Installation:
Installation is intended to be done using the rubber mounts that are included with all three fan models. Although they work great for fastening the fans to most cases, there are still many situations where they simply won't work at all. I wouldn't have minded it if GELID would throw in four screws with each fan as well.

Testing:
Having tested so many silent marketed fans in the past, I can certainly pick out a good one right away. With a large variety on hand to compare to from many other manufacturers (Scythe, Noctua, Nexus, etc) I can also make many one-on-one comparisons.

All fans will be tested on the GlacialPower 650A power supply. I use this power supply because at low loads it's fan remains turned off so it won't introduce any added noise to the tests.

Wing 12
When I first turned on the Wing 12 I hoped the soft grinding noise it was emitting was not a part of regular operation - it wasn't! When I took the impeller apart for it's photoshoot, I realized that I didn't quite have it pushed together properly so it wasn't spinning just right, my mistake, but a good lesson learned to pay attention when putting this fan back together! Once I had it running properly I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of bearing noise from the Nanoflux bearing design. I'm usually used to a slight hum or whine as is associated with most small motors but the Wing 12 lacked that (at least it lacked it enough that I couldn't hear it, not to say it wasn't there at all). Since the Wing 12 is designed as a higher performing fan, there was definitely some noise from the actual airflow. Put it up against the Silent 12's or any other silent fans I had around here and it was definitely louder. Remember though, it's a performance fan first who's first objective is to provide maximum cooling abilities while secondly trying to still stay quieter than other competitors in this playing field - that it certainly did accomplish.

Silent 12
The Silent 12 model was quiet right off the blocks. Running at only 1000RPM it's a quiet fan that still provides a fairly decent 37CFM of airflow. In comparison tests I found this fan most similar to the Nexus Basic Series of case fans that I've previously reviewed here and that are still some of my favorite fans to use in a silent case.

Silent 12 PWM
Since most PWM fans are designed to go on a CPU cooler, they must be designed to sufficiently cool the CPU without causing damage from excessive heat. For that reason, the Silent 12 PWM has similar specs to the Silent 12 TC (Thermal Control) as we've previously mentioned. For this test I put it head to head with the stock fan on my Nexus HOC-9000 CPU cooler. Doing noise comparisons of both, I found the Silent 12 PWM to emit slightly less bearing noise than the cooler's stock fan did. For that reason, I did a fan swap and can certainly notice the small difference when I listen for it.