The best of the silent 120mm fans

[BUFF]

Anyone know which reputable UK online retailers sell the Noiseblocker fans?

tekheads

[G0o5e]

Has any tried the NMB minebea 120mm fans? They are supposed to be really high quality like pabst. Dunno about noise though.

[Aez]

Yate loon's are pretty much silent, i bought a few a while back, think the link was Chilled PC UK good price at 3.99 also. (if your looking for a uk seller/no ebay)

[Marci]

There is a damn good authority on silence on the net for folks like us looking for silent fans... SilentPCReview. They are more or less THE reference point for fan testing and comparisons when it comes to low noise.

Read SPCR's Fan Round-Up #2: 120mm Fans | silentpcreview.com & SPCR's Fan Roundup #4: 120mm Fans II | silentpcreview.com ...then decide which fans you want.

I also recommend reading thru all the related links at the end of the second article.

[RobTheRover]

The Xilence range is very good, and keenly priced too.

See Hardware: Xilence case fan - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

[OmarSantiago]

I take back what I said about Silenx. Beautifully engineered and as finely balanced as they are they're utterly useless after a while. Within two months the inner frame would be covered in a thin film of oil on all the fans and once the dualcores came along they just couldn't push enough air along. Within a few months half of them began failing and at something like a tenner a pop that's pretty expensive.

I tried Panaflo (far too noisy) and those Sharkoon golfball types which also proved louder at stock than a 8800GTX. Arctic Cooling's 12cm fans push good air but have a terrible pitch and just die at low speeds or voltages instead of starting or slowing down smoothly. Plus, the PWM chaining feature refused to work. After several months of trying one brand after another I've found mixing different brands works a treat: any chance of sympathetic vibration is broken up by using different models and types so while I have a Noctua S12 fan keeping the hard drives cool I have a Scythe S-Flex SFF21E blowing fresh air over the VGA card. The CPU is cooled quite nicely by the stock fan that comes with the Scythe Mugen and the rear exhaust fan is a lowly S-Flex SFF21D. I only use one of the two fans in the top and that's a Papst fan which I've had for the best part of five, maybe six years and still beats down hard on all the others.

So far the Sony S-Flex fans have proven to be outstanding especially the low speed ones. Though for the money it would be nice to see them sleeved. I'm still reluctant to try the Noiseblocker ones as I've noticed transparent fan blades definitely have a harsher pitch; maybe the material makes a big difference?

[Mutley]

I bought three Noctua NF-S12 1200 RPM fans from Scan. Got very good reviews at SilentPCReview.com. Apart from the nasty colour, they are very quiet, and shift a decent amount of air. I've used them to replace the Antec Tri-cool fans that came fitted in the P-182 case I bought, and they are quieter. I can also control them through the motherboard. Which is nice.

[amjedm]

Pixmania sell them I believe

He asked for 'reputable'

The quietest fan I have is a NorthQ NCB 120mm (from Scan for around £7). Other's I'm currently using or have tried in the past (all 120mm)

Aerocool Turbine
Nexus Orange
Sharkoon 1000 (the 2000 would have been far too noisy for me )
Globalwin NCB
Scythe (came with a Ninja cooler)
Arctic Cooling (can't remember model but around 1400rpm)
Yate Loon D12SL
Silverstone FN121 (IIRC)
Globe & Enermax
SilenX 14dba (£20 each - bought two)

Fan's I haven't tried but would like to (but not going to spend over £10) - Scythe Flex.

I've also used a Yate Loon D14SM - quite a good fan in terms of noise IMO.