I used to use a D12SM12 as a case fan on min. volts for ~ a year, very unobtrusive though bloody loud at full volts. A D12SL12 at min. volts is only fractionally quieter (subjectively) than the SM it replaced, though considerably quieter at 12V. No noticeable difference in temps though. I still have the SM hanging around, I'd be happy to post it in if you want another sample.

I was really surprised by how much power the Silenx fan used though, that was a real eye opener.

Good review as always and a huge help for potential fan buyers

Thank you for the updates this review has provided. It's nice -- and quite vital -- to have confirmed, real-life data from an established source.

I especially thank you for reviewing the Noiseblocker Blacksilent fan, I've been waiting to hear your opinion on them for some time now. The review sounds a bit harsh, as if the fan was dull(which I guess a product that fills its purpose and nothing more can be), but the main point was plainly there: it is a silent fan, and I'm delighted to see the measured CFM readings being quite adequate for my needs.

The review was a good read as usual, and I picked up a couple of interesting manufacturers from it, but I doubt I'll swap Noiseblocker for anything else any time soon. The XL1 Rev.2 for example is around 9 euros here, whereas a Nexus or a Noctua is 20 euros, so just testing them all to find something better than 'perfect' would be costly.

Keep up the good work... and no, I'm not an agent sent by Noiseblocker.

Let's see: 12V to 5V is a 2.4-1 ratio. Did anybody notice the Fander RPM ratio over that voltage range was 1400/480 or 2.917? Or the Enlobal's ratio was 2.794-1? Did anybody notice the Enlobal was the only one to claim they use air bearings, which would be very low friction, also had by far the lowest power drain of all the fans?

Did anybody notice the most favorite and least favorite fans at SPCR, the Yate Loon and SilenX, also had the highest power draw, by a large margin over the rest of the field? And, at 1.907 and 1.727 respectively, the lowest ratio of RPM from 12 to 5V?

Of course, I just quickly skimmed the article. I'll go back sometime and look at it in detail. Oh, one other thing: I'm the guy who had to oil the Enlobal fan I bought from Newegg when they were first released. I subsequently bought others, and all of them had been pre-oiled. I think there was an oversight at the factory on the very first production run, which was not repeated.

One last thing: the GW part number thing. "1202512L" is an unusual part number It tells me the fan is 120mm, 25mm thick, runs on 12V, and is an "L" speed version on the Panasonic L, M, H, U scale. But what do I know?

The GW "model number" is unusual in that it's reported inconsistently or not at all, all over the web, and that it fits the "Globe Fan" numbering scheme, not the "Global Win" numbering scheme. Given the lack of any "official" model number, I suspect that many companies have simply misidentified what they are selling.

As for power consumption, almost every quiet fan we've recommended has been on the high side of things. I noticed this a while back, but it's good to see someone else has also seen this.

Hell, I'll allow them 2w if it'll make 'em push more air without getting louder .

I think Noiseblocker still uses ceramic bearings (which are the alpha and omega when it comes to lifetime and noise balance). At least, that's what they did in the past.


I kinda miss the papst fans as they are very available in Europe and of course the winner of the Madshrimps 120mm fan roundup, the Sharkoon Silent Eagle.

About the number of RPMs needed to achieve 25CFM: I urge interested parties to take a close look at the blade-case clearance of the SilenX fan, and then the GW NCB fan. Guess why the NCB needs lots more RPM!

BTW, the SilenX fan casing next to the blades is a straight-sided 1" tube. This is not true for any other PC fans that I know of. This also improves the low-RPM performance of the SilenX with respect to CFM.

Thanks to the SPCR team for this new review.

I'm still quite disappointed that you haven't been able to get your hands on a pair of Sharkoon SE1000 to test. I really hope you'll be able to test them soon. Here in Europe they've already been tested / compared, with the good results that you already know from the folks at madshrimps.

Let's hope Sharkoon finally sends you some of them...

Now that there are 2 120mm roundups, any recommendations for PSU fan replacement (horizontal orientation)?

Probably not the yate loon D12SM-12 that was evaluated after being removed from a seasonic psu. No wonder it didn't test well.

Scythe S-Flex comes to mind, either the 1200 or 1600 version. Lots of people around here (my local dB freaks) have used them for this purpose and are pretty happy. Fander, if you can get it is also a good choice - I'm very impressed with its performance. I wouldn't really use Noctua in a PSU - poor performance with backpressure and bearings that don't like it horizontal.

winguy - that depends alot on the power rating of your PSU, it's efficiency and what kind of load it'll run at. A high power gaming rig with an inefficient PSU will need a fan with a much higher headroom/ top fan speed than a low power PC with a high efficiency PSU.

For a low to medium power PC (up to 120-150W max draw), a YL DS12SL-12 (or Scythe S-flex 1200 or Nexus etc) would be fine - I have had a DS12SL-12 in my FSP green power 400W PSU (max guestimated 100W load) for a couple of years without problems.

For a medium power rig (150-250W), I'd guess a YL DS12SM-12, S-Flex 1600 and the like would be okay.

Above that, I've no idea - build a more efficient computer?

Check out the last post in the first 120mm fan round up - fans appear to push similar amounts of air and be similarly noisy at the same RPM (noise character is not neccessarily the same though), so just pick a fan that has a good noise character that fits the speed range you need and you should be okay (Noctua excluded of course).

Can you people try another test and for 92 and 80 mm fans as well.

First:

(1) Take each fan and cut the central hub away from the 4 radial ribs
which hold it, and take out the ribs as well.

(2) Remount the hub but with new, thinner, ribs which are at least 5mm
from the trailing edge of the fan blades.

Repeat your tests and I think the difference will be startling. Just listen
to the fan with hub only for a start!

The problem with fans is the 25 mm width constraint which always
forces the trailing fan blade edges to be too close to the mounting ribs.
This causes an interference with the eddy flow coming of the trailing
blade edge giving a hum with a frequency about 4*REVS-PER-SEC,
so the idea is to increase that distance.
With a fan with hub only, bring a pencil, or your finger, closer and closer
to the trailing fan blade edge to see how the hum gets louder.

If you could buy up fans and remount them you could make a
small fortune. My Silenx 120 is very quiet as I have just the hub
mounted on top of a Thermalright XP-120.

Sorry, not happening. You go ahead, tho, and make that fortune.

Can you post URL's to sites that sell your top recommended fans. hopefully sites that sell in US Dollars.

LOL, how 'bout Mike buys them for you & ships to you too

http://www.jab-tech.com/120mm-Fans-c-81.html

Great artical. Just wondering will the 120mm Scythe slip stream line be tested sometime? It seems to have quite good specifications and are popular in the forum.

Hello,

Reading between the lines, I think we will be seeing new test of more fans in the near-ish future.

I had extensive experience with the AcoustiFan DustProof fans in my first "quiet" build (fully documented on SPCR in the DIY 830D article). They were just too darn loud under all circumstances. When run at relatively high RPM, they made too much wind noise, and when run at low RPM the hub/motor resonated and put out an extremely annoying pure tone (typically 500 Hz or so).

When I replaced them with Nexus fans, all these issues went away.