120mm Fan roundup interest?

[Vapor]

I'm considering doing a roundup of a bunch of 120mm fans, the full gamut really.....quiet, medium, high-performance.....testing at different volts, forming a general database, I guess you could say.

I'd do it semi-similarly to the Mad-Shrimps testing here. I'd also incorporate 'feel' for air moved in an open air situation (for a case, for instance)....and rank them to make it easier to compare to your own fans. I'd also include minimum starting and working volts....and if there's any more ideas, throw them this way.

If there's good interest, please speak up and 'convince' me so-to-speak....as it'd be a fair bit of my own money toward a dB meter and passive PSU (if memory serves me correctly, isn't there one that does AC -> single molex? Anybody have a link for that?), and for all the fans to start with and over time.

So, if there's interest in this, please speak up.


FWIW: here's my starting lineup that I'm considering: YLSL, YLSM, Scythe NMB (L/M), Artic Cooling 12025, Panaflo L1, SilenX 60/90CFM and maybe a few others....we'll see

EDIT2: now that I think about it, there's little reason why I also couldn't do 80mm/92mm roundups eventually as well.....other than cost and interest.

[bofors]

I am interested. I would also like to see some serious analysis of aerodynamic issues with respect to fan design and radiators (air and water) both in terms of noise and pressure.

[lowfat]

I'd definately like to see that. With Medium to high speed fans.

[Vapor]

Hmmm, if the interest leans more toward med/high speed fans, I could start there for sure....I already have 4 different high speed fans (Panaflos M1/H1/U1, and a YS Tech 108CFM fan that is no longer made), so that'd make things easier to start with.

Anyway, continue to say yay/nay and any other input you may have

[lawrywild]

Go for it

I'd prefer to see a nice compare of low-med fans including nexus, yateloons, noctua and sharkoon fans (actually very good fans).

[Vapor]

Hmmm, how's this for a categorization system:

Taken from rated speeds:
<1201RPM: Ultra-silent
1201-1600RPM: Silent
1601-2000RPM: Quiet
2001-2400RPM: Medium
2401-2800RPM: Loud
>2800RPM: Xtreme

I could test one or two RPM groupings at a time, and supplement as necessary.

[Anavel0]

100% love the idea. Fan list looks good to me.

[SparkyJJO]

Go for it! Especially the quieter fans.

[korby]

Originally Posted by Vapor

Hmmm, how's this for a categorization system:

Taken from rated speeds:
<1201RPM: Ultra-silent
1201-1600RPM: Silent
1601-2000RPM: Quiet
2001-2400RPM: Medium
2401-2800RPM: Loud
>2800RPM: Xtreme

I could test one or two RPM groupings at a time, and supplement as necessary.

<800RPM: Dead Silent
801-1200RPM: Ultra-silent
1201-1600RPM: Silent
1601-2000RPM: Quiet
2001-2400RPM: Medium
2401-2800RPM: Loud
>2800RPM: Xtreme

[Vapor]

Okay, I'm getting convinced I should do it! But, more help/input needed! First off, I'll probably begin this in January, maybe a bit sooner, we'll see

1) PSU, obviously it has to be silent. But that's only for sound tests....doesn't need to power a whole system. IIRC, there was a single molex PSU out awhile ago that supplied like 50W....looked KINDA like a laptop PSU....I looked at the Egg and couldn't find it, anybody have a link? Any cheap and silent 12V, ~3-4A PSU would do actually

2) dB meter....thinking the $50 one at Radioshack (search: decibel....they're site SUCKS), any other recs?

3) Testing will be done on a 'plugged' TTBT since it can take any thickness of fans easily and does well with quiet fans and scales surprisingly well with high-powered fans. Any objections?

4) Any way, other than feel, and not for a lot of money, to do CFM tests? I can't think of one....but I'm open to ideas for sure

And I can add sub-800 no problem, didn't even think of that, thanks

[SparkyJJO]

An adapter off an old external HD or optical drive would work. I use a ghetto-rigged one for testing out fans and such.

[lawrywild]

1600 rpm is hardly silent though, pretty noisey if you ask me..

[Vapor]

Fine, knock down all the ratings 1RPM

<800RPM: Dead silent
800-1199RPM: Ultra-silent
1200-1599RPM: Silent
1600-1999RPM: Quiet
2000-2399RPM: Medium
2400-2799RPM: Loud
>2799RPM: Xtreme

Here's the kind of PSU I was talking about: http://www.shopneo.co.uk/product.php...=16458&cat=358

Anybody know where to find one in the USA? All my external kits are 5V only (2.5in HDDs)

[SparkyJJO]

If you don't mind soldering some wires...
This should have plenty of power
Also has 5V as well in case you want to see how well fans undervolt to 5V or 7V.

[lawrywild]

Well, really anything above 1000rpm can't be called "silent" and there's also not ranges of "silent" it's either silent or it's not lol

anything above 2000rpm is loud.. (120mm)

[Vapor]

Hmmmm, soldering's not an issue, thanks for the suggestion....I also found some inexpensive 12V laptop PSUs I'll decide between the two tonight probably I'll be using a fully adjustable rheobus (necessary for minimum voltage testing), so no need for the 5V supply.

PSU: check

dB meter: the one at Radioshack okay? Seems fine to me...Anybody have any other recommendations?

I think I'll start a poll for figuring out which category(s) to test first

And those are just names for categories since I don't think strings of adjectives and adverbs do any good for this....I might do comparitives though.....lol, still playing with ideas here

Remember, word-ratings are subjective

Okay, new hierarchy:

Silent: <800
Quieter: 800-1199
Quiet: 1200-1599
Medium: 1600-1999
Loud: 2000-2399
Very loud: 2400-2799
Xtreme: >2800

[Vapor]

Okay, right now I'm thinking of doing the "Quiet" category first....seems to be quite a few fans that fit into that category, including the famous YLSL

I'll be doing every fan that I can find that fits the category from Performance-PCs, which is 12 fans. I'd love to review the Noctuas, but I can't find them......looked at Performance-PCs, Jab-Tech, Petras, Frozen CPU, Newegg.

Is there another brand for the Noctuas? Anybody know where I can get them?

[nn_step]

try to get some CFM reading along with decibel reading

[Vapor]

Yeah, I'm thinking how to do that objectively (for not too much money).....kinda drawing a blank

EDIT: I may splurge and buy a Mannix CFM meter....

Yeah, I will....make it even better that way. The Mannix is sensitive between 5-245 CFM to within 3% accuracy.

[Ender17]

I think you may be in over your head, especially on the dBA testing
read SPCR's Fan Testing Methodology
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article687-page1.html

[Vapor]

Hmmm, we'll see....they do go very in depth for noise though, that's for sure....as for in over my head, hmmmm, I can get accurate data.

For CFM, I'd be using an identical technique. I'd also be doing real-world numbers, but for time and consistency constraints, I only see it being done on one radiator (a plugged Big Typhoon)....still better than nothing.

Above all that, I'll do one thing they won't do: test fans that you can hear from another room

[Ender17]

Originally Posted by Vapor

Hmmm, we'll see....they do go very in depth for noise though, that's for sure....as for in over my head, hmmmm, I can get accurate data.

For CFM, I'd be using an identical technique. I'd also be doing real-world numbers, but for time and consistency constraints, I only see it being done on one radiator (a plugged Big Typhoon)....still better than nothing.

Above all that, I'll do one thing they won't do: test fans that you can hear from another room

What about a big typhoon?

Good luck

[Vapor]

Originally Posted by Ender17

What about a big typhoon?

Good luck

Yup, I'm planning to use a modified Big Typhoon for the real-world tests....it's very accomodating to all fan depths, works with silent fans, and scales with fannage very well

SPCR has given me some ideas for voltage testing....didn't think of testing at increments.....hmmm, I like that, and it's easy enough to do

For noise, recordings....next obstacle, though a mic and recording software should suffice

Oh man, the more I think about it, the more fun I think it'll be....I'm convinced

[CLEANER]

Being in the market for some fan's, i have been looking for some decent round-ups. Not easy to find. In addition, the manufacturers keep coming out with new fans (duh), and nobody wants to keep doing the tests over again. If you had an ongoing "never ending" list that you could keep adding fans to that you run new fans through the same tests, that would be very cool! Of course that would imply your going to have to buy every new model that comes out, and ... that you don’t have a life. lol

Here is a link to a fairly recent (march 06) 120mm 17 fan round-up you can use as a guide to see what… or what not to do.

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=421

I liked the way he addressed the CFM issue. Just have each fan blow on the same CPU heat sink (one at a time obviously) and measure CPU temp, at idle and load, and at various voltages (rpm's). Graph these against each other and you can see which cool better (i.e. move more air "CFM") relative to others. The lower the temp the more air the fan is moving right? The graphs get interesting as you reduce voltage (rpm) that's when you can see which cool better at lower rpm's and which aren’t doing diddly at lower rpm's. Also, check out page 7, alternative data presentation.. pictures or in this case a graph is worth a thousand words! Just shows how the same data can show you something entirely new from a different angle, depending on how you graph it.

Good luck!

[serialk11r]

Theres these SilenX fans. They're rated at just 14 dba and push a decent amount of air. However, watch out for the noise levels. Sometimes they're not exactly correct... My thermaltake fans are supposed to be 17dba, but they sure dont sound like it. I wonder if anyone's done an actual test on the silenx fan's noise levels...