The Enermax T.B. Silence PWM. It looks pretty cool as well.

http://www.enermax.co.uk/products/fans/ ... e-pwm.html

Enermax fans are always neat. I can't help but be attracted to them. But in terms of performance they have a mixed reputation. You might want to look at the plain jane Scythe PWMs. They aren't as fancy with all the technology... but they have a reputation of delivering good performance.

PS: dB readings vary so much from tester to tester, you can't compare them except when they all come from the same tester using the same methodology. I wouldn't rely on a manufacturer's reported dB results except to compare fans within their own line. Many people won't even go that far. I would look at SPCR's old test of enermax fans then look around these forums. There was a recent thread where Enermax fans were brought up and discussed.

Hmm. My search continues then. I always do a lot of research before i buy something. Ensures i get the best product and it adds to the fun. I'd like a fan that provides good air flow but noise is more of a concern for me as the massive cpu heatsink will compensate. I managed to find a comparison of 35 case fans here.

http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/artic ... z1IIV5UE3D

It only compares two PWM fans and the Scythe one does reasonably well. Fans are pretty cheap though so i want the best.

I have a couple of Cluster, which is nearly identical (HALO, Batwing, Twister bearing, 8dBA), just a tad slower (so quieter).
Even if they are more than decent, IME they are not preferable to all the Scythe PWMs (or - probably - to some expensive beQuiet! or Noise Blocker), at least with reference to sound/noise: as high pitched fans, mostly sound quality is a bit questionable, less smooth than Scythes, and those 8dBA are a pure invention. On a heatsink IME they're roughly equivalent to the famous 120mm Noctuas (not PWM, of course), but noticeably less expensive, and they should be preferred over a Slipstream just for horizontal mounting.

Eventually I wouldn't use an Enermax to aid a passive (ok, no more) CPU cooler.

I was actually looking at the Be Quiet! Silentwings PWM just a minute ago. Seems to be pretty quiet. Found another fan comparison here.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... html#sect0

I don't agree it has to negate the point. My experience is that case fans causes less resonance than CPU fans.

One thing I noted testing my TX-3 CPU cooler is that at a certain point you can throw a ton of air at a processor cooler and get very little back in regards to lower temps. I can lose only a few degrees off the temperature running at full speed with my 92mm Noctua v having it run at just over 1000rpm (which effectively makes it very quiet at that speed)

Thus..it's fairly easy to get a quiet/low level of noise by using oversized heatsinks with modest/lower levels of airflow over them.

I think that would be valuable because very few people have as much experience as you do about how mainstream desktop gear copes with low airflow.

Well a lot of this is open to debate. And some people have their own ideas on things..
So it's not for me to tell anyone anything but I simply give my own personal view right or wrong

There are a lot of variations different fans have varying airfow, static pressure, ambient temps etc etc.

I will say one things straight off though I very strongly disagree with the modern thinking of bottom mounted PSU's. This IMO has a "negative" impact on airflow. A bottom PSU will draw cool air out of the system as it's placed low down (unless the fan is sucking in from the bottom of the case outside) if it's reversed inside the case it simply helps to take cooler air out which is counter productive to overall system temperatures.

Any air that's being exhausted out of the case must (and will) be replaced by "new" air being sucked into the case. So if the PSU exhausts cool air from the bottom of the case, new cool air will be sucked in from whereever that case gets its outside air.

A bottom reversed PSU might disturb the airflow setup of a case by drawing hot air to the bottom instead of letting it rise. But then again I don't think these things matter too much in a PC case.

You overestimate the role of convection in a PC case that uses fans. A single slow spinning 120mm fan easily counters any rising heat due to convection. Besides, if the intake fan of a bottom PSU is facing up, it could have a role in evacuating heat from the video card(s), which would be fairly close -- within say 5 PCI slot distance, given the 2-3 slots vidcards occupy these days.

In contrast, there is little doubt that the top mounted PSU...
- always runs hotter, as the primary path of heat evacuation is via the case back panel exhaust fan directly below it. The additional heat, in combination with the low fan speed utilized in quiet PSUs, has the potential of shortening PSU life. I have personally seen several quiet PSUs which failed due to heat damage in cases where the PSU was mounted traditionally. Since a bottom mounted PSU is not subject to the heat from the rest of the PC components, it runs cooler, so longevity is improved.
- blocks the possibility of a top mounted vent above the CPU area to increase heat evacuation

So the Solo II is a big fail with a top mounted PSU? Something have to be right about it otherwise the Antec engineers would have choosen a bottom PSU in it's design?

With reference to any top mounted PSU-style enclosure, it's just a drawback, not a major fail.
IMO, in most of not-gaming scenarios, probably it would be slightly noticeable, if not at all.

Summarizing, with such a case you have just to carefully choose the parts (so personally I wouldn't use a 730W ASUS Mars 2 in a Solo).

You put words in my mouth -- I never said anything like "big fail". What I did say, essentially, is that the bottom mounted PSU case has significant advantages. One advantage the SoloII might have is with a fanless PSU. The top vent allows the heat from something like a Seasonic X fanless or Kingwin fanless platinum PSU to dissipate easily out of the case.

As for why Antec or any other case makers choose any design, I assure you, functionality & efficiency are NOT always top priorities. Cost, ease of manufacturing, marketability, etc usually take precedence, along with whatever the micromanaging big boss might want in the product. In the Solo2, it is clear the basic chassis foundation is unchanged from the original. It is the same chassis under the skin of many Antec (and probably other brand) midtower cases sold in the past... decade, I'd guess. Why? Avoidance of tooling cost.

Whoa... Thanks. Very helpful information.

Mike,

I am curious if you think this still true in the case of a tower heatsink. Assuming a fairly typical build with a tower heatsink blowing straight into an exhaust fan. Does the tower heatsink fan actually have any contribution to motherboard temperature?

Yes. The airflow from a fan on a typical tower heatsink is turbulent around the fins, which causes some of the flow to swirl a bit, and reach the board itself. This is not much airflow when the fan is spinning really slowly, but even a bit of airflow is still better than none.