Test Be Quiet Pure Wings 3 High Speed: Simple, efficient fans

When you think of cooling, you think of Be Quiet! They’re one of the kings in this field, with only a few brands in direct competition. Their products are quiet – and that’s the name of the brand – but also affordable, as is the case with these Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 High Speed.No detours, no fuss, these Pure Wings 3 promise a simple recipe for quiet luxury at an affordable price. But do they measure up to the brand’s more expensive models?

Design of the Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3

Simple is the perfect adjective to describe the design of these Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3. It’s not at all a pejorative, on the contrary. In a market saturated with bright, colorful products, offering a product that gets back to basics is not only relevant, but becomes a way of standing out.Available in two colors, black and white, the Pure Wings 3 fit easily into the vast majority of cases. Apart from a few exceptions, such as the Cooler Master NR200P, these have all remained in black or white.As for branding, Be Quiet! remains discreet, with a relief on the sides of the fan, invisible once installed, and a white logotype in the center. We appreciate the perfect centering of the logotype, avoiding an unpleasant visual effect when the fans are running at full speed.Like all PC fans on the market, these are fixed with four screws that are inserted into the corners of the product. We appreciate the inclusion of these screws, useful for those who don’t think to keep the screws supplied with the case.Finally, the connectivity is very simple. With no RGB and no dedicated controller, a single four-pin connector connects the fan to your power source. Even when it comes to connection, we’re dealing with something very simple, which I really appreciate. The rear panel of my case clearly wouldn’t support an additional RGB controller.

Features of the Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3

Pure Wings 3 High Speed assembly

Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 are very easy to install. Everything you need is supplied in the box – just four screws. Once you’ve decided where you’d like the fans to go in your case, and in which direction, you’ll need to screw the four screws into the appropriate slots. Once this is done, you’ll need to connect the fan. You can either connect it directly to your motherboard, or use a controller already present in your machine, taking advantage of the standard connector used for fans. This is the choice we made, connecting these Pure Wings 3 High Speed to the controller of our Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT. If you decide to install several Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 High Speed, you may want to use a splitter – a cable that connects several fans to a single motherboard port. This is not included, but can be purchased for around ten euros. It is also possible to reuse an existing splitter.

Be Quiet! performance Pure Wings 3 High Speed

I tested these Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 High Speed in my personal configuration, a choice I made for a reason. I use a particularly capricious case in terms of airflow, the famous NZXT H710i. This case, although very pretty, only has very small air inlets on the sides. The result is a case that suffocates easily, driving up the temperatures of my air-cooled components very quickly. The complete configuration is therefore as follows:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
• MSI B450-A Pro Max
• 32 GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR4 3600 MHz
• Corsair iCUE H150 Elite LCD XT
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 FE
• NZXT H710i

If this isn’t a state-of-the-art configuration, it does have the advantage of being able to really put these fans to the test. Between overheating components and a very restrictive case, they clearly have their work cut out for them. Whether at rest, in game or in stress test, these Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 High Speed deliver highly satisfactory performance. They were quite capable of delivering real airflow in a housing where this is not obvious, causing me to lose a good ten degrees under full load. If they’re that good in an ultra-restrictive housing, once installed in a Corsair 4000D AirFlow, they’re even better. They create a really high airflow, optimizing component cooling without becoming unbearably noisy.

Pure Wings 3 High Speed noise levels

When the brand name translates as “Be Quiet!”, our expectations in terms of noise levels are very high. As usual, we’re not disappointed by the Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 High Speed. Although louder than the more humble speed model, they remain very discreet. At full load, i.e. around 2000 RPM, we measured just over 45 dB. That’s a little less efficient than the Silent Wings Pro 4, which achieves only 5 dB more at 1000 RPM. At more moderate speeds, i.e. those that will be most frequent, the fans become inaudible, except when your ears are glued to the case. By way of comparison, the Corsair iCUE Link QX120 offers the same noise level at 50% of speed, as these Pure Wings 3 High Speed emit at 100%.

Be Quiet! test Pure Wings 3 High Speed Review

The Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 High Speed fans are high-performance, low-noise and, above all, simple. This last point is something I really appreciate, as I’m tired of the dozens of RGB controllers you’ll find in a modern set-up.Their simplicity is reflected in a very affordable price, allowing you to equip yourself properly without breaking the bank. You’ll have to do without the RGB, of course, but with the amount of lighting already present on the other components, the sacrifice seems minimal.