Silentx 80 mm (14dba) vs Vantec Stealth 80mm(8025 21dba)

inet · Post by **inet** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 8:20 am

They both give about 27 cfm on paper, and for those of you who have tried both in your cases, which one is more silent?

I dont trust the manufacturer's stats sheets, taht's why I am asking. Does one fan give a noticably less airflow cfm?

Any buzzing, or whining, or motor sounds I should be aware of?

liquid_celica · Post by **liquid_celica** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 9:01 am

I own a stealth

. Great CFM but not silent. anything and everything over a stealth if you're looking for a balance of CFM and quietness.

wooglin · Post by **wooglin** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 9:35 am

I've had a couple SilenX 80mm 14dba fans. They're not 14dba, but very quiet if they're only blocked by a wire grill instead of anything stamped. My single 80mm is running 12v exhaust with the grill cut out, and it's as silent as the PSU fan running at 1000rpm (Enermax Noisetaker 370W)

Also, at 12v the cfm feels great. Haven't tried undervolting it as I'm waiting for a new Sonata.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 10:42 am

Rephrase question: Which of the claims is the less outrageous one? X(

Back to serious answers. I don't know about the CFM but the Vantec blows quite a bit of air - but then it isn't silent either. Consider it a noisy medium-flow fan. dBA is nowhere near 21. Never had any SilentX

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 11:46 am

SilenX is closer to the dba claims then the cfm claims in my opinion. I would put them in between Nexus and Panaflo l1a's for noise. And I would put it at the same as Nexus for airflow.

inet · Post by **inet** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 2:25 pm

Hrmm what would you recommend I replace the vantec stealth with, given I need about 27cfm and need max silence.

Does the silentx give off any high pitch whine or buzziness?

ferdb · Post by **ferdb** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 3:35 pm

The vantec's as stated earlier are poor performers. My experience with the Silenx 120's left me soured on Silenx, although they aren't bad performers but because of the blatant marketing lies and outrageous pricing, you can get better fans for 1/4 the price. I would tend to go with the Nexus, I think you'll find that the CFM is sufficient.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 3:43 pm

Panaflo L1A?

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:26 pm

ferdb wrote:The vantec's as stated earlier are poor performers. My experience with the Silenx 120's left me soured on Silenx, although they aren't bad performers but because of the blatant marketing lies and outrageous pricing, you can get better fans for 1/4 the price. I would tend to go with the Nexus, I think you'll find that the CFM is sufficient.

I haven't seen any Nexus fans for 1/4 the price of SilenX... I've seen Nexus 120mm closer to $4-5 (USD) less than SilenX.

I use Nexus fans in 92mm and 80mm sizes. They are very good.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 5:38 pm

Vantec stealths are quite loud when not drowned out by even worse stuff. Even at 1500RPM they're very loud, much louder than a ZMF1 at 5V/the same speed, at least when worn out.

wing · Post by **wing** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 5:49 pm

I also haven't seen Nexus fans for 1/4 the price of SilenX. Here in Toronto it seems that 120mm Nexus fans are about 70% the price of the SilenX. At the 80mm size the difference is larger, but still the Panaflo is about 60% the price of the SilenX (but it's not the most expensive), not 25%.

But then I probably didn't try very hard

inet · Post by **inet** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:35 pm

Where in the GTA can I find nexus fans, wing? Am looking for 80mm and 92mm fans.

Part of the problem I've been finding is the scarcity of smaller brands for pc components in canada.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:43 pm

This isn't exactly in the GTA, but all the nexus fans are available from http://www.ncix.com/ , I'm mentioning it since the payment via internet banking option (instead of credit card) is what makes it an option for me.

geforce1 · Post by **geforce1** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 7:25 pm

No SilenX's on me, but I have two Vantec 80mm Stealths. Both aren't very quiet at full speed (ANNOYING hi-pitched bearing noise), but are pretty good, noise-wise at even 3/4 speed. IMO, the Stealth wouldn't be a bad choice (but not the best) as an exhaust fan in brand-name PCs that don't already have one.

wing · Post by **wing** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 7:28 pm

I found them at InMax ( http://www.inmax.ca ) a few blocks west of Spadina and College. The store is listed in SPCR in http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=3564

inet · Post by **inet** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 1:33 am

Thanks guys.

I looked over the Nexus 80mm fan, and they give bout 20CFM which is far short of what my Stealth is giving right now (27CFM), at least on paper.

I suppose my only other option is the Panaflow?

I think maybe it's time the site did a full review of the 80mm fans

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:00 am

inet wrote:I looked over the Nexus 80mm fan, and they give bout 20CFM which is far short of what my Stealth is giving right now (27CFM), at least on paper.

That might be an issue if you intend to run the fans at full blast, 12V. Usually there is no need to do that. So, at a lower voltage you'll have comparable airflow... but not comparable noise levels! Like burcakb wrote in another thread:

burcakb wrote:They're the true marker of a silent enthusiast - I mean when they're no longer on the PC.

Couldn't agree more! The only voltage I like a "Stealth" at is 0V

On a more serious note: usually panaflo's get undervolted too by the real silence enthusiasts, so again they compare to the Nexus airflow-wise.

At some point in the future, a huge fan comparison is going to go up on the main site... but until then most info can be found right here in the forums.

inet · Post by **inet** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 1:08 pm

I really dont see how undervolting the fan gives you comparable CFM..

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 1:50 pm

Lower voltage means less rpm and less rpm means less cfm. Not in a linear manner, but the relationship holds. So, you could theoretically lower the voltage on a Stealth to the point where it produces the same airflow (~cfm) as a Nexus at 12V. Sounds reasonable... am I making sense? That'd be nice...

I did not mean that if you undervolt both fans by the same amount you'd get comparable airflow... not unless you go to 0 cfm anyway.

DanceMan · Post by **DanceMan** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:04 pm

inet wrote:I really dont see how undervolting the fan gives you comparable CFM..

Fans don't start out at the same rpm. For example, 80mm fans commonly come in L (low, 1900-2000rpm), M (medium, abt 2500rpm), and H (high, abt 3000rpm) versions. Undervolting a faster fan can give comparable cfm to a slower fan run at 12V.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:08 pm

I'll give you a direct example with another fan size

The Zalman 92mm fan is 2500 rpm @ 12V, 1300 rpm @ 5V.
The Nexus 92mm fan is 1500 rpm @ 12V (IIRC)

The Nexus @ 12V has about the same airflow and noise as the Zalman @ 5V. So when comparing them you'd have to do a 5V vs 12V comparison. Noisewise, as I said, they're almost equivalent. However, since the Zalman fan is a ballbearing fan, it has a tiny ticking sound and a longer life. So I - being a perfectionist - go with the Nexus instead.

I haven't seen the 80mm Nexus. But I can comment on the Vantec. Vantecs undervolt very nicely. Unfortunately they also lose A LOT of airflow when undervolted such that it's pretty much useless @ 5V. Plus, even at 5V, it retains this irritating click. I compared it to a similar fan, the Noiseblocker S2. It also has about the same rpms and noise. Noiseblocker had same airflow at 12V but more airflow at 5V. Noise was also substantially lower than the Vantec.

A Panaflo L1 always beats both for the same (low) airflow though. IIRC, L1A @ 12V is 27 cfm and noise would be around 24 dBA (vs the 28-30 dBA of Stealth)

In short you really need to know what airflow, pressure and noise level you can get away with and choose a fan for that. IMO, there's always a better alternative than Vantec.

Why do you need 27 cfm anyway?

ferdb · Post by **ferdb** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:20 pm

I didn't mean to compare the Silenx price to the Nexus price, but rather the Globe fans which they perform very similar to. The globe 120's are 1/4 the price of the Silenx.

CFM is directly related to RPM under Free air flow conditions. If you halve the RPM the CFM drops by half. This is no longer true if there is back pressure in the airflow path, the CFM drops off more rapidly as RPM is reduced, so half the RPM gives you less than half the CFM.

For the same size fans there is not a large difference in the Airflow noise at the same CFM. The motor and bearing noise are where the quiet fans excel over the not so quiet ones, and this comes into play at reduced rpm where the airflow noise is not as dominant.

inet · Post by **inet** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:38 pm

burcakb wrote:I'll give you a direct example with another fan size

The Zalman 92mm fan is 2500 rpm @ 12V, 1300 rpm @ 5V.
The Nexus 92mm fan is 1500 rpm @ 12V (IIRC)

The Nexus @ 12V has about the same airflow and noise as the Zalman @ 5V. So when comparing them you'd have to do a 5V vs 12V comparison. Noisewise, as I said, they're almost equivalent. However, since the Zalman fan is a ballbearing fan, it has a tiny ticking sound and a longer life. So I - being a perfectionist - go with the Nexus instead.

I haven't seen the 80mm Nexus. But I can comment on the Vantec. Vantecs undervolt very nicely. Unfortunately they also lose A LOT of airflow when undervolted such that it's pretty much useless @ 5V. Plus, even at 5V, it retains this irritating click. I compared it to a similar fan, the Noiseblocker S2. It also has about the same rpms and noise. Noiseblocker had same airflow at 12V but more airflow at 5V. Noise was also substantially lower than the Vantec.

A Panaflo L1 always beats both for the same (low) airflow though. IIRC, L1A @ 12V is 27 cfm and noise would be around 24 dBA (vs the 28-30 dBA of Stealth)

In short you really need to know what airflow, pressure and noise level you can get away with and choose a fan for that. IMO, there's always a better alternative than Vantec.

Why do you need 27 cfm anyway?

I only got 1 case fan, and it's at 27cfm. Im nuts but I want a quiet rig while OVERCLOCKING too lol.

Talk about being unreasonable.

27cfm is what my stealth measures at on paper, and anything less means my overclock on my vid and cpu will be lower and things will be a total mess then.

I guess Panaflo is my best bet in everyone's opinion?

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:01 pm

inet wrote:27cfm is what my stealth measures at on paper, and anything less means my overclock on my vid and cpu will be lower and things will be a total mess then.

You sure about that?

Try an experiment: Leave your OC where its at, then unplug the stealth completely. See what your temps do under load. See if you get instability. Try setting the stealth to 7 and 5 volts, and seeing what the temps and OC do at those. You might be surprised at what some real empirical data will do for your perceptions of what CFM you need.

(there's also the fact that the stealth's "27CFM" is nowhere close to what that fan is actually producing, so there's already one strike against your "needing" that specific number)

inet · Post by **inet** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 10:14 pm

I am not sure how to change the voltage on that stealth fan, being such the newbie that I am..

I am rather unconcerned bout cpu temperatures because cpu isnt very likely to fry, but I am concerned about my 9800pro which fries quite easily.

Doing away with the case fan completely leads to the mobo sensor jumping from 25-26 celcius to 30 celcius. As there is no censor on the video card, I'll assume also that the brunt of the heat is remaining around the mobo/video card area. CPU temps oddly enough seems to be no different that I can see hrmm