Massive Fan Shootout: 25 Products from Arctic Cooling, Cooler Master, GlacialTech, Scythe, Titan, and Zalman

Test Results: 120x120x25 mm Fans

Contents:

And now let's proceed to test results of 120x120x25 mm fans!

120x120x25 mm fans, normal mode

Diagram 9. Temperature readings (temperature of the processor core)

Diagram 10. Thermal resistance

Note
Thermal resistance θ_ja is defined as the relation
θ_ja = (T_j — T_a)/P_h, where T_j is the temperature of a CPU core, T_a is the environment temperature (it's 25°C in this case), P_h is the thermal capacity of a processor (in this case it's 150 Watts).

Diagram 11. Temperature readings (temperature of near-socket components)

120x120x25 mm fans, 1000 rpm

Diagram 12. Temperature readings (temperature of the processor core)

Diagram 13. Thermal resistance

Note
Thermal resistance θ_ja is defined as the relation
θ_ja = (T_j — T_a)/P_h, where T_j is the temperature of a CPU core, T_a is the environment temperature (it's 25°C in this case), P_h is the thermal capacity of a processor (in this case it's 150 Watts).

Diagram 14. Temperature readings (temperature of near-socket components)

120x120x25 mm fans, 700 rpm

Diagram 15. Temperature readings (temperature of the processor core)

Diagram 16. Thermal resistance

Note
Thermal resistance θ_ja is defined as the relation
θ_ja = (T_j — T_a)/P_h, where T_j is the temperature of a CPU core, T_a is the environment temperature (it's 25°C in this case), P_h is the thermal capacity of a processor (in this case it's 150 Watts).

Diagram 17. Temperature readings (temperature of near-socket components)

Finally, at the end of this article we publish the noise measurement results (the method of testing is described in the article Cooler noise and the noise measurement method) as well as the efficiency/noise ratings.

Diagram 18. Noise characteristics

Note: Background noise level 18 dBA

Diagram 19. Efficiency/noise ratio

Note
The efficiency/noise ratio (ENR) is calculated as:

ENR = DM*(R_t/P¢C)/(NL/R_n), where

R_t — reference temperature (the reference thermal resistance θ_ja of the cooling system - 0.25°C/W), TC — the core temperature with the operating cooling system, R_n — reference noise (the reference noise level is 20 dBA), NL — noise level, generated by the cooling system, DM — denominate multiplier (10).

There seems to be no need in any comments here. It's time to draw a bottom line!

Conclusions

Here is our main conclusion for today - fans are indeed becoming an independent subject of cooling systems owing to their technical development and being supported by the constantly growing market supply. This tendency is good news for us as consumers. But it's really great news for those enthusiasts, who are always looking for advanced solutions and are always trying to perfect functionality of their PCs.

What concerns the products tested, the best model in the 80x80x25 mm group is GlacialTech GT8025-HDLA1 — it demonstrates balanced technical properties and excellent results. The most attractive fans in the 120x120x25 mm group are Minebea models from Scythe - they are notable for high-quality engineering solutions and demonstrate decent functionality.

So, these fans (GlacialTech GT8025-HDLA1 and Scythe Minebea 12cm Mid/High) get the Original Design award. GlacialTech GT8025-HDLA1 gets this award for the original aerodynamic configuration and well-designed mechanics. Scythe Minebea 12cm Mid and Minebea 12cm High are awarded for the straight-out combination of quality and functionality.

Our congratulations to the winners! Let's hope that the key brands represented in our today's shootout (Arctic Cooling, Cooler Master, GlacialTech, Scythe, Titan and Zalman) will continue to develop their fan families and will launch many interesting and attractive products.

Contents:

Vitali Crinitsin (vit@ixbt.com)
June 8, 2007

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