In general fans have improved quite alot since the early 2000's. That is from all brands (not including cheap China stuff). I have fans from Corsair and Noctua in my new computer and I'm happy with them.

The "best" fans I found are the ones that have rubber anti-vibration mounts. Arctic cooling does fans like that, others have rubber thingies that are used instead of the screws. It reduced the vibration going from the fan to the case. Makes the biggest difference IMO.

http://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/arctic-f12-pro-pwm.html

This is my favourite. It daisy chains from the CPU header. So if the CPU fan spins down, so do the case fans. Works really well.

For existing fans you can get something like this:

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page … 30255&cPath=849

Others come with them as a kit:

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page … 14506&cPath=598

ADDA fans are great too, my favorite for price/performance.

I downloaded the entire fan test database from Hardware.info once and dropped it in excel to compare SPL vs air flow. In the 140mm fan range, Antec TrueQuiet came out best IIRC.

edit: I meant 140mm

How much money do you have to buy them?
Do you prefer performance, quality or level of noise?
Do you need fans for home-use or for liquid cooling? Led fans or standard?
Anyway if I were you, I would see Schyte Glide stream good quality and price
If you need more performance, you need to see Akasa Apache Black very good incredible quality and low level of noise but they cost a little bit more.
In the same time even noctua made good fans but we need more information to help you 😀

Unless you're trying to cool a high end system you can probably get away with some low RPM silent fans rather than going for performance. I have a few Evercool Green 120mm fans that are absolutely silent.

I've had lots of brands. Coolermaster quiet fans are not quiet at all... Whenever i go silent i can only think of how nice Noiseblocker fans are. Good price too. Nexus is another good brand.

sprcorreia wrote:

Whenever i go silent i can only think of how nice Noiseblocker fans are.

Just checked my airflow/dB comparison sheet again: Noiseblocker eLoop 1300 and 1500rpm, and Multiframe M12-II came out on top in the 120mm fans. Scythe Slipstream 500rpm at 12V is good too, if you're aiming for absolute silence. Antec TrueQuiet was the best 140mm fan.

philscomputerlab wrote:

The "best" fans I found are the ones that have rubber anti-vibration mounts. Arctic cooling does fans like that, others have rub […]
Show full quote

The "best" fans I found are the ones that have rubber anti-vibration mounts. Arctic cooling does fans like that, others have rubber thingies that are used instead of the screws. It reduced the vibration going from the fan to the case. Makes the biggest difference IMO.

http://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/arctic-f12-pro-pwm.html

This is my favourite. It daisy chains from the CPU header. So if the CPU fan spins down, so do the case fans. Works really well.

For existing fans you can get something like this:

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page … 30255&cPath=849

Others come with them as a kit:

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page … 14506&cPath=598

I've never tried the "stand-alone" Arctic fans, but I've liked their heatsinks for graphics cards and my 939 systems. 😀

I'm well used to using those rubber things - a lot of my systems have them, but wasn't aware they could be bought stand-alone; will have to look into that for other systems. 😎

Thanks all for the other suggestions - I'll look at Noiseblocker, Nexus, etc then - see how they compare to the Vantec, Antec, and Panaflo fans at the same size. As far as what I'm cooling - there isn't a specific machine in mind, I'm asking more broadly in terms of "has the state of the art advanced in ten years" as I come upon needing to replace fans in systems, complete new builds, and so forth. So having general suggestions or places to look is very helpful. 😀

Arctic cooling F series is nice when it comes to budget fans.

When it comes to high-end performance fans, I prefer Enermax T.B. Silence. They are extremely quiet and draw as much air as a good vacuum cleaner 😀

I took jwt27's idea of using a spreadsheet to compare models (at least based on published specifications - for however far you can throw those), for a 92mm fan (the size I'm currently shopping for), none of the "new fangled" brands (e.g. Noctua/Nanoxia/SilenX/etc) seem to be offering significantly better performance than something like Vantec, but in many cases are doing so at higher prices.

I also went to hardware.info to see what they had to say, and found this:
http://us.hardware.info/reviews/2614/8/393-80 … ewed-92-mm-fans

Lots of makers I don't recognize or have never seen before, but its certainly interesting to have additional data available.

Scythe Gentle Typhoons are great also.

Snayperskaya wrote:

Scythe Gentle Typhoons are great also.

True but probably "wasted" if used as case fans. Their common uses were as heatsink/rad fans, where their high static pressure and low noise made them highly popular for that purpose.

Can consider Scythe Slipstreams as case fans if not used behind restrictive air filters.

obobskivich wrote:

I took jwt27's idea of using a spreadsheet to compare models (at least based on published specifications - for however far you c […]
Show full quote

I took jwt27's idea of using a spreadsheet to compare models (at least based on published specifications - for however far you can throw those), for a 92mm fan (the size I'm currently shopping for), none of the "new fangled" brands (e.g. Noctua/Nanoxia/SilenX/etc) seem to be offering significantly better performance than something like Vantec, but in many cases are doing so at higher prices.

I also went to hardware.info to see what they had to say, and found this:
http://us.hardware.info/reviews/2614/8/393-80 … ewed-92-mm-fans

Lots of makers I don't recognize or have never seen before, but its certainly interesting to have additional data available.

Main reason I used a spreadsheet is because hardware.info had a "cfm per dB" measurement in their reviews, which is completely meaningless since cfm is a linear unit and dB is logarithmic. I converted the dBs to linear units so the comparison makes sense. (not actually Pa but more like a "loudness level" where +10dB = approx twice as loud)

Now I have no idea how accurate their test methods are, but assuming all these fans were tested exactly in the same way, I think this makes a fair comparison. See attached spreadsheet 😀

In my builds right now I have:

- Noctuas in my server. Three NF-F12s in the front to pump through the hard drives (good static pressure), a NH-L9i CPU cooler and a NF-S12A on the exhaust for airflow. All I can hear from the server now is HDD noise, these fans are really quiet.
- A Silverstone Air Penetrator 180mm fan in the front of my TJ08-E case. This thing is a monster, but I had to turn it down a bit with a Zalman FanMate 2 to get it to any sort of quietness. Still flows a TON of air even at reduced speed.
- Be Quiet! stuff in the TJ08-E to go with the Air Penetrator. I think these are even quieter than the Noctuas. I have a Dark Rock 3 CPU cooler with the SilentWings 2 fan on it, and a 120mm SilentWings 2 fan in the exhaust. Really happy with the performance of these.
- Arctic Cooling fans in my HTPC. I got 3x 120mm F12 PWM fans for that, and like the Silverstone, I had to turn them down quite a bit to make them silent. They do the job though, but they aren't anywhere near as good as my Noctuas or the Be Quiet! fans. They're good for the price though.