Medium speed fans are slowly getting more and more accepted...people that used to get high speed fans now get these and many low speed users get these and undervolt. Also, another reason for adoption is that ot really does seem that these medium speed fans (60-80CFM at 12V) are stronger at the favored 40-50CFM range than fans built for that range. So you undervolt a little for 24/7 and get a great sweetspot of performance and noise, with the option to crank it up.
Middle speed fans are mostly where it's at....
Open air:
Radiator:
Comments:
Panaflo LH - Old fan that undervolts surprisingly well...has a few murmurs/ticks here and there. Only get it if you're into nostalgia or really aggressive (albeit useless) blade designs.
Sharkoon Golfball 2000 - The carryover king from last round gets beaten...by a few fans. Nonetheless it's still pretty damn good. No extraneous noises or ticks or anything, but the blades do make a bit more noise than competitors and it shows on the graphs.
SilenX 90CFM 18dBA - Just a plain sucky fan. Put it on a radiator and it sucks even more (really, really bad radiator fan...nearly 50% of airflow is lost on the radiator--worse than the Noctua 1200!). That said, it does not make extraneous noise and looks kinda cool. Has a cheap flimsy feel though. Also, the motor overheats. Also, it costs a lot. Also, the specs are WAYYYYYYY off, a big no-no in my book.
SilenX 74CFM 14dBA - Another bad fan. Not quite as bad or overrated as the 90/18 model, but the rest still applies.
Yate Loon D12SH-12 Curved blade from PTS - This is what Petras stocks mostly...it's a very good fan, especially for the price. Especially on the radiator. The 12V and 11V numbers are out-of-line with the expected and with what others experience and I can hear noticeable extraneous noise at those two voltages...probably something wrong with my fan specifically. I still like it too... Like most fans, it improved SLIGHTLY over its 0-hour test numbers.
Yate Loon D12SH-12 Straight blade from PTS - This is what Petras stocks occasionally...it's a very good fan, especially for the price. Especially on the radiator. Mine made no extraneous noises....it's SLIGHTLY better than the curved blade variant on the radiator, but SLIGHTLY worse in open air. I call it a draw overall. Like most fans, it improved SLIGHTLY over its 0-hour test numbers.
Yate Loon D12SH-12 Straight blade NOT from PTS - This is the D12SH-12 available from every place not named Petras Tech Shop. They DO use different suppliers and this fan IS different. It has different internals, scales differently with voltage and noticeably deteriorated from its 0-hour performance. It makes some noises I don't want my fans making: mainly light thuds and clicks. In fact, all but one non-PTS Yate Loon made extraneous noise. Oh, it also doesn't perform that well...look at the graphs.
Yate Loon D12SM-12 Curved blade from PTS - This is what Petras stocks mostly...it's a very good fan, especially for the price. Especially on the radiator. It's not as good as its ratings (56CFM vs. 70CFM rated) but overall the performance is very solid. Like most fans, it improved SLIGHTLY over its 0-hour test numbers. I really like this fan.
Scythe Minebea 1900RPM - Solidly built fan....my fan testing gets EXACTLY the same CFM as the ratings--which is shockingly refreshing. Very high MTBF...but like all NMB-MAT fans it exhibits a SLIGHT murmur or click
Also has slightly higher than normal CFM loss on a radiator. Overall a very good fan though, definitely recommended and a VERY safe choice with it's longer-than-you'll-need-it MTBF and very good performance.
Scythe Minebea 1600RPM - Solidly built fan....my fan testing gets EXACTLY the same CFM as the ratings--which is shockingly refreshing. Very high MTBF...but like all NMB-MAT fans it exhibits a SLIGHT murmur or click
Also has slightly higher than normal CFM loss on a radiator (slightly more so than the 1900). Overall a good fan though, but surprisingly not as good as the 1900...overall a safe choice with it's longer-than-you'll-need-it MTBF and decent performance.
Scythe S-Flex F 1600RPM - S-FDB bearings kick ass. Very, very little extraneous noise, relatively inexpensive, no positional oddities like sleeves, and fairly well sealed. They also don't have the radiator slow-down that the Minebeas exhibit. But they're also not empirically as good in open air. However, the entire S-Flex range is among my favorites. Very, very good fans that don't make extraneous noises nor cost an a lot.
Zalman ZM-F3 - The shocker of the whole group. Really, it came out of left-field. No fluke here either, Cathar got nearly identical results. No extraneous noise, magic-scaling above ~1600RPM, does well on a radiator, a mere $10 and available nearly everywhere and just overall great performance. A gem of a fan in many respects. It is a sleeve bearing though, it's only detractor.
Coolink SWiF-1202 - Crummy fan...horrible excitation at many random voltages (hence the data line jumps back and forth), just not a good performer in general either. Similar to the Akasa Amber from Round 1--and in looks, I wonder if there's a pattern?
Antec Tri-Cool - Mediocre fan. Makes more (normal and extraneous) noise than I'd like but it's nothing too bad. "H" is 12V, "M" is at just under 9V and "L" is at like 5.5V. If I had a case full of them, I'd upgrade, but maybe not get overnight shipping.
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