At what dB rating would you consider as un-noticeable for a front intake?

BlueChinchillaEatingDorito · November 29, 2020

Interested in what people think is a good dB range for a filtered front intake fan (case in question is an Antec 300). I used to have Cooler Master Sickleflows and even though my machine is underneath my desk, I would consistently hear them buzzing away and those were rated at 19dB.

I'm looking into chucking a pair of intakes again in preparation for possibly a new GPU. If there are any Canadians out there who have these iCAN 120mm ones, I'd love to hear your opinion on these. ARGB for the price does seem tempting.

At the moment I have a BitFenix 140 at top, two GELID Silent 12s and the Cooler Master 212 LED installed. Even with this many fans I sometimes forget that my PC is even on, so I would like to keep it that way as much as possible.

Bombastinator · November 29, 2020

23 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Interested in what people think is a good dB range for a filtered front intake fan (case in question is an Antec 300). I used to have Cooler Master Sickleflows and even though my machine is underneath my desk, I would consistently hear them buzzing away and those were rated at 19dB.

I'm looking into chucking a pair of intakes again in preparation for possibly a new GPU. If there are any Canadians out there who have these iCAN 120mm ones, I'd love to hear your opinion on these. ARGB for the price does seem tempting.

At the moment I have a BitFenix 140 at top, two GELID Silent 12s and the Cooler Master 212 LED installed. Even with this many fans I sometimes forget that my PC is even on, so I would like to keep it that way as much as possible.

My understanding is there isn’t a good hard number because ambient noise levels vary so much and ears adjust to them. I used to shoot for 20db above ambient for the whole machine but it was hard to get to, for whatever that’s worth which isn’t much because it’s mostly about the ambient noise level where I am.

if you want to get “audiophile about it, there’s a whole website called “silent computing” that has been messing with such stuff for years.