What would be some reasonable alternatives to stock fan on Hyper 212+? It is by far the loudest piece in my setup running around 1950RPM.

Noctua NF F12 is $30 in my neck of woods, which seems a bit steep.

I can pick up some Scythe SlipStreams but not the SY1225SL12LM-P model.
For example, Scythe Slip Stream 120mm SY1225SL12M - 1200rpm seems like this one would be quiet but not push enough air at 1200rpm, I figure I need something around 1500-1600RPM.

Another alternative I have seen recommended would be Cooler Master SickleFlow, but all I can get of those are red or green colored case fans, would they actually work well enough as fans on H212+?
CM BladeMaster would be same as what I have now, so that seems out.

I have Hyper 212+ with stock fan cooling Phenom II B50(Athlon 450 fully unlocked) on Asrock 970 Extreme3 M/B.
120mm P/S fan and two 120mm case fans one from Xilence one from Cooler Master, running quietly at 1200-1300RPM.

Idle temps are 32C, and peak is around 45C, thus I am willing to sacrifice a few degrees of CPU temp for some peace and quiet.

Hi klusda, welcome to SPCR!

If your CPU fan is running 1900rpm that sounds like full speed to me suggesting you could improve it a lot with out replacing it. 4 pin PWM fans need to be connected to a 4 pin header on the motherboard, or they will run full speed. Pretty much all CPU fan headers are now 4pin anyway. You then need to go in to the motherboard's BIOS/UEFI and make sure fan control is enabled. I'm not familiar with Asrock boards to advise what it will be called in your case.

The other alternative is to use software, like Speedfan to control the fan speeds. There was a SPCR article on configuring it.

If you do end up wanting a replacement fan it will depend if you gain controll over the fan's speed. If you do Scythe fans are well regarded. I've personally had good luck with Arctic Cooling fans, including F12 PWM that would be ideal for your 212.

If you don't gain fan speed control I would pick up a 800 or 1200rpm Scythe fan and use that. It's surprising how little cooling is lost till the lowest fan speeds and you have plenty of CPU temp headroom.

Regards, Seb

Thanks Seb for the welcome! I've been reading SPCR for a few years.

I think I will have to play with BIOS/UEFI a bit as it has quite a few options. The fan is on 4pin header. As you said, if the fan could be run at 1200RPM I think it would be rather bearable.

Software control fan control will probably have to wait until I go back to Win 7 from Ubuntu 12.04 server that I am running for a project. On Linux lm-sensors package after installation and config only picks up one case fan but misses the other fan and CPU fan.

update: I played with UEFI settings a bit and set the target temperature to 50C and fan speed to level 3, which came out to roughly 1300RPM. As expected, the system is much quieter, but still louder than I would like.

klusda have you tried fan speed at level 2? Presumably the fan will still spin up - maybe around 800 - 900 rpm?

My vote is for Slipstreams (quiet, good airflow for RPM, reliable start, affordable), but that's a hot CPU you got there (100+ W TDP?). Whatever fan you choose, you may be hitting the cooler's capacity regardless = no silence in sight.

PS. Anything over 800 is not quiet.

Hi, first post here...long time lurker.

I'd reccomend the Gelid Silent 12 fans, those are easily available through Ebay and maybe some shop carries them.
They are pwm fans, and really quiet yet have good pressure even at lower rpms.