Which 120mm fan?

[Ommid]

Currently have Yate Loon D12SL Case fans, Changing the CPU Heatsink from Stock to Ultra 120 Extreme this week, will the Yate Loon do for the heatsink? What is a superior fan to this? Wanting silence with decent air flow.

[Azza]

Silence and decent air flow I dont think you can beat Yate Loon espcially for the price.

Stick to the Yate Loons man.

[matty-hodgson]

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

if that fails the loudness test.. then how about this 1?

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

[kmac]

I've got a Noctua and it is very quiet.

See this list Recommended Fans | silentpcreview.com

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Sharkoon fans are reasonably quiet.

[LuckyNV]

stick with the yate loon IMO

[s_kinton]

Sharkoon Golf Ball would be my choice.

[Mutley]

+1 for the Noctua. Very impressed with mine.
Bought three to replace the Antec Tri-Cool fans that came with the Antec P-182 case. Definitely quieter, and move a reasonable amount of air at 6v.

[Robert]

I like the Scythe Sflex range - although I'm also using some Yate Loons and they come highly rated.

[acrobat]

I didn't like the Noctua fans. I use sharkoon 1000s as case fans, and I saw the Noctua figures and thought I should upgrade because they have better figures on paper.

In reality, it sounded noisier than the sharkoons to me. I don't know whether the volume was actually more or not, but it had a slight high(ish) pitched wizzing/buzzing noise that annoyed me. It wasn't a defective fan either, cause I had two (or three I think). Whatever it was, I much preferred my sharkoon fans, so I returned the Noctua.

As for the heatsink, I have a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme too, and I use a Yate Loon Slow. It's very quiet (almost silent) and the temperature is pretty good. In the hottest days of the summer or when I left the heating on too long and it gets stifling in my room, and even when I'm playing Crysis or something during that time, the temperature is never a problem. So I am well impressed.

I'm not sure if I just have bad luck or not a great connection, but the temperature isn't really low enough to do any major overclocking though. So for stock speeds it's perfect. If you wanted to do some good overclocking though, I would consider maybe getting the faster Yate Loon fan. This medium one runs at about 1350rpm or something like that. so it's pretty relaxed. If I was to overclock, I'd get the faster Yate Loon, and then I'd either use the bios or ideally a fan controller on it, and set the speed to optimal.

[Fraz]

what about the Noctua NF-P12. Awesome.

[this_is_gav]

what about the Noctua NF-P12. Awesome.

For a quiet CPU heatsink, that's probably the best out there. Not cheap though.

The Golfball 1000s are about as quiet as you'll get. The 120mm ones are good, though the 80mm ones just don't move enough air for anything other than a small heatsink in a HTPC or something.

Case fans: Golfball 1000s or NF-S12s volt-modded (they come with a cable to enable it).
CPU heatsink fans: NF-P12.
Value: Yate Loon.
For immediate entry to the loony-farm: Delta

[Dr Cool]

I decided to buy 2 from scan for a test

Xigmatek 120mm (£4.69..now £6.59)
rated dB: <24
rated CFM: 74

My Review:
As excited as i was about xigmatek rated ratio between dB and CFM and i was very disappointed. It seems that thier CFM is accurate... but the dB must had been at least 35db. Very Powerful... but in no way <24dB


Akasa Smokey Grey 120mm (&#163;3.54)
rated dB: 19
rated CFM: 49.74

I feel that i should had bought more of these at the time as they were "SILENT" i simpletely could not hear them, they gave ok airflow, slightly better than a coolermaster elite's stock fans could do (which were also very quiet) but being a silent enthusianst the akasa smokey grey are going to be my 1st choice for 120mm fans untill i find better ... also considering the price ya cant go wrong.

[Hicks12]

think ill order a smokey grey one too , mixed reviews but good airflow+silent=win.

[Ommid]

WEll I like the yates, need to see how loud they are as atm all i can hear is the stock intel fan, can anyone point me to some of those rubber dampener things? Cheap as possible as some are really extortionately expensive like 3 quid a set :O

[Fraz]

Yate Loon. What a great name!

Means something else though if you happen to live in the westcountry...