Recommend a good case fan.

[dikinher]

I need to replace my back casefan. I have a Zalman ZM-F 3 anti-vibration fan and it louder than my stock GTX 280 fan running 75%. Anyone know of a quiet casefan with good airflow? Thanks.

[Gaco]

I would consider myself knowledgeable after spending a a good deal of money recently for a silent upgrade for my PC (new case, cpu fan, gpu fan, case fans and motherboard)

Your first priority should be the Noctua NF-S12B. It's more expensive than Scythe in general, but it's the cutting edge in terms of silence and performance. However it launched little less than a month ago so it may be hard to find still.

If you cannot get hold of this, second priority is the Scythe Slipstream 1200 RPM with id code SY1225SL12M. If you get this, 'underclock' it to 800 RPM or remember to set BIOS settings to auto adjust fan speeds in silent mode if you can.

Finally just slightly behind the Slipstream on third priority is the Scythe S-flex series. Again choose the medium model and 'underclock' it for maximum efficiency and flexibility.

All of these fans are extremely silent yet very effective.

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by Gaco

I would kind of consider myself somewhat of an expert after spending a a good deal of money recently for a silent upgrade for my PC (new case, cpu fan, gpu fan, case fans and motherboard)

Your first priority should be the Noctua NF-S12B. It's more expensive than Scythe in general, but it's the cutting edge in terms of silence and performance. However it launched little less than a month ago so it may be hard to find still.

If you cannot get hold of this, second priority is the Scythe Slipstream 1200 RPM with id code SY1225SL12M. If you get this, 'underclock' it to 800 RPM or remember to set BIOS settings to auto adjust fan speeds in silent mode if you can.

Finally just slightly behind the Slipstream on third priority is the Scythe S-flex series. Again choose the medium model and 'underclock' it for maximum efficiency and flexibility.

All of these fans are extremely silent yet very effective.

I'd go for the Noctua's myself as I can vouch that they are some of the most silent fans I've ever heard. Nanoxia would also be a great choice as they look a lot better than the Noctua ones and perform pretty much the same.

Nanoxia:

[dikinher]

I am either thinking about getting the Noctua or this Thermaltake ISGC 12. What do you guys think?

[ViN86]

I am a fan of Panaflo's.

[Gaco]

I have tried thermaltake and I personally wound't try them again. I'm sure you can make them perform as well as Noctua's, but I bet that the noise level will be much higher. I usually go for the proven-through-rigorous-test performance/silence, for which Noctua and Scythe are very safe and time-proven bets, but if you want to take chances or experiment, go ahead. It might payoff or you might end up wanting to buy new one's. It's just that once you hear a good Scythe or Noctua, you truly know what silent means
You can likely find a few other brands just as good, but I just go where the objective tests are, not subjective opinions from people that probably have a not so silent system anyway so that they think their fans have a good performance/noise ratio. Not that everyone is like this, but this has been the majority of my experience with this.

I mostly used this place as guidance: http://www.silentpcreview.com/section12.html