BitFenix Spectre Pro LED (120mm)

BitFenix Spectre Pro Review
SniperTeamTango
Entire review dictated in Microsoft Windows speech recognition.

Just got theset a few days back from xbournex, unfortunately during the foldathon so testing immediately was not an option. Not going to lie I was excited to get these fans and am very glad I'm not under some NDA to not talk about them for a while. So far I have only powered up one just to make sure they worked, and if the LED's didn't light up, I would have started to get concerned.



These things are freakin' quiet and they push a fair bit of air. For starters we're just going to look at the overall build quality of the fans. I'll reserve the next few posts and include estimated dates of when new information will be available.

Unboxing:
The fans come with 4 rubber pins to reduce vibrations, a molex to PWM converter, a 2pin lead to connect to a Hydra/Custom LED controller, a jumper for the LED's, and of course 4 mounting bolts.



First thing I noticed was this fan felt really light, the entire unit can't weigh more than half a pound. The frame felt almost pliable in my hands, and it did certainly have some bend to it. Upon further inspection I noticed the LED pins and LED's themselves were easily accessed. Read into that as you will modders, but this surprised me none the less.



However, I have yet to find a stronger fanblade than the ones on this fan, its practically unbendable (I can not flex it) I doubt any force capable of bending it would not just simply break the plastic fanblade. Not that this is a dig to the fans, just that plastic isn't the strongest of materials



So far they're decent, I'd pay the extra 5 dollars for them. My one complaint is I do not understand the use of the rubber pins, google to the rescue.

First things first: the test bench:

Asus M4N98TD EVO
AMD Phenom II 1100t Black Edition @ stock
H100 liquid cooling @ setting 3.
Antec Lanboy Air with all stock fans disabled.
GTX 460 2win single screen.

Testing Analog:
F@H Gpu Tracker SMP client for 30 minutes (I could not get prime95 in time as I needed 30 minutes per run and 3 runs were done.)



First I did a dry run with the corsair H100 stock fans, god I don't like those loud things.



Got some decent idle and load temps after 30 min of SMP folding.

Not all that bad, but as my family can attest to these were WAY too loud to run the PC during the day.

Next up are the Spectre Pro's in push. Now before I post the results, a couple comments on the adapters included with the fans.



If you have ever taken electronics/computer engineering you'll see why this is bad. Connecting the 12v molex power, to the 5v molex power. Not the safest of practices but most PSU's won't care, however I believe this to be useless as with correct molex wiring there was a noticeable RPM difference with no difference in volume. This is NOT the same as 7v modding a PSU, but can have similar results if done incorrectly, however unlikely as this is, be careful.

Alright, Spectre Pro's in push:



Results:



On par with the corsair H100 stock fans, but stealthy quiet. I could not hear these from 3 feet.

Now, why not take it to 11? I received 4, so push/pull time.





All in all not a lot of improvement there.

So, overall, these fans are on par with most other 120mm fans, with the exception of being nearly silent. Even the 4 now sitting in my sig rig cannot be heard if I kill the other fans.

I give them a 4/5, some modding will be done with these because of the switching LEDs, (something that should be more common) and for being as quiet as advertised. Oh and the frames light up a fair bit. This is the conclusion of the review. Big round of applause for xbournex and this freebie.
STT, out.