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. 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. Whoever decides to buy be quiet! products, buys proven premium quality and the silent operation typical of be quiet!. 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 To make the SilentWings 3 into an absolute high-end product, be quiet! utilizes an advanced fluid-dynamic bearing with a brass core. The combined technology in this fan allows a lifespan of 300,000 hours. This applies to all four variants of the two available sizes (120 and 140 millimeters): be quiet! offers the SilentWings 3 in a 3-pin and PWM variant, and these are both also available as High-Speed editions.

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 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.

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Now for PWM. You wouldn’t normally use a 1000-RPM fan on a rad, but this fan is PWM-controlled. So to compare it with other PWM fans: Anyway, AquaComputer eventually added similar circuitry to the SPLITTY9 Active and QUADRO products, which helped mitigate the problem down the road. 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 Undoubtedly the fans are an integral factor in minimizing the noise levels of the products in the be quiet! portfolio.Specially developed Silent Wings and other be quiet! fans are used throughout all product ranges. They are equipped with a variety of noise-reducing features, such as special bearings, smooth motors, optimized airflow and vibration decoupling. Thanks to these fans be quiet! products attain a perfect balance of ideal cooling performance and virtually inaudible operation. 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

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. Today we’re having a look at the be quiet! Silent Wings 3 case fans that came with the recently reviewed Dark Base Pro 900. These fans are available in 120/140mm sizes at two different speeds of 1000 RPM and 1650 RPM as PWM or DC and are available at many retail outlets. Despite its high performance, the SilentWings 3 from be quiet! is almost inaudibly quiet: the 120-millimeter variant produces a sound level of 16.4 decibels, while the 140 mm model produces only 15.5 decibels. The highly efficient, three-phase 6-pole fan motor and the rubberized frame contribute positively to this: both parts reduce vibrations to a possible minimum. In addition, the advanced, high-quality IC motor control effectively prevents electrical interference. 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. be 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.

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NB – this and some of the subsequent photos were supplied by be quiet!) Fan with anti-vibration fittings With such a variety of PC fans on the market these days a manufacturer really needs something that makes their product stand out. Basic considerations when choosing a case fan are appearance, cost, noise level and performance which depending on your needs will carry different weights in your decision. With that in mind let’s see how the Silent 3 case fans measure up and if they might be a product you would consider. Introduction 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.

Could be BeQuiet phased out the SW3s because there was a problem with using the pwm versions with AquaComputer Aquaeros. 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! We received the three as part of a Dark Base Pro 900 case, two intakes behind a dust filter in front and one exhaust. Fans Behind Filter 3 Fans in Case Fluid dynamic bearings are an expensive option. FDB adds to the cost of a fan. Frame-shaping we have seen before. Specifications

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. 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.