Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with representatives from be quiet! to go over their next set of fans, the Silent Wings 4. These fans will come in two flavors, the Silent Wings 4 and Silent Wings Pro 4, with a handful of differentiating features to separate the two.
Development for the Silent Wings 4 lineup first began in 2018, with 3D-printed prototypes delivered in early 2020. Since then, they have been testing and tweaking the different prototypes to get to their desired results. All of the fan blades, frame, and mounting corners utilized PBT plastics, reinforced with up to 30% fiber glass. As such, this prevents impeller creep from happening, even after running the fan for long periods at its maximum 3000 RPM speeds.
The Silent Wings 4 fan offers a new blade arrangement with a smaller tip clearance for improved performance in applications requiring higher air pressure, such as on heatsinks and radiators. Using their six-pole fan motor and fluid dynamic bearings, this generation manages to spin faster and push out more air at similar noise levels compared to the Silent Wings 3. Thankfully, we still have other great features like multiple mounting corners for installation with push-pins or with screws. One other small thing be quiet! wanted to point out was that their fans use a blacked-out label in order to blend the fan in better with your build, as opposed to having a bright orange and white logo in the middle.
The Silent Wings Pro 4 fan takes the same design as the vanilla Silent Wings 4 and provides additional features, as well as a faster maximum speed. This includes a dedicated speed switch to change the maximum rotational speed and allow the fans to spin even faster. We also have a third mounting corner, meant to be radiator optimized by using squared off corners that prevents the air from leaking out the sides. We also have a fully sleeved fan cable with an easier-to-handle 4-pin connector, while also ensuring the wires do not bend as easily near the fan connector.
The Silent Wings 4 fan lineup will come in both 120mm and 140mm variants, for both 3-pin voltage controlled and 4-pin PWM controlled flavors. The two 120mm variants max out at 1600 RPM, while the 140mm variants have a maximum rotational speed of 1100 RPM. There are also 120mm and 140mm PWM variants at a higher speed of 2500 RPM and 1900 RPM, respectively. Meanwhile, the Silent Wings Pro 4 fan lineup come in both 120mm and 140mm variants, and both are PWM controlled. These reach a maximum speed of 3000 RPM and 2400 RPM, respectively.
Pricing for the Silent Wings 4 and Silent Wings Pro 4 are as follows (USD and EUR):
Silent Wings 4 120mm / 120mm PWM / 120mm PWM high-speed: $22.90 | €23.90
Silent Wings 4 140mm / 140mm PWM / 140mm PWM high-speed: $23.90 | €24.90
Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm: $30.90 | €31.90
Silent Wings Pro 4 140mm: $31.90 | €32.90
be quiet! plans to launch their fans in July 2022.
