Fans!!!! The most complete and comprehensive array of tests and benchmarks - Page 40

120mm Fan #41 - Gelid Solutions Slim 12 UA Blue FN-FW12SLIMB-15:





Gelid Solutions was kind enough to send me this fan, as well as their GX-7 Rev. 2 CPU cooler, GC-Supreme and GC-Extreme Thermal compounds. Today, We'll be focusing on the fan.

The thickness of this fan is only 15 millimeters, so it's going to be the first slim 120mm unit that I've tested.

Shaving a whole centimeter off of the width of a fan might not be seen as such a smart move by performance users, but in places where space is limited, you'll start to see just how useful a slim fan can be. How many of you have tried to fit something like an H100 to your chassis and couldn't because of clearance issues? Well, a fan with a slim form factor might just save your bacon.

Now, let's talk about aesthetics and performance. It's quite a handsome little fellow. All the cables are black and braided and It just looks like a quality product.

Sadly, I could only manage to get my hands on one of these fans as Gelid didn't have more in stock. That being said, push and pull tests did provide quite a lot of useful data. Considering it's slim form factor, I was surprised to see this fan perform as well as it did. Theoratically, you should be losing about 40% of the airflow compared to a normal fan since it's 40% thinner, but that wasn't the case as you can see from the results.

Performance in pull took quite a hit, but in push it performed just as well as any other fan with similar noise levels, if not better. As an added bonus, you also receive an LNA (Low noise adaptor) which further improved the cooling efficiency.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the performance of this product, particularly in push mode.

As always, more pictures are available at post #2.

120mm Fan #42 - BitFenix Spectre 120:





After reviewing the awful Spectre Pro 120s, I was surprised to see that what they replaced is rather excellent. To start with, the older Spectres are much quieter than the pro version and they actually move more air which results in better cooling. The cable is black and overall I think it's a pretty good looking fan, specially in white. I just don't see why BitFenix would replace them with the Pro sku which is far worse than their predecessor. I mean, what were they thinking?

At any rate, these fans are exceptionally quiet and move enough air for their noise to temperature rating to be high up on my charts.
Edited by Cyclops - 12/17/12 at 8:02am

I don't see why anyone wouldn't considerig how much better the older Spectres are.
Edited by Cyclops - 12/17/12 at 10:36am

Thanks. You know how it is, busy busy. More reveiws are coming.

120mm Fan #43 - Silenx Effizio EFX-12-12:





Here we have a budget friendly fan from Silenx. At the back of the box you can see that they are claiming to have the best noise to airflow ratio of any fan in the world. That wasn't quite the case in my tests but the noise to temperature rating was good enough all around for this product to get a recommendation from me. That is if you're tight on dough.

The fan looks quite simple but since the wires are all black and the impeller is yellow, it looks more expensive than its 6.99 price tag.

The RPM is consistent in pretty much all operating modes and that translates into superior acoustics. They also have a 140mm version which is a mere dolar more. I suspect it would perform as well as its 120mm brother but I can't confirm that till I get a sample or two.

The only real gripe I have with this fan is the power connector. The 3-pin header is perfectly adequate for the job and I see no reason why you would want to have a molex extension flopping around at the end of the cable. They could have included an extra adaptor and make cable management easier, but it would have added cost so I sort of understand. Still, it would have been better if they didn't attach it in the first place.

120mm Fan #44 - Apevia CF12S:





Today we have a product from Apevia, the CF12S. According to Newegg, the fan speed is ~1700 RPM . That number was way off of what I was seeing in my tests which was around 1150 RPM, so I guess they need to update the specs.

Besides that, for a 6 dolar fan, the airflow efficiency is superb, specially in push or pull configurations. That's not to say it was bad in push/pull, but it just wasn't as stellar as the other two operating modes. It pretty much placed itself very near the top end of the noise to temperature rating tables. Again, I was really surprised to see that such a cheap little fan could outperform almost every single high price / high quality product in terms of efficiency.

And now the bad news. Remember I mentioned it was cheap? That's because it is. No black wires and no cable sleeving means that it's very plain looking. Form does follow function in this case but you just wish they would at least cover the horribly ugly cable with something or better yet, just use black/white cables. At any rate, you get what you pay for here and since it is a solid performer, it gets my recommendation.