26 120mm Fans Tested and Compared

[Spanki]

Someone in that thread made a very good point I'd like to reiterate here: nearly all fans push the same amount of air at the same RPM. This is completely true. That's the one way I feel confident in looking at a manufacturer's specs and calling "BS" w/o testing (if they look realistic....Thermaltake's are easy).

That may be true - in open air (case fans) - but my primary concern is finding fans that perform the best on a HS or radiator while still having a reasonable noise level/signature. And this is where your test has proved very usefull to me, where the Noctua -> golfball (for example) at the same rpm range, produce wildly different results.

Edit: more to the point - same dbA range, whether or not that's exactly the same rpm.

My purpose behind this is not the ultra-silent spectrum....but giving XS users data that says: "hey, this fan really isn't what the manufacturer says it is....here's some other fans that perform well for what you're looking for." Everyone knows their own noise limitations, or what kind of fan performance they need....they can choose their own fans.

Exactly. Of course I still don't know what a golfball (and some of those other) fans sound like, but I will today or tomorrow .

Thanks again for your efforts.