Be Quiet! Silent Wings PRO 4 Fan Overview & Testing

Introduction – A new design philosophy

The PC market is changing, both CPUs and GPUs are getting more power-hungry and rising power draws have increased the need for high performance fans and airflow-optimised case designs. Manufacturers of all cooling products are reacting to this change in the PC hardware market, resulting in the release of highly refined fans, fewer case designs with restrictive airflow patterns, and increasingly large liquid cooling solutions. Now, be quiet! has entered the fray. 

Today we are looking at be quiet’s new Silent Wings Pro 4 fans, a new product from be quiet that’s designed to be the company’s most “progressive, performant and versatile” fans to date. These fans are optimised for use as case fans, radiator fans and heatsink fans, acting as the company’s best in class solution for all use cases.

With the Be Quiet Silent Wings PRO 4, we have a new fan blade arrangement, a 6-pole fan motor, higher maximum RPMs, a lower blade tip clearance, and a lifespan that’s estimated to be six times longer than be quiet’s regular fans. These optimisations make be quiet’s latest fans quieter than their predecessors (when running at the same performance levels), less power hungry, and more performant. 

Fan Specifications

If you are looking at the specifications chart below, we can see that Be Quiet’s latest fans offer much higher static pressure and airflow rating than their predecessors. Be Quiet’s Light Wings fans are the newest fans from Be Quiet that we have tested, offering users lower max RPMs and support for ARGB lighting.

While be quiet’s new Silent Wings PRO 4 fans do offer higher performance levels in part because of their higher RPMs, it is worth noting that their maximum noise levels are not much higher than their predecessors. Beyond that, a 500 RPM increase does not account for a greater than 2x increase in static pressure. Be Quiet has obviously made some major changes to their latest fan designs

Fan Speed Switch

One thing to note about the Silent Wings PRO 4 is that it has a switch that can be used to alter the fan’s maximum RPM. At Medium, the fan’s max speed is 1600 RPM, at High the fan’s maximum RPM is 2500 RPM, and at Ultra High the fan can run at up to 3,000 RPM. User of these fan can change their max RPMs depending on their desired performance and noise levels.

With the inclusion of their fan speed switch, Be Quiet is catering to their regular userbase of silence focused users while also giving options for higher RPM modes for those who desire them. Most fan manufacturers offer several fan SKUs to offer these options, but with their fan speed switch, Be Quiet does not have to. Clever.

Optimised Fan Corners – A unique selling point for Be Quiet?

Depending on your specific use case, you may want fan corners that have vibration dampeners (to lower noise levels) or fan corners that sit flush with the edge of the surface that you are mounting them on (like on a radiator to lower pressure leakage and maximise airflow).

Be Quiet has launched their Silent Wings PRO 4 fans with three corner types to allow users to optimise their fan mounts for your specific use case. The be quiet Silent Wings PRO 4 is a one-size-fits-all solution, acting as an optimised fan design for radiators, heatsinks, and airflow (case fan). The Silent Wings PRO 4 was designed with versatility in mind, and it shows.

Pricing

Like all premium fan designs, the Silent Wings PRO 4 comes with a hefty price tag. While these prices do sound high (and they are), it is worth remembering that R&D costs need to be paid for, and that the cost of new tooling and material usage also needs to be accounted for. These fans are for premium system builders, and it will cost you a lot of money to kit out an entire PC with these fans.