Introduction
Be quiet! is on a roll as they are continuously releasing white editions of its mainstream and power segment products. This time, they have released the white edition of flagship fans Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm and 140mm in addition to the white edition of Silent Wings 4 series of fans. I am taking a look at the Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm and 140mm fans though my objective would be the 140mm version in this article.
Some of the salient features of the Silent Wings Pro 4 include:
- Silent Wings Pro 4 PWM is the most progressive, performant and versatile fan by be quiet!
- Optimized fan blades for the highest performance on radiators and heat sinks
- Speed switch allows changing maximum PWM speed between medium-speed, high-speed and ultra-high-speed (up to 3000 rpm for the 120mm and 2400 rpm for the 140mm)
- Small tip clearance and a fan frame with a funnel-shaped air outlet for extremely high air pressure
- Virtually inaudible operation at regular speed
- 6-pole fan motor and fluid-dynamic bearing for less vibration and very smooth operations
- Individual mounting systems for use as a case fan or with a radiator
- 5-year manufacturer warranty
- Now in white color
The Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm PWM white edition is USD 31.90/UK Pound Sterling £29.99. The 140mm white edition has an MSRP of USD 32.90/UK Pound Sterling £30.99.
Silent Wings Pro 4 Specifications
120mm
140mm
Packaging and Unboxing
The fans are shipped inside black color cardboard box packaging finished in be quiet! theme all around. The manufacturer has highlighted the following:
- Legendary Silence
- Epic Performance
- Features
Looking at the backside of the main packing box, you can see the specifications. The fans are developed in Germany.
Peaking inside the main packing box, you can see two more boxes. These are made of paperboard material. Top one is labeled Accessories and the bottom one has fan.
Closer Look
It is time to take a look at the design element of these fans. I am showing both fans together in each picture.
The 120mm Pro 4 fan has 9x blades whereas the 140mm fan has 7x blades. The blade design is same on both. The new design has reduced the clearance of the blades’ tips from the boundary which gives me Noctua vibes. The tip clearance plays a significant role when it comes to sustaining the high pressure while delivering the flow as it reduces the turbulence.
These blades have textured surfaces in an altered layout. The center of the fan has a large diameter. The center is white and has be quiet! branding. The main frame is circular in design and it has detachable mounting corners. These mounting corners give these fans a square look.
These detachable mounting corners are the main feature of these Pro 4 fans. There are a total of 3x mounting corner sets. Each serves a specific requirement like use on the radiator or on the heatsink or act as a PC Case fan.
Looking at the backside of the fans, you can see 4x arms assembly that is holding the impeller body and securing it to the main frame. These arms have a slope design that would act to spread the air in a direction except for the widest body arm that would break the pattern. It has wires that are routed from the hub to the frame.
These fans have a speed control button on the backside. It has three main settings or dials:
| M (Medium) | HS (High Speed) | UHS (Ultra High Speed) | |
| Pro 4 120mm | 1600 RPM | 2500 RPM | 3000 RPM |
| Pro 4 140mm | 1100 RPM | 1900 RPM | 2400 RPM |
I would personally, set the fan speed to UHS and use the PWM control for speed regulation particularly when installing these fans over the radiator since you can’t remove these fans just to change the speed settings!
These fans are manufactured on 22-12-23. They are made in China.
You can see side frame view. The fans have arrows that show the direction of airflow through the fans and the direction in which blades spin. There is also a be quiet! branding on one side of the main frame.
Be Quiet! has used a new connector with enlarged housing compared to the other PWM connectors. This makes the handling convenient. It has a nicely braided and sleeved cable. This connector is a 4-pin PWM design.
Mounting Corners
Now, it is time to look at the mounting corners.
The accessory box has a 2x set of mounting corners. It has 4x self-tapping screws and plastic screws with washers.
I am showing a top view of the pre-installed mounting corner. This particular corner is designed to be used over the radiator. Its design gives a square outlook to the fans which looks pleasant. There is an anti-vibration pad around the mounting hole.
There are locker tabs on both sides of the corner housing. Pressing them would release the corners and you can pull them off easily.
I have removed the pre-installed mounting corners and shown the 140mm fan. Each mounting side has a two-point housing to catch the mounting corners.
There is a label Corner Type-A. You need to match this with the mounting corners. One of the corners has a label Type-B. This is the corner from where the power cable is coming out from the frame. There is a mounting corner that has Type-B labeled as well.
I am showing the default mounting corners after removing them from the fans. The last corner has a Type-B label and it has a cutout on the top housing from where the power cable passes. The rest of the three are Type-A. The same goes for the other two sets.
I am showing the other two types of mounting corners. We have a total of three sets:
- Radiator corners [pre-installed]
- Anti-vibration corners for the case
- Plastic corners which are probably for heatsink
The above pictures show the other two types of mounting corners attached to the 140mm fan.
be quiet! uses Fluid Dynamic Bearing in these fans having a life span of 300,000 hours. These bearings reduce the vibration which helps in reducing the overall noise output. These fans use 6-pole, 3-phase motor.
The salient specifications of the white fans are:
| Silent Wings 4 PRO 120mm | Silent Wings 4 PRO 140mm | |
| Dimension | 120x120x25mm | 140x140x25mm |
| Fan Speed at 100% PWM | 3000 RPM | 2400 RPM |
| Noise Level at 100% PWM | 36.9 dB(A) | 36.8 dB(A) |
| Airflow at 100% PWM | 83.9 CFM | 97.41 CFM |
| Air Pressure at 100% PWM | 5.31 mmH₂O | 3.64 mmH₂O |
| Voltage Range | 7~13.2VDC | 7~13.2VDC |
| Input Power | 3.6W | 6.0W |
| Input Current | 0.3A | 0.5A |
Testing
The following configuration is used for thermal testing:
- AMD Ryzen 7950X
- GIGABYTE X670E AORUS MASTER
- ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III – 280 ARGB Black
- Kingston Renegade Fury 32GB 6400MHz CL32 DDR5 kit
- ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7600 Graphics Card for Display
- Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVME SSD
- Be Quiet! Straight Power 11 850W PSU
- Open-Air Test Bench
Here is the settings table for testing:
| Clock (MHz) | Auto |
| Voltage (V) | Auto |
| PBO | Advanced |
| PPT | 200000mW |
| TDC | 480000 |
| EDC | 640000 |
| Boost Clock Override | +75Hz |
| Platform Thermal Throttle Limit | Auto |
| Thermal Paste | Noctua NT-H1 |
| Thermal Paste Application | Dots Method |
| Test Run Time | 30 minutes |
| Idling Time | 10 minutes |
| All Fans Speed | 100% PWM Duty Cycle |
| Pump Speed | |
| Stress Software | CINEBENCH R23.2 |
| Monitoring Software | HWINFO64 |
We are reporting delta temperature in the graph because room temperature varied from 20.9°C to 22.8°C throughout the day. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.
Not every run of the stress test may yield the same result. This could well be due to many factors like mounting pressure, thermal paste application, and varying ambient temperature. Not to mention the silicon differences even among the same category of the chips. Hence, it is pertinent to mention the testing methodology along with the specifics.
Result
My main test was with a socket power of 200W (resulting package power of 205W). The be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 140mm PWM fan has a good advantage in terms of the thermals. However, this level of performance comes at a cost of high noise output on the be quiet! fans.
Here is a table showing RPM against the PWM regulation of the be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 140mm PWM fan:
| PWM Duty Cycle (%age) | Speed (RPM) |
| 5 | 369 |
| 10 | 378 |
| 20 | 580 |
| 30 | 858 |
| 40 | 1095 |
| 50 | 1320 |
| 60 | 1530 |
| 70 | 1739 |
| 80 | 1917 |
| 90 | 2115 |
| 100 | 2303 |
| Medium Speed Dial | 1100 |
| High-Speed Dial | 1900 |
| Ultra-High-Speed Dial | 2400 |
Conclusion
Be quiet! has released the white edition of famous Silent Wings 4 series of the fans including the Pro 4 versions. There is no difference between the black and white editions except the colors. There you go. You have got the answer. The white edition would work in white-themed builds though I would suggest be quiet! to come out with white edition high-performance coolers and PSUs to complete the white edition ecosystem.
The Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm and 140mm PWM fans are the spearhead from the manufacturer. These fans are heavier than the regular fans. The build quality is top notch on these fans and the overall paint work is satisfactory. The salient feature is the new altered blade layout and tip clearance from the frame. The gap is narrowed which would result in higher air pressure on the edges.
The second difference comes from the detachable mounting corners. be quiet! has provided 3 sets of corner mounts for the different scenarios. The fans come with the radiator mounts pre-installed. These mounts give the fan a square frame finish which looks quite elegant and premium. The other two sets include an anti-vibration corner, which we have seen in the previous generation of be quiet! fans. The other set is of the plastic corner mount. be quiet! has provided screws and push-pins.
These fans use Fluid Dynamic Bearings with a life span of 300,000 hours and 6-pole, 3-phase motor which produces less vibration and are heat efficient as well. The PWM connector has an enlarged housing with a premium finish. This provides a better handling of these connectors. be quiet! has used a nice sleeved cable.
These fans feature a speed dial slider on the back of the fans. There are three speed dials.
| Silent Wings 4 PRO 120mm | Silent Wings 4 PRO 140mm | |
| Medium (M) | Up to 1600 RPM | Up to 1100 RPM |
| High-Speed (HS) | Up to 2500 RPM | Up to 1900 RPM |
| Ultra High-Speed (UHS) | Up to 3000 RPM | Up to 2400 RPM |
Please note that fan will not go above the set dial (M, HS, or UHS). If you have set the dial to Medium which is roughly 1100 RPM for the 140mm fan, then the 100% PWM regulation would set the fan to 1100 RPM and not above. I would suggest setting the slider at UHS and controlling the speed using PWM regulation inside the BIOS. Although there are specific scenarios where you can set the dial manually and leave the fan to operate on the set speed. It would come down to the user or scenario requirement.
These fans are rated for up to 3000 RPM for the 120mm fans 2400RPM for the 140mm fans. The 120mm fans can’t go below the 1200 RPM. The operating voltage range is 7~13.2VDC. The 1200mm fan draws 3.6W using 0.3A at 12VDC whereas the power rating for the 140mm is 6.0W power at 0.5A. The airflow rating is 83.9 CFM with a static pressure rating of 5.31mmH₂O at 12VDC for the 120mm fan. The 140mm fan has an airflow rating of 97.41 CFM with a static pressure rating of 3.64 mmH₂O.
The be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm PWM single fan pack has an MSRP of USD $31.90/UK Pound Sterling £29.99 whereas the 140mm single fan has MSRP of USD $32.90/UK Pound Sterling £30.99. This is quite a premium price tag but can be justified with the performance level and the customization of these fans.
These fans have a 5-year warranty. The thermal performance of these fans on the radiator is impressive as per our testing. The 140mm version gave a good temperature drop on the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 280 cooler. These fans in white are my pick for sure.
Pros
- Good Performance
- Narrow Tip Clearance
- Fluid Dynamic Bearings with 300,000 hours MTTF
- Detachable Mounting Corners
- 3x Sets of Mounting Corners included
- Slider Button to control the speed
- White edition looks elegant
- 5-Year Warranty
Cons
- Somewhat loud at high speeds
- Speed Dial is on the back
- Price Tag
