Noctua vs Be quiet

[K0stas]

Goodday everyone!

 

I ordered the FD north case and I'm thinking of replacing the stock fans right away.

 

I ve been searching fow quiet fans with good airflow and came across the bequiet 140 silentwing 4 and the noctua NF-A14, both use PWM.

 

At the back I m thinking of using the Phanteks T30 since I heard it's the best 120 fan in the market.

 

The bequiet will cost me 30€ and the noctua 35€ each. Which one would you recommend for my case?

 

BTW I am open to cheaper alternatives as long as the performance is similar to the above fans.

 

 

[Ripred]

I just got a silent wings 4 fan and it moves air quite well but why do you want to replace the fractal fans? for stock fans they are very quiet and move plenty of air, I only bought the silent wings because one of my fractals fans finally died after 5 years

[K0stas]

1 minute ago, Ripred said:

I just got a silent wings 4 fan and it moves air quite well but why do you want to replace the fractal fans? for stock fans they are very quiet and move plenty of air, I only bought the silent wings because one of my fractals fans finally died after 5 years

I would definitely prefer to save me some money and keep the stock fans but the reviews I watched said that even though they have decent cooling capabilities they get very noisy in higher RPM.

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, K0stas said:

I would definitely prefer to save me some money and keep the stock fans but the reviews I watched said that even though they have decent cooling capabilities they get very noisy in higher RPM.

The North isn't a performance case, it's a showpiece.  Put a speed limit on the Fractal fans and enjoy it.  What are you putting in it that needs ramped up fans?

 

If you need that much cooling, you may want to look at something else.

[Ripred]

1 minute ago, K0stas said:

I would definitely prefer to save me some money and keep the stock fans but the reviews I watched said that even though they have decent cooling capabilities they get very noisy in higher RPM.

Id try them first before replacing them honestly, however from what I see this case only comes with two in the front, in that case Id get two silent wings because you will want some exhaust fans

[K0stas]

Just now, Dedayog said:

The North isn't a performance case, it's a showpiece.  Put a speed limit on the Fractal fans and enjoy it.  What are you putting in it that needs ramped up fans?

 

If you need that much cooling, you may want to look at something else.

Have you watched Nexus' review? The North is an excellent case for both performance and aesthetics. It's only a few places below the top cases.

 

In general I want my hardware to be as cool as possible to prolong their life and since this PC will be placed in my home theater room, it needs to be quiet.

 

 

[tkitch]

6 minutes ago, K0stas said:

I would definitely prefer to save me some money and keep the stock fans but the reviews I watched said that even though they have decent cooling capabilities they get very noisy in higher RPM.

If you're set on replacing the fans?  Buy Arctic P12/P14 PWM PST's.  

 

But I'd just use the stock fans with a good fan curve.  

[YoungBlade]

I'd definitely use the fans it comes with for a while at least. Fractal isn't exactly a low-grade knock-off manufacturer. Their cases and AIOs are solid, and that is certainly in part due to the quality of their fans.

 

Just run the fans at a good speed. If you want good fan management software, FanControl is a great open source utility that lets you control all the controllable fans in your system, from case fans to GPU fans, based on whatever temperature metrics you want. You don't need to pay extra to get expensive fans if you're willing to spend 5 minutes tuning the ones the case came with.

[Dedayog]

7 minutes ago, K0stas said:

Have you watched Nexus' review? The North is an excellent case for both performance and aesthetics. It's only a few places below the top cases.

 

In general I want my hardware to be as cool as possible to prolong their life and since this PC will be placed in my home theater room, it needs to be quiet.

 

 

I just skimmed thru it after your comment.  I am surprised by the cooling, but as you mentioned the sound is high.    Maybe it's less of a performance case due to having to keep sound down, thus cutting performance.  

 

I retract what I said, it's more of a hairdryer than I thought but seems to be lacking sound dampening like the R6 for example?

 

Are we sure that other fans will be quieter?  Fractal fans are good, and maybe it's just the case that is loud?

[K0stas]

5 minutes ago, Ripred said:

Id try them first before replacing them honestly, however from what I see this case only comes with two in the front, in that case Id get two silent wings because you will want some exhaust fans

Yes it only comes with 2 fans so I cannot avoid the exhaust fan. To tell you the truth the reviews regarding the noise of the fans made me think about replacing them. I haven't actually listened to them but I can do that right away at the shop I m buying it so I need to have alternatives so I can buy the new fans right away if I don't like the stock ones.

6 minutes ago, tkitch said:

If you're set on replacing the fans?  Buy Arctic P12/P14 PWM PST's.  

 

But I'd just use the stock fans with a good fan curve.  

Actually those fans were my first choice until I watched their reviews... They make annoying noises at certain rpm... It's a shame cause they are excellent performers, especially for their price

[flibberdipper]

13 minutes ago, tkitch said:

If you're set on replacing the fans?  Buy Arctic P12/P14 PWM PST's.  

 

But I'd just use the stock fans with a good fan curve.  

Being someone that has P14 PST's in another build of mine and the stock fans from a Define 7, the P14's are a downgrade. Airflow seems to be about the same between the two, but the P14's are noisier across the board, especially at lower RPMs. Down low the P14's have a noticeable amount of motor noise, and the stock FD fans don't really have motor noise unless you have them going full-fuck, and even then it's less than the P14's and completely drowned out by all the air they're moving.

 

As for OPs actual question, I'd probably go with the 140mm SW4's and the T30. I have 120mm SW4's in the front of my server in said Define 7 and they're fine, however I'm either going to hold out for the 140mm T30's that are supposed to come out soonish, or get more 140's to match the one in the back of the case. They move air... But not enough, even though they're doing in the neighborhood of 800-850RPM.

[K0stas]

6 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

I'd definitely use the fans it comes with for a while at least. Fractal isn't exactly a low-grade knock-off manufacturer. Their cases and AIOs are solid, and that is certainly in part due to the quality of their fans.

 

Just run the fans at a good speed. If you want good fan management software, FanControl is a great open source utility that lets you control all the controllable fans in your system, from case fans to GPU fans, based on whatever temperature metrics you want. You don't need to pay extra to get expensive fans if you're willing to spend 5 minutes tuning the ones the case came with.

The problem with the specific fans, according to reviews, is that they are quiet in idle but get noise very very quickly so even with a custom fan curve I won't have too much headroom. I will have to keep them around 1000 rpm max which will dropped their performance by a lot.

 

I will have the change to listen to them at the shop but If the reviews are not exaggerating I will have to change them.

 

6 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I just skimmed thru it after your comment.  I am surprised by the cooling, but as you mentioned the sound is high.    Maybe it's less of a performance case due to having to keep sound down, thus cutting performance.  

 

I retract what I said, it's more of a hairdryer than I thought but seems to be lacking sound dampening like the R6 for example?

 

Are we sure that other fans will be quieter?  Fractal fans are good, and maybe it's just the case that is loud?

Due to the front design there is no soundproofing. According to reviews though that only makes the case just a bit louder. In idle is whisper quiet but when those fans go above 1000 rpm they generate a lot more noise than normal. They do say that replacing the fans can solve this

[K0stas]

7 minutes ago, flibberdipper said:

Being someone that has P14 PST's in another build of mine and the stock fans from a Define 7, the P14's are a downgrade. Airflow seems to be about the same between the two, but the P14's are noisier across the board, especially at lower RPMs. Down low the P14's have a noticeable amount of motor noise, and the stock FD fans don't really have motor noise unless you have them going full-fuck, and even then it's less than the P14's and completely drowned out by all the air they're moving.

 

As for OPs actual question, I'd probably go with the 140mm SW4's and the T30. I have 120mm SW4's in the front of my server in said Define 7 and they're fine, however I'm either going to hold out for the 140mm T30's that are supposed to come out soonish, or get more 140's to match the one in the back of the case. They move air... But not enough, even though they're doing in the neighborhood of 800-850RPM.

That's suprising to hear!!! I never thought stock fans could be as good as top performer fans!!

 

How did the SW4 perform compared to the noctuas? It sounds like you are happier with them.

 

That info regarding upcoming T30 140 fans is very interesting! So far, the T30s dominated the other fans and I kind of wished for 140 versions too! When you say soonish are we talking about a month or something like Q3 Q4? 

[flibberdipper]

1 hour ago, K0stas said:

That's suprising to hear!!! I never thought stock fans could be as good as top performer fans!!

 

How did the SW4 perform compared to the noctuas? It sounds like you are happier with them.

 

That info regarding upcoming T30 140 fans is very interesting! So far, the T30s dominated the other fans and I kind of wished for 140 versions too! When you say soonish are we talking about a month or something like Q3 Q4? 

I don't actually have any "normal" sized Noctuas (unless you count 40x20's lol), but I have to imagine they'd be fairly close. Where you don't have nearly the obstruction as I do they'd be even closer since the SW4 are certainly more of an airflow fan as opposed to pressure.

 

For the T30's though, the Phanteks employee didn't give a specific date, only that we were looking at 2023 instead of 2022 or 2024. I'm really hoping for Q2 or Q3 but I have my doubts.

[thrasher_565]

i think the bq sw4 beats the t30 but they have the 140mm fan. but the beq sw4 140mm is the same profromace as there 120mm fan form what i can tell. but how they compare to a good airflow case fan i dont no. in thory you want that over the static presher fan but have no idea which is the best for case fan. atlest with a good airflow case. if its closed off or alot of mesh then static presher fans would be better. the artic fans are known to have noise problems other then there argb ones if you can find em...

 

EK-Meltemi 120ER are 38mm witch could probly com peat with phantec t30 30mm fan thow 30mm is the sweet spot.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by thrasher_565

[Paul17]

On 2/8/2023 at 9:53 AM, flibberdipper said:

Being someone that has P14 PST's in another build of mine and the stock fans from a Define 7, the P14's are a downgrade. Airflow seems to be about the same between the two, but the P14's are noisier across the board, especially at lower RPMs. Down low the P14's have a noticeable amount of motor noise, and the stock FD fans don't really have motor noise unless you have them going full-fuck, and even then it's less than the P14's and completely drowned out by all the air they're moving.

 

As for OPs actual question, I'd probably go with the 140mm SW4's and the T30. I have 120mm SW4's in the front of my server in said Define 7 and they're fine, however I'm either going to hold out for the 140mm T30's that are supposed to come out soonish, or get more 140's to match the one in the back of the case. They move air... But not enough, even though they're doing in the neighborhood of 800-850RPM.

Youtubers have reviewed/tested the P14s and they are considered among the most quiet fans - I think Noctua and Be Quiet fans would be closest in low noise characteristics.   The Define 7 case has GP-14 fans?  I also would suggest Arctic also has the argb fan version which some ppl say have a different motor noise than the regular P14s?  

[thrasher_565]

15 hours ago, Paul17 said:

Youtubers have reviewed/tested the P14s and they are considered among the most quiet fans - I think Noctua and Be Quiet fans would be closest in low noise characteristics.   The Define 7 case has GP-14 fans?  I also would suggest Arctic also has the argb fan version which some ppl say have a different motor noise than the regular P14s?  

the artic fans blades hit the side at serten rpms were they attached the fans on the argb fans

[K0stas]

4 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

the artic fans blades hit the side at serten rpms were they attached the fans on the argb fans

Yes, around 1000RPM... It's such a shame cause other than that they are excellent fans...

[Jeppes]

Noctua A14 is just worse than cheap Arctic p14. Silent wings 4 should be a lot better but that case has that common and stupid fan bracket that obstructs airflow more for 140mm fans than for 120mm ones. So Phanteks t30 3-pack or Deepcool fk120 3-pack is what I would get.

[DeerDK]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:41 PM, tkitch said:

If you're set on replacing the fans?  Buy Arctic P12/P14 PWM PST's.  

 

But I'd just use the stock fans with a good fan curve.  

i've gotta disagree. It may have been a bad bunch I got, but when i installed some P12/P14 fans in my Fractal Design Define Mini C they produced a very annoying hum that rose and fell with their rpm. I ended up just throwing the stock FD fans back in. 
Definetly paying the premium for Noctua next time I replace fans

[Jeppes]

5 hours ago, DeerDK said:

i've gotta disagree. It may have been a bad bunch I got, but when i installed some P12/P14 fans in my Fractal Design Define Mini C they produced a very annoying hum that rose and fell with their rpm. I ended up just throwing the stock FD fans back in. 
Definetly paying the premium for Noctua next time I replace fans

That happens with bad design. Filter is too close to the fans so if you move air in it makes an annoying whining noise. Fractal countered it with fans that are pretty much ornaments.

[DeerDK]

2 hours ago, Jeppes said:

That happens with bad design. Filter is too close to the fans so if you move air in it makes an annoying whining noise. Fractal countered it with fans that are pretty much ornaments.

Given that others have the same experience, and given that my pc runs fine with fine temps I'm not really convinced

[thrasher_565]

11 hours ago, Jeppes said:

That happens with bad design. Filter is too close to the fans so if you move air in it makes an annoying whining noise. Fractal countered it with fans that are pretty much ornaments.

artic fans are well knowen for this problem no need to suck there d!ck...

[Zach's Tech Tips]

I just replaced my 9 year old corsair fans with be quiet silent wings 4, absolute night and day, cannot hear the pc even under load, wasn't worth opting for the pros imo

[K0stas]

3 hours ago, Zach's Tech Tips said:

I just replaced my 9 year old corsair fans with be quiet silent wings 4, absolute night and day, cannot hear the pc even under load, wasn't worth opting for the pros imo

That's good to hear!! To tell you the truth I like the BSW 4 design more that noctua, especially the pro version but I m not gonna pay the pro premium for fans. If I go with the SWs I ll get the standard version.