SilentHardware.de tests 57 fans

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 3:11 pm

Sorry if this has been posted already. Here's the Babelfish translation.

What's nice about the testing is that there is about 30 sec video clip of every fan, where the fan is fed with 5V, 7V and 12V.

In page "80's exhausts other one -2" You can find the fan from TT Silent Boost, and a LOUD Delta.

Cheers,

Jan

PiSan · Post by **PiSan** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:23 pm

Thanks for the info! Great review, I was having trouble deciding on a case fan.

einolu · Post by **einolu** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:28 pm

Im ganna pick of one of those coolermasters led fans, they are on sale at microcenter (like $7)... Ill use em for my cpu or something (can i do that?)...

~EO

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:07 am

Well, that is nothing stopping you from using a LED fan, but there are fans that are more silent than LED fans. If you have a chassi with a window I see a point in using a LED fan.
If you are going for a LED fan that Cooler Master neon LED laser seems a lot better than any other LED fan I have seen so far.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:18 am

For those of you that don't care to read the entire test here is a short summary:
For 80mm fans they prefer them in this order:
Papst NGL
YS Tech Green Label
Noiseblocker S1
Sharkoon SL3
Levicom
Cooler Mater neon LED Laser
Panaflo L1A
Chieftech

There are loads of fans to listen to, and I would defenatly rank them differently myself judging from the noise levels. I think the Panaflo L1A should be a lot higher up on that list.
Noise file for the Panaflo FBL M1A is wrong. Link goes to FBA L1A noise file.

For 92mm fans they prefer them in this order:
YS Tech green label
Papst N/2GL

No Panaflo 92mm was present in test. I agree with the testers on this list, possibly adding GlobeFan to the list since it works great when heavilly undervolted.

For 120mm fans they prefer them in this order:
Papst F/2GL
Noiseblocker SX2
YS Tech green label

No Panaflo 120mm was present in the test. I do not agree with the list here. The Papst is a clear winner in this test. On second place I would ahve put the Yate Loon fan.
The YS Tech 120mm has lots of bearing noise on slow speeds.
The Noiseblocker SX2 needs a minimum of 6V to start. It is farily OK on 7V, but I think there are better fans.

lm · Post by lm » Wed Jan 21, 2004 2:12 am

Again just noise compared, with some random comments about airflow. Whats the point? The most silent fan is the one that is not connected! I would like to have a graph, where sound level is the other axis, and airflow is the other axis, and then all the results would be plotted there. Then it would be easiest to select the fan you need, if you know the amount of airflow you need. The sound level axis could just measure the subjective annoyingness of the sound. This would make the results comparable and usefull.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 8:45 am

Well, this time you have enough information presented so that you can draw some conclusions on your own. You have the manufacturers specified airflow (in m^3/h) that will give some clue on the airflow of the fan.
That in combination with the sound/movie file and sound measure should give you a solid base to draw your own clonclusions from.

I do like that they present the lowest starting voltage for the fans. That is rather important for me. Unfortunately they are not very exact on most fans. If they start at 5V they just say that. On the other hand the fan might not start reliably on 5V once it has been working for 6 months unless you had some margin to start with.

marc999 · Post by **marc999** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 1:48 pm

I'm looking for a great 92mm fan for my SP-97. I listenned to the Panaflow 92mm L1A and was not only unimpressed, I was disturbed.

So I currently have the 80mm L1A on it, and it's pretty darn good but I think I can do better cooling/noise wise with the right 92mm fan.

Anyway, I checked out that link and that YS Tech fan sure sounds great (18 dba!!). The Papst sounds like it may be worth checking out too. The question is, does anyone know where I can get these fans in Canada (or somewhere in the US who will ship to Canada). If not, I wonder if PC Cooling or MR Computer Engineer will ship to Canada? Please help!! Thanks.

marc999 · Post by **marc999** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 4:28 pm

I found a 3412 NGL at directron. Is that the same as the 3412 N/2GL
that Silent Hardware tested? The specs are similar, except the Directron one is 61.0m3/h and the Silent Hardware one is 57.2m3/h. However, the site that Silent Hardware references as their source for the fan, MR Computer Engineering, also shows 61.0m3/h. The Directron one is 4 pin, the MR Computer is 3 pin. Maybe that's the difference. These model names are confusing.

I wish Directron had the 3 pin. 4 pin sucks.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 6:46 pm

I looked at my Pabst PDF file that I downloaded from somewhere (don’t remember where).

The 342NGL is a Pabst 92mm x 92mm x 25mm fan that is rated at 61 m3/h (35.9 CFM) and 23 dB(A).

The 3412 N/2GL is a special version of the above fan with the Sensor Signal / 2 that does speed monitoring. There are no specs that I could find in my PDF file for the N/2GL version, but I assume the slightly reduced airflow you noted is related to the Sensor Signal / 2 mechanism.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 12:42 am

The "/2" is a standard Papst 'flavour' that implements a speed sense signal with 2 pulses per revolution. If you have the full Papst catalogue (available here) see page 58. They also do "/17" for alarm signals etc. The fluctuation in quoted airflow is normally due to folks doing imperial/metric conversions badly

marc999 wrote:Anyway, I checked out that link and that YS Tech fan sure sounds great (18 dba!!). The Papst sounds like it may be worth checking out too.

Try get the YS-Tech: I have a couple of Papst 3412NGL and I am pleased but not ecstatic. At 9V it is quiet but not silent, at 6V it is too slow for my cooling needs. (Ecstatic with the 120mm 4412FGL Papst, disappointed with the 80mm 8412NGL.) So in my dreams I would like to hope the 92mm YS-Tech is really better, and probably cheaper.

marc999 · Post by **marc999** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 10:30 am

Ecstatic with the 120mm 4412FGL Papst

I agree. I love my 4412FGL. It's so quiet it's amazing (@5V)!!

Anyway, thanks m0002a and dukla2000 for helping me understand the difference. So basically this Directron one is the same but without RPM monitoring. I can live without that. But everyone seems to say the YS Tech is the way to go, so I may as well go with that one if I can find it.

So if anyone knows where I can get one, let me know.
(perhaps I'll try sending the manufacturer an email today).