Silent Wings Pro 4 (BL098) in-depth review: Hard BeQuiet! KO

Cooling, Extra tests, Fans | | Ľubomír Samák

Results: Frequency response of sound with a radiator

All the secrets around the BeQuiet! Silent Wings (Pro) 4 are over and the detailed analyses of the sub-features begin. And it’s great that we can be a part of it. This is, after all, without a doubt, the biggest “cooling” event of the year, and it’s spicier than we thought. The new BeQuiet! fans may be the absolute top of the line, but they haven’t avoided certain imperfections that you have to take into account.

Results: Frequency response of sound with a radiator

Measurements are performed in the TrueRTA application, which records sound in a range of 240 frequencies in the recorded range of 20–20,000 Hz. For the possibility of comparison across articles, we export the dominant frequency from the low (20–200 Hz), medium (201–2,000 Hz) and high (2,001–20,000 Hz) range to standard bar graphs.

However, for an even more detailed analysis of the sound expression, it is important to perceive the overall shape of the graph and the intensity of all frequencies/tones. If you don’t understand something in the graphs or tables below, you’ll find the answers to all your questions in this article. It explains how to read the measured data below correctly.

Noise levels in the tables below -85 dBu (but watch out for the negative sign, -70 dBu is louder than -80 dBu) can be ignored. They are in fact extremely weak and always far below the limit of human perception, and are often defined by the “noise” of the measurement string. Therefore, do not take even the dominant frequencies within the treble band that exceed 12 kHz too much into account.

Note: For these measurements a thinner radiator of 28 mm is used. Such thickness (and restrictiveness with FPI 22) is common in practice (also within AIO coolers).







Why is there a missing value sometimes? There may be more reasons. Usually it is because the fan could not be adjusted to the target noise level. Some have a higher minimum speed (or the speed is low, but the motor is too noisy) or it is a slower fan that will not reach the higher decibels. But the results in the graphs are also missing if the rotor is brushing against the nylon filter mesh. In that case, we evaluate this combination as incompatible. And zero in the graphs is naturally also in situations where we measure 0.00. This is a common occurrence at extremely low speeds with obstructions or within vibration measurements.


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Comments (2) Add comment

  1. Hi. Do you have any idea of why this fan is capped at 2800rpm at 100%PWM speed? I can see in the test results that you are getting 2800rpm max as I do, but do you know why? All three of my fans are capped at 2800rpm.

    Reply

    1. Obviously this is caused by the limitations of the fan electronics. At 12,00 V (DC/PWM) the approx. 2800 rpm is simply a ceiling. Most of the BeQuiet! fans we have tested do not reach the max. specified speed. They always just fit within the +/- 10 % tolerance. Anyway, we will address your question to BeQuiet! and if we get an answer, we will write it here in the discussion, but the fact is that most fans are a bit faster compared to the parameters and BeQuiet! has it the other way around.

      Reply

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