could be soon, depends on whether I think skylake is worth the jump, the x99 option with a 5820k is looking promising, but will wait to see what prices the new boards are going to be. I might just wait another year or 2 and buy instead, I also have to see about selling this rig in entirety too, it's a nice rig, but more and more people want a cooloing loop these days even if it doesn't get better performance as such, they just want "ooh pretty" comments, LOL .   No offense to anyone with a cooling loop, if you use it to squeeze more performance out of the system or just a decent performance but cooler, I can see the value in it, just not when it's purely for aesthetics really.

Thank you for the write up man. And trust me I am a Noctua fan too...

 

 

To be honest I am considering changing the case to the new Be Quiet Dark Base 900 Pro that is set to come out at the end of the month. It has room for a 420 rad at the top, a 360 at the front and 240 at the bottom, meaning for a single gpu and cpu loop that will be overkill but it also means i can run 400-500rpm fans and have totally silent system with low as hell temps

 

We ll see though...

[paddy-stone]

That sound great to me, I have liked quite a few things from the coverage of computex from all the content creators out there. I like your rig man, looks neat and yet still has some good cooling, which is always a bonus

 

For my next build I am going to either get an mATX case, but still decent options for cooling thermaltake v21, or the other end of the spectrum and get a core x9 thermaltake, which is MASSIVE. I will most likely decide what to do nearer the end of the year or even wait until this time next year when new gear is out again. But first I am building myself a new desk, I have a few plans made ATM, but I kinda like to start building and see where it takes me sometimes- to some extent anyway. It won't be fancy, like to keep things simple for the most part and very functional... this desk is to fit into a corner that is 2.5M * 1.1 M and underneath the desk I will have a "module" or 2 that fits snug upto the desks underside to help with stability rather than having legs on the desk (I hate desks with legs, lol) and then supported on the 2 walls. I'll try to make a build log when I do it, but don't expect too much if you look

[iiNNeX]

Let me know when you create the thread and I will keep an eye

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, iiNNeX said:

Let me know when you create the thread and I will keep an eye

I will, no worries... sorry for not quoting in the last post, it's late here and I think I need to go to bed now, lol.. got to be up again in about 6 hours now. Have added you to my follow list, so I'll see updates on when you get your new case etc too. Catch you later man.

[Klasta]

On 6/7/2016 at 2:57 PM, iiNNeX said:

What's wrong with the colour though ? The industrials are already black, they just have the ugly edges, which you can change to black as they offer them in different colours now.

In Europe, the industrials + new edges wel cost you 40 euros (45 dollars) per fan. Nobody in their right mind would spend that much for that little gain unless you actually need the IP52 rating for some reason or you really really love black fans with coloured trims seeing as they don't perform any better than the BeQuiets Silent Wings 2 anyway which are only half the price. I'm fairly sure the price is what keeps Singularity Computers from using as they're probably even more expensive in Australia.

Don't get me wrong, Noctua is amazing, they paved the way for silent, high quality, high performance fans and CPU-coolers. But sticking the industrial line in a regular pc, just because they're black does look a bit like blind fanboyism as there are plenty of options available that are at least their equals.