The people at be quiet! sell you the retail fans with what they call “anti-vibration fittings” as well. They say, “Removable anti-vibration mountings on all four edges of the fan reduce vibrations transmitted to the PC case to an absolute minimum.” The corner fittings look nice, but because I never had them in hand I can only say the the pictures from be quiet have the fittings looking nice.

Undoubtedly the fans are an integral factor in minimizing the noise levels of the products in the be quiet! portfolio.Specially developed Silent Wings and other be quiet! fans are used throughout all product ranges. They are equipped with a variety of noise-reducing features, such as special bearings, smooth motors, optimized airflow and vibration decoupling. Thanks to these fans be quiet! products attain a perfect balance of ideal cooling performance and virtually inaudible operation. The fans were installed with what be quiet! calls “hard plastic fittings” on the corners. Belying their name they have rubber cores designed to attenuate vibrations. To finish the job they fasten these fans with rubber washers. Installed fans close up A Closer Look be quiet! SilentWings fans stand for state-of-the-art technology, virtually inaudible operation and superior cooling. The third generation of this award-winning fan series offers unrivalled and uncompromising performance with a broad range of meticulous optimisations. They feature a smooth-running 6-pole motor, an advanced fluid-dynamic bearing, a unique airflow-optimised fan blade design and a fan frame with funnel-shaped air inlets. The six poles of the motor produce a smoother transition between the magnetic poles. This results in very low vibration and silent operation with less energy consumption.

The only other problem to consider is that occasionally, components immediately adjacent to the motherboard fan header can get in the way of the larger 4-pin fan connector, physically preventing connection. This problem also occurs if you try to use an in-line fan speed controller such as the one made by Gelid. But all in all there's definitely something to like here for PC gamers. Fans are an often overlooked piece of any PC build, but they really make a difference to your PC gaming experience, both in terms of cooling performance and noise. It's good to see some firm competition (namely from Noctua) keeping manufacturers striving for more. that's interesting... exactly what i use Will for sure investigate a bit further... Thank you very much for that information, had no clue about that! We received the three as part of a Dark Base Pro 900 case, two intakes behind a dust filter in front and one exhaust. Fans Behind Filter 3 Fans in Case And all the fans are built with PBT, the same plastic that's best for gaming keyboard keycaps. Be Quiet says in their testing these fans worked just fine for really long periods, and say that even for four of more years of maximum RPM, there shouldn't be any sign of impeller creep. That's basically when the constant spinning and centrifugal forces on the blades causes them to stretch out, which, you might have guessed, isn't ideal.

To make the SilentWings 3 into an absolute high-end product, be quiet! utilizes an advanced fluid-dynamic bearing with a brass core. The combined technology in this fan allows a lifespan of 300,000 hours. This applies to all four variants of the two available sizes (120 and 140 millimeters): be quiet! offers the SilentWings 3 in a 3-pin and PWM variant, and these are both also available as High-Speed editions. So the 1000 RPM slow speed version is not a radiator fan. For that one should try the highspeed version that nominally runs at 1650 RPM. But let us now look at the PWM control:

Characteristics

On the intake side the air tube flares at the corners to make the “funnel-shaped air inlets” previously noted. This corner shaping is in aid of static pressure. On the exhaust side, the air path is a straight tube. Intake and Exhaust Views The headquarters are located in Glinde near Hamburg. Since 2002, here is where all products have been conceived and designed, and quality inspections and controls have been carried out. This is how be quiet! ensures that all products meet the high standards. Regular awards in categories such as "Best Fan", "Best Power Supply", "Best Cooler" and "Best PC Case" from specialized media as well as a high level of customer satisfaction ensure healthy and steady growth. Compare both of those to the Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM, our favourite PC fan, at 100.6 m³/h at 1,200 RPM, and you're likely looking at running the Silent Wings at a higher RPM to match that airflow rate. But with the Silent Wings Pro 4 you really can crank up the RPM something fierce if you don't care for the noise.

A speed range under PWM of greater than 500 %! Quite the range. If the highspeed version of the SW3 is like this it will be a fabulous rad fan. Availability and Price SW3 fans were originally designed by BeQuiet to be used with their cases, which included additional circuitry to "pull up" the pwm signals applied to them to 5 volt levels (you couldn't control pwm SW3s using the Aquaero unless you added additional circuitry to raise pwm signal levels to 5V; a similar issue was experienced using pwm pumps with the Aquaero). This was determined by IT DIVA on OCN, and she eventually designed an addon circuit that provided properly spec'd pullup resistance. These are excellent results for fans that came in a case. Usually cases come with pretty cheap fans. The fans we received with the Dark Base Pro 900 were premium fans. The retail versions of the Silent Wings 3 are even more premium than that, coming with both kinds of corner fittings, providing those users who like to fiddle with things something to fiddle with. be quiet! lives up to its name: 20years experience in the field of noise reduction and silence make be quiet! products probably the most silent on the market.

Some comments on their features: Most fans have four poles. In their PDF about these fans, be quiet! says that six poles contribute to a smoother transition between magnetic poles, less vibration, reduced power consumption and low start-up voltage. On the other hand, this usually is found only in more expensive fans. Fluid dynamic bearings are an expensive option. FDB adds to the cost of a fan. Frame-shaping we have seen before. Specifications The Silent Wings 3 are quiet fans. Their airflow is about mid-range but they are among the quieter case fans. Arguably with the other corner mounts, it would be quieter still.