Please show me where you see these individual subjective noise evaluations. Heres a quoted text from a fan in the review:

"Right out of the box this one of the best performance/noise at 12v, scoring well above average; motor noise at 12v is kept to acceptable levels too. Undervolting to 7v possible and further improves the fan’s rating, but here the competition is stiffer and the motor noise becomes more apparent. 5v is not enough juice to get this fan spinning. Something we’ve noticed with different PWM fans from different brands. Now if only Cooler Master could pick a better name for their fan which describes it better, the retail box says “PWM Fanâ€

why do you refer to me in the 3rd person?

there's subjective and there's subjective, MikeC is better with words when it comes to describing fan noise; I'm more of a "it's irritating or not" kinda guy

A minimum noise of 35dB? Hmmm...

They look upon the Scythe Kaze white 120mm and SFF21F as both relatively good and not too far apart. I'm not so convinced, the two are pretty different, the Kaze being far louder, far more of a buzz and far more irritating, which is a shame, as the white LEDs are very nice.

35dB @ 5cm (2"), that is.

dBA !
not everybody lives in a concrete basement in the middle of the wilderness to allow extremely low ambient

Ah, my mistake.

Vancouver is hardly the "middle of the wilderness", it would be nice if SPCR had a research base somewhere in Alaska though, snow keeps everything nice and quiet

I'm 20min from Brussels;) capital of EU; I'm guessing compared to wide open areas and big countries, this place is crowded; not Tokyo though

Still waiting for a good comparative with the Gentle Typhoon...

ok, keep us posted!

Thanks for the hard word, JMKE.

Scythes are easily found here in Spain and I got a bit tired of buying Nexus (more expensive and just one single distributor for the peninsula), so I'm happy to see Scythe coming out so nicely in your roundup. (Those Noiseblocker look nice too but I'm not fond of the fancy looks...)

Wow, really? Nexus fans are a quarter of the price of Scythes in the UK.

That's weird. Are we talking about the Slip Streams? Scythe has more expensive series but these ones are cheap.

EDIT: I've just checked my pricelists (I have distribution pricing) and actually they are about the same price. The Nexus used to be more expensive if I recall correctly, but this seems to have changed lately.

No, the S-Flex, you rarely find an S-FLex less than £10, whereas I paid £7 for two Nexus 120mm fans.

Hi,

The reason for these price variations is all marketing and distribution.

Normal 120mm or 140mm Fans cost well under $2 to manufacture. If you buy in bulk straight from the manufacture they would typically cost $3 landed and delivered in the EU or USA.

Many are re-badged, which might easily double the cost before they even leave China, and each person in the dustribution chain will make their mark-up.

So in the end, it's all about who has a reasonably short, efficient distribution chain in your area.



Peter

Manufacturing doesn't cost much, neither does actually transport... What do cost are taxes and especially VAT in Europe...

Indeed, Scythe are a Japanese company, whereas Nexus are local to Europe, from the Netherlands.

Hi,




Not really - there are no import taxes on fans, and even including VAT the 140mm Yate Loon fan I use in the PaQ case cost only about $3.50.



Nexus may be a European company, but their fans are, I beleive, actually made from them in China by Yate Loon.


If you pay more than $6 for a fan you are paying for the dealer network, not the fan.



Peter

PCY, we have 22% VAT in Finland. With all the taxes we pay.

Slipstream you get 9 - 10 USD's from Newegg, costs us, Finns 17€'s or more.

On average, 2 years ago, Nexus 120mm fan cost 19 - 22€'s each.

After all, middle-men have to take something but it sucks to have 22% VAT and other expenses Britton's do not have.

Nexuses used to be £10 like the rest, but for whatever reason, they thirded in price in the last year or so.

Hi,

Even at 22% VAT the 140mm fans I get from Yate Loon would cost under $4.

Admittedly I buy them about 400 at a time - you cannot just buy one fan straight from China.

And equally, unless you buy in reasonable quantity, transport will push the price up.


But even so, a well organized distribution network, with no more middle men than necessary, should be able to provide you with fans at $7 (inc VAT) plus local delivery.



Peter

Well, cheapest I get YL-'s is from the States. Getting YL-s from Germany... Simply the price they ask from posting fans is more than Shipping + Fans from the states.

It is amazing how much price is increased when you add 2 or so middle-men in the chain.

We Finn's pay import feed's, European VAT + National payments. Post and Handeling feeds. Those are terrible after you get actually something imported and after stuff has arrived to the harbour.

I studying business management in university, majoring the logistics, so I am not complete layman when it comes logistical issues... However order quanities affect greatly, especially bulk packed goods and not retail packed goods as Nexus fans or Slipstreams are considered...

Hi,

Indeed, I used to get Yate-Loons from Jabtek in the US before I went straight to China.


If you are only buying a few at a time you are at he mercy of the local channels of distribution. I can't change that, but knowing what the real cost are sometimes helps to direct the search for better value.



Peter

we discussed internally at the site whether or not to include price as a factor but I'm glad we didn't, they differ just too much between countries for such a standard item.

Thanks, jmke. You confirmed my thoughts about SY1225SL12VBL - a very quiet fan which can compete against Scythe Slipstream. Scythe rules!

First, thanks to jmke for the effort; lots of work must have gone to get that many fans reviewed.

It comes as no surprise to me that Scythe SY1225SL12VBL scored high.. I run two of them in my woman's machine as she likes blue leds and they are very quiet for their speed at 7V.

Nexus not scoring higher is a bit surprising, but then again, these days there are many great fans out there, so the competition is tight indeed. Good for us :-).

thanks for the share

My high school superintendent used to refer to himself in the third person singular. There was one person in each class who would comment "I thought he was the superintendent." And we still don't know why.

It is said Julius Caesar did that same and few other ruler has done so. According some psychologists its way to distinguish oneself from the... "commoners" or other peoples.

Well I am concerned to see that Nexus as low as they are.

Especially since I recently ordered 4 of the 120mm BW which are due in thursday.

3 Case fans, and 1 for a HSF.