[SOLVED] Suggetstion please for very quiet case intake fans

[ManOfArc]

I need 2 x 120mm or 140mm front intake case fans that are as near silent as possible at full speed. 3-pin preferably, but 4-pin PWM is acceptable too. No LED or RGB lighting required. A low price would be preferable if that is possible. Thank you.

 

[DavidM012]

There's a list here seems to me that the nanoxia deep silence 140mm are the quietest for the price at £16.32 each of course you can always question whether the figures are accurate on the reviews annoyingly the amazon sales page says the airflow is measured at
116,4 M³/h(cubic metre per hour) than the quiet pc list that says it is measured at 68.5 cubic foot per min.

or the noctua nf-p14 redux 900 £13.99 looks cheaper but lower cfm.

here's a converter 116.4 cubic metre/hour is 68.5cfm so the advertised/reviewed figures agree and seem consistent with each other.

Read more reviews for each product for more detailed info. You decide if an extra 15cfm is worth £2.33 per fan.

The be quiet silent wings are 15.5dba, (28.8dba at 1000rpm) same price as nanoxia, ( on amazon) but has 300,000 hours mtbf due to fluid dynamic bearing. vs 80,000 hours on nanoxia but is still only 14.4dba at full speed. Doesn't seem to be a perfect choice the very quietest one has a shorter life. Of 9 years.

The PWM version of the nanoxia is £14.41 and 16.2dba. 75cfm.

There is also an 1800rpm nanoxia 3 pin version for £14.99 which is 20.8dba full speed and 98cfm.

One of the reviews says that sometimes one can have a bad bearing out of the box and makes noise but the reviewer said the noctuas he bought have never been doa in 12 years. Since they only seem to have one or two in stock dunno how easy it would be to rma a naff one.

 

[DavidUSSR]

From my expreience I can recommend the Nuctua fans, They're very silent, the only downside is that they don't look so good

 

[DavidM012]

That's it for the 140mm's one of the noctuas they will all be around the £20 mark here's a 120mm that's under £10

Enermax Silence Twister Bearing

11dba 42cfm airflow 900rpm mtbf 100,000 hours

Nice feature of removable fins & novel batwing shape 3pin plug

Another Enermax Twister bearing fan 13 - 20 dBA 47.7-83 cfm 1000-1800rpm 100,000 hours

This one although not advertised as silent is about as quiet as the 140mm's with similar airflow so it might be the one to go for don't like the aesthetic much but 83cfm at full speed is on a par with the 140mm's and the dba is sort of in between the 140mms that range from 18-25dba, a lot of the other silent 120mm are in the £15-20 range so it's hard to see a better one.

 

[ManOfArc]

Thank you. I will peruse the info and see if I can make sense of it. Btw, what is the dba number to look for where silent fans can really no longer be considered quiet? I have little to no knowledge when it comes to the science of acoustics.

 

[DavidM012]

This chart suggests 20dba it's about as loud as a whisper from 2 meters away.


https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://boomspeaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/dB-noise-level-chart.png&imgrefurl=https://boomspeaker.com/noise-level-chart-db-level-chart/&docid=0e901OkO0WCcVM&tbnid=Cx4hVRkAUI1ixM:&vet=10ahUKEwj4w6nXzfrhAhWi6uAKHYkoCdEQMwhtKAIwAg..i&w=1353&h=904&safe=strict&client=firefox-b-d&bih=786&biw=1600&q=db chart&ved=0ahUKEwj4w6nXzfrhAhWi6uAKHYkoCdEQMwhtKAIwAg&iact=mrc&uact=8#h=904&imgdii=4ANYF1lsI2XDHM:&vet=10ahUKEwj4w6nXzfrhAhWi6uAKHYkoCdEQMwhtKAIwAg..i&w=1353

Others say it's about rustling leaves but that all sounds quite subjective. You can have loud rustles and quiet whispers. So I wouldn't be sure exactly what that means either but it is very quiet. 10db is certainly going to be the most inaudible.

There is also an enermax 140mm that is 9dba but the cfm is between 39-67 all seems weird to me larger fans having lower cfm but I suppose they simply turn down the rpm to make it quiet, no tech tricks there.

I have a couple of be quiet! pure wings 2 120mm that are 19.2dba and I can hear a bit of air turbulence but that is easily drowned out by any ambient sound.

 

[Bearmann]

There is some usefulness to the air flow and decibel measurements when tested using the same methodolgy, but I wouldn't compare one manufacturer's test data against another's as they all use different means to test their fans. Probably any of the fans on that quietpc list are good plus recommendations here from people that have used them