Low speed fans are also getting more popular. For one, with undervolting, many become truly inaudible...and others conveniently run at ideal CFM (and with good/great dBA) at stock volts. They're easy on the ears and especially popular with watercoolers and those with MANY fans in their case. Additionally...most people have realized that even with 40CFM on the CPU cooler, you're getting within a few degrees of what an obnoxious 100CFM fan would do.

Open air:


Radiator:


Comments:

Sharkoon Golfball 1000 - The baby brother of the king of Round 1 performs well. It has a MINOR murmur that I could only hear when super close to it. At low speeds, the blade design does create a slight whiffing noise that hurts its numbers. A good fan...though nothing spectacular.

Silverstone FN121 - An All-Star from Round 1 seems to have continued to do very well...despite its retarded sibling fans too. In fact, I think it got slightly better with age. No extraneous noises or excitation of any kind and very good empirical data both on and off the radiator.

Noctua S-1200 - I have always been harsh on this fan. Although it continues to do well in the open air and even with it's awesome low-pitched barely-there noise profile, I will continue to be hard on it. Open air rarely happens....even a fan filter or a non-wire fingerguard will hamper this fan horribly. Noctua even recognizes this and has introduced a new line built for radiators/HSFs/real-life. It's a good fan with a very serious design flaw.

Yate Loon D12SM-12 Curved blade from PTS - Yes, exact same fan from the medium speed fan post....see that reference. It's a great fan, even if it is sleeve bearing.

Yate Loon D12SL-12 Blue frame and LED not from PTS - This is the darker of the two varieties from places like Jab-Tech. Like other non-PTS Yate Loons, it performed poorly and differently from PTS varieties. Internals and characteristics differed too. Not impressed with this fan. Considering a better fan for the same price is available from Petras, this fan should be avoided.

Yate Loon D12SL-12 clear frame and blue LED not from PTS - This is the lighter of the two varieties from places like Jab-Tech. Like other non-PTS Yate Loons, it performed poorly and differently from PTS varieties. Internals and characteristics differed too. Not impressed with this fan. Exhibited noticeable excitation as well. Considering a better fan for the same price is available from Petras, this fan should be avoided.

Yate Loon D12SL-12 Blue frame and LED from PTS - This is the translucent blue framed SL from PTS...its a 1200RPM variant because Yate Loon says higher RPM versions perform poorly due to material differences. (the previous two are higher RPM versions...hint hint). This fan performs pretty well but is incapable of being 'silent'....I suspect that this is due to the materials used. This is pretty nice LED fan.

Yate Loon D12BL-12 not from PTS - This is a ball bearing version of the D12SL...only available from places like Jab-Tech. Like other non-PTS Yate Loons, it performed poorly and differently from PTS varieties. Internals and characteristics differed too. This fan flat out sucks.

Yate Loon D12SL-12 All-Orange (not from PTS) - This is an all-orange version of the D12SL-12. I did not get it from PTS, though it was the only non-PTS Yate that I could not visually tell apart from the PTS fans. It also performed fairly well...although it had problems becoming 'silent.' Overall a confusing fan....it performed pretty well and very unlike its fellow non-PTS fans. Considering every other YL not sold from PTS did not test well AT ALL, I'd probably avoid it in case it was a fluke.

Nexus D12SL-12 - Also all-orange. A cherry-picked 1000RPM variant of the Yate Loon D12SL-12. Superb noise profile...no excitation or extraneous noises. Though empirically it didn't do great for some reason. I definitely liked this fan a lot.

Sunbeam Blue LED fan from Petras - A competitor to the YL D12SL-12 Blue LED...a bit more high-strung and a brighter blue. Like the YL, it has problems going 'silent' though it makes little extraneous noise. I'd probably get the YL over it....

Scythe Minebea 1100RPM - Solidly built fan....my fan testing gets EXACTLY the same CFM as the ratings--which is shockingly refreshing. Very high MTBF...but like all NMB-MAT fans it exhibits a SLIGHT murmur or click Poor radiator performance due to higher than normal CFM loss on a radiator (much more so than the 1900). Overall a good fan though...overall a safe choice with it's longer-than-you'll-need-it MTBF and good performance.

Scythe S-Flex E 1200RPM - S-FDB bearings kick ass. Very, very little extraneous noise, relatively inexpensive, no positional oddities like sleeves, and fairly well sealed. They also don't have the radiator slow-down that the Minebeas exhibit. But they're also not empirically as good in open air. However, the entire S-Flex range is among my favorites. Very, very good fans that don't make extraneous noises nor cost an a lot.

Scythe S-Flex D 800RPM - S-FDB bearings kick ass. Very, very little extraneous noise, relatively inexpensive, no positional oddities like sleeves, and fairly well sealed. They also don't have the radiator slow-down that the Minebeas exhibit. But they're also not empirically as good in open air. However, the entire S-Flex range is among my favorites. Very, very good fans that don't make extraneous noises nor cost an a lot. Admittedly the "D" variant is a little underpowered 12V for my tastes...

Enermax Marathon - Positional quirks in the weirdest ways...subpar performer. Overall a mediocre and forgettable fan like all of Enermax's fans.