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Thread: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

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    Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    So the exhaust fan on my CM Storm Enforcer broke, and I need to replace it (wanted to do so even before it broke ). I am looking for a 120mm fan which is super quiet, but pushes a lot of air out. It has to be black or red(solid, not clear), and it has to be less than £12.

    I was looking at the following fans:

    Phobya Nano-2G 12 (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...(120x120x25mm)
    Akasa Apache Black (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...blades-1300rpm)

    I also have a Coolermaster Blademaster 120mm on my cpu cooler, which is extremely quiet and pushes a fair amount of air, but I'm not sure if it's up there with the 2 I just mentioned.

    What do you think of these 2 fans or the Blademaster? Do you recommend something else ?

    Thanks a lot !

  2. #2
    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    How much do you want to spend.
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    I mentioned in the post it has to be less than £12

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    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    oops - The apache.
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    Yeah, I was thinking about that one too. Does anyone else have good experiences in terms of silence with other fans ?

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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    To start with there's no such thing as high air flow + silent, they are mutually exclusive.
    It's simply that moving air generates noise, so the more air moved the more noise is generated.
    That's not to say there's no difference because there is, a lot of these fans with fancy blade design are designed to reduce turbulence in the air flow to reduce the noise without lowering the air flow.

    Thing you need to pay attention too, RPM, this is often the single biggest factor in both air flow and noise. The 2nd thing is bareing and motor quality this becomes a big issue when you start entering the low rpm silent fan area, because it's here that the air flow drops so low that air noise is lower than bareing/motor noise.
    3rd issue is general build quality and materials, lower density plastics and/or cheaper lower tolerance mouldings leads to fans being less balanced creating more vibration which in turn effects the noise.

    The one in the back would of been one of the standard coolermaster 1200rpm fans, which is a general good balance point between very low noise but still getting air flow
    Drop down to the 800rpm area (with decent bareing+motor) for really silent fans, although the air flow is less.
    Step up to the 1500rpm area and you'll get more air flow but at the cost of increased noise, it's still relatively low noise but it's far from silent.

    On the subject of the blademaster and apache, the apache is definitely the higher quality of the two, both are PWM fans so when connected to a PWM header and setup to be correctly controlled both are quiet mainly because they idle around 700rpm, however the blade master gets rather loud when running at it's top 2000rpm but does push a lot of air.

    I replaced my blademaster with a pair of apache's, the olive and brown ones, in push pull and my hyper212+ is now quieter under load, but that's not surprising as 1 I'm using two fans now not one and 2 the apache is less noisy at it's full 1500rpm although it doesn't move as much air at full speed.
    Please note, the black apache is actually a lower max rpm so is quieter but does move less air, it should be pretty quiet if run direct and not via a PWM header, around the same sound level as the original coolermaster fan

    For a basic, cheap yet decent quality red led fan that's pretty quiet try the yateloon D12SL-12 http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...-pid-6824.html you'll find it's about the same as the original coolermaster in terms of performance and noise.

    The BitFenix fans are decent for for cost and again decent quality http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...pid-12793.html
    Very quiet, but the air flow is nothing special, for the cost probably the best value near silent fan.
    Also the new spectre Pro fans are said to be very nice http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...pid-14823.html
    More expensive but a higher build quality and built in anti-vibration features.

    The new Antec fans aren't bad http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...2-speed-switch
    Like the older tri-cool they have a built in speed selector switch so you can adjust the speed, lowering the rpm to reduce noise at a cost of air flow.

    If your after looks then the areocool carbon fibre fans look quite funky http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...pid-13133.html (note they are not actual carbon fibre, just a carbon fibre effect to look pretty)
    At 1000rpm they should be very quiet too and come with rubber plugs to use instead of screws, which is something I personally much prefer.

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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    Wow, thanks a lot Pob255 for the extensive reply. I think I'll have to decide between the Apache and the Spectre Pro. I guess I'll shop around and get whatever's cheaper. I am kind of leaning towards the Apache, as it's a bit more silent and goes a bit better with my current build.
    I also know that be quiet! fans are very good at silence and very efficient, but they're also too expensive and hard to find...

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    Kendoka - Kendo For Life! IronWarrior's Avatar
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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    I would recommend the Coolermaster SickleFlow fans, high airflow and decent noise or the Thermaltaka Thumderblades which have higher airflow but more noise but fair, please do look them up, you won't find anything better for the price range and value.

    Both look really cool as well.

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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    Thank you for the recommendations IronWarrior. One of my friends once showed me 2 SickleFlow's side by side, one of them was whining awfully, while the other was fine. And apparently it's a common problem with some of them, and I really don't feel like taking chances

    As for the Thermaltake Thunderblade, the specs look very decent, but I kind of doubt them from its design. And unfortunately it's a clear plastic fan, which won't go with my system. But thank you anyway for your help!

  10. #10
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    The thunderblades are far from quiet, although this is a general problem with fans, sound is subjective and also highly effected by environmental factors, the lower your background noise the more you'll notice fan noise.

    You'll find that most LED fans have clear frames, esp in the budget area.

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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    Ok, so I decided to buy the Akasa Apache Black fan. I got it from Yo Yo computers (Tottenham Court Road, for Londoners). They have all the hot products, and are only a couple of pounds or so more expensive than the web.
    I put the fan in my system, and to my complete disappointment, it's EXTREMELY loud. I mean a lot louder than anything else in there. And noticeable too, even with a noisy background. It does push a fair bit of air out, but it's nowhere near as silent (16 db(a) ) as Akasa claim it is. It does not make any weird noises, so it's safe to say it's not defective or anything. That's just the way this fan is.

    I'm really disappointed with this product. It's a mediocre fan which costs £12-13...

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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    No it's not it's a very good PWM fan, as with most PWM fans running them at full speed they do tend to be loud as they often have quite high rpm, when running in PWM mode you're often running at only 15-25% speed, try running your blade master at it's full speed and see how loud that is.

    Which apache did you get btw? what's the listed max rpm?

    edit: looking at yoyotech take it back and see if they will agree to swap it of a antec truequiet http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/item-detai...cts_id=4376664
    Oh and you cannot trust ANY manufactures dBA values as there is no one standard test for sound levels, the only way to get true reliable numbers would be to test all fans in the exact same setup in the exact same test chamber, but those number would of course change the moment you take it home and put it in your case, because it's no longer the same environment and setup.

    edit2: if you're running it off a motherboard fan header then have a look in the BIOS see what the rpm is reading as and see if there's an option to reduce the fan speed.

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    Re: Silent and high quality case exhaust fan

    If you run them at 15-25% of the speed, then you're in the best case scenario having 15-25% of the airflow, which is exactly why I was looking at a fan which I can run at full speed, be quiet enough too and push a decent amount of air.
    The Arctic Cooling F12 PWM, running at full speed, is MILES more silent than this one, and has very good airflow.
    I got the Apache Black by the way. Trust me, I tested it today, and it's loud. And the Coolermaster fan which I replaced (http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/12...-RPM_1738.html) is rated at 19dB, and it's almost silent at 12V.
    I don't like the looks of the Antec one. I think I'll just get a PWM splitter and run in in PWM mode from my CPU fan header...
    Anyway, I'm disappointed with this product...

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