Poll Fan Noise Preferences

In my radiator testing, I purposely test the following fans. I didn't really pick these because I think they are the best, more than anything I just wanted a wide range of fan "Power" to test on the radiator to compare with. The Yate loons happen to be extremely well performing fans at a low cost and the Kazes are low cost, but not nearly as good as many other. Rather than voting for brand I was more looking to get a feel for a more generalize "I like this RPM range fan and happy with the amount of noise it produces".

Yate Loon D12SM12 120mm x 25mm - 70.5cfm/1350 RPM/33 db (open air)

• Ultra Slow Speed Fans - Undervolted 25mm to 1000 RPM - 36+- Open air CFM
• Slow Speed Fans - Undervolted 25mm to 1350 RPM - 47+- Open air CFM
• Medium Speed Fans - Voltage 25mm adjusted to 1550 RPM - 70+- Open air CFM

Scythe Ultra Kaze DFS123812-3000 - 136cfm/3000 RPM/45.9 db (open air)

• High Speed Fans - Undervolted 38mm to 2000 RPM - 88+- Open air CFM
• Ultra High Speed Fans - Voltage adjusted 38mm to 2930 RPM

And I was just curious to find out which of these categories fits most users out there?

So, I figured the best way to do that is a poll..

Count me in for the Slow Speed 1350RPM 25mm category.

And if you think you're somewhere in between categories you can pick two.

I use slow yateloons everywhere in my case. Fullspeed on the rad and undervolted everywhere else.

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Originally Posted by Jimmer411

I use slow yateloons everywhere in my case. Fullspeed on the rad and undervolted everywhere else.

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Thanks!
I've got the poll up and running now, so whatever you use on the radiator is what I'm mostly after.

I actually have some of the ultra lows for case fans, but use slow speeds on my radiators.

Nice poll :)

I use sub-ultra-low for case and ~ultra-slow/slow/med for radiator/HSF depending on application and performance I get from the various settings (recently, 5V San Aces, so just below "low" for airflow)

vapor, then what PSU do you use? you cant control the rmp of the psu fan for ultra quiet unless you mod it

Thanks!
Just what I'm looking for and pretty much matching what I was thinking too so far.

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Originally Posted by WhiteFireDragon

vapor, then what PSU do you use? you cant control the rmp of the psu fan for ultra quiet unless you mod it

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I can control the fan via software on my Odin GT :up:


Voted Ultra Low Speed, the quieter the better.

Hmm, no "ridiculously low" category, say around 700-ish rpm? Well, I'll cast my vote for the 1000rpm category then. I'm well-aware how bad the rad performance fall-off is at those kind of rpms, but any higher and I can hear the fans.

@Martin: In his recent reviews, Vapor mentioned that the Ultra Kaze rpm's might not be as advertised? What did you have to do to the voltage to make your fans hit those rpms? More? Less?

D12SL-12 @ 8.5ish volt on my mcr320 atm. But its slightly too noisy for me so im adding a mcr220 and hopefully get the yates down under 7v

Clicking carelessly:hitself: and doest realize it a multiple choice poll.
Medium fans on my cpu loop and slow fans on my gpu/nb loop.

edit : s-flex f and noctua p12

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Originally Posted by MpG

Hmm, no "ridiculously low" category, say around 700-ish rpm? Well, I'll cast my vote for the 1000rpm category then. I'm well-aware how bad the rad performance fall-off is at those kind of rpms, but any higher and I can hear the fans.

@Martin: In his recent reviews, Vapor mentioned that the Ultra Kaze rpm's might not be as advertised? What did you have to do to the voltage to make your fans hit those rpms? More? Less?

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In my first radiator test I hit around 2930RPM for my Ultra High speed test, and so I always target that number no matter what voltage. I don't measure voltage, I just log RPM with my Crystalfontz.

The 2000RPM I just picked because I assumed it would match their 2000RPM model, so that's what I always target for every 2000RPM test.

RPM is a wierd thing, it will actually climb for some time when the fan is first turned, on, so I have to let the fans warm up and it takes a while to get to the target RPM. Since I'm just trying to test all the radiators the same, I'm more concerned about maintaining exactly the same fan power. Still, I'm usually only good to about 10RPM or so, and lately I'm including the actual RPM averaged that was logged during the test, so if it's off a little the chart indicates the exact average RPM..:up:

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Originally Posted by MpG

In his recent reviews, Vapor mentioned that the Ultra Kaze rpm's might not be as advertised?

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That was only for open air and only a maybe. On a radiator I have no reason to not believe they're not spinning close to their rated 3000RPM.

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Originally Posted by Vapor

That was only for open air and only a maybe. On a radiator I believe they're spinning close to their rated 3000RPM.

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Good to know, I probably just goofed the voltage on my first test. No turning back now though, they are all 2930..:D

That's alright, it doesn't seem to be a very popular pick so far..

How the Nexus fans will act on some MCR320/MCR220 rads ? Nexus or Yate Loon D12SM...nexus or yate loon...

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Originally Posted by whatever

How the Nexus fans will act on some MCR320/MCR220 rads ? Nexus or Yate Loon D12SM...nexus or yate loon...

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I think the Nexus fan would be equal to my D12SM12 undervolted to 1000RPM, so it would fit perfectly into the "Ultra Slow" category.

Looks like I'm wasting my time with the Ultra High testing:eek: and should have just done one more "Mega Slow" 700 RPM slot..:)

I like the S-Flex F series, they are medium strength but undervolt nicely. I run them at 800rpm and temps are great on my thermochill + Q6600 3.8GHz even under 100% Prime95 load

I largely respect your tests Martin, but I have a small consideration that I never said before:

You often use "Ultra Slow Speed Fans" expression to talk about ultra silent fans while you put them at 1000RPM

For most people, a true silent fan setup with 120mm fans is below 1000rpm. On a multiple fans setup, 1000rpm fans will be easily heard.

The sentence: "Ultra Slow Speed Fans", in my opinion, should be reserved for <800 rpm setups

Just my thoughts.

I voted Medium Speed Fans as I use the S-Flex F series, they undervolt to extreme silence even with many of them (1600 rpm at 12v and undervolt up to 3v with 200RPM)

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Originally Posted by Martinm210

I think the Nexus fan would be equal to my D12SM12 undervolted to 1000RPM, so it would fit perfectly into the "Ultra Slow" category.

Looks like I'm wasting my time with the Ultra High testing:eek: and should have just done one more "Mega Slow" 700 RPM slot..:)

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Yep, you said it 1mn before my post :D

I really think this "Mega Slow" test is the only true silent setup for people looking at silence

I, personally, multiply the rads to get enough power dissipation capacity with low speed fans: Power overclocking with real silence

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Originally Posted by jonny_ftm

Yep, you said it 1mn before my post :D

I really think this "Mega Slow" test is the only true silent setup for people looking at silence

I, personally, multiply the rads to get enough power dissipation capacity with low speed fans: Power overclocking with real silence

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Yeah, it sounds like it's alot more popular than the ultra high.

I based my naming convention around the yate loon D12SL12 for "Slow", D12SM12 for Medium and went out from there. Panaflo and Delta both seemed to use the Ultra as a step, so I followed suit there.

Even though Panaflo considers this 1700RPM an "Ultra Quiet"
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/pa12ulqu.html

I tried to stay away from the terms of silence or quiet as it's all user preference. I use some of the 1100RPM LED slow speed yates and consider them silent, but then there are also many folks that say the same thing as you and say 800RPM or lower is what's needed for real silence.

With a house full of screaming kids, I guess silence could come in the form of more noise for me...:ROTF:

I use mainly panaflo 120mm fans, they are reasonably quiet not that I care about sound.

YL D12SL-12 at 7V.

I wouldn't call a 1000rpm 120mm fan "Ultra low speed", I call it "standard". Low speed would be the Scythe SlipStream 500 or any great 120mm fan undervolted to 400-600RPM (S-Flex. Noctua P12, YL and the likes).

Excuse me for my english, i'm french.
I prefer 1000 rpm class fans undevolted to 600/700 rpm.
1000 rpm fans make too much noise for my ears.
I like the sound of my silent eagles and scythe sony bearings with 5v (originally 12v/1000rpm fans).

PS : @Martin : your tests are great :clap:

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Originally Posted by Makymaco

Excuse me for my english, i'm french.
I prefer 1000 rpm class fans undevolted to 600/700 rpm.
1000 rpm fans make too much noise for my ears.
I like the sound of my silent eagles and scythe sony bearings with 5v (originally 12v/1000rpm fans).

PS : @Martin : your tests are great :clap:

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My goodness, you have ears like a dog.
I can't even hear anything under 2000rpms.. lol

hmmm Ultra Xtreme Slow Speed Fans - 500RPM 25mm - ;)

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Originally Posted by Arni

hmmm Ultra Xtreme Slow Speed Fans - 500RPM 25mm - ;)

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Might as well blow on the radiator :rolleyes:

Zalman ZM-F3 120mm for my next build but I have collected a plethora of fans over the years.

I have a ZM-F3 on my SS unit.. really helps cooling it down at high ambients, but most of the time I let it run around 1200 so it's not louder than the compressor ;)
Great fan though, incredible value.

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Originally Posted by Eddie3dfx

My goodness, you have ears like a dog.
I can't even hear anything under 2000rpms.. lol

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More like a bat :)
I can't hear anything below 1600 rpm S-Flex.

Thanks! Keep them coming.

I probably should have included an 7-800RPM category as well, I didn't realize there were so many undervolting the slow speeds like that.

Good info!!

I'm not too fussed, as I use a fan controller. As long as they push enought air (75Cmf+) at 12V and are quiet at 6.5V I'm very happy.

i have tried the yates SH at 12v, it was a little noisy, just a little.
i prefer those sflex-f over yates SM medium speed, but i have both, and both are good quiet fans even at 12V, under volting to 7v most of the time. And most likely the sflex-f would outlast the yates SM in long term horizontal mounting orientation...

I have yate mediums on my radiator on a sunbeam rheobus controller. Now I think I may as well have gotten yate slow instead and saved the $20 on the controller since that is where they are set all the time anyway at just about 1350RPM :rolleyes:

Yate loon med or s-flex 1600rpm in most applications. Scythe ultra kaze in extreme

2 noctua at 1300rpm 16db for case, and 3 x Yate Loon D12SH-12 at 1500rpm for 24/7 or 1700 gaming!

I use 11 Fan 120mm*25mm 119CFM 47,5DBA 2800RPM http://www.tranyoung.com.tw/products.asp with a switch 5V/12V for 2D mode and 3D :).

My radiator are all push and pull configuration

HW Labs Black Ice GTX360 Gen II
HW Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 120
swiftech MCR220-QP-K

Thanks for all the votes. This is good information I'll use for all my radiator testing. I'm still suprised to see so many in the Ultra Low category, but silence is obviously popular. I might have to see about working one more lower RPM test into the process..

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Originally Posted by Eddie3dfx

My goodness, you have ears like a dog.
I can't even hear anything under 2000rpms.. lol

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2000 RPM :shrug:

You really have to go to a hearing aid specialist, trust a doctor

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Originally Posted by Eddie3dfx

Might as well blow on the radiator :rolleyes:

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Most setups with two triple radiators will work perfectly with Scythe S-Flex F at 500 rpm at idle and small loads even with high overclocks

Check my signature, it's cooled with such a setup and my radiators can manage it without speeding the scythe fans above 7v at full load Prime95 small FFT

Scythe Flex-E 1200 rpm volted down to 800-900 silent surfering or 1200 gaming

I figure I can't hear the fans while the gernades are exploding and Iam shooting a P90 :D

I make use of S-Flex "F" series pretty much exclusively any more. As someone already said, they're very solid performers @ 12V and undervolt beautifully. I used to be smart, and had them hooked up to a fan controller which has since been removed. Now all three (two on a rad and one just acting as a case fan at the moment) are sitting behind those 56-ohm resistor cables from Zalman and running a bit fast at about 1150 RPM as a result.

They used to run at about 900 RPM, and are about to go back onto a controller for just that. Well, and also to be able to turn them up when the temp in my apartment gets to 90&#176;+ when trying to game ;)