Hello all,

Trying to build a new quiet rig and looking for some quiet 80/120mm fans.

I'm looking for the most quiet fans and reputable places in the US to order from.

Are the Panaflo L1A fans consdiered the most quiet 80mm fans? What about for 120mm fans?

Any recommendations would be appreciated...

Thanks,

Dan

Lord09 - WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

Panaflo "L1A's" are a fairly safe choice for a quiet fan.

Personally, I like Heatsinkfactory.com as a source for L1A's. It's not the cheapest place but he carrys L1A's in all 3 sizes and almost always has them in stock. He also sells real inexpensive Panaflo tails. It's a good place for "one stop shopping". I buy a lot of stuff from Heatsinkfactory.com and am very pleased with the service.

You can find deals on 80mm L1A's if you look around, but it's rare to find a deal on 120mm L1A's. Mostly you'll pay around $16-18 for a 120mm L1A. The average price for an 80mm L1A is probably around $7-9 but you can sometimes find them for $5 or so, on sale. Don't forget the tails though!

There's a guy in the classifieds selling an OEM version of the 120mm L1A for $2 each right now. That's a hell of a deal on a fan that I find is quieter than a regular L1A. It's tailed with a proprietary connector that you have to cut off and rewire with your own connector though. If you can handle that, those fans are a great alternative, price-wise and performance-wise to a regular L1A.

There are other quiet fans though. In 80mm size the Nexus "Real Silent" fan comes to mind, in 120mm size you can choose from the easy to find Enermax adjustable ($16) or the fairly easy to find Evercool. The Nexus isn't very widely available but the two 120mm fans are easier to find than Panaflos and give the Panaflo 120mm a run for it's money. Use the "search" here in the forums to find more info on these fans, and quiet fans in general. There's tons of conversations here about quiet fans, as you can well imagine.

Nexus told me they should have out their new 120mm fan in February.

That's excellent news. Thanks for sharing that info JVM!

From the HeatsinkFactory.com Web site about the Panaflo 12 cm fan:



30 dBa, this is not what we can call a "silent" fan! Are there fans out there that produce less than 20 dBA at 1700 + RPM?

Thanks (I already ordered my Antec SLK3700AMB case, I am on my way to "very low noise" computing. And if i do not like the outcome, I will put my computer in a concrete box, tight sealed! )

You have to undervolt. No 120mm fan at 12 volts will be anything but loud. People usually undervolt at 5 to 7 volts.

No problem, Al, I'm glad to bring good news. Considering the nice things I've read about their 120mm fan in the NX-3500, and the nice things said about their 80mm fan, I believe we are going to get a winner with this new 120mm fan. And maybe, just maybe, a new king of the 120mm fans will emerge.

Thanks a lot for the info, I'm going to order a bunch of the L1A's.

As for 120mm fans, I see a lot of different Papst ones, while I'll probably just order some Panaflo ones, what model numbers should I look for, the Papst that is?

Thanks a lot,

Daniel

Papst 4412F/2GL. The "2" means it allows rpm monitoring. The same model is available without rpm monitoring as 4412FGL. These 120mm Papst fans are rated 7V~12V but lots of people have said no problem with starting even at 5V.

I've seen complaints about SVC's service, but they've treated me well over 3-4 orders. This last time around, they shipped an 80mm L1A instead of the 92 that I ordered. I emailed, and they immediately sent the correct fan AND told me to keep the 80. However the 92mm was DOA, and I'm waiting for a response to my latest email. I'll post to Reseller Ratings when it's resolved (or not). Note that SVC includes 3-pin tails with their Panaflos.

Directron has also been fine with me. Their prices on 120mm Enermaxes and Evercools are pretty hard to beat. I'd say the $7 JMCs also have potential, but my one sample has a clicky bearing.

Does anyone know where to order the quieter Papst 120mm fans?

Also, any alternatives to heatsinkfactory for the Panaflo 120mm fans? They seem fairly pricey...

DP

Like I suggested in my first post, prices of the 120mm L1As hover around $16-18 and it's quite rare to find any sort of a deal on them.

That's why I also suggested looking at the $2 OEM Panaflo from this guy. You'll need to put your own connector on them but you'll still be looking at less that $3-4 for a great 120mm L1A.

You can order the 120mm Papst F/2GL from

http://www.directron.com/

http://www.siliconacoustics.com/

http://silentmaxx.net/

What connector, 3 pin or 4 pin, do I need for the OEM 120mm Panaflo to work with my Sonata & Asus P4C800-E Deluxe?

Depends. If you want to plug it into the mobo you'll need a 3-pin connector. If you want to plug it into the PSU harness you'll need a 4-pin connector.

Thanks, I think I'll plug it into the motherboard for the front intake (if I use it) and leave the exhaust on the PSU line at 7V with a fanmate.

Caution Note: With any fan, but especially big 120mm's you should check the power rating before plugging it into the mobo! A lot of mobo's have very low power outputs from the fan connectors and plugging an over size fan into them can cause the magic smoke to come out....

If you are trying to keep the RPM monitoring function, it is possible to split the fan power harness and get the fan power from the PSU or a controller, while connecting JUST the fan RPM sensor wire to the appropriate pin on the mobo.

If splitting the harness, note that RPM sensing assumes that the fan's negative lead is always connected to the signal ground, so you should NOT use the '7-volt trick' and any controllers should only adjust the hot lead voltage. If you attempt to raise the ground lead above zero, you may get bogus RPM readings or even damage the mobo.

(Also note that PWM type controllers will also mess up the RPM sensing except on controllers that do their own sensing...)

Gooserider