Fan Bearing Differences: Fluid Dynamic, Ball, Hydro Dynamic, & Sleeve Explained, ft. Noctua

[@GamersNexus]

We made this video about how ball bearings (and grooved bearings) are made! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fobXdq2gp6tgitE Watch our video about beat frequency noises, also featuring Jakob! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGjMkpJ8j8innrM Watch our "Forbidden Interview" with Jakob of Noctua last year: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bmOvi56dobOch5I Watch our video (also featuring Jakob) about Noctua's pressure scan results and new Noctua NH-D15 G2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHWnqYyioNVglaM Find all of our engineering interviews here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHWnqYyioNVglaM&list=PLsuVSmND84Qsv6Q_9GERaAKQ_FsQkOQ7H

[@iamdmc]

why aren't mag lev bearings more common, and why is Corsair's implementation (e.g. ML120) so loud in comparison to Noctua's SSO2 FDB?

[@iCantEditBro]

The bot comments are endless ):

[@fahadmalik8862]

Really interesting videos. I know you (Steve) don't get much appreciation but you always do great work on the scripting, writing and everything else.

[@FrodeBergetonNilsen]

That is one impressive list of unique videos. Most of which is my only source of this kind of info.

[@erkinalp]

And there are fan manufacturers that use a simple bushing ("rifle bearing") in lieu of a proper sleeve bearing.

[@_CJ_]

this guy can sell me Noctua products better than any marketing even without telling me to buy something :D I hope we will see him again! Thank you I like this conversations a lot

[@IsleyNumber1]

Marketers aren't (all) stupid, and they know this, so they will send our real engineers to market to consumers like you (and me; I got got by the Nvidia cooling engineer into desiring a 4090)

[@EminemLovesGrapes]

They know their target demographic. They're a great part of the industry, despite how expenisve they are.

[@arcadeportal32]

I just bought 3 for my "sleeper" PC, well it was my first PC that has been rebuilt like 4 times since the late 90s lol.

[@pixiepaws99]

Well you just need to look at warranty. That tells you everything.

[@notthedroidsyourelookingfo4026]

It's so refreshing when info isn't filtered through marketing. Love this format!

[@revolverswitch]

it shows that the people in charge actually know about what's going on instead on relying on fancy presentation. This is why Intel's Battlemage has me excited despite their upcoming specs.

[@dezpotizmOFheaven]

Open communication should be so much more respected.

[@zackvyle]

​@@revolverswitchOh boy, I had just recently changed my GPU. Will definitely get their Battlemage or the Celestial? in the future

[@estamnar6092]

Honestly, companies need to get more of their nerds in front of a camera. The PR-laden C-suite eggheads never give up any info id actually find interesting, but this fella here, id have a beer with.

[@Surms41]

Companies only listen to half of what the nerd has to say. The other half is too expensive.

[@PinHeadSupliciumwtf]

The money types know jack shit about any topic apart from quarterly earnings reports which makes (99.9% of) ads completely fucking useless

[@NoNameForNone]

The problem is finding the nerds who can and want to do it, you do keep them away for their actual job. The eggheads have nothing better and do so do it with pleasure.

[@gharel396]

Most companies would damage their brand with this level of transparency

[@housemana]

you guys are demonizing "c suite" suits but yall dont realize a silent majority of the c suites well know their strengths and empower their nerds. you all are middle management at best. simply don't know.

[@howabout2138]

I love the technical videos with noctua guy, pls keep it going

[@IRefuseToUseThisStupidFeature]

Not enough vocally emulated fan noises

[@zivzulander]

Agreed, definitely one my favorite recurring guests now 😎🦉

[@anderername3099]

As a mechanical engineering student it's actually great to see the stuff we learn in lectures be applied in real life! Keep up the great work

[@Dudewitbow]

i mean engineering is basically applied sciences, so it better be applied to life. It's one of the key functions of engineering. (Science is there to learn and understand how something works and what it is, engineering is solving problems by utilizing what science has discovered)

[@jonjon3829]

no way, you must have had a good teacher

[@Nexinator]

One of the very old "choice" of bearing type (or so the media kept telling us) was orientation. I would have loved to have this discussed (vertical versus horizontal with hub at top, fan at bottom - Top rad placement). Also, of all the Noctua fans I ever owned, not one failed, so that covers statements which you touched upon (building reputation). I've had various other vendors which failed spectacularly, one of which was one of those early 2000's massive case fans where the fan completely detached from the hub.

[@sky173]

Great discussion. As a machinist for many, many years, I've always found bearings incredibly interesting. There are so many types, it would shock most people who don't know any better. Glad to see this talked about.

[@ChaosPootato]

I like this guy. The "no bullshit marketing" approach combined with the technical explanations he gives really fit the GN vibe.

[@LinusBerglund]

The intel graphics guy is great as well.

[@HanSolo__]

The guy's knowledge is so impressive.

[@jimeththemelancollie351]

Great hair thinks alike

[@jamesm568]

That's why I buy my products from this company either though they are cheaper products out there that are comparable.

[@gasracing5000]

Agreed. Imagine a world where sales reps actually understand their products and the engineering behind it. 😮 So sick of suits, pr sales men, models and company executives that don't actually know $#!+ about their products. Well, the models are okay. The point is we need more dudes like this representing their brands.

[@TECHN01200]

Hearing Jakob's enthusiasm for fans is amazing.

[@Maboidatboi]

You could say he's a huge fan of fans.

[@DeltaSierra426]

Engineers going full nerd on bearings in computer fans is just sexi AF. Anybody with me on that? Like seriously, engineers are what make the great things around us so great. All these considerations that even the archetypal PC enthusiast doesn't thing about... love it! The marketing types try to simplify, which is perhaps a noble and difficult effort, but it shows that front-cover product specs are SSSOOO much more than just surface deep. Great video as always! Thanks Steve, and thank you GN team.

[@falxonPSN]

Companies that truly understand an engineering focus know hat there's a real benefit to letting engineers speak directly to technical audiences. As others have said, even though neither of the two videos with him have been sales focused videos they have done more to convince me of continuing to buy Noctua products than any sales video would.

[@aflury]

Love that Noctua's marketing is their engineering.

[@hanswurst2220]

Jakob, danke Dir für ein weiteres unglaublich interessantes Interview. 🙏 Vollgepackt mit Details, über die wir Käufer ehrlich gesagt zu wenig nachdenken bzw. kaum berücksichtigen 👍

[@NegativeROG]

This type of content is amazing, and while it drives my wife from the room with a glassy stare, I could watch this 24/7... Thanks Steve and Team GN, and thanks Jakob!!!

[@VADemon]

A wife repellant?!

[@timgrelka]

I love how the hydro being greek for fluid, and fluid obviously being latin for fluid joke just passed by completely without notice. (2:27)

[@zickzack3106]

Is that a joke? Hydro is greek, fluidum is latin and fluid is english - which is based on latin.

[@timgrelka]

​​@@zickzack3106 I think it was meant as a joke due to the "obviously", because while fluid is indeed a loanword from Latin (don't quote me on that, maybe it found it's way into English via some other Roman language), in this situation it would've been more obvious that fluid is just the English word, as that's the language currently spoken in the situation. (He did not say fluidum, I'm confident about that.) Of course I could be wrong, but in the end it doesn't matter too much, in my opinion. I got a little chuckle out of it!

[@zickzack3106]

@@timgrelka Sure, why not

[@Akkbar21]

I love it. A video on a subject too boring for my personal interest. Yet, something meaningful and in depth. This is why I love this channel.

[@georgeindestructible]

I love it when the fans blades and the bearings' pole is accessible by being removable and i can lubricate it and the holding hole with mechanical oil and mix it up with some lubricant grease at the same time, it usually makes a fan go even faster and makes it so much more silent, i have done this to countless fan for 22 years now it's such a neat trick since it works so well. I have many, many, many old fans which still work perfectly because of that for more than a decade, 1 specifically the older i have, i got it back in 2006 (14cm fan) and it still works perfectly because i maintain it like that.

[@housemana]

this guy is the truth. i coud listen to Jakob talk all day.

[@cheffress]

Would love to see a long term fan review by running fans for years and then see how they compare. Current, air flow, noise etc

[@timlaunyc]

Matsushita = Panasonic aka panaflo

[@shintsu01]

These are the type of interviews i love. Have the tech people explain how their products in general or specifcly works.

[@teddp]

Jacob is a true engineer, through and through !!!!

[@john_in_phoenix]

It's nice to get real information rather than just marketing. Thanks!

[@ruraloregon2347]

I have all noctura fans in my old main PC. It and the fans have been running great for 13 years. The fans are still very quiet. Great company. I am an engineer and l think this guy is wonderful!

[@_Achillies_]

What a satisfying video for a Mechanical Engineer. In a few words Jacob said different problems demand different bearings, one type of bearing cannot work for all circumstances. Excellent in depth video 🫡🤝🏻👏🏻. Keep it up Steve !

[@hamilpatel4025]

I would watch a 3 hour documentary with these guys!

[@Sintrania]

I really love these series of engineering side of thing approach, even if not many people watch it please keep it coming I’ll keep buying merch just to see more of these.😊

[@foodieontour]

Refreshing to listen to competent voices in a world of incompetent noise. Thank you!

[@spladam3845]

I really appreciate these technical discussion.

[@MahBones]

Thanks for the video Steve. You get similar discussions in turbocharging although I would call the overwhelming majority fluid dynamic bearings of the sleeve type, main difference being lubrication is supplied under pressure and is total loss via gravity.

[@jamesm568]

Now that was a video that I didn't get bored watching.

[@ZhechenZhu]

Interesting and important content. Thanks for sharing. I think a lot of us would appriciate a better curated and consolidated version.

[@Internetspaceships]

I remember Fluid Dynamic Bearings being a big selling point in the early 2000 on harddrives, but i cant remember the time fans also shifted to that.

[@ricequackers]

Very interesting conversation, proving once again that all of engineering is about trade-offs.

[@ADRIAAN1007]

I would love to see fans that use magnetic levitation discussed, I have used some super cheap $20 120mm mag-lev fans from ebay as replacements in a UPS and they have been running constantly for almost a decade.

[@GrumpiestKitten]

I think the section on ball bearings at 15:30 is a bit reductive and may cause further misconceptions. Ball bearings don't necessarily have acoustic penalties. You can use dedicated low noise bearings that are properly lubricated and feature precision finished races/balls with low friction cages. Together with a good amount of pretension to remove the play from the bearing and using materials that dampen well you can make some amazingly quiet ball bearing fans. If you ever get around to making a 140mm fan roundup I recommend checking out the 9ra1412P from Sanyo Denki. My personal reference.

[@stevetheripper]

Love these vids, food for my ADHD nerd brain.

[@bobson_dugnutt]

Veey informative. Next time I shop for fans I will be sure to ask about the porosity of the shaft and the viscosity of the fluids.

[@jaronnamir8868]

If this dude ever leaves Noctua, ya'll better hire him.

[@georgeindestructible]

The thing i want from feature fans is to either sonwhow get rid of the usual 4 hub holder(lines) or actualy double them up so they can become thinner and then at the same time reverse the fan blade so they are easier to clean, is you do this whe holder (line) can be so thin the suction eeffect may so insignificant both performance and acoustically-wise, or do the craziest thing and add 4 small motors in each of the 4 sides/corners of the fan to spin the blades (which will have a flat-like cicle cap around then like some new Arctic ines do), that way you can lock the fan blades in such way you don need a center motor anymore so you can reduce the cycle-like center of the fan by a lot significantly amd it so much easier to clean, what i am not sure about tis design is the noise and possible RPM target, i think there was a company man many years ago who made such types of fans now that i remmber it but they didn't get enough attention for some reason.

[@44R0Ndin]

I wish you'd asked about fan orientation relative to gravity, and how that influences bearing choice. From my own experience, fans seem to fare best when oriented so that an axial fan will push air sideways, so that the long-axis of the impeller axle is horizontal. Now, this is a small sample size as I've had less than a handful (5) fans actually fail on me over my time building PC's for myself and my family (a thing I am thankful for), and it seems the smaller the fan, the quicker it fails in any case. However, I noticed another trend. Most of the fans on my stuff that have failed had their impeller axles long axis oriented vertically. I think this might have been causing the oil to drain out prematurely because brushless DC fans used to be built frequently with the data sticker being the thing that keeps the oil inside the fan bearing, meaning that if the fan is oriented so that gravity tries to pull the oil out of the bearing but the sticker is the only thing holding it in, that sticker will eventually fail and let the oil out, followed soon by a rather noisy fan bearing failure (lots and lots of squeaking). Since my current PC uses nothing but Noctua fans, I am happy to see that the SSO2 bearing (a type of FDB) they use is far better engineered than using something so flimsy as a mere sticker to hold the lubricant inside the bearing housing. Knowing what I know now, I can only describe the bearings in those older fans as what I would currently call "Not up to my standards for the task in any way". Every single one of those fans that failed, I took apart. Every single one that failed and was disassembled, had in it a bearing that was nothing more than a sintered bronze "Oilite" sleeve bearing with the only consideration for longevity being an extra drop or two of lubricant for the sintered bronze to wick up by capillary action and convey to the surfaces of the bearing that are in relative motion when the fan is operating, with that lubricant being held inside the fan as a whole by ONLY the label on the back-center of the fan's housing (as mentioned earlier). Thankfully I know better now, and if I can avoid it I will not be purchasing another fan with such a crudely executed Oilite sleeve bearing.

[@jpthetall]

Would have loved his thoughts on fan orientation and bearing types. Maybe next time

[@FrenziedManbeast]

Jakob rocks. I can't tell you how many junk or no-brand fans I've seen shatter or scream bloody murder after short runtime. Money well spent on a company that puts performance and research first. Yeah their fans are expensive, but there's definitely a level of insured trust at work here when you see how just one person obsesses over bearing specs. Well done everyone. Oh and Steve I bet your 200mm exploding fan was that massive Antec...900 or something I believe it was? I had the pre usb3.0 version of that bad boy and got lucky by having the dipswitch set to low.

[@celeriumlerium8266]

It's a small thing but you should totally take the 10 seconds to set that screen to the right size. The taskbar is going off the edges.

[@Ehko4]

I love this guy. He knows his stuff.

[@lil----lil]

I've STUDIED the bearings inside the submarines. It's crazy fascinating. I've always wondered HTF they could stop water from coming in with millions of PSI coming in from outside in deep dive?! Turns out they ADD FLUID INSIDE the sub to equalize press so there's NO CHANCE for sea water to come in in the "bearing" compartment. Nuts.

[@beardymcbeardface69]

Yeah, I used to work on Navy subs back in the 80's (civilian dockyard technician, not enlisted). One of the most interesting things I saw and worked on, was how they provide a compass repeater outside the sub on the conning tower. That compass repeater needs a metal housing, with a glass window on top so that it can be read when surfaced, yet also needs to be able to survive the enormous pressures of the deep, without that flat glass window getting broken under the crushing pressure. Same deal as you describe. The whole thing is filled with a clear mineral oil and there is a metal bellows on the bottom on the unit, which allows the volume to be compressed in case there is anything inside which is compressible, such as some unwanted air bubbles. Automatically and passively, the oil inside very closely matches the pressure outside, thanks to the oil and bellows. The incompressible oil almost perfectly fills the inside and the bellows caters for any pressure equalisation needed due to any area the oil could not fill.

[@Joel-st5uw]

So informative! Can we take a poll on a new acronym to replace FDB? I vote for "interrupted groove sleeve bearing" or IGS bearing.

[@sixteenornumber]

Noctua just needs to market the name and everyone will follow.

[@stompreaper]

Its telling we can get these discussions with Jakob and by the quiet confident way he talks about the topic and the depth of knowledge shown I naturally now prefer noctua from a fan buying standpoint based on perceived quality without him having to shill for a second. It’s the same with the AMD CPU guys and Tom with ARC GPUs. Engineers who love the area they work in and care about their products can influence me all day. Big company marketers! Watch and learn how to sell your product! It’s not slap AI on it or more RGB.

[@aljowen]

Gotta say, when I had Enermax fans I did love being able to un-click the fan blades and rinse them under the tap for easy cleaning. That fan did only last 8 years though, so I do get the point.

[@andrewvirtue5048]

I like sleeve bearing because I *_know_* it's self-repairable. The fan on my MSI 2070 super was going out. Weird noises, hard start to spin, start-stop. Took the plastic cover off the heatsink. Dusted the heat sink. Took the fan apart. Put some grease _(I'm amateur mechanic, had Lucas - Red&Tacky laying around)_ on the fan shaft and in the sleeve. Better than new, all symptoms gone.

[@xoxo2008oxox]

YA know, I would replace ALL my fans, and future builds, with Noctua's IF...they made them in the Gamers Nexus colour of Blue and Silver/white!

[@MrSmitheroons]

Kind of confirms the "vibes" I've got when doing shopping and research -- "FDB" has no clear differentiating factor, is in the cheap and expensive fans alike, and isn't specific enough (if they mean anything particular by it in marketing) to make a *good* purchase decision based on. Although it is vaguely "better" for the typical use-case of a personal-use computer for most likely being somewhat quieter than ball bearing. I appreciate reviews based on noise and thermals... On the other hand, lifespan is very hard for a reviewer to meaningfully benchmark. So, really I think it comes down to some sort of judgment call, and since Noctua has staked its identity in the market on being a premium option for more exacting build quality and engineering standards, and a serious dedication to longevity (both of support and product lifetime)... it's something I would personally trust Noctua to deliver on in any product they put out. I also trust them more than other companies to make the right choice for a given product segment even if it goes away from the current "meta" or marketing hype trend -- if engineering shows it to be the right choice for the intended use-case and manufacturing it that way is feasible, I believe they will tend to do it. I wish we could easily know as buyers how long a fan will last, and how well its low-noise operation will hold up over time. Until we get a meaningful way to convey the quality of the manufacturing and engineering standards of the product, brand reputation really is the next best thing, and sort of the best we have, in my opinion. I can see why Jakob would point to that, there's not much more consumers can really go by. That, and if an unusual proportion of reviews report failures then the product is probably not that good, but people are reviewing after a couple of days usually, maybe a few weeks or months, very rarely a few years. Almost never decades. And by then it's too late, the product is usually discontinued... Oh, well.

[@mick0matic]

But what about air bearings or roller bearings for fans? interesting video as always!

[@OriginalGarth]

Jakob threw out a term “Capillary Forces” which I wasn’t familiar with. Had to Google it and that was a mini rabbit hole all to itself.

[@MP_7]

Damn, 20mins fly so fast with Jakob

[@TheZoenGaming]

I'm more interested in what bearing is best for switching a fan's orientation. I seem to recall learning that a standard sleeve bearing is great for horizontal air flow but poor for vertical since the lube will pool at the bottom of the sleeve.

[@alphaomega154]

i just found out that the most "PRO EARTH" fan bearing type is the SLEEVE BEARING. no im not talking about the guy who prefer to save cats over humans, no, but one of the most cheapest fan bearing in the market. i have an old "chromebook" type of mobile device that come with that type of fan. and after 13 years, i just find out that the 13 years old fan dont really need to be replaced when its start to acting up and wont ramping up in rpm. all i need to do is to open the tiny laptop up, and open the casing that encages the fan turbine, and i realize i could remove the rotor/turbine simply by pulling it out. so smooth. and cleaning up the rotor shaft, and adding a tiny single drop of sewing machine oil into the bearing slot and put it back in, and i just drop nearly 40 degrees and function like new. a THIRTEEN YEARS OLD SLEEVE BEARING FAN. for those who care about the planet, this is the type of fan you want. so you dont have to make unnecessary E WASTE. (i dont hold any candle lit for those who prefer "its MY PLEASURE FIRST!" type of human)

[@Madpegasusmax]

Ball bearings , shafts ,bare bone , fluids , this was a difficult topic to Steve go trough without lolling ... this is a interesting topic , I always associated ball bearings to longevity (like the old eternal papst ) but they are noisy . teflon/nylon low speed sleeves fans are quiet , but cannot be neglected , as lubrification dry out and dust on the fins will reduce the life quite fast .

[@rusTORK]

Finally a REAL content! Fan bearings!

[@heyarno]

I feel confirmed in my fan choices. I use a 140mm Noctua on the intake, a 120mm Noctua on the cpu cooler and a 120mm Arctic with ballbearings on the exhaust.

[@06stiguy63]

Very interesting stuff and very well explained. One thing i would have found great to hear about is why those pesky 40mm (or less) fans from the late 90's and early 2000's on North/Southbridge coolers or gpu's always failed way too early. These things never failed to fail. Even at very low hours. I know these ran way higher rpm than their 80mm counterparts in those day's but still. Were these just too cheap or difficult to manufacture properly at that size?

[@KimBoKastekniv47]

Speaking of fans, what happened to the fan tester?

[@bobby0081]

When are you going to use the fan tester?

[@LogiForce86]

I want to ask Jakob... if I ever (if at all) have to relube my Noctua fan because the bearing is running dry, can I? If yes, with what lubricant?

[@CodeSnowy]

Man I wished they talked about Magnetic Levitation bearings or are they the same thing as FDB?

[@Harmik2]

Awesome video very informative thank you.

[@AxleLotl]

I wonder if ball bearing PC fans use a grease compound to reduce friction and acoustics, I can't imagine it'd have to be very viscous to make a large impact.

[@wallywest2360]

Where do mag-lev fans fit into this? I'm using the Corsair ML120 fans (the original, non-RGB version), and they seem to perform quite well. As quiet a fan as I've ever used, and presumably the longevity will beat any other type of bearing. But if it was so great you'd think everyone would have a version of that fan by now.

[@chaoticwonder3278]

I went through this a couple of times and had a question about fan orientation vs bearing type. Are there bearings that perform better when the fan is mounted vertical vs horizontal (hub up) vs horizontal (hub down)? Running the same 120mm fans in each of these positions some wear out before others, in my experience. Horizontal (hub up or down) seem to wear out before vertical fans.

[@macktheinterloper]

I'm curious if you have any thoughts on Cybenetics throwing their hat into the fray and starting their fan certification programme.

[@jonny_vdv]

Noctua really are proper nerds

[@Vialli100.]

Hydraulic bearings ensure high speed operation, reduce wear, reduce noise and improve service life. The lower part of the fan has a magnetic suction, which pulls the steel column to the side of the fan and has strong suction power. The above is what is said about the fans I have..

[@jimeththemelancollie351]

These videos are great. I'm a fan.

[@nathanielgreen8941]

What are your thoughts on water chillers for cooling pc components?

[@legostarwarsrulez]

What’s the difference between the number of “poles” the motors have? Super flower is advertising 12 pole motors in their (high RPM ball bearing) fans, and I have no idea how that is supposed to benefit the fan or me.

[@collectorguy3919]

Noctua is on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum from Asus. It's not an apples:apples comparison, but it's so much nicer anyway.

[@NightFoxXIII]

I was using black or white fans to go with my case build at the time. Now after using a Noctua fan (from a thrift store of all places) I replaced all my case fans with Noctuas since the noise is lower and way more tolerable. Long live the ugly brown fans. I wanna make my next PC case with ugly brown theme.

[@N3v3r_S3ttl3]

They also have black fans if you want to match it with your case. Although a fully brown build doesn't look that bad either! Noctua fans, Noctua GPU from ASUS, Noctua PSU from Seasonic and probably a case with wooden accents like Fractal Design North.

[@burner33]

@@N3v3r_S3ttl3 of course everyone has different taste, but me personally the brown colour looks nice with a white or black case

[@harrytsang1501]

The brown fans are the color of high performance

[@Pro4TLZZ]

Thanks for the info

[@toonnut1]

Thanks Steve

[@jameshackett9992]

Which bearing is best for orientation of the fan, also what temp they can cope touching a heat source espc in low profile heatsinks for server NICS or fpga nic fans they last a year tops when heatsink is 65oc fan facing down etc, theirs a demand for 50mm 8mm BB fans out their

[@SaccoBelmonte]

All good except the brown color.

[@erictayet]

If I'm building an industrial PC, I'd definitely talk to an engineer for the fan, chassis, motherboard, PSU, etc. (I used to do this.) But since I'm just a consumer now, I watch Gamer Nexus and der8auer. ;)

[@simeonnov]

I'm sorry, I am not sure what was discussed and what to make of it. I was looking forward to understanding what advantages some types of bearings have over the other, but it seems like we just learned that just "because something something doesn't mean something", which doesn't explain anything. "Just because it says FDB, doesn't mean it's good." or "just because it has herringbone groves, doesn't mean much at all." I will check out the rest of the videos on fan bearings, but this is the first video that popped up about fan bearings and the least I wanted to know was what "bad" things to watch out for when buying fans. There is a lot of interesting info tho, maybe the subject is more complicated than I thought. Thanks for bringing us cool videos like this!

[@Waldherz]

Its hard to say, because the actual manufacturing and quality of each bearing matters more than the type of it. Lets say bearing A was better than bearing B. The differences between those would be small and a good B could be a lot better than an average A at the end of it. The only thing to keep in mind is that anything that uses lots of oil will usualy die first, since the oil leaks out over time in a vertical or top side up mounting.

[@rootveeld]

Charlotte Microcenter review when?!

[@GamersNexus]

Haven't gone yet, but want to!

[@TECHiSuppose]

I try to get my PC builds as quiet as possible and fans are a big consideration. Its sad to hear there is no definite way of knowing from specifications that it's going to be a quiet long term option.

[@arha-z1v]

Could you test the acoustics of each bearing type?

[@hanswurst2220]

yes

[@rrrrexx]

What about air noise after some rpm?

[@israeldavila27]

You could say it’s my only fan.

[@ranjanbiswas3233]

Noctua is like Early Nokia of pc fan technology.

[@BMfins]

Always wondered.

[@phillee2814]

What about Maglev bearings? Ball and other types of rollers all pump the lubricant in the bearing around in circles, but are inherently lower friction (so cooler running), as you can easily tell if you drag a book across your desk then repeat the task but with round pencils between book and desk. But they tend to last a shorter length of time. Plain/sleeve bearings or bushes (grooved or otherwise) depend entirely on the quality of the seals for their durability. The plain bearing can be made to outdo rolling types on the load capacity, and normally do in automotive use, but it requires the lubricant to be pumped to high pressure. Maglev are just two magnets facing each other NN or SS, so that they repel each other (no good for hard disks). No friction at all, no contact even at rest, so no wear.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Hi Jakob!! I'm a Big fan! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

[@yoeribolderdijk1257]

Noctua4life!!

[@ezecarol11]

I love noctua fans but i still think they need to try dual ball some time

[@ross4814]

Awww, I wanted to see Steve escorted forcefully out of the building. Maybe next time.

[@GickelsGaming]

BROWN FANS ARE LIFE

[@NJ-wb1cz]

Black fans are just as good. Even White fans can be decent

[@BenWillock]

I like how he just went off on his "fluid dynamics are BS" manifesto right away. 😂 I get the feeling that he's had more than a few heated debates on the subject.

[@FischiPiSti]

As far as 'best' bearing types go, I'm gonna go ahead and say the best bearing type is no bearing at all. I wish Corsair's maglevs had competition.