Good 120mm Fans.

dtess17

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
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I know there are a few threads that either are 100% about fans or at least have some post on the topic, But it seems things are scattered all over the place with no real order to it.

What i would like to do is get a good working list of the best 120mm fans out there.
The focus is getting fans with good performace with low noise.

Some general guidelines.

MAX dBA is 28. Mid to low 20's are prefered.
cfm must be no lower than 40. I would like to see numbers 50 and above.
numbers should be taken from a fan running @ 12v.
no bullshit numbers e.g SilentX or Thermaltake. Don't even bother suggesting them.
please list numbers with posts.
I am rounding numbers to whole numbers e.g 26.8 will be listed as 27


Let our list begin. In no order

1. Silverstone FN121 - (26.6 dba/53.24cfm)
2. Cooler Master LED - (22dba/43cfm)
3. Nexus Real Silent - (23dba/37cfm)
4. Yate Loon 120mm - (28dba/47cfm)
5. Papst 4412FGL - (26dba/55cfm)
6. Acoustifan AFDP - ( 25dba/56cfm)
7. Arctic Colling AF - (25dba/56cfm)
8. Scythe SFF21E - (20dba/49cfm)
9. Scythe SFF21F - (28dba/64cfm)
10. Vantec Stealth - (28dba/53cfm)
11. Mechatronics G1225S12B - (25dba/55cfm)

12.?Antec TriCool - (L 25dba/39cfm, M 28dba/56cfm, H 30dba/79cfm)?
 
thermaltake led 120mm fans are pretty nice. Not THAT loud, no where near 21dba tho. Best without fan grills
 
the 120mm Antec that came with my case is nice and quiet, unless you crank up the speed to max that is...

i just bought another (slightly different) 120mm, hopefully it is as least as good... i guess i'll find out
 
AeriaGloris said:
Nexus 120mm is what I use, 22.8dba but only 37cfm though.

although this is not 40cfm...i will make this exception. They are easily the quietest fans out there that push any real cfm
 
The thread you were looking for was in the water cooling forum. here .

But if you don't feal like skimming through the 8 or 9 pages there, it seems to be that general consensious is Yate Loon. I just picked up 2 for myself. Haven't had a chance to try them in my rig yet, but I plugged them in and they are pretty dang quiet.
 
Panaflo 120mm Medium Output - FBA12G12M1A

Air Flow: 86 CFM
Noise Level: 35 dBA

Not the quitest... but I like the airflow.... it runs my A64 Venice 3000+ (clocked at 2.4ghz at the moment) at roughly 86 F Idle.
 
thefluffy said:
Panaflo 120mm Medium Output - FBA12G12M1A

Air Flow: 86 CFM
Noise Level: 35 dBA

Not the quitest... but I like the airflow.... it runs my A64 Venice 3000+ (clocked at 2.4ghz at the moment) at roughly 86 F Idle.

Although the Airflow is nice, the dba is way outside of the guidlines.
 
dtess17 said:
Although the Airflow is nice, the dba is way outside of the guidlines.
Ditto, undervolting it would be pretty nice though. The 38mm thick body allows for more airflow.
 
Yeah i was looking at normal performace numbers without fan controllers or undervolting.

No doubt that it is a good fan though
 
How loud is 35DBA, is it much louder than a 30DBA fan?? Does 5dba make that much difference??

Thanks
Bigweed
 
bigweed said:
How loud is 35DBA, is it much louder than a 30DBA fan?? Does 5dba make that much difference??

Thanks
Bigweed

A 5dba drop would be a good amount quieter. I'd say close to 50% quieter...
The 28 i posted in the guidlines is still rather audible, but i understand that there needs to be some noise level to get good airflow. I;d say a true 28 dba is a mid to low hum.
 
So has anyone else come up with some other fans out there?
Seems like we hit most of the good fan makers.
 
N H O said:
cooler master silent uv or led fans (22dBA & 43 cfm)

These Coolermaster fans are pretty quiet, but are nowhere near 43cfm. In fact, side-by-side, IMO, they put out less air than the 37cfm Nexus.

Antec Tricool: fuggetabouit...obnoxious and loud at the first two settings and useless at the lowest setting.

The SilenX fans are good fans. Their specs and their price are way off, but they have a nice quiet motor and put out a good amount of air. Nexus is a better deal.
 
c1001 said:
These Coolermaster fans are pretty quiet, but are nowhere near 43cfm. In fact, side-by-side, IMO, they put out less air than the 37cfm Nexus.

Antec Tricool: fuggetabouit...obnoxious and loud at the first two settings and useless at the lowest setting.

The SilenX fans are good fans. Their specs and their price are way off, but they have a nice quiet motor and put out a good amount of air. Nexus is a better deal.

the amount of air and their dba is so off on silienX i can not even consider them as a fan. Not to mention they are so $$$

I have yet to use the coolermaster, but the nexus fan push a fair amount of air for how quiet it is.

I don't mind the tricools on low or even med. i won't say they are silient, but fairly quiet while moving some air.
 
Papst 4412FGL
26db
55cfm

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/4412fgl.html

Though I think the noise rating is a bit optimistic, and they are a little pricey, they push a good amount of air and are recommended by SPCR. I bought these for my new computer, though I haven't heard them yet because I'm not done assembling.

One thing I can say is they look and feel extremely high quality. The nicest fans I've ever seen. The other thing they have over the Yate Loons is the open corner "flanges" so they can be used with an XP/SI 120 with the metal clips without modification.
 
The Sliverstone one is the best but for looks I went with the thermaltake A2018. This does around 95cfm and has nice led. It has good reviews and appears to be solid and of course I bought 7 other 80mm of the smaller variety that do 72.5 cfm to make my case into a jet engine. BTW these thermaltake fans tend to run at higher rpm then advertised but if performance is all you want go Silverstone. I just wanted over 80cfm and nice looking fan for my SI-120 heatsink.

Just realized you said FN121 and not FM121 but not sure why you would go that route.
 
jalbs said:
Just realized you said FN121 and not FM121 but not sure why you would go that route.

You're pulling our chains? If you're serious, it might have something to do with this section of the OP's specs:

Some general guidelines.

dBA must be 28 or lower. Mid to low 20's are prefered.

:confused:

I think those TT you mention are only about 523 dB so those might work better :rolleyes:

Just poking fun, no offense meant :) Besides, I'm enjoying the discussion regardless if it stays within the confines of the OP.
 
I just bought a few yate loons from jab-tech.com and got them yesterday. I put one in my power supply, one as an intake, and one on my zalman cnps7700cu. The fans themselves are almost completely silent. I really can't hear them at all from more than a few feet away
 
DyNe__ said:
I just bought a few yate loons from jab-tech.com and got them yesterday. I put one in my power supply, one as an intake, and one on my zalman cnps7700cu. The fans themselves are almost completely silent. I really can't hear them at all from more than a few feet away

which ones did you get? i know there are the ones for like 6.99 that have a higher cfm and dba and then the ones for like $15.00 that are just like the nexus but black.
 
Dr. X said:
Papst 4412FGL
26db
55cfm

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/4412fgl.html

Though I think the noise rating is a bit optimistic, and they are a little pricey, they push a good amount of air and are recommended by SPCR. I bought these for my new computer, though I haven't heard them yet because I'm not done assembling.

One thing I can say is they look and feel extremely high quality. The nicest fans I've ever seen. The other thing they have over the Yate Loons is the open corner "flanges" so they can be used with an XP/SI 120 with the metal clips without modification.

Don't see those fans around much, but i have heard alot about them.
Added in. Thanks.
 
The silverstone is nice and does the job very well at 1/3 to 1/2 max on the controller. I've never turned it up all the way yet as there's never been any need. It gets my vote.
 
The silverstone you are talking about is a pretty nice fan, but it get very very loud at full speed, i think somewhere near 40dba...given it's shooting over 100cfm's. I like the fan contoller on it, I might try this out on my next build for someone, but because the dba can be dreadfully loud i can not add that model to the list.

i the 121 is awesome at full speed and still very very quiet.
 
What about the Vantec Stealths? 53cfm/28dba. I have the 80mm version and am really happy with them.
 
jlgrandam said:
What about the Vantec Stealths? 53cfm/28dba. I have the 80mm version and am really happy with them.
Not exactly quiet (the double ball-bearing design means more noise naturally), but they are durable fans.
 
I have yet to use the Vantec Stealth fans.
Although they are on the higher end of things they seem to fit the guidelines.
Anyone use the 120mm ? How close are the numbers?
Last post said they were loud because of bearing noise? overall still within range or no?
 
I feel that 7V'ing a better quality higher flow fan is more sensible than getting a lower flow fan and 12v'ing it.

Why? Because the WHAT IF. What if your cfm determination isn't adequate and you start experiencing instability. With a 12v @ 7v, if you need to, you can turn the rheo up a notch and get relatively same performance.

Then again, I'm fully comfortable with 30-35db of noise a few feet from me. My case sits on a piece of wood, and then on concrete. I can barely hear the 100+CFM 120's over a 80mm in my other case, amof, I can't hear them over the others.
 
All the fans I have right now had been mentioned in this thread already so I'll just give my subjective input on all of it.

My P180 came with 3 Antec Tricools, and when on low they're very quiet. Quieter than the Black Yate Loons I have installed right now, but they pushed next to no air at all.

The Yate Loons, although noticeably louder than the Tricools, are still pretty quiet and push way more air. I have all 4 of them turned really low right now, so it's near dead silent at the cost of airflow, but still giving circulation to the case. At default speeds, though, it gets pretty loud. As soon as I get my mobo tomorrow, I might add the 5th unused one to the SI-120, which is also waiting in its box.

I have a medium speed Panaflo I got with my SI-120. I plugged it in my mobo one day to see how it was. Man it was loud! Pushed a ton of air though! I connected it to my fan controller and turned it down all the way, and it was pretty damn quiet. Still had a "weak" noise to it though, like a rattling type of thing, but I doubt that I'd hear it inside the P180.

Right now I'm deciding whether to use the Panaflo or the extra Loon as my CPU cooler. If the Panaflo is inaudible on low, then I'd probably use that one instead and ramp it up whenever I need to. I forgot to test the airflow of those 2 so I'll get that chance when I rip my rig apart tomorrow :D.
 
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