The Quest for Quietest Fans: A Comprehensive Review

In the world of computer hardware, one aspect that often gets overlooked is the importance of fan noise. While airflow and performance are crucial, the sound level of a fan can make all the difference in creating an immersive gaming or working experience. In this article, we'll delve into the world of quiet fans and explore the best options available.

The Phanteks T30: The Quietest Fan

The Phanteks T30 took top spot as the quietest fan in all scenarios. Its unique design and blade shape allowed it to run at a lower RPM than its competitors, resulting in a significantly reduced noise level. This made it the perfect choice for those who prioritize acoustics above all else.

When paired with a radiator and mesh dust filter, the T30 performed impressively quiet at almost any degree of restriction. Its ability to maintain low noise levels even when faced with heavy airflow or pressure made it the obvious first choice for anyone seeking optimal acoustic performance.

The Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3: A Close Second

While not as quiet as the Phanteks T30, the Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3 was a close second in terms of overall performance. Its consistent airflow and noise levels made it an excellent choice for those who value versatility. Despite its higher RPM compared to other fans, the Silent Wings 3 remained remarkably quiet across all restriction levels.

However, it's worth noting that this fan's performance wasn't quite on par with the T30 in terms of airflow. When mounted against a solid case panel or behind a closed off panel, the Silent Wings 3 struggled to keep up with its competitors. Nevertheless, its excellent acoustic performance made it a strong contender for those seeking a quiet fan.

The Corsair ML120 Pro: A Solid Performer

The Corsair ML120 Pro took third spot in our review, despite being slightly louder than the other fans when faced with restrictions or solid case panels. However, when mounted to a mesh panel with a dust filter, it trounced its competitors and delivered impressive airflow performance.

The ML120 Pro's ability to move plenty of air even under restricted conditions made it an excellent choice for those seeking high airflow without sacrificing noise levels. While not the quietest fan in this scenario, it was still a solid performer that could hold its own against more expensive options.

The Noctua NF-F12: The Loudest Fan

Last but not least, we have the Noctua NF-F12, which delivered the worst airflow performance among its peers. Its relatively low CFM (cubic feet per minute) and RPM made it less effective at moving air compared to other fans on this list.

However, what's truly notable about the NF-F12 is its loudness. Despite running at a lower RPM than many of its competitors, it was still one of the loudest fans in our test group. While this might be a drawback for some users, others may prefer its unique aesthetic or brand loyalty.

Conclusion

When it comes to quiet fans, there's no denying that the Phanteks T30 takes top spot. Its impressive performance and ability to maintain low noise levels even under heavy airflow or pressure make it an ideal choice for those seeking acoustic excellence.

The Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3 is a close second in terms of overall performance, offering excellent airflow and noise levels despite its slightly higher RPM. For those seeking high airflow without sacrificing noise levels, the Corsair ML120 Pro is an excellent option.

On the other hand, the Noctua NF-F12 is best avoided due to its poor airflow performance and loudness. However, for fans who prioritize aesthetics or brand loyalty over performance, it might be worth considering.

Ultimately, the choice of fan will depend on individual priorities and needs. Whether you're seeking optimal acoustic performance, high airflow, or a unique aesthetic, there's a quiet fan out there to suit your requirements.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right so today i'm going to be testing out the airflow and noise performance between four very popular fans or i guess i should say three popular fans and one new fan that you may or may not have may or may not have heard of by now uh it's the phanteks t30 120 they just came out with this it's 120 millimeter fan but it's 30 millimeters thick which is 5 millimeters thicker of course than the vast majority of fans out there so just bear that in mind right off the bat if you are going to pick up one of these at some point uh that you make sure you have enough clearance in your case because they are a bit thicker than your average fan but the other fans we'll be testing today are the noctua nff12 as well as the corsair ml120 pro and the silent wings 3 from be quiet which i already have mounted right here on our testing kit this testing kit is kind of what sparked the the idea for this whole video it was sent over by fantech's along with their their new t30 fans and uh it's actually a way to objectively measure airflow and noise between fans so i thought that was kind of interesting and uh thought it'd be a fun opportunity to share the results with you guys so um the way this sort of works i guess i'll just explain this uh right now you can see that on one end of this tube it's basically a long tunnel on one end you have whatever fan you're testing and you can test it in a variety of configurations i'll be testing four different environments today right now there's actually i don't know if you can tell there's a radiator mounted on it behind the fan right now in a push configuration to add some resistance to this particular test with the kit came these panels that you can slap onto the front of any fan you're testing in order to create environments of varying restriction levels so this one right here is sort of like a mesh front panel of a case that that also has like sort of a built-in dust filter it's a very fine mesh on one side and then more open on the other very popular very commonly used in a lot of cases and then the other panel that we'll be testing with is just a completely front solid panel that does have ventilation on either side so i'll actually be testing each of these fans in four different scenarios today the first of which being unrestricted which means nothing on either side of the fan just the fan completely bare no radiator nothing and that's not really realistic because in most builds you're not going to have a case where or a scenario where there's absolutely nothing on either side of the fan but it's still kind of interesting to get that data to figure out where each of these um how these fans stack up against each other in a completely bare bones environment when they're just standing alone the next scenario is with uh with this panel the the mesh mesh and dust filter obviously no radiator but just this panel right up front then the one after that is with the closed panel and then the fourth and final test i'll be or environment i'll be testing these fans in is with the radiator and the mesh front panel installed uh between those four tests we should be able to get a wide variety of data regardless of environment so we can sort of gauge you know how good a fan performs as a case fan versus a radiator fan uh versus up against a mesh dust filter and that sort of thing so now i'm essentially going to be using two different testing methods today one to measure noise and another to measure air flow the first of which uh measuring noise is considered an airflow normalized test wherein by i basically tune each fan i'll have it hooked up to this knock to a fan controller and that's got a little dial on it i'll basically tune each fan until it hits my target fpm or feet per minute essentially how much air each fan is moving through this tunnel and i'm going to be measuring fpm with this anemometer i believe that's how it's pronounced maybe not but this anemometer is actually fixed to the other end of this tube it's got a little propeller on it and it spins as as the air flows through it and it gives me an output in feet per minute i'm also going to be converting that to cfm later uh in case you guys want to see those numbers as well and then basically once i have each fan um tuned to that fpm which i've set as 400 400 feet per minute is the target that i'm going for then i bust out my sound meter put it uh the same distance away from the fan for each test and then i record the maximum decibel reading within a 30 second period in order to gauge just how loud the fan is operating at that fpm one thing to note is that i did run one test with a target fpm of 350 as opposed to 400 and that was actually what this does but the radiator and the mesh dust filter mainly because one of these fans or maybe even two of them i think it was either the noctua and the silent wings 3 or both of them were unable to achieve an fpm of 400 in this particular environment because there's just so much restriction involved so for that particular test the target fpm was was set to 350 but for all the other ones in the airflow normalized test uh the fpm that we're going for is 400. then the second method which we're using to test airflow is essentially a noise normalized test where we kind of do the same thing that we just did but in reverse so i set up the fan and i bust out the sound meter and i use the noctua fan controller in order to tune the fan until we hit a target decibel rating a maximum target decibel rating which i've designated as 50 db so once the fan's at 50 decibels consistently then i measure the the fpm that the fan is actually putting out and that'll allow us to objectively compare the airflow performance between each fan at a given acoustic level i should also mention that all the while i'll also be recording the uh the rpm of each fan through the bios uh the maximum rpm that any particular fan being tested hits within a 30 second period so uh that's what we're doing today i've actually already done all the testing i spent a good many many hours testing all these fans and the results are really interesting so i'm actually pretty excited to share them with you guys why don't we check them out now before we continue this video is brought to you by kiocsia keyoxia actually has a rich history in the tech industry as being the inventor of nand flash memory but they also have a full lineup of ssds for pretty much any occasion whether you're looking to drop an nvme drive into an enterprise data center or a crypto mining rig uh gaming piece i meant to say son of a with competitive pcie gen 3x4 speeds the bg4 and xg6 series are well suited for gaming systems while the cd6 and cm6 feature leading edge pcie gen 4 performance for milan and ice like servers to learn more about everything kiosks has to offer click on the link in the description below alright so first looking at our airflow normalized test where we're measuring noise we're comparing noise right now between these fans the first test i ran here was the unrestricted environment nothing on either side of the fan just pure naked fannis and the target fpm again was 400 fpm and you can see here that the phanteks t30 actually took the lead getting a dba or a decibel rating of 37.8 which is significantly quieter than any other fan here um you can see that there's just a huge gap almost 12 13 14 decibels difference between the t30 and the next quietest fan which was the silent wings three uh at 50.7 decibels so still very quiet but obviously the phanteks the t30 is in a completely different class at this point um and you can see it's still it's operating at the lowest rpm out of the group 754 rpm uh something to note really quick about the silent wings three is that it definitely had the the wildest rpm swings out of the four fans here um most of the other actually all the other fans only range you know they kind of bounced around 5 10 rpm plus or minus thereabouts whereas the silent wings 3 i was seeing swings i was seeing rpm swings upwards of like 50 rpm at times but it still manages to stay consistently quiet despite that um which is kind of surprising but just something to note there it was bouncing around rpms bouncing around all over the place with the silent wings three and then the uh the next quietest fan or the next loudest fan at this point i guess would be the noctua nf f12 at 51 decibels probably margin of error right here just about as quiet as the silent wings 3 when unrestricted and then the corsair ml-120 pro which had the the highest rpm out of the out of the group as you can see 862 rpm was also the loudest in this particular environment at 52.4 decibels i would take you know out of all the tests that we're running today this is probably the one the unrestricted test is the one i would take with the biggest grain of salt just because it's it's not very common in a build where you're not going to have anything on either side of the fan maybe in like the most open open-air chassis build or something if the fan's just kind of suspended and hanging there at that point you know if it's that open of a chassis then airflow is probably not as important but just something to bear in mind and kind of interesting to see the data here next step we have also with the airflow normalized test the mesh and dust filter so the mesh and dust filter panel no radio or anything like that and you can see here that the phantek t30 once again takes the lead albeit by a smaller margin this time 50.7 db with the silent wings three coming in second place again actually tying for second with the corsair ml120 pro getting a decibel readout of 54.7 that is notably louder than the t30 um but uh but and as you can see the t30 definitely ramped up in in volume um once it was faced with a bit of restriction finishing last in this test was the noctua nf f12 getting a decibel readout of 56.5 and an rpm of 1069 um not too much louder than silent wings three and ml 120 pro but definitely the loudest in this particular test um it's also worth noting that once again the phanteks t30 is running at the lowest rpm out of the group most likely due to the fact that it's got thicker blades um just a bigger chassis bigger fan design in general it's able to spin slightly slower while still delivering really good acoustic performance the third test of course is the closed panel so this is completely closed off uh the most choked for airflow i would say out of the bunch um and you can see here the t30 once again topping the charts at 51 decibels it remained significantly quieter once again than the other three fans um silent wings three showing pretty consistent performance as being the runner-up behind the t30 in terms of noise output 56.9 decibel readout versus 58.8 on the ml 120 pro and the noctua nf f12 getting 58.9 margin of error here these are pretty much similar i would say uh between these two fans but again the noctua nff12 is looking like the loudest fan on this list so far especially when you're introducing lots of restriction into the equation and then finally we have the radiator plus the mesh dust filter front panel remember this is at a slightly lower target fpm of 350. unsurprisingly at this point t30 comes in first place with the quietest readout of 52.4 silent wings three in second with 55.4 and then we have the nff12 actually outpacing the ml 120 pro here uh just slightly at 55.6 with the ml 120 and dead last so clearly the ml 120 pro makes for the loudest radiator fan in the bunch but of course noise is just one aspect of today's testing we also have to look at airflow so this is our noise normalized test where we're measuring airflow between fans and as you can see here um we actually have i have the cfm conversion uh based on the volume of of the tunnel um so i was able to do some simple math which is according to the fantek's guidebook is 0.132 uh just times the the fpm and that gives you your cfm readout there so right out of the gate the phanteks t30 was the top airflow performer with 466 fpm or 61.5 cfm and that's uh i wouldn't say a landslide because trailing right behind it is the ml 120 pro at 454 fpm which is right hot on the heels of the t30 again this is probably the least valuable test being completely unrestricted but something worth noting in third place we have the silent wings 3 with an fpm of 428 and finishing dead last in this test was the noctua nf f12 with an fpm of 402. and also notice the really low rpm of our mff 12 here compared to the other fans mainly because as we just saw this is the noisiest fan out of the bunch and so it's really not able to ramp up much higher than this without overshooting our target of 50 decibels hence the the lower airflow readout next up we have our mesh and dust filter test and you can see here the t30 once again tops the charts with 399 fpm or a cfm of 52.6 followed by the corsair ml120 pro giving us a readout of 374. that's also pretty much within earshot of the t30 and then we have silent wings three once again in third place with 340 fpm or a cfm of 44.88 and then finally unsurprisingly the nff12 finishes last uh with the lowest airflow performance at our target decibel rating when we switched over to a closed panel in order to mimic a choked off front panel of a case uh we saw the t30 still outperform the rest getting an fpm of 407 this time it really outpaces the others by a lot which just goes to show it's got a lot of good static pressure because the closed panel is is really right up against the fan blades and i think the the thicker form factor of the t30 really helps in this area along with the faint the fan blade design and stuff but then you can see here tied for a second actually was the silent wings 3 and the ml 120 pro so where where the ml 120 pro does really well in a mesh and dust filter environment it kind of crumbles when it's up against a choked off panel of a case um i wouldn't say it's terrible performance but it's notably worse performance than when it has a little bit more breathing room and then the nf12 actually kind of not too far off from from the other two fans here that it's between this is definitely margin of error but still was showing the lowest fpm of 330 or a cfm of 43.5 and for the record kind of opposite of what we just saw with the nff 12 notice how the rpm of the t30 is much higher than the other fans uh and it's able to hit that because it's such a quiet fan it's it's it's ramping up to a much higher rpm without overshooting the target noise level which explains why it's able to deliver so much airflow even in a really restrictive environment and our final test measuring airflow is our radiator and mesh dust filter test and you can see here that the t30 once again is at the top 363 fpm or a cfm of 47.9 although this time the rpm of this fan is not notably higher it's actually lower than some of the other fans on this list compared to the previous test i think that's just because with so much static pressure requirement on either side of the fan now with the radiator in one end and the mesh dust filter on the other um that really puts a lot of restriction on the fan and more or less creates more turbulence which is going to increase the noise output so the fan couldn't really spin much faster than this without going over uh that 50 decibel rating in second place we have a tie between the silent wings 3 and the ml 120 pro they each got 319 fpm so pretty uh pretty much on par with each other in terms of airflow performance here when paired with the radiator and mesh dust filter and finally finishing last you might have guessed it is the noctua nf f12 with a cfm of 40 and an fpm of 304 and once again we can see that really low rpm indicating that compared to the other fans that we're testing today the nff 12 is definitely the loudest all right so summing up all the data that we just gathered the phanteks t30 was the quietest fan in all scenarios by a landslide i think it's the unit's thickness and and blade design that really allows it to run at a lower rpm than the other fans at a lower noise level which puts it in a class of its own as i keep on saying because it's true it ran impressively quiet at pretty much any degree of restriction which makes it the obvious first choice if acoustics are a top priority noise wise the runner-up was the be quiet silent wings 3. while its performance isn't in the same class as the phanteks t30 it does consistently beat out the other fans in this area while delivering the same amount of airflow despite having the biggest rpm swings of any fan it offered excellent acoustics across all restriction levels making it pretty much just as versatile as the phanteks t30 the corsair ml120 pro and noctua nf12 tie for being the noisiest fans in all environments with both being especially loud when mounted against a solid case panel the nff 12 rivals the noise levels of the silent wings 3 when unrestricted making it a viable option as a quiet case fan if it's faced with zero restrictions but as we've said that's an uncommon scenario in most builds the ml 120 pro tested to be the loudest radiator fan in the bunch albeit this was by a small margin behind the nff 12 and silent wings 3. when it comes to airflow the phantek t30 leads in this area as well the corsair ml120 pro gets within striking distance of it when unrestricted or in a mesh and dust filter environment but the t30 soars ahead in more heavily static pressurized scenarios such as behind a closed off case panel or strapped to a radiator the results show us that the t30 is pretty much the best performer when it comes to both airflow and acoustics again thanks to its beefy size and design the airflow runner-up is more or less a tie between the ml 120 pro from corsair and the be quiet silent wings 3 where the ml120 lacks in acoustics it compensates with being able to move lots of air when restricted particularly when mounted to a mesh panel with a dust filter it trounces the silent wings three but the silent wings three keeps pace with it elsewhere and it runs consistently quieter in all environments the noctua nf f12 delivered the worst air flow performance among its peers to be fair it's never too far behind the ml120 pro and silent wings 3 but it's also tied for being the loudest fan here making it the last recommendation unless you really favor its aesthetics above all else the final verdict between our four test subjects the fantex t3120 was hands down the best performer in both airflow and acoustics regardless of restriction level so whether you need a fan for your case or a radiator it's the clear choice if you just want the best of the best but you'll need to be wary of its additional thickness posing any clearance issues in my opinion the runner up here overall is the be quiet silent wings 3 for its versatile performance while staying nice and quiet despite its sweeping rpm contrasting the silent wings 3's flexibility the corsair ml120 pro makes the most sense against a dust filter and mesh surface for airflow and the least sense with a closed panel for noise it's a solid performer for radiators if not a smidge louder than the silent wings 3 in that environment the noctua nff12 showed the weakest airflow and noise performance overall and given its similar price tag to the other fans on this list perhaps another one of the brand's models should be considered if you're hell-bent on the noctua or nothing lifestyle but that's going to do it for this one guys let me know what you thought of the data i thought was some really interesting findings really cool results let me know what you think of the new t30 and which of these fans out of the four would you put in your build and why let me know down below as always if you were a fan of this video make sure to toss a like on it before you go and get subscribed to the channel for more tech content coming at you really soon as always thank you so much for watching have a good one and i'll see y'all in the next video youall right so today i'm going to be testing out the airflow and noise performance between four very popular fans or i guess i should say three popular fans and one new fan that you may or may not have may or may not have heard of by now uh it's the phanteks t30 120 they just came out with this it's 120 millimeter fan but it's 30 millimeters thick which is 5 millimeters thicker of course than the vast majority of fans out there so just bear that in mind right off the bat if you are going to pick up one of these at some point uh that you make sure you have enough clearance in your case because they are a bit thicker than your average fan but the other fans we'll be testing today are the noctua nff12 as well as the corsair ml120 pro and the silent wings 3 from be quiet which i already have mounted right here on our testing kit this testing kit is kind of what sparked the the idea for this whole video it was sent over by fantech's along with their their new t30 fans and uh it's actually a way to objectively measure airflow and noise between fans so i thought that was kind of interesting and uh thought it'd be a fun opportunity to share the results with you guys so um the way this sort of works i guess i'll just explain this uh right now you can see that on one end of this tube it's basically a long tunnel on one end you have whatever fan you're testing and you can test it in a variety of configurations i'll be testing four different environments today right now there's actually i don't know if you can tell there's a radiator mounted on it behind the fan right now in a push configuration to add some resistance to this particular test with the kit came these panels that you can slap onto the front of any fan you're testing in order to create environments of varying restriction levels so this one right here is sort of like a mesh front panel of a case that that also has like sort of a built-in dust filter it's a very fine mesh on one side and then more open on the other very popular very commonly used in a lot of cases and then the other panel that we'll be testing with is just a completely front solid panel that does have ventilation on either side so i'll actually be testing each of these fans in four different scenarios today the first of which being unrestricted which means nothing on either side of the fan just the fan completely bare no radiator nothing and that's not really realistic because in most builds you're not going to have a case where or a scenario where there's absolutely nothing on either side of the fan but it's still kind of interesting to get that data to figure out where each of these um how these fans stack up against each other in a completely bare bones environment when they're just standing alone the next scenario is with uh with this panel the the mesh mesh and dust filter obviously no radiator but just this panel right up front then the one after that is with the closed panel and then the fourth and final test i'll be or environment i'll be testing these fans in is with the radiator and the mesh front panel installed uh between those four tests we should be able to get a wide variety of data regardless of environment so we can sort of gauge you know how good a fan performs as a case fan versus a radiator fan uh versus up against a mesh dust filter and that sort of thing so now i'm essentially going to be using two different testing methods today one to measure noise and another to measure air flow the first of which uh measuring noise is considered an airflow normalized test wherein by i basically tune each fan i'll have it hooked up to this knock to a fan controller and that's got a little dial on it i'll basically tune each fan until it hits my target fpm or feet per minute essentially how much air each fan is moving through this tunnel and i'm going to be measuring fpm with this anemometer i believe that's how it's pronounced maybe not but this anemometer is actually fixed to the other end of this tube it's got a little propeller on it and it spins as as the air flows through it and it gives me an output in feet per minute i'm also going to be converting that to cfm later uh in case you guys want to see those numbers as well and then basically once i have each fan um tuned to that fpm which i've set as 400 400 feet per minute is the target that i'm going for then i bust out my sound meter put it uh the same distance away from the fan for each test and then i record the maximum decibel reading within a 30 second period in order to gauge just how loud the fan is operating at that fpm one thing to note is that i did run one test with a target fpm of 350 as opposed to 400 and that was actually what this does but the radiator and the mesh dust filter mainly because one of these fans or maybe even two of them i think it was either the noctua and the silent wings 3 or both of them were unable to achieve an fpm of 400 in this particular environment because there's just so much restriction involved so for that particular test the target fpm was was set to 350 but for all the other ones in the airflow normalized test uh the fpm that we're going for is 400. then the second method which we're using to test airflow is essentially a noise normalized test where we kind of do the same thing that we just did but in reverse so i set up the fan and i bust out the sound meter and i use the noctua fan controller in order to tune the fan until we hit a target decibel rating a maximum target decibel rating which i've designated as 50 db so once the fan's at 50 decibels consistently then i measure the the fpm that the fan is actually putting out and that'll allow us to objectively compare the airflow performance between each fan at a given acoustic level i should also mention that all the while i'll also be recording the uh the rpm of each fan through the bios uh the maximum rpm that any particular fan being tested hits within a 30 second period so uh that's what we're doing today i've actually already done all the testing i spent a good many many hours testing all these fans and the results are really interesting so i'm actually pretty excited to share them with you guys why don't we check them out now before we continue this video is brought to you by kiocsia keyoxia actually has a rich history in the tech industry as being the inventor of nand flash memory but they also have a full lineup of ssds for pretty much any occasion whether you're looking to drop an nvme drive into an enterprise data center or a crypto mining rig uh gaming piece i meant to say son of a with competitive pcie gen 3x4 speeds the bg4 and xg6 series are well suited for gaming systems while the cd6 and cm6 feature leading edge pcie gen 4 performance for milan and ice like servers to learn more about everything kiosks has to offer click on the link in the description below alright so first looking at our airflow normalized test where we're measuring noise we're comparing noise right now between these fans the first test i ran here was the unrestricted environment nothing on either side of the fan just pure naked fannis and the target fpm again was 400 fpm and you can see here that the phanteks t30 actually took the lead getting a dba or a decibel rating of 37.8 which is significantly quieter than any other fan here um you can see that there's just a huge gap almost 12 13 14 decibels difference between the t30 and the next quietest fan which was the silent wings three uh at 50.7 decibels so still very quiet but obviously the phanteks the t30 is in a completely different class at this point um and you can see it's still it's operating at the lowest rpm out of the group 754 rpm uh something to note really quick about the silent wings three is that it definitely had the the wildest rpm swings out of the four fans here um most of the other actually all the other fans only range you know they kind of bounced around 5 10 rpm plus or minus thereabouts whereas the silent wings 3 i was seeing swings i was seeing rpm swings upwards of like 50 rpm at times but it still manages to stay consistently quiet despite that um which is kind of surprising but just something to note there it was bouncing around rpms bouncing around all over the place with the silent wings three and then the uh the next quietest fan or the next loudest fan at this point i guess would be the noctua nf f12 at 51 decibels probably margin of error right here just about as quiet as the silent wings 3 when unrestricted and then the corsair ml-120 pro which had the the highest rpm out of the out of the group as you can see 862 rpm was also the loudest in this particular environment at 52.4 decibels i would take you know out of all the tests that we're running today this is probably the one the unrestricted test is the one i would take with the biggest grain of salt just because it's it's not very common in a build where you're not going to have anything on either side of the fan maybe in like the most open open-air chassis build or something if the fan's just kind of suspended and hanging there at that point you know if it's that open of a chassis then airflow is probably not as important but just something to bear in mind and kind of interesting to see the data here next step we have also with the airflow normalized test the mesh and dust filter so the mesh and dust filter panel no radio or anything like that and you can see here that the phantek t30 once again takes the lead albeit by a smaller margin this time 50.7 db with the silent wings three coming in second place again actually tying for second with the corsair ml120 pro getting a decibel readout of 54.7 that is notably louder than the t30 um but uh but and as you can see the t30 definitely ramped up in in volume um once it was faced with a bit of restriction finishing last in this test was the noctua nf f12 getting a decibel readout of 56.5 and an rpm of 1069 um not too much louder than silent wings three and ml 120 pro but definitely the loudest in this particular test um it's also worth noting that once again the phanteks t30 is running at the lowest rpm out of the group most likely due to the fact that it's got thicker blades um just a bigger chassis bigger fan design in general it's able to spin slightly slower while still delivering really good acoustic performance the third test of course is the closed panel so this is completely closed off uh the most choked for airflow i would say out of the bunch um and you can see here the t30 once again topping the charts at 51 decibels it remained significantly quieter once again than the other three fans um silent wings three showing pretty consistent performance as being the runner-up behind the t30 in terms of noise output 56.9 decibel readout versus 58.8 on the ml 120 pro and the noctua nf f12 getting 58.9 margin of error here these are pretty much similar i would say uh between these two fans but again the noctua nff12 is looking like the loudest fan on this list so far especially when you're introducing lots of restriction into the equation and then finally we have the radiator plus the mesh dust filter front panel remember this is at a slightly lower target fpm of 350. unsurprisingly at this point t30 comes in first place with the quietest readout of 52.4 silent wings three in second with 55.4 and then we have the nff12 actually outpacing the ml 120 pro here uh just slightly at 55.6 with the ml 120 and dead last so clearly the ml 120 pro makes for the loudest radiator fan in the bunch but of course noise is just one aspect of today's testing we also have to look at airflow so this is our noise normalized test where we're measuring airflow between fans and as you can see here um we actually have i have the cfm conversion uh based on the volume of of the tunnel um so i was able to do some simple math which is according to the fantek's guidebook is 0.132 uh just times the the fpm and that gives you your cfm readout there so right out of the gate the phanteks t30 was the top airflow performer with 466 fpm or 61.5 cfm and that's uh i wouldn't say a landslide because trailing right behind it is the ml 120 pro at 454 fpm which is right hot on the heels of the t30 again this is probably the least valuable test being completely unrestricted but something worth noting in third place we have the silent wings 3 with an fpm of 428 and finishing dead last in this test was the noctua nf f12 with an fpm of 402. and also notice the really low rpm of our mff 12 here compared to the other fans mainly because as we just saw this is the noisiest fan out of the bunch and so it's really not able to ramp up much higher than this without overshooting our target of 50 decibels hence the the lower airflow readout next up we have our mesh and dust filter test and you can see here the t30 once again tops the charts with 399 fpm or a cfm of 52.6 followed by the corsair ml120 pro giving us a readout of 374. that's also pretty much within earshot of the t30 and then we have silent wings three once again in third place with 340 fpm or a cfm of 44.88 and then finally unsurprisingly the nff12 finishes last uh with the lowest airflow performance at our target decibel rating when we switched over to a closed panel in order to mimic a choked off front panel of a case uh we saw the t30 still outperform the rest getting an fpm of 407 this time it really outpaces the others by a lot which just goes to show it's got a lot of good static pressure because the closed panel is is really right up against the fan blades and i think the the thicker form factor of the t30 really helps in this area along with the faint the fan blade design and stuff but then you can see here tied for a second actually was the silent wings 3 and the ml 120 pro so where where the ml 120 pro does really well in a mesh and dust filter environment it kind of crumbles when it's up against a choked off panel of a case um i wouldn't say it's terrible performance but it's notably worse performance than when it has a little bit more breathing room and then the nf12 actually kind of not too far off from from the other two fans here that it's between this is definitely margin of error but still was showing the lowest fpm of 330 or a cfm of 43.5 and for the record kind of opposite of what we just saw with the nff 12 notice how the rpm of the t30 is much higher than the other fans uh and it's able to hit that because it's such a quiet fan it's it's it's ramping up to a much higher rpm without overshooting the target noise level which explains why it's able to deliver so much airflow even in a really restrictive environment and our final test measuring airflow is our radiator and mesh dust filter test and you can see here that the t30 once again is at the top 363 fpm or a cfm of 47.9 although this time the rpm of this fan is not notably higher it's actually lower than some of the other fans on this list compared to the previous test i think that's just because with so much static pressure requirement on either side of the fan now with the radiator in one end and the mesh dust filter on the other um that really puts a lot of restriction on the fan and more or less creates more turbulence which is going to increase the noise output so the fan couldn't really spin much faster than this without going over uh that 50 decibel rating in second place we have a tie between the silent wings 3 and the ml 120 pro they each got 319 fpm so pretty uh pretty much on par with each other in terms of airflow performance here when paired with the radiator and mesh dust filter and finally finishing last you might have guessed it is the noctua nf f12 with a cfm of 40 and an fpm of 304 and once again we can see that really low rpm indicating that compared to the other fans that we're testing today the nff 12 is definitely the loudest all right so summing up all the data that we just gathered the phanteks t30 was the quietest fan in all scenarios by a landslide i think it's the unit's thickness and and blade design that really allows it to run at a lower rpm than the other fans at a lower noise level which puts it in a class of its own as i keep on saying because it's true it ran impressively quiet at pretty much any degree of restriction which makes it the obvious first choice if acoustics are a top priority noise wise the runner-up was the be quiet silent wings 3. while its performance isn't in the same class as the phanteks t30 it does consistently beat out the other fans in this area while delivering the same amount of airflow despite having the biggest rpm swings of any fan it offered excellent acoustics across all restriction levels making it pretty much just as versatile as the phanteks t30 the corsair ml120 pro and noctua nf12 tie for being the noisiest fans in all environments with both being especially loud when mounted against a solid case panel the nff 12 rivals the noise levels of the silent wings 3 when unrestricted making it a viable option as a quiet case fan if it's faced with zero restrictions but as we've said that's an uncommon scenario in most builds the ml 120 pro tested to be the loudest radiator fan in the bunch albeit this was by a small margin behind the nff 12 and silent wings 3. when it comes to airflow the phantek t30 leads in this area as well the corsair ml120 pro gets within striking distance of it when unrestricted or in a mesh and dust filter environment but the t30 soars ahead in more heavily static pressurized scenarios such as behind a closed off case panel or strapped to a radiator the results show us that the t30 is pretty much the best performer when it comes to both airflow and acoustics again thanks to its beefy size and design the airflow runner-up is more or less a tie between the ml 120 pro from corsair and the be quiet silent wings 3 where the ml120 lacks in acoustics it compensates with being able to move lots of air when restricted particularly when mounted to a mesh panel with a dust filter it trounces the silent wings three but the silent wings three keeps pace with it elsewhere and it runs consistently quieter in all environments the noctua nf f12 delivered the worst air flow performance among its peers to be fair it's never too far behind the ml120 pro and silent wings 3 but it's also tied for being the loudest fan here making it the last recommendation unless you really favor its aesthetics above all else the final verdict between our four test subjects the fantex t3120 was hands down the best performer in both airflow and acoustics regardless of restriction level so whether you need a fan for your case or a radiator it's the clear choice if you just want the best of the best but you'll need to be wary of its additional thickness posing any clearance issues in my opinion the runner up here overall is the be quiet silent wings 3 for its versatile performance while staying nice and quiet despite its sweeping rpm contrasting the silent wings 3's flexibility the corsair ml120 pro makes the most sense against a dust filter and mesh surface for airflow and the least sense with a closed panel for noise it's a solid performer for radiators if not a smidge louder than the silent wings 3 in that environment the noctua nff12 showed the weakest airflow and noise performance overall and given its similar price tag to the other fans on this list perhaps another one of the brand's models should be considered if you're hell-bent on the noctua or nothing lifestyle but that's going to do it for this one guys let me know what you thought of the data i thought was some really interesting findings really cool results let me know what you think of the new t30 and which of these fans out of the four would you put in your build and why let me know down below as always if you were a fan of this video make sure to toss a like on it before you go and get subscribed to the channel for more tech content coming at you really soon as always thank you so much for watching have a good one and i'll see y'all in the next video you\n"