Quiet 120mm Radiator Fans (Help needed)

[Mr_BobDobelina]

Hey guys,
I got so overwhelmed by the choices of pc fans when I started looking. At first I thought I'd take some corsair sp High Performance fans to make my Thermaltake Ultimate 3.0 somewhat quieter. But then I read that there should be better options. I actually want to spend less on fans. I can't afford 20bucks per fan, so noctua's are not an option.

Can someone link me some really quiet fans which work with radiators and aren't too expensive?

Thanks in advance,
Bob

 

[the nerd 389]

If you can afford about $16/fan, the be quiet! Silent Wings 3 is a solid option. There's plenty of data to back that up.

Otherwise, the Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP12 is your best bet. There isn't nearly as much data on them, but they perform outrageously well on the Celsius S24.

 

[Mr_BobDobelina]

Well, how good do the fractals perform, how're the audio levels?

 

[Mr_BobDobelina]

And how do the silent wings perform vs the sp 120's?

 

[-HH-]

EK Vardar fans are amazing for radiators.

 

[the nerd 389]

Regarding the SW3s:
http://thermalbench.com/2016/10/21/be-quiet-silent-wings-3-120-mm-high-speed-fan/3/

Regarding the Dynamic X2s, they come with the Celsius S24. All I have to go on for that suggestion is how that cooler performs. To my knowledge, the fans themselves haven't been tested separately. See this review (ignore the acoustic efficiency metric, it's broken, and the replacement is in the pipeline):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fractal-design-celsius-s24-cooler,5058-2.html

I was asked to write the new acoustic efficiency metric, and the S24 is vastly superior to any other cooler tested by Tom's Hardware with one exception. That exception has relatively poor build quality, and still doesn't match the S24, it just comes close.