Are you talking about just a fan or a cooler assembly (heatsink + fan)? Noctua makes really good coolers and fans, they perform well at low noise levels and have zero whine noise.

You shouldn’t find the quietest fan — smart pc building is finding the optimal noise to cooling ratio to meet your use case.

Like a 900 rpm noctua case fan will be pretty much inaudibly quiet, but it won’t push a lot of air and might not adequately cool components.

Budget Arctic P12, just don't run them fixed at 1k rpm as they resonate a bit (but during transitions to that regime, you won't notice it). Or the newer p12 Max.

Performance more expensive Nidec Gentle typhoon (properly set up not to make them go full blast or else they aren't silent at all), but they push a fuckton of air. Alternatives are the Thermalright Toughfan, Phanteks t30.

Premium.. Noctua nf a12x25 or the new Silent wings pro 4. Trouble Noctua doesn't make a 140mm NF a14x25, but be quiet does it with the SWP4

Adjusts your fan curves first. Like if it takes 90% fan to give you 72c. And 30% gives you 70c. You can dial it down. Also, larger fans can move more air with lower RPM. Move less, less noise.

Scythe Fuma 2 Very well built.

The Scythe Kaze Flex fans are very good also

Consider a Scythe mugen. One of the quietest and best performing air coolers. Slightly pricy.

Best seems to be the Zalman CNPS20X as tested by Kitguru, twice. I'd be really interested if GamersNexus would validate their findings now that they have their air cooling methodology finalized.

Quietest is whichever has the fans spinning the slowest. Kitguru only did an RPM normalized test but said in a comment that the noise difference between the CNPS20X and D15 was only 0.2dB apart and wasn't at all noticeable on their test bench.

As for the Silver Arrow IB-E, it seems to have been superseded by the Le Grand Macho RT (same TDP 320W) which some also claim is better than the D15. But until they're tested with a well polished methodology, like GN's, we can't say for certain.

That said, I wouldn't worry about absolute best as there really is only a small difference between all the massive dual-tower coolers.

Get noctua, they are the best on the market. Alternative would be be quiet!

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My regular Noctua case fan (not Industrial!) had been going strong for over a decade in different builds. No problems. (S12)

Bought different Fans too because I was cheap. Turns out I was just dumb. This was the cheapest without comparison over the years. Arctic second

pretty much any noctua fan

Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 is probably the best case fan you can buy, but they're $40 EACH. If budget isn't an issue, get them.

Could try putting oil in the fan bearing. I do that when I don't feel like buying a new one.

Decided to get a Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC CPU Cooler. Looked like an old standing fan my grandpa used to have with the rustic brown and cream colour. Best thing about that fan, is it’s from 1985 and it still works better than the one I bought from Bunnings recently 😅. Should arrive in 3 days.

Seems Noctua make products that work, not look cute. And that’s what I need, thank you everyone for the suggestions!

Have you adjusted the fan curves (on both the cooler and case fans)? The mugen 5 should be a fairly quiet cooler

So if you want the best performance and the quietest coolers, go with a Noctua cooler.

Their website: https://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail

Their standard color scheme is brown, but some models do come in an optional black color. Since you don't care about looks, you have the whole lineup to choose from.

For your 9700K and case that has a max cooler height of 160 mm, go with the NH-U12A or the NH-U12S.

The NH-U12A uses two of Noctua's famed NF-A12 fans for some top tier performance and quietness for it's size. It's Noctua's best cooler under 160 mm. Noctua rates the cooler as cooling the 9700K so that it gives the best turbo and overclock headroom. See link here: https://ncc.noctua.at/coolers/NH-U12A-8/cpus/?q=9700k. Going for $100 on Amazon.

If you want to spend less, there's the NF-U12S. This is a popular single fan model from Noctua, you can think of it as the NH-U12A's little brother. This cooler has a black version. Noctua rates the cooler as cooling the 9700K so that it gives a medium amount of turbo and overclock headroom. See link here: https://ncc.noctua.at/coolers/NH-U12S-9/cpus/?q=9700k. Standard brown for $60 on Amazon, and black version for $70.

Depends on your budget and case. For $75, the be quiet! Dark Rock 4 is a really high-quality silent air cooler that will be a decent step up from your current tower cooler.

If you can stretch your budget a bit further and can mount a 280mm radiator in your case, then the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 will also be a great option.

Some of the quietest you can get are liquid coolers. I highly do not recommend it if you have never set one up. If you mess up the piping, water could leak all over the inside of your pc and fry it all. Other than that, the other comments are what you should look at. Just thought I should say this.

If you're using Molex connectors, nothing is going to be quiet, since fans on Molex run at 100%. You can buy a cheap fan controller that will allow you to turn down the RPM, which will make even the cheapest fan quiet. You can also swap for larger fans at lower RPM. The largest fans will move the most air with the least noise, but the drawback is the huge hole you have to cut into a case to accommodate them.

Not really I’ve heard both of those are very quiet in general just search be quiet on your retailers website or look for it on pcpartpicker and search for most popular.

I did a bunch of research about 3 years ago (so keep that in mind as this data may have changed as fan designs have changed) and found this big database that contained airflow and noise data for a ton of fans. To which I added pricing data to it.

With this, I came up with a metric wherein I had best airflow to noise data, and then compounded that with airflow to noise data divided by price. And with that information, I was able to determine that (by my metric) a company that I had never heard of - Nanoxia, made the best fans for the dollar (specifically their Deep Silence PWM series).

That is what i love from both brands. You can buy any fan from them blind. They are all silent, unlike some other brands which can have noisy budget series

Would you recommend speed fan? I have heard good and bad things regarding it, mostly good things.

If you want the best.

Noctua or Be Quiet.

Noctua makes good fans.

'be quiet!' makes some good fans, they're more focused on silence.

Corsair might have some good fans. They make, among others, the RS140 MAX, which is 30mm thick instead of the usual 25mm. Might be worth checking out.

I don't have much experience with the fans of other brands.

I like arctic fans

Noctua all day.

Noctua

I value performance and silence, so my go to are Noctua fans. Expensive, but you get what you pay for.

if you can find one from Be Quiet! for under 40, go for it. As the brand name suggests they make some of the most silent coolers for the money. But I honestly think any cooler would be more silent than intel stock ones.

For under 40 go with the coolermaster hyper 212 evo or the black edition

Noctua probably

Alpenföhn Brocken or Thermalright Macho.

The BeQuiets are really quiet but how the fan is attached to the cooler is absolutely low-tech. The clamp is really weak and the fan hangs slightly lower than the cooler (I have two BeQuiet Pure Rocks and this is what I don't like about them)

Really good and advanced - but also getting near the 40 pounds mark: Thermalright Macho. Also comes with a really good screwdriver.