I need a pair of quiet 120mm fans

Ozkar · Post by **Ozkar** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:41 pm

I need two quiet 120mm fans for my new system. My case is an Antec SLK3700-BQE. It comes with a 120mm fan, but there are probably better fans out there, so I need your advice on what fan should I get. (I've seen a lot of recommended fans on these forums, but most of them are 80mm) I need one for the front and one for the back. I am using an Intel D875PBZ motherboard, and the Antec PSU that comes with the case. Also, what do u guys recommend: should I connect the fans to the motherboard or to the fan connectors on the Antec PSU?

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:43 pm

Panaflo FBK12G12LH $14.99

Recommended here

or

PAPST 4412F/2GL (119mm) $21.95

endpcnoise.com sells the same Papst fan as well.

rocarpen · Post by **rocarpen** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 9:35 pm

Evercool's AL12025 Aluminum 120mm fans seem to have the best CFM-to-noise ratio, pushing a lot of air at very low noise levels, and without the vibrations and clickery of other models like the Panaflo. I've got a pair of them in my own BQE, currently both at a full 12 volts (pending my purchase of a pair of Fanmates) and they are fantastic, not to mention great looking.

They get rave reviews in this thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... t=evercool

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 12:10 am

You don't necessarily need a 120mm for the front. As ralf, I and many other BQE owners have found, the front fan serves only to cool the hard drives and nothing else; the bqe inherently benefits from running negative-pressured. And besides, the front fan needs to be near silent, otherwise your pc won't be very quiet at all.

Evercools, panaflos and papsts seem to be the best choices when it comes to 120mm's, personally I would recommend the evercool.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:32 am

I agree with chyllld you dont necessarily need a fan on the front: you would need pretty high ambient temps (>30C) and a box full of power guzzlers to justify that IMHO.

Again IMHO Papst is the quietest 120mm I have come across.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 3:51 am

dukla2000 wrote:I agree with chyllld you dont necessarily need a fan on the front: you would need pretty high ambient temps (>30C) and a box full of power guzzlers to justify that IMHO.

Again IMHO Papst is the quietest 120mm I have come across.

I read in Ralf's review that the only difference in temp.s was the HDD, but surely the back fan would make a little more noise without the front fan, right? That's huge news if not. The BQE's airflow must be amazingly good then.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:27 am

Trip wrote: surely the back fan would make a little more noise without the front fan, right?

Huh? Why would havng a front fan make the back fan run quieter?

pdf27 · Post by **pdf27** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:30 am

Smaller pressure differential across the back fan?

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:26 am

pdf27 wrote:Smaller pressure differential across the back fan?

yea, that's what I'm thinking but apparently I'm wrong.

Heh, this is huge news to me, maybe with more airflow or more restrictive intake vents, front intake fans make more of a difference or is the equal number of intake to outake principle debunk?

Ozkar · Post by **Ozkar** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:43 am

chylld wrote:The front fan serves only to cool the hard drives and nothing else; the bqe inherently benefits from running negative-pressured. And besides, the front fan needs to be near silent, otherwise your pc won't be very quiet at all.

I will have 3 hard drives installed in the BQE: 2 120GB SATA 7200rpm Drives and one 80GB 133/ATA 7200rpm drive. Do I need a front fan because of the number of installed drives?

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:46 am

do you have DTemp installed? (it measures your HDD temperature)

SPCR "Useful Web Links", look under software.

Ozkar · Post by **Ozkar** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:22 am

I haven't installed the hard drives yet. But when I do, i want to make sure that they are running at safe temperatures.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:57 am

Trip wrote:Heh, this is huge news to me, maybe with more airflow or more restrictive intake vents, front intake fans make more of a difference or is the equal number of intake to outake principle debunk?

Well IMHO, for silence, equality is irrelevant. You need minimal restrictions (grills) in the locations where you do put fans, and nice open vents at the opposite position. (If you have exhaust fans, then nice big unrestricted intake vents somewhere, if you have intake fans then nice big unrestricted exhaust vents somewhere.) In this situation the static pressure on the surviving fan(s) is minimised, and in these conditions doubling up makes no overall airflow change.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:49 am

All I can say is that my system is MUCH quieter without the front fan. Of course I removed the grills from my 3700amb. But even without the front fan the hardrive stays very cool because most of the air enters the case from the hole in the front. I think that any pressure difference within the case is so small that it doesnt matter.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:16 pm

Ozkar wrote:I need two quiet 120mm fans for my new system. My case is an Antec SLK3700-BQE. It comes with a 120mm fan, but there are probably better fans out there, so I need your advice on what fan should I get. (I've seen a lot of recommended fans on these forums, but most of them are 80mm) I need one for the front and one for the back. I am using an Intel D875PBZ motherboard, and the Antec PSU that comes with the case. Also, what do u guys recommend: should I connect the fans to the motherboard or to the fan connectors on the Antec PSU?

The new Nexus 120mm fans should be out next month and if I were you, I'd wait since the 80mm Nexus has gotten excellent comments on quiet.

If the Antec PSU is quiet enough, then connect the fans to the fan only outputs. If the Antec is too noisy, then you'd have to either modify it with a different fan or just go for another PSU and control the fans with something like a Zalman Fanmate: fan to fanmate to motherboard.

I need a pair of quiet 120mm fans

I need a pair of quiet 120mm fans

Re: I need a pair of quiet 120mm fans