looking for a quieter 200mm fan, having trouble trusting specified dBA

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tardis42

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Jul 7, 2013
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I have a Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 case which, for the most part, I love - but one thing I absolutely hate about it is the "Colorshift" fans it came with. I got rid of one of them completely, but still have the other one in the front as an intake. Because it's so loud, though, I never switch it on, and basically rely entirely on negative air pressure to draw air into the case, which is hardly ideal. This thing is marketed as "15dBA", but when I dial it up past 60% voltage in SpeedFan it sounds like a bloody jet engine. At 100% it's three or four times as loud as the SP120s I have on my radiator, and those are marketed as "30dBA"! It is not faulty as the other one was exactly the same. So, I'm looking for a replacement 200mm fan, maximum thickness 25mm, which is *actually* quiet, as opposed to just having a low noise level stamped on the box. The BitFenix Spectre seems like it might fit the bill, but I'd love to hear others' suggestions, or any personal experiences with the Spectres.
 
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Deuce65

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The ratings (all of them, not just dba) on fans are usually worthless. For noise, a common practice in the industry is to label the fans airflow with the fan turned up at the highest possible setting (i.e. the loudest) but label the noise with the fan turned down to the lowest possible setting (i.e. the quietest). No idea if that is happening here as I am not familiar with that fan, but it wouldn't surprise me.
With that said, a 200mm fan *should* be very quiet. They can run at fairly low rpm and still push large amounts of air. Anything under about 800rpm should be virtually silent. So, moral of the story is, perhaps those fans just suck really bad.

Cooler master has some good ones. The BFs you mentioned should be good too.
 
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tardis42

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Jul 7, 2013
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I only buy Corsair for smaller fans - I have 3 SP120s on my radiator and an AF140 exhaust. I want a 200mm LED for the front though, it's going to look a lot better than 2 120s.

I think I'll go with the BitFenix as the Cooler Masters are 30mm thick (too big for the intake in this case) and the only other brand I can find on Newegg that would fit is Aerocool, and from a couple of video reviews I've seen they are a lot louder.

Thanks Deuce for the tip about how they measure things, that's a pretty damn sneaky move on the manufacturers' part but I shouldn't be surprised!
 
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