Quiet fans

[Funkstar]

Looking for a couple of 80mm and 120mm fans.

What is state of the art as far as beng quiet is concerned? I haven't played about with any exotic cooling solutions for ages, so i'm at a loss for where to look.

The 80mm ones are to replace the standard fan in my current and future second Thecus 5200Pro. The 120mm on are gong to be installed in the back of the sideboad type things they will be housed in

In an idea world, i'd like the 120mm fans to run off 5V and draw no more than 500mA as i can then power them from the USB ports on the back of the N5200.

All sugestions appreciated.

Thanks guys (and girls)

[Biscuit]

The fan discussion always lasts for ages in my experience.

I swear by sharkoon golfballs. They seem to be the only company who dont lie about their dB levels and airflow, not sure about voltages tho.

[Lucio]

I don't think it'll matter about the fan type if you're running off 5v, they'll be going so slowly that I don't think any will make much noise. In fact, you might want to get a "noiser" fan as it's less likely to feature any kind of voltage regulation so it's capable of running off the 5v supply.

[Agent]

Some won't work at 5V - it won't have enough to start the motor up

[Funkstar]

I'll have a hunt about later on. I would guess if a fan can start at 5V it is going to be designed to be quiet anyway.

I could always get 12V from inside the N5200, but i like the idea of them being USB powered. Nice and neat

thanks for the ideas.

[pepsi_max2k]

The forums at silentpcreview.com | Everything about Silent / Quiet Computers will tell you all you need to know.

FWIW, I have both a Hiper 120mm fan (they're all the same bar colour/leds) and a generic ICute 120mm LED one both running fine at 5v, though neither are exactly silent but they are pretty quiet. You either just need to pull the cables out and put them back in the right way, or cut the corners of the molex off to stick it in the other way round. Don't try 7v unless you know what you're doing though...

[amjedm]

80mm - I've been quiet impressed with the Coolermaster Blue LED ones from Scan. Undervolted they're very quiet and don't have any bearing noise.

Also have 80mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 - this hardly pushes any air but it's what you call 'silent'

I wasn't too impressed with the Sharkoon 80mm Silent Eagle 2000 - I found the Coolermaster was much better.

120mm - I think the Nexus may have some issues starting at 5v. I'm using Nexus, GlobalWin, NorthQ and Coolermaster Blue LED and IMO they are all very good but the quietest is the NorthQ NCB (at 12v).

I haven't tried the Scythe fans though - I'm not prepared to pay top money for them when I can undervolt a cheaper fan and make it very quiet.

Noctua also get good reviews but some have had issues using them in closed cases etc.

[pauldarkside]

Another vote for NorthQ - I used them to replace the one in the Lian Li case. Very quit indeed and looked pretty darn good with their aluminium body. I've since changed the case for a Zalman model and those fans are near silent.