be quiet! Light Wings 140mm PWM Fan Review

The be quiet! Light Wings 140mm was built from scratch to offer not only ARGB lighting, but also good performance and silent operation. These two usually don’t get along, so it will be interesting to check how be quiet! managed to combine them in this product. 

According to be quiet! the Light Wings 140mm offers strong performance and quiet operation, besides the ARGB lighting on both of its sides (front and rear). There are 20 LEDs, and if you buy the triple pack, you will find in its bundle a highly useful ARGB hub, which allows ARGB sync of up to six fans. The brand claims that the seven noise-optimized fan blades generate 23.3 dBA maximum, which I will verify with my noise analyzer and a hemi-anechoic chamber with a lower than 6 dBA noise floor.

The most important piece of information when it comes to fans is the type of bearing because this is what affects the fan’s bearing the most. The Light Wings fan uses a rifle bearing, which is an enhancing version of the plain sleeve bearing, offering increased lifetime but not at the same levels as the hydro dynamic and fluid dynamic bearings. To control the fan’s speed, a PWM signal is used, and with 1500 RPM max, be quiet! states that this fan is suitable for chassis use mostly. Moreover, there is a daisy-chain capability, which will help you the most during installation and cable management, but only for the ARGB cables. Surely these cables are also a pain to manage, but it would be way better if the power cables could also be daisy-chained somehow.

There is also a high-speed version of the be quiet! Light Wings 140mm PWM fan, which can speed at 2200 RPM. In this review, I will look at the normal version, topping at 1500 RPM.