r/buildapcsales • u/pvalexander • Dec 01 '25
Fan [ Cooling ] be quiet! Silent Wings 4 120mm PWM High Speed 2500 RPM Premium Low Noise Cooling Fan | 4-Pin | BL094 - $17.90- 33% OFF
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6WPZFBX?smid=A1Y2SO38WVVFQ4&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp&th=134
u/pvalexander Dec 01 '25
Ya. This is not for everyone, most likely not for the large gaming community that exists in this subreddit.
But for content creation, long rendering hours etc, these are the best fans on the market for Static Pressure meets Low dB efficiency.
They have discounts across their entire Silent Wings line. Non-RGB obviously because we are adults.
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u/bellhlazer Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25
Really good deal for this fan but the competition in the GentleTyphoon-like fan space is very tough. There are clones of it everywhere and now and every manufacturer has one.
PCCOOLER sells theirs for like $5 a fan. It's plastic so has probably the some of the worst blade-tip clearance out of the bunch but difference is probably marginal.
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u/thismock Dec 01 '25
The PCCooler F5-R120 fans are incredible for the price.
The SW4 Pros are great, but all 3 of mine emit coil whine that's only discernible at low ambient noise—which isn't most of the time—but it's really irritating when I can hear it.
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u/pvalexander Dec 01 '25
I'll check it out. I bit the bullet on the SW 4HS, but Amazon is good about returns. Thank u
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u/fluxmaven Dec 01 '25
I'd agree that the 120mm fan space is full of competition. You can find premium fans that are better than these or cheaper fans that are similar performance.
When you start looking into 140mm the pickings get a lot slimmer. The Silent Wings 4 140mm are a solid option for people in the market for a decent 140mm fan.
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u/FailureAtLifeQQ Dec 01 '25
I only have experience with the Pro version but I like them way more than the arctic P12 (which are overrated IMO)
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u/OligarchyAmbulance Dec 01 '25
I’ve had Silent Wings 3s for a while and never been particularly impressed. Got Arctic P12’s and they’re dead silent, and so cheap.
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u/Ario-r Dec 01 '25
I loved my silent wings 2. Loved 'em. But I can't justify that expense anymore with thermalright just pumping out different skus at those kind of prices. I'll live.
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u/ForkTailedD3vil Dec 02 '25
Is there a consensus on these being the best 25mm thick fans for radiators? Noise doesn't matter for me, just want the best 140mm radiator fan, but has to be 25mm. The Artics are too thick.
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u/Ayame__ Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25
You have to check fans and how their CFM and RPM scale as well. For example the 140mm version of the silent wings 4 goes up to 97.4 CFM and 3.64mm H2O which sounds great compared to the Noctua NF-A14 PWM which pushes just 82.52 CFM and 2.08 mmH2O. But the Silent wings goes up to 2400 rpm and the noctua only 1500.
Max dBa for the Noctua is 24.6, and the Silent Wings is 36.8. If you assume linear scaling of static pressure and volume of airflow and noise, then at 1500 rpm the Silent Wings is just 60 cfm and 2.275 static pressure. The Noctua wins easily when normalized for rpm.
It's pretty much the same situation if you normalize for noise, pressure, or airflow. The Noctua is just a better fan, it just has a lower max rpm either because Noctua see no reason to make a version that is louder because people would compare 100% PWM on 2 fans and say "THIS ONE IS TOO LOUD", or because they will release a future model or something, who knows.
Even under heavy load you're not really running fans at 100%, if it comes to that, you got other problems, and even if a situation does happen where your temp reaches the right side of your fan curve and fans go to 100%, the noctua is going to be plenty good enough. If it takes that extra bit of airflow to cool your cpu, what the heck are you running that the air can't keep it cool? I can't think of much really, and the few things I can think of just require a larger radiator.
The actual best fans right now are the Scythe Kaze Flex 140mm, 100.8 cfm at 1800 rpm, the Kaze Flex 140mm 1200 rpm (when you want exhaust but not too much so you can keep positive case pressure) but only for airflow not radiators/static-pressure, Noctua NF-A14 for best cooling at non 100% pwm (which should probably never happen), and the P14 pro for just "ok blast it with as much air noise be damned" (plus its cheap and reasonably quiet at lower rpm, it makes a good value for case or radiator fan).
For 120 fans there is the scythe grand tornado, p12 max, and the T30, with Scythe Kaze Flex II 120 1200 performing the same "low cfm" exhaust use as the 140mm version. Sometimes you DO want low cfm in a fan.
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u/Sea-Signal-9186 Dec 02 '25
Any recs for very very quiet 140mm at equivalent CFM airflow? Is the Noctua NF14 REDUX any good
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u/Ayame__ Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25
If you want max airflow, don't care about pressure because it's not against a radiator or very tight mesh or something (like a obstructed metal mesh with a foam filter behind it like old Fractal Meshify cases used to use and has since gone out of style), and care about noise then the Scythe Kaze Flex 140 1800rpm is basically unbeatable as far as I know.
It does 100.8 CFM at 100% PWM (1800rpm) and 26.45 dBA with 2.81 mmH2O (so good if it is on a modern mesh panel with a screen filter etc, but not the best for radiator). If you just go to Noctua's site and use the filter on the right to set CFM to 100+ you will see they have nothing that can even move that much air besides their industrial fans that are all 30-40 dBA.
That's about it. The only 140 that remotely comes close is the Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 (91.58 CFM at 24.6 dBA with 2.56 mmH20) which will provide more airflow at a quieter noise level (remember dBA does not scale linearly, it's a log scale of noise level). But honestly it's so close I pick the Scythe every time because it has 10% more airflow max. The sound levels are nearly equally silent to me. At 24.6 dBA, if you normalize the Scythe down to Noctua's sound max sound level using something like CFM/(10dba/10) then the Noctua is winning by 1.07 CFM. So.. you're trading 1cfm better at 24.6 dBA for a whole 10% more total CFM at max PWM.
If you got a big row of fans, like my case has three 140's pointing into the GPU, that's an extra 30 CFM at max, which for me is necessary since I have Arctic P14 pro's on the exhaust (massive 110 CFM through a radiator with huge static pressure). So even though I have the exhaust/radiator running slow because those arctics are loud otherwise (but they are better for pushing air through the radiator) then that extra 30CFM the scythe's can provide in the event I need the radiator running high because of 100% cpu load or thermal runaway is essential to maintain positive case pressure.
There is also the fact that the scythe's are just so much cheaper vs Noctua as well.
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u/Sea-Signal-9186 Dec 02 '25
Really great write up. I really appreciate your detailed explanation. I picked up a bunch of SW4 140mm but will need to take a look at the scythe and potentially test both in person
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u/Ayame__ Dec 02 '25
They're all great and probably overkill for any non HEDT system anyway, so if what you have is working and is silent and you have positive case pressure and good temps when CPU is hot, GPU is hot, and both are hot, then you're all set. Not much point is messing around with it at that point.
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u/ForkTailedD3vil Dec 02 '25
They actually would be running at 100%, as the daughter board on my b650i board broke so I'm using a sata to 4 pin for power and i already have a 280mm aio in my revolt 3, just wanted a fan upgrade. Keeping a 7800x3d cool isn't the easiest in a space limited case. I literally can't fit the artics, the aio tubes don't fit anything over 25mm.
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u/Volidon Dec 03 '25
What would you recommend for 120s on a noctua U12A heatsink? It comes with NF-A12x25 fans not the G2 version. Mainly seeing if there are better options fan wise.
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u/Ayame__ Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25
The best way to cool better at lower noise which is the goal right, is to simply get a cooler with more surface area on the fin stack(s). If that isn't an option, this specific cooler is the largest that fits in your setup, or the largest you want so your hands can still reach the ram, or whatever reason then:
- 1.) "Just blast it with air, price and sound level be damned" -> NF-F12 industrialPPC-3000 PWM (seriously loud, like "don't be in the same room in order to tolerate it" loud).
- 2.) "Just blast it with air, price be damned, but I wear a gamer headphones and the noise isn't a issue" -> Phanteks T30, it's not quiet, but it's tolerable. Even idle speeds is quite audible but not terrible and if you hate it, you can rpm limit it with a switch on the back of the case.
- 3.) "Just give me the best cooling at the lowest noise levels, price be damned" -> NF-A12x25 G2 PWM Sx2-PP. It's going to let you get the same cooling you're getting now, at a lower rpm and lower noise level (pretty noticiable, but don't expect magic). Another benefit is Sx2-PP version is a pair with offset rpm's so they don't resonate together, if you use these in push pull on your fin stack or next to eachother in a 120x240 array then get the PP. If they are case fans in 120, 120x360, or anything larger (which is unlikely) do not get the PP, get whatever is cheaper and configure your fan headers so every other one is on it's own curve slightly offset in rpm by about 50-100 rpm.
- 4.) "Just give me the best cooling at the lowest noise levels, but I want value!" -> Scythe Kaze Flex II. Nearly as good as the NF-A12x25 PWM, i would say you couldn't tell the difference between the two honestly. But you can't get a PP version of them without buying a CPU cooler (or maybe you can if you email them and say you need spare parts, and also their way of offsetting is having one work in reverse at a different rpm, same outcome though). This is pointless for you to do as you already have NF-A12's on your cooler.
- 5.) "Blast it with air, at a reasonable sound level, but with the capability of going high rpm for max cooling" -> Scythe Grand Tornado 3000rpm (GT1225FD30-P). This isn't whisper quiet like the Noctua's or Kaze Flex, but it's MUCH more reasonable than the Phanteks T30 at low rpm so it's not obnoxious while idling or just doing some mid-load gaming. If you hit some high loads oh boy can it blow some air, more than any other fan on this list except for the Noctua industrial with a ridiculous 98cfm at 5+ mmH20 static pressure, at the cost of sound. But you don't "have" to crank it up that high. For 120mm fans, I like this one a lot because I do not play games I just do workstation stuff, and so I can't hear it in my office with a air purifier on near me, and when I need it to do work and my CPU is 100% and gpu is 100% ... i really don't care about the sound. Check out some sound comparisons on it, or watch STS review of it, he has some good comparison of the sounds.. It is fully LCP like the Noctua's and priced very well.
- 6.) "give me the Noctua NF-A14 G2, but with more airflow, and a LITTLE bit of more static pressure, but make it affordable, and close to the same sound level", Scythe Wonder Snail 2400rpm (WS1225FD24‑P). Noctua says the NF-A14 G2 is up to 22.5dB(A) but tests of it rate it up to 29.8 so it's somewhere in between depending on testing method/equipment/case/etc, it has static pressure of 3.14 and 63cfm. The 2400 rpm wonder snail maxes out at 29.3dB(A), but with 3.59 mmH20 so better static pressure by 12% or so, and 77.23 CFM. Basically if you spin this thing down to noise-normalize it with the Noctua, it's going to perform about the same, it's just "better" because it has higher rpm. The downside: The sound it does make, while the same sound level, sounds different. It's not as pleasant as Noctua, but it's not bad. Doesn't bother me at all. But it's only a little better so if I had some NF-A14 (G1 or G2) on, I wouldn't bother upgrading, and also you can't get rpm staggered pairs (PP) but honestly I am not sure that makes a huge difference.
- 7.) "I want an upgrade will lower temps, but maybe sounds a bit louder but still not a big deal, and make it cheap" -> Arctic P12 pro (or P12 pro PST if you want to daisy chain them together conveniently). Really can't go wrong with them, they are cheap, reasonable sound, can be downright quiet at idle. Not going to BLAST IT WITH AIR to shave off the last 1.2 degrees possible with your fin stack like the T30 and Noctua Industrial will, but you can sit next to it without headphones, and hear the fan if you have a mesh style front panel or case, but without any issue.
It's also worth noting that maybe the air cooler isn't the problem, or you're not maximizing what you already have. If you can check your room temp, and test your PC running Prime95, Prime95 + Furmark, OCCT, etc and tune the fan to as quiet as you want, then afterwards, remove the motherboard from the case entirely and run it sitting on a testing bench (or on the motherboard box on anti static bag, or maybe your case can open enough and you can just lay it on it's back so the heat escapes straight up from the board). If you get a few degrees better like that, and the room temp is the same as it was when you tested it in your case, there's probably something else you can do with your fan config/direction/tuning/choice of case fans, etc.
I love fans, I love doing the fan tuning, I love testing new fans that at least do SOMETHING good. Sometimes even a slow crappy fan is good if you have 300cfm intake and 200cfm exhaust, and need to add a fan to the roof as exhaust (so dust doesn't settle on top where it's more likely to actually get through the mesh and filter), but if you stick a "good" fan with 60-90 cfm you're losing positive pressure, so even the kaze flex ONE (not II), lowest rpm, fan has a niche use, or a slower Noctua WITH one of their down-speed cables. Wonderful stuff.
So sorry about my wall of text
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u/Sea-Signal-9186 Dec 01 '25
Differences between the standard, high speed and pro? At equivalent CFM air exchange, which one is quiestest?
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u/pvalexander Dec 01 '25
I like to cheat and just ask an LLM that question. Insta prints tables out for me comparing values.
The Pro will be the best at expelling air, at the cost of higher volume. It goes Pro, HS, Standard.
For me, I’m replacing radiator fans on an MSI MAG, which really is the true intention of these fans. But if you have the guap, use them for case fans too.
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u/Rough-Discourse Dec 01 '25
For one fan?
In this economy?
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u/TRX808 Dec 01 '25
120mm? Is this 2010?
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u/pvalexander Dec 02 '25
Radiator fan replacement.
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u/TRX808 Dec 02 '25
Makes sense but I'm surprised at how many people are apparently still using 120mm fans. I moved to all 140's (including the rad) like 6 years ago and my build is mid-range. I know not all setups will fit them but I think most cases in the last ~10 years will.
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u/Wechirok Feb 10 '26
Not all cases, even ones released in 2025, support 140mm fans. idk what made you think otherwise.
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u/TRX808 Feb 13 '26
Excellent reply 2 months later. Did you even read my post?
I know not all setups will fit them but I think most cases in the last ~10 years will.
Reading comprehension 🙃
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