So. My fan exploded...

[Null_User]

Well. Not really exploded. It kind of jitters on and off. Not common behavior. I'm talking about one of my Corsair H80 CPU cooler fans. The thing comes with two of the loudest fans ever in recorded electronics history. They sound like drills. And one of those drills just stopped. Anyway. I swapped them both for a pair of old Ultra brand 2100 rpm fans I had in my box-o-crap. They are MUCH more silent, at least.

Now, the reason of this thread is to look for actual recommendations for new fans. I don't trust the Ultra brand because I have quite a few components from them that completely stopped working after only a few months of use. Anyway. I need 3pin fans that can be speed controlled through voltage... or so is how it apparently goes. I'm really a noob at this terminology, but I know I definitely can't use 4 pin PWM handled fans.

I've read this site:
https://gpunerd.com/reviews/best-120mm-case-fans
Should I trust the recommendations there even though they claim it's for 2018 but written in February 2017? Are those Rosewills at the top really the top? I don't care for LED crapola. I just want fans that can go to 2000-2100 rpm to keep my radiator cool and don't jitter off at least in a few years.

And yes, I did note that the site recommends fans on the 1000-1200 rpm ranges. But I'm more interested in reliable brands here.

[mtono]

maybe have a look at bequit fans? i think they also look good imo.

[Null_User]

the be quiet brand? I'll check that too.

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Just get the Noctua NF-A12x25(s.)

The fans on AIOs suck in general. The latest Corsair ones should have their magnetic ones which may be the best Corsair have but at-least they spin slowly if I remember correctly so performance may have taken a hit.

The fans above will most likely be ~the best and have very good warranty and expected life-time and performance.

I doubt one really regret spending an additional $10 for a fan if it's more silent, make the system cooler and last longer. Assuming one isn't very poor of course.

Edit: Rosewill ones:
4 for $16:
"Fan Size: 120mm
Bearing Type: Long Life Sleeve
RPM: 1200 +/- 10% RPM
Air Flow: 38.2 CFM
Noise Level: 22 dBA
Power Connector: 3/4 Pin
Voltage is DC 12V and the starting voltage is DC 7V"

The Noctua fan:
https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-pwm
https://www.amazon.com/noctua-NF-A12x25-PWM-premium-quality-quiet/dp/B07C5VG64V $30 for one.
"Size 120x120x25 mm
Mounting hole spacing 105x105 mm
Connector 4-pin PWM
Bearing SSO2
Blade Geometry A-Series with Flow Acceleration Channels
Frame Technology AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimisation)
Material Sterrox® LCP
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) 2000 RPM
Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 1700 RPM
Min. Rotational Speed (PWM, +/-20%) 450 RPM
Airflow 102,1 m³/h
Airflow with L.N.A. 84,5 m³/h
Acoustical Noise 22,6 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with L.N.A. 18,8 dB(A)
Static Pressure 2,34 mm H₂O
Static Pressure with L.N.A. 1,65 mm H₂O
Max. Input Power 1,68 W
Max. Input Current 0,14 A
Voltage 12 V
Voltage PWM signal 5 V
MTTF > 150.000 h
Scope of delivery
Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
4-pin y-cable
30cm extension cable
NA-AV2 anti-vibration mounts
Anti-vibration gasket for water cooling radiators
Fan screws
Warranty 6 years"

22.6 vs 22 dB at 2000 vs 1200 rpm and 102.1 m^3/h vs 38.2 m^3/h.
2.67 times the air-flow at just about the same noise level.

No idea about the pressure the Rosewill fans can produce and what bearing they use or what the warranty and expected life time is. The mean-time between failures of the Noctua one is over 17 years and it's got a 6 year warranty.

[upcoast]

Two things to consider CFM and static pressure, rpm doesn't mean much if those other two are low.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JKNMBE/ref=psdc_11036291_t1_B000W7P4XE

These look appealing for $15^, dig around for ups and downs about them.

[Arya]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Hanuke:

the be quiet brand? I'll check that too.

Be Quiet fans are amazing. I recently replaced all of my case fans with them. They're the quietest I've ever used, despite also having good Static Pressure and being relatively affordable.

[Elon Mosque]

I recently switched my SP120 leds to ML120 Pros i can tell you that even at 1800-1900rpm range i can only hear the air they move. Comparing to SP fans the rotor noise is barely audable. I also have an noctua industrial fan 2000rpm edition. That thing was audable for me when it reached beyond 1070-1100rpm.
Maybe you can get non industrial version of it but that thing doesnt do 2000rpm.

[Arya]

Noctua Industrial have very impressive static pressure and power, but there's a lot of engine and air noise from about 1K RPM and up. They're good if you want extreme performance, bad if you care at all about noise.

BeQuiet are sort-of the opposite. There's some loss of CFM/Static Pressure compared to a Corsair ML or Industrial PPC, but they're incredibly quiet and very affordable. I'm running to on my CPU heatsink and another seven scattered around the case. The only noise I get is from my GPU cooler, which by comparison is kinda letting the side down.

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Agnes Washington:

I recently switched my SP120 leds to ML120 Pros i can tell you that even at 1800-1900rpm range i can only hear the air they move. Comparing to SP fans the rotor noise is barely audable. I also have an noctua industrial fan 2000rpm edition. That thing was audable for me when it reached beyond 1070-1100rpm.
Maybe you can get non industrial version of it but that thing doesnt do 2000rpm.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/LED-Color/Fan-Size/Package-Quantity/ml-pro-config/p/CO-9050040-WW
MSRP $25 for those.
"Fan Warranty Five years
Fan Size 120mm x 25mm
Bearing Type Magnetic Levitation
Flow Type Static Pressure
LED Color None
Operating Voltage 10.8V - 13.2V
PWM Control YES
CORSAIR LINK compatibility NO
Fan Model ML Series

Package Quantity Single Fan
Speed 400 - 2400 RPM
Sound Level 37 dBA
Power Draw 0.225 A
Static Pressure 0.2 - 4.2 mmH20
Fan Airflow 75 CFM"

15 dB higher noise level than the Noctua ones with 73.5% the air-flow and 83.3% of the price ... The 4.2 mm H2O rating would be higher though.

https://noctua.at/en/nf-f12-pwm
Would be the pressure optimized Noctua.
"Size 120x120x25 mm
Mounting hole spacing 105x105 mm
Connector 4-pin PWM
Bearing SSO2
Blade Geometry Heptaperf™
Frame Technology Focused Flow™
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) 1500 RPM
Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 1200 RPM
Min. Rotational Speed (PWM, +/-20%) 300 RPM
Airflow 93,4 m³/h
Airflow with L.N.A. 74,3 m³/h
Acoustical Noise 22,4 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with L.N.A. 18,6 dB(A)
Static Pressure 2,61 mm H₂O
Static Pressure with L.N.A. 1,83 mm H₂O
Max. Input Power 0,6 W
Max. Input Current 0,05 A
Voltage 12 V
MTTF > 150.000 h"

Much less pressure there too. If the Corsair deliver 4.2 mm H2O.

Seem kinda weird if the Noctua ones would actually be worse though.

[Arya]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism:

15 dB higher noise level than the Noctua ones with 73.5% the air-flow and 83.3% of the price ... The 4.2 mm H2O rating would be higher though.

That's Corsair for you. So for the price of one of those, I was able to fit three BeQuiet exhaust fans. Which are rated at .6 DB quieter.

[Elon Mosque]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Wolfey:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism:

15 dB higher noise level than the Noctua ones with 73.5% the air-flow and 83.3% of the price ... The 4.2 mm H2O rating would be higher though.

That's Corsair for you. So for the price of one of those, I was able to fit three BeQuiet exhaust fans. Which are rated at .6 DB quieter.

Its %83. of the price of NF-A12x25 i assume that thing is 30 usd on amazon as well.
And theres this color thing which i dont like.

[Wampum Biskit]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism:

15 dB higher noise level than the Noctua ones with 73.5% the air-flow and 83.3% of the price ... The 4.2 mm H2O rating would be higher though.

Seem kinda weird if the Noctua ones would actually be worse though.

where are you getting these numbers from ?

you cannot just put CFM against M3/H...

93 m3/h is ONLY 54 CFM , which means the noctua only moves 2/3 as much air at full power then the corsair.... usually the more air it moves the more sound it makes..

[Null_User]

Amazing responses. Thank you. I'm learning quite a bit and checking around. Found a few things.
The Scythe Ultra Kaze linked above on the Amazon site, has an amazing 131.273 cfm (228 m3/h) and a great 80.66 static pressure (according to their main site), but also a whooping 45.90 dba
http://www.scytheus.com/product/ultra-kaze-120mm/

The noctua has one I liked. The also mentioned here, NF A12x25 FLX. 2000 rpm, 102,1 m3/h and 22.6 dba.
https://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a12x25-flx/specification
Their NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 looks like a decent pick too.

On the be quiet side, there are two fans that caught my attention. The Silent Wings 3 with 2200 rpm, 73.33 cfm 1(24.58 m3/h) and 28.6 dba
https://www.bequiet.com/en/casefans/720

And their Shadow Wings. 2200 rpm 76.2 cfm 129.1 m3/h and 29.7 dba

These are so far the options I'm observing. Though I can maybe drop the Scythe one because it looks like way too much for what I need, and that 45 dba may be on par with the stock Corsairs I had. The other ones seem closer together.

Lastly, are all noctua fans painted like chocolate cakes?

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Oprindeligt skrevet af SyPTo:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism:

15 dB higher noise level than the Noctua ones with 73.5% the air-flow and 83.3% of the price ... The 4.2 mm H2O rating would be higher though.

Seem kinda weird if the Noctua ones would actually be worse though.

where are you getting these numbers from ?

you cannot just put CFM against M3/H...

93 m3/h is ONLY 54 CFM , which means the noctua only moves 2/3 as much air at full power then the corsair.... usually the more air it moves the more sound it makes..

Sorry guess I was way too stupid.

I've seen CFM used for air-flow and are in Sweden so obviously I didn't took much care but just wrote the numbers not thinking about it likely meaning Cubic Foot per Minute.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/LED-Color/Fan-Size/Package-Quantity/ml-pro-config/p/CO-9050040-WW
75 CFM = 127.4 m^3 / h

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-pwm/specification
102.1 m^3 / h

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-flx/specification
102.1 m^3 / h

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-uln/specification
55.7 m^3 / h

Then it make more sense. As you say 25.9% higher air flow and as such more noise is expected everything else equal. And higher pressure too. So then it becomes a capacity vs noise thing but you can of course male the 120 ml pro pwm spin slower and drop the capacity and noise level too. Which one is best at 102.1 m^3 / h I have no idea but then the ML120 Pro have a higher capacity and a lower price at-least.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Hanuke:

The noctua has one I liked. The also mentioned here, NF A12x25 FLX. 2000 rpm, 102,1 m3/h and 22.6 dba.
https://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a12x25-flx/specification

On the be quiet side, there are two fans that caught my attention. The Silent Wings 3 with 2200 rpm, 73.33 cfm 1(24.58 m3/h) and 28.6 dba
https://www.bequiet.com/en/casefans/720

And their Shadow Wings. 2200 rpm 76.2 cfm 129.1 m3/h and 29.7 dba

You've got a parantesis in your post. You mean 124.58 m^3 / h for the Silent Wings 3 high-speed. So very close to the Corsair in air-flow but much less noise. 3.37 mm H2O is lower.

BeQuiet also had a very silent fan with a even lower air-flow than the Noctua (and more quiet as well.)

So ML120 Pro seem to deliver the most pressure but also the most noise.
Silent Wings 3 high-speed similar air-flow as that but at a lower noise level.
Noctua less noise but also less air-flow and pressure.

Silent Wings 3 the not high-speed ones very similar air pressure as the Noctua one but a bit less air-flow and also a lower noise level. Doubt either is really heard though.

Maybe high-speed Silent Wings 3 is a good option?
$22 on Amazon.
Advanced fluid-dynamic bearing (FDB) enables a super long fan life of up to 300,000 hours
= 34.2 years MTBF, twice that of the Noctua.

Go Silent Wings 3? Though the PWM version, that one is also $22 so ..
Seem to be a good choice. Good noise level, good pressure, amazing life-span and a good price.

[Null_User]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism:

You've got a parantesis in your post. You mean 124.58 m^3 / h for the Silent Wings 3 high-speed. So very close to the Corsair in air-flow but much less noise. 3.37 mm H2O is lower.

BeQuiet also had a very silent fan with a even lower air-flow than the Noctua (and more quiet as well.)

So ML120 Pro seem to deliver the most pressure but also the most noise.
Silent Wings 3 high-speed similar air-flow as that but at a lower noise level.
Noctua less noise but also less air-flow and pressure.

Silent Wings 3 the not high-speed ones very similar air pressure as the Noctua one but a bit less air-flow and also a lower noise level. Doubt either is really heard though.

Maybe high-speed Silent Wings 3 is a good option?
$22 on Amazon.
Advanced fluid-dynamic bearing (FDB) enables a super long fan life of up to 300,000 hours
= 34.2 years MTBF, twice that of the Noctua.

Go Silent Wings 3? Though the PWM version, that one is also $22 so ..
Seem to be a good choice. Good noise level, good pressure, amazing life-span and a good price.

Urk! yeah. Missed the 1 inside the parenthesis. I feel that if I decide between those choices I'll get a good product. I don't mind a little noise, but that one with 45 dba, as I found out, is even louder than my "drills". Here are the finally found specs of the fans I'm replacing.

2600 rpm
92 CFM
39 dba
Fan Static Pressure 7.7 mmH20

The fan can be set to 3 rpm levels, but the controller inside the module that sits atop the CPU can further control rpm, just using the 3 tiers as reference to not go above them.

[Jamebonds1]

Thermaltake fan is cheap but good fan.