I bought online a pair of Vantech Stealth 60mm and 80mm fans, and tried them out today.
Overview: They're double ball bearing like many other quality fans, and made by Nidec, who also makes CPU fans for Intel. Basically, they're your typical fan, set to run at a lower speed, in nice packaging, and with the price jacked up 100% or more. I see nothing special in the design, and they actually look rougher in quality than all the other fans I own.
Performance: The 60mm version, at a pathetic 12cfm max output, is probably unsuitable as a CPU fan in most situations. I got it because I wanted some air blowing at my heatsink with as little noise as possible. With what I do on this particular computer, the CPU is mostly idling and the heatsink remains cold to the touch most of the time. The 80mm version is much better at 27cfm, but seems much louder than the 21dBA rating would indicate.
Noise: These fans have a noticeable whine/tone/sharpness (whatever you want to call it) to them. I have seen other people mention this, and I can now confirm it. It's more annoying to me than the noise created by modestly higher CFM fans that I have. Which seems to defeat the purpose of getting the Stealths in the first place.
A couple days before the Stealth fans arrived, I figured out I could control the RPM of my fans simply through my motherboard's on-board sensor. And when my Stealth fans arrived, what I discovered was that I could set my "noisy" high-speed fans to output MORE CFM at a LOWER noise level than the Vantec Stealth (and without the annoying noise that the Stealth emits).
With that said, I would forgo the Stealths. If you can't control fan RPM through your motherboard, try the "7 volt" mod on your current fans. Search for "7 volt" in the Cases and Cooling archived messages. Or go with the Panaflos if you can get them for cheap. The cheaper places to get them would probably be shops that sell them for a purpose other than PC modding and overclocking (where you get the crazy markups). In reality, any high quality fan set to run at a lower speed (either through some RPM control mechanism or preset like in some NMB models) would probably be better or at least equivalent to the Stealths. So I don't see a point of paying a premium for these Vantec Stealths. I know I just wasted $20.
Overview: They're double ball bearing like many other quality fans, and made by Nidec, who also makes CPU fans for Intel. Basically, they're your typical fan, set to run at a lower speed, in nice packaging, and with the price jacked up 100% or more. I see nothing special in the design, and they actually look rougher in quality than all the other fans I own.
Performance: The 60mm version, at a pathetic 12cfm max output, is probably unsuitable as a CPU fan in most situations. I got it because I wanted some air blowing at my heatsink with as little noise as possible. With what I do on this particular computer, the CPU is mostly idling and the heatsink remains cold to the touch most of the time. The 80mm version is much better at 27cfm, but seems much louder than the 21dBA rating would indicate.
Noise: These fans have a noticeable whine/tone/sharpness (whatever you want to call it) to them. I have seen other people mention this, and I can now confirm it. It's more annoying to me than the noise created by modestly higher CFM fans that I have. Which seems to defeat the purpose of getting the Stealths in the first place.
A couple days before the Stealth fans arrived, I figured out I could control the RPM of my fans simply through my motherboard's on-board sensor. And when my Stealth fans arrived, what I discovered was that I could set my "noisy" high-speed fans to output MORE CFM at a LOWER noise level than the Vantec Stealth (and without the annoying noise that the Stealth emits).
With that said, I would forgo the Stealths. If you can't control fan RPM through your motherboard, try the "7 volt" mod on your current fans. Search for "7 volt" in the Cases and Cooling archived messages. Or go with the Panaflos if you can get them for cheap. The cheaper places to get them would probably be shops that sell them for a purpose other than PC modding and overclocking (where you get the crazy markups). In reality, any high quality fan set to run at a lower speed (either through some RPM control mechanism or preset like in some NMB models) would probably be better or at least equivalent to the Stealths. So I don't see a point of paying a premium for these Vantec Stealths. I know I just wasted $20.
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