Scythe Slip Stream 120mm 3-Pin Case Fan

Scythe has a sound reputation for quality products. The slipstream line should be another fine addition to that. I ran four of the 110 cfm fans in my workstation as intake fans and they were relatively quiet for the amount of air being pushed through. The Scythe Ultra Kaze 133 cfm exhaust fan drowned any perceptible noise out!My only concern with some of the Scythe fans lies with the relatively short life expectancy of these sleeve bearing fans listed on various e-tail sites. Most of Scythe's fan products have a MTBF of only 30,000 hours which is a bit over three years and sleeve bearings are particularly prone to failure in a dusty environment. While I care for my machine to a fault, this is still a concern and I may in future switch to dual ball bearing or fluid-dynamic bearing fans.Due to heat and noise concerns with overclocking, I have since switched to CoolJag Everflow PWM 120*25 fans as they have the same air flow rate and are controlled by the BIOS, which means a quieter system when not under load. This is not a fault against the Scythe Slipstreams.I highly recommend these fans for intake or case circulation fans, they produce a steady, almost focused flow of air. The main hub is relatively small and the supporting vanes are thin, allowing a good deal of air through. These are an ideal value for any system. Just be weary of the wattage, they run at about .74 amps, which may be too much for some motherboard fan headers.

This fan moves a lot of air. It is also loud. You're going to want to run it at less than full speed so here's some info about my experience which may help you out:1. My motherboard can handle 1amp on each of its fan headers which means I can use it to control the fan, but as another review mentions SOME motherboards will NOT be able to supply the needed current. In that case you're stuck running full power all the time using your power supply directly, or you're buying a separate fan controller.2. Different connections on your MB may have different fan control abilities. I'm stuck with one that can be set to different speeds, but cannot adjust fan speed based on temperature, which would be better. This happened to me because I have a cheap-ish motherboard where not all fan headers have the same features, and this fan has a very short cord that could only reach one!3. These fans specify 1900rpm +/- 10% which is a fairly large variance. I got a fan at the top of that range which turned 2050rpm at full power, so my fan was probably louder than yours may be! This could explain why some reviewers think the noise is unbearable and some think it's fine.3. You only need to slow the fan down a bit to keep it quieter. After some adjustment mine is turning at 1700rpm and the noise is moderate, yet it is still moving a lot of air. The box's specs confirm at this speed it will move over 88cfm which is a lot of air, and a lot compared to other fans you'd get for the price. A good compromise. However due to that variation I mentioned, you may need to adjust your fans to a very different % of its full speed to find this sweet spot.

I've had a varied opinion of these fans over time, and I currently have 32 of them in active service both as the intake and exhaust fans on my Bitmain Antminer S5 bitcoin miners (16 miners, 2 fans).The good: They blow pretty hard at around 110CFM at 1900 RPMS. They also aren't very loud at all. Like, probably 1/3 the noise of the stock Antminer fan. They allow variable speed control and they typically hover between 1440 and 1900 RPM on my Antminers. When they work, they are my favorite fan (with the Silverstone FM121 being a close second).The bad: They die suddenly, and often. I've had a few that have lasted many months without issues, working 24 hours/day. I've had others that last 2-3 weeks. Sometimes they're dead out of the box. I got a controller from Scythe (their support is amazing, by the way) and I test these as they die and it's a mix of having the onboard controller for the fans give the wrong reading (i.e. the controller thinks they work but they're not spinning) or they look like they are working but they're only spinning at maybe 10% speed. Even hard wired to the power supply, this issues exists.The verdict: I like them enough to keep using them, but be ready to keep RMA'ing them back to Scythe. Thankfully, scythe support is top notch, they reply quickly and they always seem to have a solution.

I wanted some decent fans for cooling down my gaming rig. A coworker pointed me at the Scythe, I should have known from his smug grin there was something he wasnt telling me. These things could probably cool off a nuclear reactor. The only problem with them, and it is a very big problem for my small computer room, is they are slightly louder than Roseanne Bar on meth with a megaphone. When I remote into my system from work my wife claims the computer starting up sets the neighbors dogs barking.These are awesome fans for cooling, just make sure you have decent headphones first so you can actually hear your game![Update]A few months later and I find I am going to have to replace these fans. One of them has started making a god awful grinding noise and the other is simply too noisy. Going to buy 2x corsair air series and see if its a bit quieter. Fairly disappointed overall, heck even the 5 dollar specials I had previously lasted much longer than these did.