In theory, the ball bearing fan lasts longer but is louder at the same rpm. There are a lot of names for the sleeve bearing, but it is an attempt to reduce noise, particularly at lower and middle speeds. Like always, a well made example of anything is going to outlast the poorly made “long lasting” model of something else. I have hundreds of fans. I am not sure I have ever worn a bearing down to the point of failure. Most often with these FDB variants the tone becomes coarser and suddenly less desirable somewhere down the road.
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