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The headquarters are located in Glinde near Hamburg. Since 2002, here is where all products have been conceived and designed, and quality inspections and controls have been carried out. This is how be quiet! ensures that all products meet the high standards. Regular awards in categories such as "Best Fan", "Best Power Supply", "Best Cooler" and "Best PC Case" from specialized media as well as a high level of customer satisfaction ensure healthy and steady growth. For the SilentWings 3, be quiet! has also developed a new installation system. The system doesn't just feature special anti-vibration properties, but also allows for an easier assembly. Thus the SilentWings 3 can be mounted to coolers, radiators and to corresponding fan mounts in a PC case. Compared to its predecessor, the modular corners of the frame can be exchanged easier. Two included sets lead to a higher flexibility during installation. Well if you have review questions, probably talk to @Avacado. Keep in mind not everyone necessarily has the specific comparisons you may be looking for.
SW3 fans were originally designed by BeQuiet to be used with their cases, which included additional circuitry to "pull up" the pwm signals applied to them to 5 volt levels (you couldn't control pwm SW3s using the Aquaero unless you added additional circuitry to raise pwm signal levels to 5V; a similar issue was experienced using pwm pumps with the Aquaero). This was determined by IT DIVA on OCN, and she eventually designed an addon circuit that provided properly spec'd pullup resistance. These are excellent results for fans that came in a case. Usually cases come with pretty cheap fans. The fans we received with the Dark Base Pro 900 were premium fans. The retail versions of the Silent Wings 3 are even more premium than that, coming with both kinds of corner fittings, providing those users who like to fiddle with things something to fiddle with. Compare both of those to the Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM, our favourite PC fan, at 100.6 m³/h at 1,200 RPM, and you're likely looking at running the Silent Wings at a higher RPM to match that airflow rate. But with the Silent Wings Pro 4 you really can crank up the RPM something fierce if you don't care for the noise. Fluid dynamic bearings are an expensive option. FDB adds to the cost of a fan. Frame-shaping we have seen before. Specifications Anyway, AquaComputer eventually added similar circuitry to the SPLITTY9 Active and QUADRO products, which helped mitigate the problem down the road.The only other problem to consider is that occasionally, components immediately adjacent to the motherboard fan header can get in the way of the larger 4-pin fan connector, physically preventing connection. This problem also occurs if you try to use an in-line fan speed controller such as the one made by Gelid.
The fans were placed on a test stand, where their free air RPM was observed and their noise was assessed. The standard proxy for what you can hear is the Sound Pressure Level (SPL), measured in decibels and given a type A-weighting (dBA). A silent room is about 30 dBA. Could be BeQuiet phased out the SW3s because there was a problem with using the pwm versions with AquaComputer Aquaeros. On the intake side the air tube flares at the corners to make the “funnel-shaped air inlets” previously noted. This corner shaping is in aid of static pressure. On the exhaust side, the air path is a straight tube. Intake and Exhaust Viewsbe quiet! lives up to its name: 20years experience in the field of noise reduction and silence make be quiet! products probably the most silent on the market. The Silent Wings 3 are quiet fans. Their airflow is about mid-range but they are among the quieter case fans. Arguably with the other corner mounts, it would be quieter still.
be quiet! SilentWings fans stand for state-of-the-art technology, virtually inaudible operation and superior cooling. The third generation of this award-winning fan series offers unrivalled and uncompromising performance with a broad range of meticulous optimisations. They feature a smooth-running 6-pole motor, an advanced fluid-dynamic bearing, a unique airflow-optimised fan blade design and a fan frame with funnel-shaped air inlets. The six poles of the motor produce a smoother transition between the magnetic poles. This results in very low vibration and silent operation with less energy consumption. The Silent Wings 3 fan is a premium product. When you buy the fan retail it comes with two different fittings for the corners. However, we are reviewing the fans that came with the Pro 900 case, so our review will focus on the 140 mm 1000 RPM PWM fans that were included. The image above shows the fan with what be quiet! calls “hard plastic fittings.” These may be hard on the outside but on the inside, there is rubber for reducing noise when a screw holds it tight. Here is a closeup of a corner mount that has been removed, showing how the frame holds it in place. Note that the corner shows its rubber core in this picture. Corner Closeup But all in all there's definitely something to like here for PC gamers. Fans are an often overlooked piece of any PC build, but they really make a difference to your PC gaming experience, both in terms of cooling performance and noise. It's good to see some firm competition (namely from Noctua) keeping manufacturers striving for more.The fans were installed with what be quiet! calls “hard plastic fittings” on the corners. Belying their name they have rubber cores designed to attenuate vibrations. To finish the job they fasten these fans with rubber washers. Installed fans close up A Closer Look The airflow was assessed using a standard measure, cubic feet per minute, or CFM. The air entered a sealed 8″x8″x8″ box (200+ mm on a side) where it was allowed to mix. The air left the box through an exhaust port, where it was measured with the vane head of an Extech AN100 anemometer, averaging 10 readings per fan setting. The fans were tested in an unobstructed state, with a metal mesh dust filter and on a 30 FPI rad. Test Results An image from be quiet! showing an anti-vibration fitting on the corner. BTW, be quiet! has a PDF manual that shows you how to take these corners off. The manual has a diagram that helps us see just how vibrations are not transmitted with this corner fitting. Anti-Vibration Fitting Test Setup Whoever decides to buy be quiet! products, buys proven premium quality and the silent operation typical of be quiet!.
A speed range under PWM of greater than 500 %! Quite the range. If the highspeed version of the SW3 is like this it will be a fabulous rad fan. Availability and Price The people at be quiet! sell you the retail fans with what they call “anti-vibration fittings” as well. They say, “Removable anti-vibration mountings on all four edges of the fan reduce vibrations transmitted to the PC case to an absolute minimum.” The corner fittings look nice, but because I never had them in hand I can only say the the pictures from be quiet have the fittings looking nice. The Silent Wings 3 normally comes in a box with a variety of accessories, including two sets of corner mounts, screws and connectors (photographs from be quiet!). The case fans did not come with “anti-vibration fittings” at the corners, but retail fans do. Where the Silent Wings 4 finds more success is when it comes to pressure. The standard 120mm model manages 1.79 mm/H₂0 at 1,600 RPM, but up to 3.86 mm/H₂0 at full speed. That makes it a great fit for radiators, and up there with the likes of Corsair's SP120 static pressure fans at 1.45 mm/H₂0 at 1,400 RPM. The Noctua NF-S12B isn't the fan you'd want for this purpose at 1.31 mm/H₂0 at 1,200 RPM, instead you'd be better off with something like the NF-P12 redux.So the 1000 RPM slow speed version is not a radiator fan. For that one should try the highspeed version that nominally runs at 1650 RPM. But let us now look at the PWM control: that's interesting... exactly what i use Will for sure investigate a bit further... Thank you very much for that information, had no clue about that! Therein lies some of that flexibility that Be Quiet is talking about with the Silent Wings 4, and if you're the type to reuse fans for all manner of purposes over their lifetime, perhaps they're a better all-round fit than some individually. Though that also means they're perhaps not as good for each task as a more bespoke designed fan would be. NB – this and some of the subsequent photos were supplied by be quiet!) Fan with anti-vibration fittings Some comments on their features: Most fans have four poles. In their PDF about these fans, be quiet! says that six poles contribute to a smoother transition between magnetic poles, less vibration, reduced power consumption and low start-up voltage. On the other hand, this usually is found only in more expensive fans.
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