Best - Silent - all black case fan?
Can anybody recommend a premium 120m or 140mm case fan, it needs to be as silent as possible, and is for a build with an "all black" theme and I'd like to avoid painting if possible?The case has very poor airflow, so I'm looking for as high a volume fan as is possible while still remaining as silent as possible, preferably 4 pin. I'm budgeting for up to £30 a fan. Corsair ML series - Black (140 or 120mm) - £18.99 each
BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 (140 or 120mm) - £19.99 eachNoctua NF-A14 - Black (140 or 120mm) - £23.87 each (be careful with these as Noctua Fans often come in a hideous 1990s cream and brown plastic colour, so make sure you are definitely getting the black ones)You shouldn't need to spend as much as £30 per fan. ANYTHING remotely in this price range should be 4-pin PWM. Do they have any respective pros\cons?
I've seen lots of different fans where the reviews vary wildly from excellent to terrible, what should I be looking for? You'll find people who strongly advocate one or another type of fan... to be honest my view is that out of those 3 they are pretty much created equal.
Noctua fans are well known for being powerful and quiet. BeQuiet (as their company name implies) tend to focus on low noise but the fans are still plenty powerful. I personally have the Corsair ML fans. The ML bit stands for magnetic levitation, rather than a ball bearing or a sleeved bearing the fan actually rides on a frictionless magnetic bearing. In theory the fans might last longer as they will be subject to less wear than a traditional bearing fan.
I would expect all of these fans to perform within 1 or 2 degrees of each other. I would just pick whichever one you like the look of. I wouldn't say the Corsair ML are silent (i also use some in one of my builds) my choice would definitely be Noctua or Be Quiet 1. No fan is silent
2. Most of the noise generated by a fan is actually generated by the air flow itself NOT the bearings.
3. HOWEVER, the Corsair ML series, Noctua NF-A14s and BeQuiet Silent Wings are all premium fans... the things that make them premium are; a large RPM range, PWM control, a nice design and reliability/consistency. Those are the differences between £19 fans and £4 fans.
4. The thing that's interesting about the Corsair ML bearings isn't the noise (which is just a marketing gimmick)... it's the longevity. With brushless motors and magnetic bearings, in principle these fans should last a very long time... whereas traditionally most fans start to get noisy after about 3 years (the lubricant dries out, the bearings wear down, the fans start to vibrate/rattle and generate a harsh sound even at very low RPMs).
TL;DR: You can't go wrong with any of those fans.
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