Question Which Be Quiet! Fans should I go with?

[stebobibo]

It's hard for me to tell which ones are the best. Here's the "comparison" page on their website: link
But they don't really compare the fans, they just boast equally about all of them, lol.
Please let me know what you guys think are the best quality fans they offer. You can also tell me which ones you think are the best value for money. But in the end, if there's not a huge price difference, I prefer going for quality over value.
I've been recommended the be quiet! Silent Wings 4 High-Speed PWM. They also have the non high-speed version
I can get them at the same price, so what would be better?

If you want to know my case and other comp specs, see this thread
As for my workload, it's gaming. I don't play a lot of the newest AAA games. Some of the recent games been playing: POE 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Elden Ring, Rise of the Tomb Raider. And a bunch of smaller indie games that aren't very demanding.
Thanks for your help!

 

[Paperdoc]

Between those two SW4 PWM models (assuming 120 mm size) the high-speed model CAN achieve MUCH higher aiflow against higher backpressure (air flow resistance) while generating more noise. In actual use, this means they will normally run slower and quieter than their max speed to give you the same cooling ability of the non-high-speed ones. BUT if your use calls for max workload and high cooling needs sometimes, these WILL be able to meet that challenge and give you very high cooling rates.

Comparing the Silent Winds 4 line to the other Silent Wings fan families, the 4 series uses a different bearing design for much longer estimated lifetime.

 

[stebobibo]

Thanks, Paperdoc! So might as well go with High Speed if I go Silent Wings 4, right? But should I go SW4 over their other fans? Still unsure how to evaluate.

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, so here are important specs to compare. Most of these concentrate on the motor for cooling - appearance of the lighting is to your tastes.
NOTE that the labels "3-pin" and "4-pin" are applied to BOTH motors AND lights, and that is confusing because they have different meanings! A lighted fan is TWO devices on one unit: a motor for the fan, and lights in the frame. Each is completely separate from the other and has its own cable to connect to different mobo headers.

1. 3-pin (older Voltage Control Mode) fan motor, or 4-pin (newer PWM Mode). Generally get 4-pin unless you know that your mobo header is only 3-pin.
2. 4-pin (12 VDC power) plain RGB lights, or 3-pin (5 VDC power) ARGB lights (also called ADDR RGB, Digital RGB). You MUST match the lights you get to the mobo header you have available. IF you have both types on your mobo, you can choose according to the display features you like.
3. Size is distance along one side of the square frame, typically 90, 120, or 140 cm.
4 .Max Speed is not important but impacts other items.
5. Air Flow (usually in CFM) is the max air flow the fan can create against NO backpressure (airflow resistance) at max speed. This is MUCH more important than speed.
6. Pressure ( usually in mm of water) is the max backpressure (airflow resistance) the fan can blow SOME air against at max speed. Airflow is reduced by things in the flow path, and at some point lots of resistance results in NO air flow. For CASE fans this should be 0.5 to 2.5, but can be higher. For finned heatsinks or radiators on CPU cooler systems, it needs to be over 1.5, and higher is better. Fans optimized for air flow generally will have higher max airflow and lower max pressure ratings.
7. Noise (usually in dBA at max speed) is a measure of max noise at max speed. Of course this will be less if your fan is running below max, as is normal, but any fan with a higher number will likely be more noisy than another at similar speeds.

Of these, Air Flow (max) and Pressure are the most important. Pressure is very important for heatsinks and rads, not so much for case fans. In the case of the two Silent Wings 4 models we talked about, one has much higher max airflow (and higher max noise), so it can do the job at lower speed (and lower noise) for most workloads, but has plenty of reserve cooling capacity for high workloads. It also has a higher max pressure rating at max speed so it is suitable for CPU cooler uses.

 

[stebobibo]

Thanks for all that detail, Paperdoc! Really appreciate it. I ended up settling on the Silent Wings 4 (non-hs). Even though you said it shouldn't get as loud as it's max. I just figured, my comp shouldn't need that much airflow with the workloads I have. And I figure the non-hs should be quieter under low workloads. Anyways, I can always buy some hs ones in the future if I feel I need them.
Shouldn't be a problem to mix and match fans, right (like having 3 non-hs, and 2 hs)?