Reviews of sole fans may not be the most awesome articles to read and overall hard to gather intelligence from. X-bit Labs decided to make a comparison of case and processors fans in the 120mm and 140mm size segment and do it big. They picked out 57 different models from 25 different product series and tested them thoroughly for both noise and airflow.
They also calculated which fans offered the best airflow per dBA, which painted a pretty interesting picture with some surprising results. They then selected a trio of fans as the representatives for the different segments of fans and compared how the cooling potential was affected by the different airflow/dBA. A pretty logical effect that is shown pretty clearly here.
The only thing they didn’t have time to test as thoroughly was the static pressure and lifespan, but overall it a very informative comparison of many interesting fan models.
