Are these fans quiet?

[MysteryBox]

My case fans make a lot of noise and I want to get some quieter fans. I looked up the "most reviewed" 120mm and 200mm fans on newegg and found these:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AB-GP 200mm Blue LED Case Fan
Newegg.com - APEVIA CF12SL-UBL 120mm Blue LED Case Fan

In the reviews. people are saying the fans are quiet, but the newegg page description for my case (haf 912) says the stock fans have a noise level of 17 dBA and the fans I linked both say they have a higher dBA (19 and 24.7 dBA).

So can anyone tell me if these fans will be quieter then my current fans?

 

[PP Mguire]

DBA is never accurate on any fan really and noise level to tolerance ratio will be different per person. I have the HAF 932 and the stock fans on there are pretty quiet. The CM fan will if anything just improve your air flow.

 

[Sean W.]

theres no standard ( agreed way to measure ) on dba for fans... a general rule of thumb tho is to use the biggest fans you can... the 200mm fan is going to be dead quiet. it only spins at about 800rpm, but moves the same amount of air as a 120mm fan spinning at 2,000 rpm, thats just comes down to surface area of the blades, bigger blades, more surface area = profit. also, since its spinning slower, you dont have the sound of the blades cutting though the air as much.

on my new build ( whats in my sig ) i am going for absolute silence, so i have a 200mm fan in the front, a 200mm fan in the top and a 140mm fan at the back. the 200mm fans spin at 800 rpm @ 12volts and the 140mm fan spins at 1,200 rpm, whats more they are all linked to a fan controller so when im just surfing the web i can slow all the fans down to about 300rpm, darn near inaudible.

so in conclusion, bigger, slower fans = moar better...

 

[MysteryBox]

thanks for the answers guys.

and just another quick question, on the 200mm fan i linked. It says its compatible with HAF 932 and 922 (along with some other cases), but not HAF 912. So will this fan not work with the HAF 912? or did they just not mention the 912?

EDIT: and a second question, would i be better off getting two 200mm, for the front and top and keeping the stock 120mm in the back, or getting one 200mm for the front and replacing the stock 120mm in the back with a different 120mm fan?

 

[PP Mguire]

theres no standard ( agreed way to measure ) on dba for fans... a general rule of thumb tho is to use the biggest fans you can... the 200mm fan is going to be dead quiet. it only spins at about 800rpm, but moves the same amount of air as a 120mm fan spinning at 2,000 rpm, thats just comes down to surface area of the blades, bigger blades, more surface area = profit. also, since its spinning slower, you dont have the sound of the blades cutting though the air as much.

on my new build ( whats in my sig ) i am going for absolute silence, so i have a 200mm fan in the front, a 200mm fan in the top and a 140mm fan at the back. the 200mm fans spin at 800 rpm @ 12volts and the 140mm fan spins at 1,200 rpm, whats more they are all linked to a fan controller so when im just surfing the web i can slow all the fans down to about 300rpm, darn near inaudible.

so in conclusion, bigger, slower fans = moar better...

Not always. If you want silence yes, but for anything other than that they blow. Also, usually ambient noise will make anything under 20db virtually impossible to hear unless you have a freakishly silent house.