Demonstration and test of 35 fans

Details of our test participants

Evaluation of 12 cm fans based on noise

As we have already written, the measurement was carried out under rather special, strange or, so to speak, insufficient conditions. However, it also had benefits. One of the advantages was that due to the small space, the noise was amplified, so despite the insufficient conditions, an order was formed where the differences are clearly visible. The other is that the fans were not suspended during the measurement, so the box perfectly absorbed the vibrations, if any, so the measured sound effect also increased, indicating something was wrong with the air mixer. Let's see the types again, highlighting the most important moments!

Let's start with the domestic product, Englide! We have to say that it is not bad at first. What’s more, secondly, the distributor / developer’s promise has become a reality, really quiet. More importantly, the box measurement showed that the balancing was okay, so he was able to instruct big-name rivals behind him.

Unfortunately, Coolink is pretty much down. Already listening to the fans in hand, things were not right either, but the box was vibrated by the air mixers to such an extent that it can already be said to be an exaggeration. This is certainly the curse of the ball bearing, but we will address this in the final evaluation.

KOLINK was represented by a single participant, but it might have been better to stay home. We didn't like it.

The Chieftec fan was also quiet until we put it in a box. Again, resonance subtracts points from it. Of course, a few silicone bucks for fixing can be a remedy for this, but it costs money. I certainly wouldn’t install it in an HTPC, but it goes into an office machine where there’s noise anyway.

The situation with Noctua products is interesting. The hand test and the box measurement yielded exactly the opposite result. The piece, considered supposed to be soft, vibrated the box perfectly, and this can be seen in the measured result. True, it had the highest speed. However, the pieces that looked buzzing in the hand did not resonate, which brought extra points to the measurement.

Scythe is also the quietest and loudest cooler in the test. As we guessed, the Gentle Typhoon performed well, albeit only at low revs. As in the case of the Coolink, the sound of the bearing came at a higher turn, but it failed to tick off the Coolink. So the Typhoon is very quiet at low revs, but its air delivery is snappy. For some reason, the movement of the air also makes noise, the quietest fan is the one we don’t even turn on. The S-Flexes performed well if they didn’t spin quickly. Here, too, the above obsession with air is true. With the version spinning on the 1600, the quiet bearing is no longer worth it, the noise of large amounts of air suppresses everything, and it’s hard to do against it. As we wrote, in the presentation of the fans, it would be good to deal with the blade profile a bit as well.

Eight and nine centimeter fans rating based on noise

This rating won’t be as long as for the 12-cent pieces, and that’s because there’s less difference to be seen in the fans. Due to their small size, the parallelism between air supply and noise is increasingly valid for these airs, as the air has to be forced through them with a smaller blade size and diameter. Unfortunately, this is also reflected in the noise.

With regard to bearings, however, we have found that the type of bearing is a less significant momentum, if only because the sound of the flowing air more suppresses the noise coming from the motor.

However, there are four types that we definitely need to highlight from the field. Because of the bad experience, Coolink and Chieftek. These were not bad for bearings, but they were not great in terms of balancing, they vibrated our measuring box properly. The other two types are Scythe and last but not least Englide. The Scythe works very low, very smoothly at low speeds. There is already noise at higher revs, but this is more due to the air. What was an absolute and very pleasant surprise, however, was the eight-inch vent of the Englide. In terms of noise, we measured exactly the same value as the liquid-bearing Scythe, but it is worth remembering that it can produce this performance with a plain bearing, so it does not even come close to the Japanese manufacturer's product in price. Very big red dot for it!