Anyone Help Me Out With Fan Durabilities?

[eNiL]

Hi all!

Longtime lurker, but never bothered to register till recently...

Have a bit of extra time over XMas - trying as a project to replace the fans in my case. I normally don't touch a PC once I've assembled it for at least a year or two, which begs the question: How long do sleeve bearing and ball bearing fans last?

I'm trying to replace my current fans (both @ 12V - Lian Li default 1500rpm rear exhaust and Noctua NF-P12 CPU - acceptable noise but they aren't the most silent fans) and don't want to undo the casing till 2 years later...

My setup is a low power PC less than 70W power draw idle - lian li a09b case, wolfdale pentium DC, noctua U12P, passive 8600GT. Simple air pathing from front intake to back exhaust + PSU exhaust created by having all possible air intake spaces taped up except the front default intake which has a speaker dust filter on it. My ambient PC running temp is usu around 30C as I live in a warm country.

My standard for quietness is the Scythe SlipStream 800rpm - if any fan is as quiet as that fan when new and does approx that cfm I'll use it! Unfortunately heard not so good things about longevity of those - a bit hesitant for now to order one of them...

- choices would be between S-Flex D 800rpm / Gentle Typhoon 1150rpm / GT 1450rpm / noiseblocker blacksilentpro PL-2 (only model available here, will have to mod voltage as it's not quiet at 12V)
- could anyone can tell me how long their fans have lasted? their noise levels in relation to a SS 800rpm? do they get much noisier as time goes by?
- or do you have personal experience to the contrary about slipstreams' longevity?

[tima]

My standard for quietness is the Scythe SlipStream 800rpm - if any fan is as quiet as that fan when new and does approx that cfm I'll use it! Unfortunately heard not so good things about longevity of those - a bit hesitant for now to order one of them...

- choices would be between S-Flex D 800rpm / Gentle Typhoon 1150rpm / GT 1450rpm / noiseblocker blacksilentpro PL-2 (only model available here, will have to mod voltage as it's not quiet at 12V)
- could anyone can tell me how long their fans have lasted? their noise levels in relation to a SS 800rpm? do they get much noisier as time goes by?
- or do you have personal experience to the contrary about slipstreams' longevity?

The Slipstreams last a long time, easily ten thousand hours for me and going strong. The only fans I really like are the Nexus 120 and Slipstream 800. I bought several low-speed S-Flex fans, and they all exhibited a variable pitch whine. Noctuas can do that, too. The Gentle Typhoon 1450 I recently bought is hands down the worst fan I've ever had. It's bad for vibration, it buzzes, and it's got a loud variable pitch whine. It's horrible at all speeds. I've probably spent $200 auditioning fans over the years, and the only ones that have been consistently good for me are the Nexus and SlipStream 800.

As for CPU fans, I have Hyper 212 Plus HSFs in both my PCs. The stock CoolerMaster fan is pure crap. On my E6600 system, I strapped a Slipstream 800 on it and called it a day. On my main system, an i5 750, I tried a Gelid PWM fan and Apache S-FLOW, and while they improved on the stock Cooler Master fan, they were still loud, idling around 750 RPM at 20%, which is as low as my mobo goes. I gave the Slipstream PWM fan a try, and it idles around 320(!) RPM. Under load, it never rises above 600 RPM. My case fans are a Nexus at 680 RPM and Slipstream at 470 RPM in the upper and lower chambers of my Acoustipack'd P182, and I also have 3 WD Green Drives in the lower chamber. The video card is a passive 9600GT, and PSU is Seasonic X650. Replacing the CPU fan was the best thing I've done for this system noise-wise in a long time. All I can say is that the CoolerMaster, Gelid, and Apache PWM fans idle higher than is necessary to cool my non-overclocked system at full load, and they are not silent at idle in my system. The Slipstream PWM is silent at full load.

[eNiL]

Hi tima

Thank you for the long and informative post! I agree on the noctuas - my NF-P12 is quite noisy at 12V and is still audible at ULNA (?8V)(?900rpm) speeds.

Gentle Typhoons have ?bearing noise but are otherwise relatively quiet (compared to other fans at that speed) at very high cfms... seems like the bearing noise is more pronounced at lower rpms? I have a AP-15, at 1000-1100 rpm there's a "shshsh" noise that is relatively mid-high pitched and annoying to me which I can hear from 1m away, was wondering if anyone has a AP-13 with that same problem? Cos I keep hearing that these fans are teh hotness and am wondering if my ears are crap or if I've a bad sample.

What would be the slipstream PWM fan's model number you have? I'm interested. Will probably also try a S-Flex D as I'm thinking of mounting a fan horizontally under my passive GPU. Anyone knows how long these fans last (at their orig noise signature)?

Anyone else in meantime?

[tima]

What would be the slipstream PWM fan's model number you have?

From my Performance-PCs.com receipt:

Scythe "SLIP-STREAM PWM" 120x25mm Case Fan - Sleeved (SY1225SL12LM-P) = $9.95