Review on Noctua Bearing NF B9 Redux 1600 PWM by Robert Kimble

I decided on an "almost" silent PC because I didn't want to give up fans, but I wanted the fans to run very slowly (or turn off) during normal operation. was quiet, and only when the action was intense did the fans get going. During this process I have used 5 different fan models from 3 different companies and Noctua's NF-Bx range is my favorite and best value for money. The NF-Ax series fans are slightly better, but not enough to justify the roughly 50% increase in cost unless you need the anti-vibration mounting hardware included in the kit. A few money-saving tips: Don't buy a Noctua CPU cooler. Buy a Cooler Master CPU cooler (I chose the Hyper T2 as it's the largest and fits in a standard case), remove the Cooler Master fan and buy one of those. For $27 you get what Noctua charges $60 for. The Cooler Master fan sucks and doesn't drop the fan speed below 30% so it needs to be replaced if you want to run quietly, but the Noctua NF-B9 has the exact same fan size and it's easy to replace once you notice Note that you can remove the rubber pads covering the fan screws. Another lesson: Don't rely on the fan controller on your motherboard to do everything right. First I had to go into the BIOS and change it to PWM mode as it assumed constant current mode for the system fans even though it comes with 4-pin fan headers (constant current mode prevents it from spinning at almost that low speed. ). Then, when I first tested this fan, it turned out that the minimum value it can have in PWM mode is 13% based on the RPM data provided by the motherboard. But then I noticed that the fan was still spinning when I set the PWM to 10%, so I figured the fan wasn't giving good RPM values below 13%. Then I noticed that it stopped spinning below 10%, so I assumed that was the lowest the fan could use. In both cases not! Later I connected a fan to my GPU and it could both spin the fan and read its speed up to 5% PWM. So apparently my motherboard has limitations it won't fall under. As far as I know, the fan can run even below 5%, but that's the best a GPU fan controller can do. (Fortunately, even 13% is slow enough to be silent in almost all scenarios). The fan on the front of the case is off unless the system is overheating (trying to save a few bucks and not replacing the 12" fan if it's not necessary) and the EVGA Gold PSU in "eco mode". I have a really quiet PC that a fairly sensitive dB meter can't tell it's on. I have to test in the middle of the night because even cars driving outside can be detected. But at 3am it's 21.1dB with the computer off and 21.1dB with the computer on. My stomach gurgles, and this stupid thing goes up to 24dB or I click my mouse and it goes up to over 30dB, so trust me when I say a dB meter is sensitive enough to take pretty small readings. To be honest and to make a disclaimer there is no noise, the fans run at 13% on the back of the case, 10% on the CPU and 5% on the GPU. System temperature stays around 40 while CPU and GPU temperatures remain in the mid 50's. Build Details: CPU Intel Core i3-8100MSI Z370M Mortar Motherboard Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti "Windforce OC" GPU (Note: Gigabyte is the only vendor that has good fan control for the 1050 GPU fans)2 with 4GB DDR4 2400 Kingston Fury DIMMsSamsung 960 EVO M.2 SSDEVGA 650 GQ power supply in economy mode