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CONCLUSIONS
It should be no surprise to regular readers that the Nexus is
still the quietest fan that we know of. We've referred to it so often in our
regular articles that most readers know by now that we think highly of it. What
is surprising is how slim the Nexus' advantage is, especially when noise-for-airflow
is taken into account. In fact, Scythe's obscure "Flow"-series fan
is the equal of the Nexus in terms of noise and airflow, and may even be superior
for reliability if its FDB bearings live up to their reputation. However, its
extremely limited distribution outside of Japan will mean that most users will
simply have no option but to continue using Nexus fans. Scythe, are you listening?
There's an opportunity here...
There are a number of other fans that come very close to standard
set by the Nexus: The unusual fans from Mechatronics and Arctic Cooling and,
of course, the familiar Panaflo fans. In fact, both the Mechatronics and the
Arctic Cooling may be quieter than the Nexus for a given rotation speed; it's
only once airflow is considered that they drop behind a bit.
All of the fans mentioned above have smooth noise signatures,
and they are completely inaudible from one meter when undervolted to produce 10 CFM.
Any one of them would be quite at home in a quiet system so long as high airflow
is not needed. The advantage of the Nexus and Scythe fans is that they are both
reasonably quiet at 12V while producing a little more than 20 CFM each. This
makes them very flexible: They can be used at a constant speed (~7V is a good
bet) without being heard, or they can safely be used with a fan controller without
worrying that the noise level will ever get too high.
Panaflo, the old standby, also lived up to its reputation so long
as sample variance could be avoided. These fans are not so quiet at 12V, so
they are a bit more difficult to work with, but they are well suited to situations
where the Nexus or Scythe fans don't provide adequate cooling or a little more
headroom is desired. They can always be turned down if the airflow isn't needed.
The rest of the fans in the test are less interesting, mostly
because they don't sound good enough. Let's face it; most of the fans measured
fairly close to each other, and most could be made quiet simply be turning them
down far enough. Where they differed was noise character, and it was
the fans that sounded bad no matter what speed they were at that fared poorly
in this roundup
Not surprisingly, the screaming Delta was the worst offender here,
but the Sunon was also quite noisy. The biggest surprise was the well-reputed
Papst, which clicked severely and would not be a good choice in a quiet system.
Perhaps we happened across the wrong models or have damaged samples. If anyone out there has a non-clicking
80mm Papst fan that they would like to contribute for analysis, we'd love to
hear from you!
The bottom line is, we are happy to find that our methodical approach
has confirmed what we've known all along: It's tough to find a smoother, quieter
fan than the Nexus. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find a fan that
could equal it in the Scythe. We look forward to testing more Scythe fans in
a future roundup
Many thanks to all the readers, contributers and manufacturers who donated fans
so this project could happen.
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SPCR Articles of Related Interest:
SPCR's Fan Testing Methodology
Anatomy of the Silent Fan
SPCR's Recommended Fans
Simple Fan Controllers from Zalman
Get 5V, 7V, or 12V for your Fans
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Discuss
this article in the SPCR Forums.
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