Silent Wings 3 (BL066): The best from BeQuiet!… so far

BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 (BL066) in detail

It’s heating up. We have added the first triple-A fan to the tests, which has been viewed “some way” for years, and now it will turn out how it is exactly – what are its weaknesses and what are its strengths. Some have also debated whether the Silent Wings 3 happens to be the most efficient fan ever. But as it happens, it’s a bit more complicated than a one-word answer like yes or no.

Until July 19, Silent Wings 3 is still the most efficient fan that BeQuiet! has. Let’s not pretend that won’t change once the Silent Wings 4 goes on sale. Although we haven’t tested it yet, we can say so with confidence based on its geometry. However, before testing SW4, it is important to break down SW3 as well. Firstly, to get an idea of the degree of inter-generational improvements, and secondly to be clear in how Silent Wings 3 stood up against the competition so far.

As with all BeQuiet! fans, the Silent Wings 3 rotor is characterized by a grooved surface. These are in the direction of “cutting” the air across the entire surface of the blades, on both sides. We can note that this is a multi-purpose feature. Firstly, they tame unwanted turbulent flow at the intake (allowing more air to flow through the rotor) and secondly, they have an effect on the aerodynamic sound of the fan.

The grooves had a positive impact on the the Pure Wings 2’s sound, as there were no frequency peaks in the sound spectrum under any circumstances, which means that the fan operation was never (na prachovom filtri, na mriežke, ani na radiátore) associated with an annoying piercing tone. All frequencies were, on the contrary, nicely balanced. Of course, this is no guarantee that the same scenario will occur on Silent Wings 3 with a different inclination and overall different blade shape.

The fan blades are made at a sharper angle and the spacing between them is smaller. These are measures because of which a higher static pressure will be achieved and the loss of airflow due to a practical obstacle (e.g. a CPU cooler heatsink) will be lower. Therefore, these fans are also used for the radiators of liquid AIO coolers. Not only the ones from BeQuiet!, but for example also Alphacool (Eisbaer Extreme). We dare to say that this is also one of the last high-end fans that bet on a smaller number of blades with a larger width per one. We’ll come back to why repeatedly, next time in the Silent Wings 4 tests.

   

We have to be strict on Silent Wings 3. Aside from already being a rather expensive fan, in its golden era it was perceived by some as the best ever. And it’s true that at the time of its release (in 2016), there weren’t many more efficient fans. From the current perspective, it’s already handicapped by the larger gap between the blade ends and the inner circle of the frame, which reduces static pressure and causes inefficient air leaks at those points. Relative to the rest, although in a relatively small cross-section, such details make the difference between the very best and “the next in line”.

While this gap is 1.2 mm for the SW3, it is only 0.5 mm for the Noctua NF-A12x25. How small this gap can be depends not only on the precision of the rotor centering, its balance, but also on how the blades behave in flight.

Materials with relatively lower rigidity and higher thermal expansivity must naturally have a greater spacing to avoid (blade-to-frame) collisions. Silent Wings 3 has relatively thick blades and at the widest point, near the edges (near the frame) they are up to three millimetres thick, but they are still made of a relatively “soft” material. BeQuiet! doesn’t even specify it further, so it’s obviously not anything over the top that can be somehow marketed.

The Silent Wings 3 are unique with interchangeable corners. Two types are included – one with traditional mounting holes for mounting to a case via self-tapping screws and the other via push-pins. These are made entirely of rubber, which separates the rigid parts (case and fan). The corners for traditional screw mounting don’t have as much rubber. There is an anti-vibration pad on them though, but only a thin one, on the surface. This mounting may be preferred by some, especially for more convenient disassembly (the pins go out rather roughly).

Still, the screws already screw into the plastic (i.e. into the rigid material that is in contact with the parts where the mechanical movement occurs), from where some vibrations are transmitted to the case. Always very small, however. The Silent Wings 3 has three-phase torque, or the motor has up to six (i.e. two more than the vast majority of competing fans) stator slots. Thanks to these, there is also less friction when turning, which has an impact on lower vibrations, among other things. But also on lower start-up speeds. The lower the friction, the less force you need to exert to turn the rotor.

The bearings used are fluid with a mean time between failures quoted at an extreme 300,000 hours. With this, BeQuiet! beats Noctua’s SSO2 bearings on paper, whether they really have a higher lifetime, you just can’t know. On the other hand, whether fans fail on average in 18 years or 33 doesn’t really matter. This figure is always irrelevant and just a matter of assumptions (and often perhaps quite optimistic), without clearly defined operating conditions.

The 120-millimeter Silent Wings 3 comes in four variants. There are two models with PWM control, which differ in speed range. One ends at 1450 rpm according to the parameters (the model we tested, codenamed BL066), the other is a “high-speed” model (BL070), with a top speed of 2200 rpm. The same speeds are also reached by variants with the additional designation BL064 (slower) and BL068 (faster). The only difference is in the method of voltage regulation, which is linear (DC) there.

* When reading performance values, a certain amount of tolerance must always be taken into account. For maximum speeds, ±10 % is usually quoted, minimum speeds can vary considerably more from piece to piece, sometimes manufacturers will overlap by as much as ±50 %. This must then also be adequately taken into account for air flow, static pressure and noise levels. If only one value is given in a table entry, this means that it always refers to the situation at maximum speed, which is achieved at 12 V or 100 % PWM intensity. The manufacturer does not disclose the lower limit of the performance specifications in its materials in that case. The price in the last column is always approximate.


  •  
  •  
  •  
Flattr this!

BeQuiet! Dark Rock Elite – The new king of coolers?

I will start this year’s cooler tests with a real treat. I’ve prepared a review of the Dark Rock Elite cooler, the absolute top of BeQuiet!’s range. This is a premium cooler offering very high performance at low noise levels thanks to its sophisticated design in combination with high-end fans. I’m very curious to see how it performs compared to the high-end coolers I’ve had the opportunity to test over the past year. Read more “BeQuiet! Dark Rock Elite – The new king of coolers?” »

  •  
  •  
  •  

BeQuiet! Pure Wings 3 (BL108): Efficient and “cheap” in 140 mm

The long break is over, back to fans. BeQuiet! recently updated its entry-level line – Pure Wings – and at least the slower 140-millimeter models have to be on your radar. The Pure Wings 3 fans in the BL108 variant represent an extremely efficient low-cost option for some situations, while not suffering from the common shortcomings of their price class. What’s quiet here is not only the aerodynamic component, but also the motor one. Read more “BeQuiet! Pure Wings 3 (BL108): Efficient and “cheap” in 140 mm” »

  •  
  •  
  •  

12VHPWR cable thermal imaging: Different PSU, different temps

Something for warm-up. We’ll start our ATX 3.0 PSU tests with perhaps the most talked about topic surrounding them, the temperatures of the new cables with 16-pin PCIe connectors. The overview of the PSUs of twelve brands answers well the question of how the manufacturers handled which models. With high current loads, the temperature differences can be quite significant, both on the connector housings and on the wire insulation. Read more “12VHPWR cable thermal imaging: Different PSU, different temps” »

  •  
  •  
  •  

Comments (4) Add comment

  1. I have this fan as a part of the Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler – the front one. The inner fan is disabled for now. Unfortunately, I am thinking about replacing it. What’s driving me completely nuts is the fan start that gives a sound resembling powerful rubbing against a rough surface. It’s okay for folks who want to have the fan running constantly and encounter it only during boot but I want to have a fanless idle – 0 noise, no vibrations, extended fan life, and lower power draw. I wish such behavior was stressed in this and other reviews so that one can find safe alternatives for such requirements.

    It’s a pity to encounter such an unexpected drawback, as this fan is much quieter than Arctic P12. At 700 RPM, it’s barely audible in my Nanoxia Deep Silence 8 in the night, and below 500 RPM basically inaudible.

    1. What you are describing is happening with several fans. To an excessive degree with the Strix XF120 as well, where we also mentioned it. I have thought about how to measurably grasp those starts in the context of the interpretation of the results so that a simple comparison across fans is possible, but I don’t know yet.. anyway, it will probably be an initial phase with rotor centering, which is accompanied by higher vibrations in addition to the acoustic expression.

      1. Perhaps the evaluation page can be divided into several labelled subsections, one being dedicated to observations like this for example.

        My P14 Slim rev.1 does this initially too, but it’s gone now after I have mounted it tight. Perhaps quality control and tolerance also play a role here?

        1. Maybe we are each talking about a slightly different phenomenon. The initial, let’s say start-up sound of Strix XF120 will certainly not be influenced by the strength of the mounting. With this fan, it’s just that it takes some time (be it very short, in the lower units of seconds) to get centered, and the operational sound is probably a bit different after, let’s say, warming up. I would attribute this purely to the influence of the motor and the bearings. In this case, I would not talk about an issue of a single unit in serial production. Sure, within lower manufacturing tolerances some minor differences in behaviour can be present, but if that feature disappeared completely, I assume it would be due to larger, targeted changes in the design, which for example are solved by various revisions. Unfortunately, most manufacturers don’t talk about them, with a few exceptions (Arctic, for example). So sure, a Silent Wings 3 from the early batches may behave differently than the latest pieces from the current sales. And while we’re on the subject of fan differences from piece to piece, we’ll release one unconventional test in September that will be of interest to you. 🙂

          I would rather attribute the different sound after tightening the P14 rev. 2 to vibrations and the fact that with a different mounting there may not be such significant resonance frequencies of the case.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *