i am thinking of putting another case fan in my computer and i wanted to know what type is best (quietest and longest life).. i have seen a few.. Brushless, Sleeve bearing, Ball Bearing, etc.. witch one(s) would be the quietest and would last the longest?

Iam not sure what the spec's are ,however when I wanted some added cooling I installed a slot fan by Antec ! It fits into any available slot at the rear of your tower .Its very quiet , took all of 10 minutes to install, and affordable at $15 ! Antec also has bay fans that fit into an extra bay at the front of your tower ! Just do a google search on Antec and check out their line of case fans ! Good Luck ,Nick

Ball bearing case fans are both quietest and most durable. Look for case fans with quiet or stealth in their descriptions. I normally buy Antec fans but they are ore expensive they the average one so I'd say shop around, they are lots of different brands. Coolermaster and Thermalake are supposed to be good too. Sunon and Panaflow are other good choices.

Ball-Bearing is great. Zipzoomfly.com has some great fans, and has free 2nd day shipping. I'm ordering two Vantec Stealths... http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=370809 There's the link, might want to check around there, as long as you keep in mind that after adding all the shipping at other sites, it will probably be more. Or, if you're shopping locally, I would think some specialized computer place would have a nice selection of fans. I don't know about BestBuy, I've never seen any there, there might be some though....CompUSA should have some, if you are living close to one. I would very much reccommend buying locally, where you can get the fan immediately and without fear of the fan being destroyed, then returning it for another one. My 2 cents. Matt-O =)

At normal speeds they all produce the same level of noise because the air turbulence drowns out motor noise. Blade designs which claim to produce more cfm per db are a hoax. CFMs are a function of fan size and rpms. At low speeds ball bearings are louder than sleeve bearings. The advantage to ball bearings is length of life. (50k hours vs 20k hours) Brushless lasts longer due to more balanced internal circuitry which spreads the motor heat out within the fan. At very low speeds fans can produce audible motor noise because the air turbluence is so low and because most DC fan motors are not designed to run smoothly at those speeds, similar to how its hard to maintain a constant pitch when you are singing a note at very low volume. Panaflo and NMB makes fans specially designed to be quiet at speeds of 1k-2k rpm. silentpcreview.com is a place to look into it. Local fan purchases are going to cost you a bundle. You are better off buying several for $2 or $3 each from bestbyte.com or nexfan.com or svc.com and if one fails (it probably won't) you've got an extra on hand.