This might have been mentioned before but I found this very nice 80 mm fan roundup on a Finnish overclockers' site. The review considers fans that are available for purchase in Finland. The testing methodology looks very professional. Basically, they used a special measurement setup to calibrate each fan to move 20 CFM and 10 CFM of air and then measured the sound pressure on each side of the fan. Here they list the voltages required to drive each fan at these air flow rates. Themeasured sound pressure (dBA) is given relative to their chosen reference fan Papst 8412 N/2GL. First graph presents sound pressure on the exhaust side and second one shows the intake side. They don't say whether the fans were calibrated to 20 CFM or 10 CFM in this test and they don't give absolute dBA values (that would probably be meaningless anyway).
However, the most interesting part for me was the subjective evaluation. They point out that dBA measurements don't tell you the whole truth and go on to bubble sort all the fans (at 20 CFM) from most annoying (lowest score) to least annoying (highest score) by comparing each pair of fans head to head and picking out the winner. Then they proceeded to do the same with the four best ones at 10 CFM. Finally, they installed the five best fans into an Xbox (at 20 CFM) and had a listen at two meters. Not surprisingly, the Panaflo L1A did very well, although the overall winner was YS TECH FD1281252B-2A, Super Silent by a small margin. However, those looking for a very quiet low air flow fan at less than 5V might find the May Jie MJ802512 their best bet. They really seemed to like this one and pronounced it literally completely silent at 4.5V, couldn't be heard from any direction.
I found the review quite enlightening, although I wish they had included some larger fans as well.
Nice 80 mm fan roundup on Finnish overclockers' site
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Inexplicable
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SometimesWarrior
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Very cool article! Thanks for the link, Inexplicable. This is the kind of article that only overclocker sites have the time and manpower (and patience) to write up. Surprisingly, they appear to have used a good methodology for sorting through quiet components, unlike any other overclocker site I've seen. Maybe someone will translate this article to English one day so I can read the text. 
A question about the article, for whoever can read it: on page 3, they have a table of fans along with a voltage and resistance. Is the resistance value the measured resistance of the fan, or the required series resistance to slow the fan to the desired speed?
Anyway, it looks like the May Jie MJ802512 and the YS TECH FD1281252B-2A Super Silent are both good contenders in the quiet fan arena. Has anyone here heard these fans or seen them for sale?
A question about the article, for whoever can read it: on page 3, they have a table of fans along with a voltage and resistance. Is the resistance value the measured resistance of the fan, or the required series resistance to slow the fan to the desired speed?
Anyway, it looks like the May Jie MJ802512 and the YS TECH FD1281252B-2A Super Silent are both good contenders in the quiet fan arena. Has anyone here heard these fans or seen them for sale?
Firstly, I'd like to say that the author of the article is not very tied up with FinClockers, AFAIK. FinClockers just published the article. The author (Scorpius) has posted here few times too, IIRC.
Cheers,
Jan
Just above the tables is the formula from which the resistance values are calculated. It's made to help people who don't have a multimeter to measure the voltage (so that the fan will output 20 CFM with the given resistance). So, it's "required series resistance to slow the fan".SometimesWarrior wrote:A question about the article, for whoever can read it: on page 3, they have a table of fans along with a voltage and resistance. Is the resistance value the measured resistance of the fan, or the required series resistance to slow the fan to the desired speed?
Cheers,
Jan
Let me say also that the test was very useful considering the limited resources available. Very good work!
I was skeptical initially, but this just proves me wrong again and shows that it's better to get your hands dirty than muse about how difficult it is to do a good test.
I congratulate the author for undertaking the test and doing this for free. Good job!
regards,
Halcyon
I was skeptical initially, but this just proves me wrong again and shows that it's better to get your hands dirty than muse about how difficult it is to do a good test.
I congratulate the author for undertaking the test and doing this for free. Good job!
regards,
Halcyon
Thanks about the feedback, I did my best 
Since there has been so much request about quick english translation, well....I'm working on it right now. Because I have no time, it's not top quality because I used translation engine.
Anyway I post my tests english summary tomorrow, hope you like it. Any comments are welcome.
P.S. Moderators, I really hope this thread will be moved to "fans" section, thanks.
Since there has been so much request about quick english translation, well....I'm working on it right now. Because I have no time, it's not top quality because I used translation engine.
Anyway I post my tests english summary tomorrow, hope you like it. Any comments are welcome.
P.S. Moderators, I really hope this thread will be moved to "fans" section, thanks.
Ok, here it is. Apologies for the awful english, blame the translation engine
Embrasing The Silence
---------------------
Usually in the fan tests the noise level of fans (dB) has been measured when the fans have been running on 12V. The so-called winner of this kind of a test less often is the best alternative to every need but the properties of the fans vary according to different purposes of use. This is test of 80mm fans and we will find what fan is quitetest on 10 CFM and 20 CFM. These air amounts are therefore chosen because 20 CFM is the typical air amount pushed already by the processor fan of the quiet machine. 10 CFM is amount to the case airing of one fan. As everybody knows, it is much more reasonable to use greater amount of casefans running at slow speed, that one case fan runnin at full speed.
In this test Papst 8412 N/2GL has been chosen as a reference fan. This is because it hase smalles CFM value of test fans. All of the fans except three are available from Finland's market. Other three are included from the pure interest. Spire Falconrock II the regular fan is therefore HS along because the product in question is relatively popular a cooling solution. The (Black Label) along because Only4pro delivered it with the test fan of the others. This fan is probably Delta, but I have not been able to find out an exact model. May Jien is purely my own personal finding. It's from the 250W PSU "KME" (Yes, that shitty PSU). I have earlier noticed how incrediblty quiet this fan is.Panaflos has taken along because the Panaflo among the decibel freaks is nearly in the cult reputation.
Basic information must be known
--------------------------------------
So that from the test it would get off all possible advantage, the basic tricks of the silensing of a PC must be known. It is not reasonable to install the fan in the machine only hurriedly by screwing to the side because in that case an unnecessary extra voice will be created. The fan must be always installed so that it will apply to the surfaces only through the soft materials. For example the case fan is not worth on no account screwing in its place with screws but it is worth fixing for example with rubber pegs shut. In Polishs also the split ear plugs serve this purpose extremely well and furthermore, nearly the free solution to the matter is. All the gratings and grilles must be taken away from the front of the fan. The finger protection especially on the suction side of the fan is not a good thought because it produces an extra whine. When installing the processor fan, it is always worthwhile to try to avoid screw fastening because the processor fans are turning usually faster than the case fans and cause this more resonance. Furthermore, it has been stated that about one centimetre of a space is worth leaving to be the intensification of the airing between a HS and the fan.
How We measured
---------------
The CFM reading was measured by sticking the fan to end of 250mm ength plastic tube which was from its diameter 100mm. At the other end "siipiratasanemometri" <- (I have no idea how to translate this) Airflow AV-2 was tightly fastened to the pipe. The air amount moved by the fans was measured by putting the fans to suck air from the pipe. With this solution it was escaped when blowing, the whirls of air and their effects on the measurement results are created. The air amount moved by the fan was adjusted to every fan to the value 20CFM and 10CFM. The voltage adjustment of the fan was made by using Zalmannin Fan Mate and the voltage was measured with a Fluke multimeter. The easiest way to lower the voltage to want is to put a resistance with the fan to the series. The resistance must be usually at least 1W from its effect duration
The subjective tests were performed by listening to the fans sitting top of foam. Fans were sorted by comparing two fans at the time and picking better (bubblesort) . Furthermore, the five best fans were installed to be estimated, to Xbox. version 1.2 Xbox has been and modified from the questions so that, 80mm case fan fits there instead of regular 70mm xbox case fan. Furthermore, all the obstacles such as grilles have been removed from the way.
dB
---
As from the schemes it sees, the differences to the reference fan are dB at present, about 3dB. However, this tells nothing actually because only a 10 dB difference doubles the sound level (fone). Pleas enote that these dB measurement does NOT serve the actual truth because the nature of sound is more importand in this case than the sound level. The whine of hard disks which in everyone's opinion surely is tearing nerves should be mentioned as a good example. Even though it is a question of the one well irritating sound, its sound level is not at all higher than silent HDD. The decibel readings are not the trusting's worth simply in this case, believe me.
conclusion:
------------
In the test there was surpisers as well as "regular" results. Papst's reputation in 80mm fans as a fallen star seem well deserved because the "flap flap" noise which was in EVERY papst fan in test. That was not convincing. Papst's worsening of the quality of the fans probably is due to the fact that Papst has postponed the assembling of fans from Germany to Hungary. seem like the quality observation has experienced a small slam because, years ago, Papst was the very top in fan quality.
The comparison of fans showed that with 20 CFM it still is possible to get a quiet cooling on this also air amount. Panaflo L1A as well as Y.S.Tech Super Silent took care of the work very well. Most important to be without producing extra voices in the test of 10 CFM the property was such as for example ticking. This is not a quite from himself clear matter because the majority of the fans of the test were not quiet on this air amount. May Jie MJ802512 winned this race clearly because it was totally silent. No matter how you turn it, or where to listen it, it was totally inaudible and no other fan made this well. Also Y.S.Techin Super Silent and Panaflo L1A collected appreciation in this section.
On the whole the winner of the test was Y.S.Techin Super Silent when legendary Panaflo L1A became the number two on a small difference. Most convincing "talent" of Y.S.Tech Super Silent was the fact that it produced less air ventilation noise of all fans. Is said its not possible to ger rid of that noise, but in this case its been taken off as much as it can. The phenomenon was best noticed in Xbox testing. Now my xbox is totally silent from 3m and the case fans of my PC also got the lift out from the winner's way.
The fans of the middle-range did not produce any surprise; they behaved just as I expected them to behave. Because of the weakening of the quality in Papsts fan all of them fell to the midlle-range because of their disturbing "flap flap" noise.
Well, I hope you liked it. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Embrasing The Silence
---------------------
Usually in the fan tests the noise level of fans (dB) has been measured when the fans have been running on 12V. The so-called winner of this kind of a test less often is the best alternative to every need but the properties of the fans vary according to different purposes of use. This is test of 80mm fans and we will find what fan is quitetest on 10 CFM and 20 CFM. These air amounts are therefore chosen because 20 CFM is the typical air amount pushed already by the processor fan of the quiet machine. 10 CFM is amount to the case airing of one fan. As everybody knows, it is much more reasonable to use greater amount of casefans running at slow speed, that one case fan runnin at full speed.
In this test Papst 8412 N/2GL has been chosen as a reference fan. This is because it hase smalles CFM value of test fans. All of the fans except three are available from Finland's market. Other three are included from the pure interest. Spire Falconrock II the regular fan is therefore HS along because the product in question is relatively popular a cooling solution. The (Black Label) along because Only4pro delivered it with the test fan of the others. This fan is probably Delta, but I have not been able to find out an exact model. May Jien is purely my own personal finding. It's from the 250W PSU "KME" (Yes, that shitty PSU). I have earlier noticed how incrediblty quiet this fan is.Panaflos has taken along because the Panaflo among the decibel freaks is nearly in the cult reputation.
Basic information must be known
--------------------------------------
So that from the test it would get off all possible advantage, the basic tricks of the silensing of a PC must be known. It is not reasonable to install the fan in the machine only hurriedly by screwing to the side because in that case an unnecessary extra voice will be created. The fan must be always installed so that it will apply to the surfaces only through the soft materials. For example the case fan is not worth on no account screwing in its place with screws but it is worth fixing for example with rubber pegs shut. In Polishs also the split ear plugs serve this purpose extremely well and furthermore, nearly the free solution to the matter is. All the gratings and grilles must be taken away from the front of the fan. The finger protection especially on the suction side of the fan is not a good thought because it produces an extra whine. When installing the processor fan, it is always worthwhile to try to avoid screw fastening because the processor fans are turning usually faster than the case fans and cause this more resonance. Furthermore, it has been stated that about one centimetre of a space is worth leaving to be the intensification of the airing between a HS and the fan.
How We measured
---------------
The CFM reading was measured by sticking the fan to end of 250mm ength plastic tube which was from its diameter 100mm. At the other end "siipiratasanemometri" <- (I have no idea how to translate this) Airflow AV-2 was tightly fastened to the pipe. The air amount moved by the fans was measured by putting the fans to suck air from the pipe. With this solution it was escaped when blowing, the whirls of air and their effects on the measurement results are created. The air amount moved by the fan was adjusted to every fan to the value 20CFM and 10CFM. The voltage adjustment of the fan was made by using Zalmannin Fan Mate and the voltage was measured with a Fluke multimeter. The easiest way to lower the voltage to want is to put a resistance with the fan to the series. The resistance must be usually at least 1W from its effect duration
The subjective tests were performed by listening to the fans sitting top of foam. Fans were sorted by comparing two fans at the time and picking better (bubblesort) . Furthermore, the five best fans were installed to be estimated, to Xbox. version 1.2 Xbox has been and modified from the questions so that, 80mm case fan fits there instead of regular 70mm xbox case fan. Furthermore, all the obstacles such as grilles have been removed from the way.
dB
---
As from the schemes it sees, the differences to the reference fan are dB at present, about 3dB. However, this tells nothing actually because only a 10 dB difference doubles the sound level (fone). Pleas enote that these dB measurement does NOT serve the actual truth because the nature of sound is more importand in this case than the sound level. The whine of hard disks which in everyone's opinion surely is tearing nerves should be mentioned as a good example. Even though it is a question of the one well irritating sound, its sound level is not at all higher than silent HDD. The decibel readings are not the trusting's worth simply in this case, believe me.
conclusion:
------------
In the test there was surpisers as well as "regular" results. Papst's reputation in 80mm fans as a fallen star seem well deserved because the "flap flap" noise which was in EVERY papst fan in test. That was not convincing. Papst's worsening of the quality of the fans probably is due to the fact that Papst has postponed the assembling of fans from Germany to Hungary. seem like the quality observation has experienced a small slam because, years ago, Papst was the very top in fan quality.
The comparison of fans showed that with 20 CFM it still is possible to get a quiet cooling on this also air amount. Panaflo L1A as well as Y.S.Tech Super Silent took care of the work very well. Most important to be without producing extra voices in the test of 10 CFM the property was such as for example ticking. This is not a quite from himself clear matter because the majority of the fans of the test were not quiet on this air amount. May Jie MJ802512 winned this race clearly because it was totally silent. No matter how you turn it, or where to listen it, it was totally inaudible and no other fan made this well. Also Y.S.Techin Super Silent and Panaflo L1A collected appreciation in this section.
On the whole the winner of the test was Y.S.Techin Super Silent when legendary Panaflo L1A became the number two on a small difference. Most convincing "talent" of Y.S.Tech Super Silent was the fact that it produced less air ventilation noise of all fans. Is said its not possible to ger rid of that noise, but in this case its been taken off as much as it can. The phenomenon was best noticed in Xbox testing. Now my xbox is totally silent from 3m and the case fans of my PC also got the lift out from the winner's way.
The fans of the middle-range did not produce any surprise; they behaved just as I expected them to behave. Because of the weakening of the quality in Papsts fan all of them fell to the midlle-range because of their disturbing "flap flap" noise.
Well, I hope you liked it. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
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Ralf Hutter
- SPCR Reviewer
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