be quiet Silent Wings Pro 4 Fan Review

Performance

The Silent Wings Pro 4 are high-quality fans and the new flagship in the be quiet! range, so it’s not unfair to expect high performance from both versions of them. The fans have three modes of operation, which limit the maximum RPM at a hardware level, reducing the need for fan control software to hit your desired airflow or acoustic targets.

Instead of low, medium and high, which makes more sense, be quiet! have labelled the modes as medium, high speed and ultra-high speed, which seems a bit odd to me. Alas, you’ll find the 140mm fan operates at around 1100 RPM, 1800 RPM and 2400 RPM in each of the modes at 100% PWM.

However, the 120mm is much faster, and features more fan blades too, operating at around 1600 RPM, 2500 RPM and 3000 RPM in each of the hardware-switched modes. Typically, that’s really freaking fast, especially for a be quiet! fan which typically focuses on lower RPM and, of course, lower noise, so to have such a high RPM is interesting.

Of course, big RPM means big airflow, so it’s nice to have more tools in the chest here. If you want low noise, then obviously the medium setting is going to allow you to keep the noise levels down. However, if you really do need maximum airflow, ultra-high-speed is going to be the best, with High Speed offering something not quite in the middle, as it’s closer to the maximum speed, but it’s still going to be quieter than ultra-high-speed too.

Overall though, these are by far some of the quietest fans we’ve tested, and while pushing to the ultra-speed modes does make them a lot more audible, they’re still very quiet relative to their speed. Really, you’ll be hard-pushed to find a better fan right now, these are just about as good as it gets.