Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
Koolpc
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:15 am
Location: Under The Desk

Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Koolpc » Mon Oct 26, 2015 9:37 am

I am looking for some 120mm case fans. The fan must be the quietest and pushes a good amount of air. I have been out of the loop for years so i do not know which is which these days!

Quiet and good cfm. Any pointers would be great! Ta

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Abula » Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:12 am

Try to read the following SPCR Fan Roundups,

Fan Roundup #6: Scythe, Noiseblocker, Antec, Nexus, Thermalright
The clear standout of the fans tested today was the Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12-2, which went toe-to-toe with the winner from our last roundup, the Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120-12. Still, we prefer the sound quality of the Gentle Typhoon and Noiseblocker M12 as they have more innocuous, broadband profiles.
Fan Roundup #7: Antec, be quiet!, Corsair, GELID, Noiseblocker, SilverStone
The standouts for me are the Noiseblocker M12-S1 and the Scythe Gentle Typhoon 12, for amazingly low noise and excellent cooling performance at those low sound levels. I prefer the Noiseblocker for its innovative anti-vibration design, which gives it higher versatility.

The Nexus 120 remains a reliable product. It might not be best in any particular area, any more, but it's relatively modest in price, provides fine cooling, and it is still a very quiet, fan that has withstood the test of time.
I have tested multiple Scythe GT and Noiseblockers, and i concur to what SPCR found on their reviews. Thinking that Scythe GT are praised a lot in overclocking forums, for their performance on rads and heatsinks, you get a very well performing that undervolts really well, even the 1850rpm version can go till 450rpms, where its inaudible, but i would never use them at full rpms, and i never found a very quiet 120mm above 1000rpms, thus my recommendation is the 1150rpm version, it will undervolt around 350rpms, so you have a good range of operation, but feel free to go with the version you can find, as they are getting harder to get due to scythe discontinuing them.

Noiseblocker M12 would be my second pick, very good overall fan, but its more expensive, up to you what version you need, S1 (800rpms) or S2 (1200rpms) both are pretty good. And the last recommendation, if you find either of the recommendations too expensive, the Nexus Basic is still a very decent fan, and cheaper.

Koolpc
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:15 am
Location: Under The Desk

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Koolpc » Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:39 am

Problem being, those reviews are 3 years old!

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by xan_user » Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:51 am

Koolpc wrote:Problem being, those reviews are 3 years old!
but its not like those fans or their model # replacements, have gotten any louder in 3 years....

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Abula » Mon Oct 26, 2015 4:33 pm

Koolpc wrote:Problem being, those reviews are 3 years old!
You shouldnt disregard old things in general, the reviews are as valid as when they were released, they have some of the best fans on those reviews, and ill continue to link them to people looking for the best 120mm fans.

I'll try to keep it very simple, what other fan companies do you like? i like noctua, their newer fans have worst sonic signature than the older, you can get that on old reviews that i posted, and in the 140mm roundups. SPCR didnt liked that much the new NF-F12 over the NF-P12, same applies on the NF-A14 over the NF-P14. There are not anything newer from Noctua, aside from the Redux that its old fans with grey color, very good fans.

Nexus Orange, which was a fan that we all have loved in the times where there were no good fans out, has the same thing out still, after years and years, spcr did review their latest iteration (black and white) on the "old" review that i posted, where it came well if i might add, still a good fan back in the day, still a good fan today.

Noiseblocker is another brand that i like, their latest fans were the E Loops, some like them some dont, SPCR didnt find them that great, contrary to the older M12 which is a very good fan, that i also suggested and was reviewed by SPCR on the "3 year old review".

Scythe Gentle Typhoons have been out for almost a decade, overclockers for years have praised them as the best overall fans for rads, there are tons of info on martins labs. I waited a long time, until SPCR got holds on some, and came out really well, the only issue this fan have is that they use real ball bearings, some people don't like the sound of this, most love them, but they are still today imo the best 120mm fan on the market, it has very good performance, it undervolts very low, and their sonic signature imo is very good. Btw i own 26 gentle typhoons, all the speed ranges, except the newer 2.1k 2.5k and 3k

As a last remark, ill leave you with another "old" review, Martins Fan Testing Round 12 Posted: May 7, 2013 in Fans.
While the noise blocker is really nice at slower speeds, the Gentle Typhoon rules the high speed area.

Overall. I was a bit surprised by the Noiseblocker e-loop B12-3 at the mid speed range, very good noise quality makes them competitive with the GTs. The cougar fans seem to do well at very slow speeds, but they are a bit limited in higher speeds and didn’t do as well as I hope based on forum comments. The Noctua NF-F12s do well at very slow speeds, but very poor at the higher speed relative to the forum comments. I don’t understand why they are so often so highly recommended except I know of a few reviews done out there without proper tools that are likely spreading bad information as usual. The corsair SP120 fan also surprised me a bit. It did seem to do a little better in noise quality than the H100i fans, but it’s not as strong a performer in noise level as many forum recommendations seem to convey.
Btw SPCR released a new roundup, 120mm Fan Roundup: Scythe, 1stPlayer, Reeven, Phanteks, none of the fans seems worth, as i said on my first post, read the roundups, no matter when they were made, the fans tested on them are among the best in the market, still today.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:38 am

Koolpc wrote:Problem being, those reviews are 3 years old!

Well, that's starting to be annoying to me...

...PSU reviews are old, fans reviews are old... so what? What's the issue? Do you need some good news to somehow better your IT life? As far as I know Mike and Lawrence are not paid to do their reviews, and they depends upon what manufacturers send to SPCR, but if you have time and money feel free to do your own and publish them, you will be really welcome by us! OTOH just ranting is not welcome, not by me at least.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist...

A Bentley GTC (or a Ferrari 458 Italia) is more than three years old, but it's still sold and it's still a Bentley GTC (or a Ferrari 458 Italia).

Koolpc
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:15 am
Location: Under The Desk

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Koolpc » Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:27 am

Problem with old reviews is that not all the items reviewed are still available unless you look on ebay.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Oct 27, 2015 4:11 am

Koolpc wrote:Problem with old reviews is that not all the items reviewed are still available unless you look on ebay.
And I fully understand such a problem, though it's similar to local availability issues (in EU there are less products than in USA, in Canada there are less products than in EU and in USA, in Australia there are less products than in Canada, in Asia there are products we'll probably never see, and so on), I mean, it's something that a small, niche player like SPCR cannot address (SPCR is not Anandtech or THG).

Those ones you can read are the actual SPCR resources (then there's the community collective knowledge, if you may be interested into), so that (though it's just my own personal opinion, please don't take offense by it) ranting more than once about the lack of new products reviews may sound as lack of respect/thoughtfulness/consideration for SPCR staff and work.

I am done, I beg your pardon whether I should have either offended or pissed off you: have a nice time.

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by xan_user » Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:42 am

I can t wait till this thread is 3 years old.
Last edited by xan_user on Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Koolpc
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:15 am
Location: Under The Desk

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Koolpc » Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:43 am

Noctua is too expensive for me at the mo. Looking at noiseblocker myself now.

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by xan_user » Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:44 am

noctua makes the best 120mm fan in 2015.

there, can we let this thread die now?

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by xan_user » Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:46 am

Koolpc wrote:I am looking for some 120mm case fans. The fan must be the quietest and pushes a good amount of air. I have been out of the loop for years so i do not know which is which these days!

Quiet and good cfm. Any pointers would be great! Ta
OP and thread title says nothing about cost, just best and quietest.

Im outta here.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by Abula » Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:46 am

Koolpc wrote:Problem with old reviews is that not all the items reviewed are still available unless you look on ebay.
I do agree that not all are widely available, but you can find them in a lot of places still, not only from ebay, the following are all from the reviews,

Amazon Nexus Real Silent 120mm Fan with Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts (Black and White)
Newegg Nexus BASIC D12SL-12 120mm Case cooler

Coolerguys furfilled by amazon Scythe GentleTyphoon D1225C12B4AP-14 120mm 1450 rpm Silent Case Fan

MiniITX furfilled by amazon Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe M12-1 120mm Low Noise Fan, 750rpm, 8 dBA
MiniITX furfilled by amazon Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe M12-2 120mm Low Noise Fan, 1250rpm, 16dBA
MiniITX furfilled by amazon Noiseblocker NB-eLoop Series B-12-2 120mm Bionic Loop Rotor Fan, 1300rpm, 17 dBA

There are other places that you can get fans like Coolerguys or PerformancePCs, etc.
Last edited by Abula on Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Quietest & Best 120mm fan

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:19 am

xan_user wrote:noctua makes the best 120mm fan in 2015.

there, can we let this thread die now?
Are you serious or just hilarious?

Post Reply