be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 120 mm PWM Fan

[VSG]

be quiet! updates its successful Silent Wings 3 lineup of premium PC case and radiator fans with the new Silent Wings 4. Today we examine the Silent Wings Pro 4 120 mm that aims to be a master of all trades, offering multiple RPM operating modes on top of an updated fan design for improved performance while still being quiet.

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[Voodoo Rufus]

Nice writeup. I think I would step down to the non-Pro to save a few bucks while dropping the fan speed switch. I'd just let the PWM signal handle it all. Look like nice fans.

 

[VSG]

Nice writeup. I think I would step down to the non-Pro to save a few bucks while dropping the fan speed switch. I'd just let the PWM signal handle it all. Look like nice fans.

Yeah the reason I went with these fans for review is so it helps cover everything in the Silent Wings 4 120 mm fan lineup and then you can decide whether you need the extra speed levels or not.

 

[Space Lynx]

$30 per fan. yikes.

 

[P4-630]

$30 per fan. yikes.

That's about what I've paid for a Noctua a12x25 PWM.

 

[wheresmycar]

inaudible, solid performance and built to last, im interested!

£30 is a little on the heavy side.... but nice to see more top performing all-black non-RGB options.,

 

[ARF]

Inaudible should be a must. Noisy fans such as the Arctic BioniX 120 should be banned with a law.

 

[Space Lynx]

Inaudible should be a must. Noisy fans such as the Arctic BioniX 120 should be banned with a law.

I have no experience with those, but I have the Arctic 120mm fans called STORM, and I quite like them. I am no fan expert though, but they work good for my needs. I got 3 of them for 27 bucks i think it was.

 

[evernessince]

I have no experience with those, but I have the Arctic 120mm fans called STORM, and I quite like them. I am no fan expert though, but they work good for my needs. I got 3 of them for 27 bucks i think it was.

Arctic fans are pretty good for the money. The packs they sell are great to just have around.

 

[TechLurker]

Does this have a larger fan motor, akin to the A12x25 and GTs? It seems to look like it from the images.

 

[wheresmycar]

Inaudible should be a must. Noisy fans such as the Arctic BioniX 120 should be banned with a law.

never tried them... Arctic P series have for a long time been my faves for budget PWM fans. For the price, amazing performance. Not long ago i did a build for someone with 6 of them (mix of 120/140mm variants), settled with a marginally lower fan curve without compromising performance/thermals and the end result = INAUDIBLE!

 

[VSG]

Does this have a larger fan motor, akin to the A12x25 and GTs? It seems to look like it from the images.

This one has the speed switch in so that takes some space. The motor itself seems to be the same size as on the Silent Wings 3.

 

[regs]

Looks like another copy of Nidec Gentle Typhoon now

 

[Chrispy_]

It's too expensive.

You're going to need half a dozen of these in your case and now we're talking $186 because nobody is spending $31 a fan and leaving the $3 included fans that come free with their case/AIO.

Would you honestly pick these over NF-A12x25 Chromax or Phanteks T30? They're not that good and the biggest reason not to buy them is cheaper competition from BeQuiet's own portfolio.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Just an idea here. Since the 38mm thick fan space is basically unoccupied in the PC realm now, what about reviewing a 120x38mm Delta PWM 12V (AFB1212SHE for example) fan to see if any of the 25mm or 30mm fans come close in performance to see how much we are missing?

 

[Oberon]

Looks like another copy of Nidec Gentle Typhoon now

People say this about literally anything with thin blades, a higher blade count, and a relatively aggressive profile. There are several fans that are quite a bit better than the old GT now.

 

[mechtech]

Inaudible should be a must. Noisy fans such as the Arctic BioniX 120 should be banned with a law.

My PC is still running Scythe s-flex or something with FDB bearings that start at about 4V-5V and max 900rpm. I keep reusing them. All black. They have got to be about 15 years old now and still running flawless. Think I got them after reading a review on xbit labs or something.

 

[Chrispy_]

My PC is still running Scythe s-flex or something with FDB bearings that start at about 4V-5V and max 900rpm. I keep reusing them. All black. They have got to be about 15 years old now and still running flawless. Think I got them after reading a review on xbit labs or something.

"Peak fan" keeps getting better, but the improvements are minute and infrequent. Decade-old "peak fans" are still 96% as good or something like that. Even some budget fans are contenders at 600-1000rpm.

The last decade has mostly been RGBLED bullshit and marketing guff.

 

[erocker]

Good fan but it's really overpriced.

 

[Chrispy_]

Just an idea here. Since the 38mm thick fan space is basically unoccupied in the PC realm now, what about reviewing a 120x38mm Delta PWM 12V (AFB1212SHE for example) fan to see if any of the 25mm or 30mm fans come close in performance to see how much we are missing?

As someone who deals with those Delta fans all day every day, it would be ugly (for the Deltas)
They are designed solely for airflow, which is the exact opposite of PC fans which are designed for quietness.

Everyone knows you can get phenomenal cooling by running a 120mm fan at 6000rpm, regardless of other details. The real question is whether you'd want to be in the same room as such a fan. There's a reason datacentres provide earplugs to any poor techs that need to service/intstall/remove/replace anything.

25mm fan frames are where the consumer PC compatilbility lies, which is why 99.x% of all fans target that size and why most of the design and research efforts go for 25mm thick. I would also like to see more effort put towards noise-normalised performance at 30mm, 38mm etc - but it's such a tiny niche that we're barely even scratching the surface with stuff like the Phanteks T30.

 

[Rx771]

One more Gentle Typhoon, everybody become Gentle Typhoon.
Congratulation, the 120mm fan stop progress from now, and keep using a tens years-old prototype.

 

[ymdhis]

My PC is still running Scythe s-flex or something with FDB bearings that start at about 4V-5V and max 900rpm. I keep reusing them. All black. They have got to be about 15 years old now and still running flawless. Think I got them after reading a review on xbit labs or something.

Didn't the bearings become more noisy? Once the bearings get used up, the fan starts having a pulsing "whoop whoop whoop" noise even at low RPM. It's not a very loud thing when compared to high rpm fans, but it can make a difference at low rpm at night.

 

[mechtech]

They are fluid dynamic bearings or Sony fdb I think.

No. No change in noise, but, they typically run about 550-650rpm and my pc is completely shut down unless I’m using it. So probably get a lot more years out of these fans yet.

 

[Mussels]

I think i'll happily settle on these as my non-RGB fans of choice

 

[maxfly]

You can drive yourself nutty researching case/rad fans these days. It's a beautiful thing.
These are nice. Another to add to the list at least but who knows what wins out in the end. There are soo many sexy options.
It seems like $25 to $30 a pop has been the norm for quite a while. Thankfully there are very solid cheapies to balance things out. Otherwise budget builds would be up the creek.