Scythe Slip Stream SY1212SL12H 2000 rpm 120mm Slim Case Fan

Bought this for a compact gaming rig (corsair Air 240 loaded with GTX980) where the side panel space is too tight for a standard case fan to fit. It went in perfectly and running at 50 percent using the motherboards fan controller its inaudible which is great! Even at this rpm its knocked 3-4 degrees off my graphics card when its idling.Now you always have to bear in mind that any fan's noise level is down to a few things; first of all its balance, and by that i mean how well balanced the blades are out of manufacturing. If you're unlucky (and this goes for any manufacturer) and one or two blades are a little heavier than the others then the fan will vibrate (often sounding like an angry wasp) The easiest way to tell is to hold then fan in one hand whilst it's running and check if it's vibrating. If its unusually bad, return it for another one! The second type of noise comes from the surface its pushing/pulling air through. If you have an old school case with just a few drilled holes in it, this will result in your fan having to work harder to get air in/out of it, ANY fan mounted there will be considerably noisier! If however the mesh air flows through is fine and unrestricted it will be far less noisy. Finally the blade design, this gets complicated BUT in the case of this fan, more blades at a lower rpm with less pitch (angle of the blades) will results in quieter operation. (very similar to macbook pro laptop fan design which are near silent) At higher rpm these type of fans will get noisier (wooshing air sound as opposed to angry wasp!) but that's not where they are most efficient anyway so i'd suggest keeping it's rpm at around the 40-70% mark for the best efficiency/airflow/noise. All in all for the price, this does the job perfectly!

There are very few fans on the market that are this slim. It can get a fair amount of air through it considering it so thin but that does have a draw back. The noise. Under load this fan was whizzing at an alarming rate of RPM which, certainly effected the dBA (Noise levels). I think it registered about 2300 RPM!!!To be fair, it was used as a CPU cooler fan for pushing air in, with the standard fan (included on my Xigmatek Aegir heat sink) pulling away (to the back). The reason I installed this fan was because the gap between my heat sink and first ram module was too narrow for a standard fan (2.5cm depth). The Xigmatek Aegir heat sink is just to wide for a standard fan near ram slots. The Scythe fan was slim enough to fit (1.2cm) so I thought I would give it a go. Oops!I have since removed it because of the noise and the fact I think it may well wear the bearing down and fly through the side of the case!!.I have to except that my CPU is a little warmer (about 2-4ºC) but at least I can hear my music again..Overall, If you need extra cooling in a tight area then you can't really go wrong with this. It will get some air in and fairly quietly too. At high spin though, it's noisy and not a good solution for a CPU under load. Install it as a chassis fan only and stick to standard size fans if you have enough room!

Brought as I needed a low profile fan for my computer and this was a recommended choice. Have had no performance with airflow issues with it. Unless you have a fan controller or power flow reduction cable the fan can becoming irratating currently running at full speed so would recommend looking at these two options when buying this fan, unless you build reqiures maximum performance all the time then this is a mute point. Would like to point out that it runs better and at a lower db than most none slimline fans

When affixing it to my case the fan would not spin as the screws pinched the fan's housing in ever so slightly, as such I had to use some longer spare screws of my own and not tighten it particularly well. Apart from that it's fine, very thin and reasonably quiet.

Fabulous 12 mm thick fan for when space is tight. I like this product a lot, good impeller design gives great air-flow. If you have fan control this product would be great on cpu coolers, I'm sure. 120 x 120 mm size is also excellent for chassis fans mounted for extra cooling. Can achieve high 2000 rpm speed. If mounted too close to tiny holes, it is likely to increase in noise levels, but inside cases where additional cooling is required, this fan can be quite (at ~ 40dBs).

Very loud may have to return and use SilverStone SST-FN123Running 7v Noise is still to much for my HTPC. If the noise dosnt bother you this pushes alot of air even @ 7v.. also looks greatI have two SilverStone SST-FN123 in the same case and they are very quite compared to the scythe.Good fan but not for me.

a bit more of a buzz than i was expecting, but very useful and i no longer have to worry about how close the boards sata ports where to the fans

Good fan, albeit a tad noisy at time. If you need a fan that is low profile then for cost, price and quality factor this is a solid contender.4 stars - as it is quite loud.