So I got myself a new case recently, and overall actually quite happy with it. Unfortunately I've discovered my trusty old Corsair fan is now very noisy and requires replacing with a quieter one - normally it's PWM but for now I've had to plug in an old-school molex-based fan which obviously doesn't ramp up the RPM on heat increase. So I'm looking for a high-quality 120MM fan to fit on the radiator which has PWM - and which is preferably as close to silence as possible with good airflow. I do have case holes for a 140MM fan but my radiator is only 120MM so unless I'm missing something that's not an option. Advice chaps?
Hi there Depends on budget, but I would have look on these fans: Corsair ML120 EK Vardar F3 1850RPM BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 Phanteks PH-F120MP If you will go with ML120 then check non Pro version which are available in twin pack and cost around £21-£25 EK Vardar F3 1850RPM cost around £14-£16 each, they push good amount of air through the radiator, have using them although they're slightly noisy or rather have whine noise at 1100-1250RPM on radiator which I never heard on my cooler Raijintek Morpheus II BeQuiet Silent Wings 3, these fans are expensive but they're well worth the money and push good amounts of air and they're very quiet Phanteks PH-F120MP, these fans I use them on my radiator 360mm and these fans are nice and quiet at 1200-1300RPM, above that they can be louder but still well within limit, I run my fans as max at 1350RPM Other fans which I can recommend are Noiseblocker BlackSilent Fan XLP 1000-2000RPM these cost £6-£10 each over in OCUK, they're nice fans not loud untill you push them above 1350-1450RPM but at 1000-1200RPM are very quiet and push good amount of air Hope this helps Thanks, Jura
quite expensive compared to your average Joe fans, but these fans are far from average performance wise. Possibly one of the best fans available to buy at the moment regarding performance and quality. http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/cooling/ml-series-fans
Hi there Out there are few fans which will match them at airflow and noise and cost less I'm still not 100% sold on them, bought 6* or 3 twin packs of these fans to test them on my radiator and will see how they perform Some people reported they have issues with noise or whine at low RPM and PWM control just check OCN ML thread Hope this helps Thanks, Jura
Good luck Jura I mainly go on the reliablity, as with the improved design they are supposed to last a lot longer.
Can't lie, you're more than handy on the info. Thanks. The BeQuiet effort 'sounds' the most appealing so far. £20 though! Ouch!
Hi there Been very fortunate to try and test several fans on my system,I've went via quite few fans there and have pretty much big collection of fans which I use on other PC and I build PC for friends etc and is good to test few fans BeQuiet fans are great fans,have used earlier Silent and Pure Wings,which are pretty awesome fans But for budget I would go with Phanteks PH-F120MP fans without the questions,I like them a lot and use them on my radiators there and I've used them on several builds as well and for money,you can buy for £29 3 pack fans set at OCUK On AIO radiators which are alu based and there performance can be different there as these radiators are very high density packed radiators and they have high FPI due this hard to say how there these fans respond or how perform there Hope this helps Thanks,Jura
Went with your BeQuiet recommendation. Only £19.49 including delivery. Be here tomorrow. Thanks buddy.
Hi there That's very good price, they usually cost around £22-£25, did you bought 4 pin PWM I assume Hope this helps Thanks, Jura
watch out when buying these: BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 there is a "normal" and a "high speed" model of these fans... (the high speed is clearly labeled on the front of the box) DON'T buy the high speed ones unless you can controll their speed with a fan controller of some sort... I found that out the hard way with a recent build... i had to buy a fan controller wich added another 25€ to the already pricey bunch of fans i installed in that build... They are however the best... i used the BeQuiet Silent Wings series in multiple builds and they are the best however they are pricy... also take a look at the mounting options included in the box (they can be installed with regular fan screws and a type of push pin wich reduces vibration which is great if you mount them as intake/exhaust fans on a case)
Why did you have to buy an extra fan controller? While I personally am a friend of those and greatly enjoyed to have them when running under air cooling, shouldn't today's mainboards be pretty decent with the fan controls?
Yeah it's four pin. And arrived today. I don't think I can even hear it. I've also improved the HD dampening and now the case, if not exactly silent, is pretty close to it. Pretty happy with the setup right now. Cheers.
Yeah it came with some things I've never seen before! I don't know which model I've ended up with - it says 'high end' on the box but also boasts it's 'virtually inaudible' at 16dB. As for the accessories, push pin? They do come with something akin to that but I don't think I can use it anyway given these go on the CPU rad.
Good you are went with 4 pin,control fans through the motherboard or through the controller,you will see what is best way,create custom fan curve for this fan or fans its best way to have custom curve on any fan You will see how it perform on yours radiator but what I've tried them on XSPC and on EK radiators these fans has been pretty quiet Hope this helps Thanks,Jura
my motherboard does not have enough fan headers (there are 10 fans in total in my case, it's a thermaltake core X9, i connected 4 to my motherboard since it has 4 headers and the other 6 to the fan controller)
Hey Danny at 16db you have the normal ones... The push pins (used with the rubber washers and corners with the tiny holes) are only used when connecting them to the computer case itself to reduce vibration...
Ah that explains why you couldn't just hook them all up with the mainboard. I bought a fan controller for my last three rigs, so I understand they are always very handy
