Difference between different fan bearings ?

[EsaT]

I just buy Noctua. It might not be the absolute best performance, but I know what I'm getting. And I don't want to experiment.

Noctua is lots of expensive marketing hype.
Their original entry to fans was so quiet only because it could move air only to "downwind" with slightest impedance bringing airflow crashing down.
With design having been pretty much custom made to fool impeller anemometers into giving completely inflated numbers:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article734-page1.html

And while following NF-P12 and NF-F12 are actually capable to moving air against impedance those have bad vibration problems causing noise when attaching them to case.
Unless they pick up the worst, discarded in end of manufacturing line, individuals to bundle with heatsinks.
Basically haven't had any other fan having as bad vibrations as those two.

When reading box or advertised specs... remember when politicians and marketing professionals go to college they minormajor in "deceiving the public"

You had typo in there...
Only trustworthy thing in fan specs is size and rough RPM.

The reality is, you don't have to spend a fortune. You should avoid the budget models, but no need to buy the most expensive either.

If noise/performance per noise isn't important then really any fan works.
Some just need to be run at higher RPM to have same airflow...

 

[Athlonite]

Rifle bearing fans are quieter and have longer lifespan. The bearing has a spiral groove in it that pumps fluid from a reservoir. This allows them to be safely mounted horizontally, since the fluid being pumped lubricates the top of the shaft. The pumping also ensures sufficient lubricant on the shaft, reducing noise, and increasing lifespan. on the other hand,
Fluid bearing fans runs more-silent operation and high life expectancy. However, these fans tend to be the most expensive.

You'd expect that would be the case but unfortunately it just isn't so all the time, I've had several different riffle bearing fans fail within 6 months of being bought 2 of which were on HIS Video cards so now I use all gentle Typhoons where 120mm fans are required they're rated for 1850rpm so give good perf / noise performance and until I can find replacements for the 3 x 180mm Silverstone case fans they'll remain where they are pushing 300cfm up into my case the only problem with them is they're a shit to clean as they're the Air Penetrator variety so have an air guide grill on them really good fans but shit when it came time to clean em

 

[agent_x007]

I exchanged all my case fans (4x 120mm + 2x 140mm), to "Nanoflux" bearing ones (magnetic) few years back.
All fans work fine (Phobya/Gelid).
One fan that got me worried was Enermax UCTB (oldest magnetic type I own, and bought used even before rest).
It started to rattle a lot after cpu heated up (mounted in my sisters PC).
I guess you have to lubricate shaft's tip at some point or else it's metal on metal action...
After that fan worked fine, and does so to this day.
PS. I had bad experience when dust killed two of my case fans.
That's when I decided to go magnetic on case fans (easy bearing cleaning is easy ).
For my CPU cooling, I use Push-Pull with Delta FFC1212DE and AFB1212SHE (both are double ball bearing, apparently).

 

[Octopuss]

Why did you buy them first and asked afterwards?

 

[maxab19]

Are rifle bearing fans more reliable than double ball bearing fans?

 

[Athlonite]

Are rifle bearing fans more reliable than double ball bearing fans?

no they are not

 

[Shrek]

For interests sake, not to start an argument: I seem to recall sleeve fans can last longer when the fan is vertical (the bearing horizontal)

The Basics of Case Fan Bearings - Which Bearing is Best? | GamersNexus - Gaming PC Builds & Hardware Benchmarks
"Sleeve fans will 'live' significantly longer when mounted vertically due to their internal lubrication system"

In my experience, those bearing I could get to seems not to have much lubricant, so I flood them with fully synthetic engine oil (10W-30)

Now it might be argued

• Engine oil is too thick
• One should use an oil without detergents

but I am happy with this solution.

 

[Ferrum Master]

For interests sake, not to start an argument: I seem to recall sleeve fans can last longer when the fan is vertical (the bearing horizontal)

The Basics of Case Fan Bearings - Which Bearing is Best? | GamersNexus - Gaming PC Builds & Hardware Benchmarks
"Sleeve fans will 'live' significantly longer when mounted vertically due to their internal lubrication system"

In my experience, those bearing I could get to seems not to have much lubricant, so I flood them with fully synthetic engine oil (10W-30)

Now it might be argued

• Engine oil is too thick
• One should use an oil without detergents

but I am happy with this solution.

Prf...

Are you aware of dry lubricants, do you?

 

[Shrek]

The fan manufacturers don't seem to use dry lubricants.

 

[Ferrum Master]

The fan manufacturers don't seem to use dry lubricants.

How do you know?

 

[Bill_Bright]

FTR, this is thread that was dormant for 3 1/2 years and was just suspiciously necroed from the deep by a new poster making a single post.

Also for the record, like just about everything else in life, not all are equal.

I don't mean bearings in general. I mean specific bearings. That is, there are poor quality sleeve bearings and there are very high quality, high precision sleeve bearings. Just as there are poorly made ball bearings, and there are precision ball bearings.

It makes no sense whatsoever to buy a fan just because it has a certain type of bearing. Other very significant factors include noise and CFM.

To be sure, I hate fan noise. I mean I REALLY HATE fan noise. So do I buy the quietest fans around? Nope! Why? Because I never ever spin my fans at maximum speeds - therefore, they never ever produce maximum noise. If I need to push my fans to maximum speeds to achieve sufficient CFM to reach desired cooling, I either bought the wrong fans or I need to install more fans.

I also buy quality cases which (1) provide for lots of fan options and (2) suppress fan noise.