Everyone loves the biggest and baddest. Fans are no exception. Impracticality aside, they do the job (move air) the best and people are at least interested in the top end.
This isn't quite that level....there are no 250CFM dragsters here, but each fan is more-than-a-tick over 100CFM--double the previous mini-review's highest. It's also my first test of the much anticipated Ultra Kaze series.
The Fans
In this roundup I've tested 4 fans
Fan 1) Delta WFB1212HE (2520RPM)
Fan 2) Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 (3000RPM)
Fan 3) Panaflo U1C (2750RPM)
Fan 4) Sanyo Denki San Ace 109R1212H1011 (2600RPM)
Why these fans?
All are either rated or presumed to move over 100CFM and are the same form-factor (120x120x38mm). They're all considered 'radiator' fans and are basically at the upper noise threshold of what people can tolerate multiple of.
The Delta is...not that well known. Or at least I see almost no one use it or talk about it. It's a double ball bearing fan at a good price ($12 where I bought it). Like other Deltas, it's very well built. Like every other Delta, I trust the CFM rating implicitly.
The Ultra Kaze 3000 (from now on referred to as "UK3") makes me want to just go "ugh" with how much attention it's received. No other comparable fan has gotten attention like it, but it being the first high-speed 'radiator fan' from an enthusiast company does have its advantages I guess. It's a sleeve bearing fan, a good price ($9ish), and the fastest spinner by the ratings. It has roughly the same CFM/RPM as the Delta, so I have no reason to doubt its CFM rating--though the Slip Streams have me questioning Scythe recently.
The Panaflo U1C is a veteran. It's as solidly built as the Delta, it's known for moving air, it's known for unwavering performance over the years, it's know for great radiator performance, it's known for everything that's needed to be considered great in this category. It's the only fan that's going to be in all three of my roundups--even if it didn't win either roundup. Like Deltas, I trust NMB-MAT's CFM ratings implicitly.
The San Ace 109R1212H1011 is the king of Roundup 2. To many of the old timer watercoolers, it was the king well before that. Like the Panaflo, this fan has been around the block in terms of service. It's known for moving air, it's known for superlative build quality, it's known for unwavering performance....but unlike every other fan in this mini-roundup, it's also known for being quiet. One other thing it's known for? How hard it is to find.
Results time
Open Air Performance
There's pretty clearly a winner here. No surprise really after Roundup 2. Anyway, time for further commentary
1) The Delta wouldn't run at 5V. It would stop at 5.2V and start up at like 5.6V. So the bottom result is 6V. It also had this stammering click below 9ishV. It wasn't too annoying to be frank...nothing out of the 'norm' for this grouping of fans anyway.
2) San Ace didn't click. It made super-slight chattering at low volts, but good luck hearing it in a case or from any distance. Like almost all the other fans in the whole roundup (S-Flex D and Minebea 1600 are the only exceptions), this was a new, untested sample so I expected it to perform worse, thinking maybe the last San Ace was a gem. It performed better compared to the U1C.I don't even know what else to say about this fan, it's that good. At the ~42dBA point, it gets nearly 20CFM more than any other fan in this test. That's like 25% more airflow than the competition.
3) UK3 does well. It, like the Delta and U1C, had its own variation of clicking below ~8V (it was, admittedly, the most annoy of the three at low voltage), but it performed better than those two aside from that. Didn't quite get to the 133CFM it was rated for (topped out at a hair over 112CFM), making me think it's Open Air RPM is lower than its rating.
4) U1C...does its thing. It's never been the champ but it's as solid as any other fan. In this case, it was basically the loser, but in good company. Noise and airflow kind of die out at and below 6V--more-so the airflow though.
5) The Delta tested at 107.8CFM, it's rated at 107.7CFM. The U1C tested at 114.1CFM, it's rated at 114.7CFM. Did I mention I trust these guys ratings? (for the record, the San Ace is rated at 102CFM and, again, tested above its rating at 111.6CFM....UK3 is in point 3)
Radiator Performance
Things get interesting--again.
1) Okay, so the San Ace wins...no surprise. But hot damn if the U1C didn't close the gap at higher volts. From a raw airflow point of view, the San Ace loses the most (ranging smoothly from 20.3% loss at 12V to 26.8% loss at 5V)...it did in Roundup 2 and I can't really explain it, maybe RPM decreases slighly. S-Flex E and YL D12SL-12 loss less (as a percentage)--I don't want to say the San Ace isn't a 'radiator fan' considering it still wins objectively and subjectively, but it doesn't act the same way the other fans in this grouping do. More on how the U1C almost caught up later.
2) The Delta acts...'meh.' Weak showing from it on a radiator--noise increased and airflow loss was mid-pack. Clicking was still there. CFM loss ranged between smoothly between 19% and 22%.
3) The UK3 shows its Scythe heritage--it, like the Slip Stream, gets even louder on a radiator. It also had the lowest CFM loss--sort of. Its CFM loss was sporadic to say the least, ranging between 13% and 21% but not smoothly (every other fan had lowest loss at 12V and most at 5/6V...UK3 just fluctuated, lowest was at 12V, 2nd lowest at 8V, highest at 7V...ugh). That said, both CFM/dBA graphs are 'smooth,' so I feel RPM at a specific voltages aren't scaling smoothly.
4) The U1C, again, has very little CFM loss, ranging smoothly from 15.5% at 12V to 19% at 7V (5/6V were worse, but the fan clearly fell out of its comfort zone at those voltages, even in open air). How it caught up was it got quieter on a radiator. I have no idea how, but it definitely sounds a lot smoother and 'calmer' on a radiator than it did in Open Air and the dBA meter agreed with me. That said, subjectively, it's not that close to the San Ace. The San Ace is almost serene (at least compared to those in this group) and much less intrusive than the U1C--anybody who has both knows this.
Further Commentary For the Oliver Twists
The way I see it in this grouping....there's the San Ace and then the other three. The noise they make is incomparable--the only reason the San Ace is even in this group is because it moves the same amount of air as them. I don't know how it does it, but I wish more fans did. That said, it's impossible to find, going for nearly $30 a pop when shipped, and they're fragile (I've broken 3...anything touching a spinning blade will break it off). It's in a class of their own, like a Tiger Woods of fans.
What I want to address are the other three. They're ugly. That's the name of the game with these kind of fans. They're in their prime at high speeds. Buying them to run at low volts seems...illogical to me. A 5V, they move a little less air than a D12SL-12 or S-Flex E or P12 at 12V but make more noise and worse, more extraneous noise. Yes, a top-end is nice to have, but even then, with the way most people over-radiator things here, that's maybe a ~1C difference over a much nicer sounding 1900-2200RPM fan (with an even quieter and better sounding toned-down setting).
I also want to specifically address the UK3. There's nothing special about it. It doesn't move more air than the competition and the radiator noise performance makes it very suspect. The sleeve bearing is a liability as well (what's worse is that due to the high amount of 'normal' noise, you won't hear it deteriorate). It's a great price and widely available, which should help sales, but as to the quality and performance of the fan...I'm not impressed. The next mini-review will have the more practical 2000RPM UK2 that hopefully will impress. At this point though, the Ultra Kazes, like the Slip Streams, have been over-sensationalized (it's not a bad fan, but it's not as great as people say--if for no other reason than it doesn't move nearly the amount of air it's rated at).
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Originally Posted by WhiteFireDragon
This is exactly what I mean by poor undervolting--when you undervolt it, it's performance is poor (whether naturally or via annoying noises). 
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