be quiet! Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM, BL066, Cooling Fan

To start off, I usually don't review products. If I do, it usually means I am highly impressed or was a total lemon. In this case it is a total positive.First let me start off, my gameplan was to build system with reasonable power, for video encoding, photo rendering, and game play on occasion. The other factors I considered of mine was heat build up, noise and power consumption.I ended up with an AMD build, which honestly can build a fair amount of heat.With this in mind I bought Coolermaster HAF XB EVO for airflow.While an impressive case, the two front 120mm case fans, were incredibly loud with no PWM. Now getting to review of this product be Quiet Silent Wings 3 120MM, I bought these 2 fans after a lot of research and debate. Skimming through reviews, many posted about the quietness of these fans. It was between this and Noctua fans. While Noctua are quiet fans too, I have to give be Quiet! their credit. These are incredibly silent fans. Almost to the point I can't even tell they are on if it wasn't for me looking into the case to see the fans spinning(idle and surfing net, as well as photo editing). And they are miles above the Coolermaster stock fans in the HAF case. Really no comparison. The only time I heard these fans spin up was when I literally pushed my machine by running video editing/encoding. My AMD Ryzen 3700 was utilizing all its cores at 85%. To be honest, while was more of hum and swish of air with the be Quiet! fans at that utilization, they were still quieter than any fan in the past that I have used. Also I think most of the noise I heard coming from my system was from videocard fans and a Noctua 120mm fan I bought for the back chasis(I bought this cause be Quiet! was out of stock at the time). It is quiet but be Quiet! beats it very squarely.As for temps, well that was a big factor for me too. I like a very cool PC. I am also using a Be Quiet Dark 4 CPU fan. But my temps in my case average around CPU 33C/CPU Package temp 47C at idle and surfing net. With it under heavy load, it stays CPU 50C/CPU Package 61C. While the case fans are not necessarily the main factor for these temps. They contribute overall. They are way more efficient and stable and overall make a noticeable difference than my last chasis fans. My temps would fluctuate more and be closer to 70C(CPU package) and that was under high speed and loudness with the Coolermaster fans. These fans are much more quieter and keep the temp much more stable and lower overall inside the case. So I can attest to their efficient temp control as well. They are well designed and I like that they are black compared to the Noctua brand.

I got this to replace a stock Corsair fan on my new build.I already picked up a few Noctua fans (Noctua Fan with Focused Flow and SSO2 Bearing, Retail Cooling NF-F12 iPPC 3000 PWM x 2 on a radiator ; Noctua SSO Bearing Fan Retail Cooling NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM x 2, 1 bottom in-flow and 1 back top outflow) but I wanted to try be quiet! since they've gotten some pretty good reviews.I placed this as an exhaust fan on the top/back of the case. Not silent (what can be) but much quieter than the stock fan and moves air well.Also, the attachment points are module. I just started putting the smaller plunger-style connectors onto the fan frame without paying much attention. I tried for a while to remove the plunger connectors but I couldn't quickly figure out how to remove them to use the screw-based connector so I went with the plungers. Both use rubber on the connections for anti-vibration attachment.The plungers do an unexpectedly good job in securing the fan to the case. And if I get another bq! fan, I'll probably go the plunger route again.All in all, a well-engineered fan on-par with Noctua.

I look back now and I know I had a problem. My case 2 builds ago had 120mm fans and I had probably about 12 different fans with about 2 or 3 of each. From Orange Cougars to Gentle Typhoons to Corsair ML to Noctua browns and probably any fan that was hyped to be good. Noctua (super ugly beige and brown) with gentle typhoons on the rad gave the best sound to performance profile, but something was still missing. Noctua took too long to come out with black fans and lets be honest, not all of us wanted those ugly beige and brown things all over the case. So I was introduced to bequiet fans and I have not looked back.Let me be straight. Noctua and bequiet are so close that you can't go wrong with either. I prefer the sound profile slightly better on bequiet and have had 1 RMA on a Noctua fan, but you can't go wrong with either and I would be happy with Noctua (blacks) as well.Both cost a premium. You can get 90% of the performance out of most other fans. But that extra 10% means lower speeds/better sound profile which matters a lot to me.My opinion is that Fan tech from a pure performance aspect has really advanced fairly moderately since the days of 60mm and then 80mm, then 120mm and now 140mm. What has really advanced is optimizing the sound profile and taking advantage of 140mm fans and the advantage of similar airflow at lower speeds compared to smaller fans. 140 seems to be that sweet spot where you can run the fans at a relatively decent speed even at full loads without hearing a jet engine sound. I would recommend only cases that use all 140mm fans as even 120mm fans still have that higher pitch sound that isn't as pleasant on the ears.I prefer the High speed PWM fans and only use the motherboard to control fans to my speed preference. I never understood and still don't understand the draw of a fixed speed case fan controller. I have removed the fan controllers from my last 3 cases and have used splitters to combine usually fronts or bottom/top fans to the MB headers and have had no issues.I admit I probably have a mental block over the "1000" rpm mark and notice that 1000 rpm is probably too high for 140mm fans unless you have extremely limited airflow or bad thermals. You can probably get away with the normal PWM fans that max at 1000, but I like having the extra headroom just incase and with 350ish rpm being the lowest speed on the high speeds, it is more than low enough for anyone that isn't overly obsessed about a fully "silent" computer. My fans run at around 500 to 700 at idle to normal loads and about 850 to 1000 at full loads/gaming.As for the fans, they come with different mounts. I almost always use the screws. They have no vibration issues and are really just the "fan" I have been looking for. They have the best whoosh sound among the fans with the noctua being basically the same but subjectively I like bequiet a smidge more. I have had no issues using them as both air flow or pressure fans which used to be more of a thing.My recommendation is 140mm all around is a must. My last case had all 140mm except only support for a 240mm rad with dual 120mm fans. Those 120mm fans were responsible for most of the noise I heard. Changing from Corsair ML120mm to bequiet silentwings 3 120mm had a postivie impact. But 140mm fans are just a giant leap better and finding cases that can fit a 280mm rad are better unless absolutely the smallest case is all that works for you.TLDR best case fan, but you pay a premium.