120mm Fan Roundup

Cooling/VGA & Other Cooling by jmke @ 2006-01-10

We test 6 different fans from Titan, Acousti, Arctic Cooling, Coolink, Antec and Papst. Using a Scythe Ninja in a closed case we?re set to find out which fan will act as the best heat exhaust.

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Acousti Mounting Gear

Mounting the fans

On of the first fans we received for testing was the AcoustiFan Dustproof, they also included samples of vibration reducing mounting material.

Anti-vibration Soft Silicone Fan Gaskets

This mounting gear is designed for use on a PC case, not for use with CPU cooling, they are not the easiest to install, but not impossible.

Madshrimps (c)


The gasket can be had in 3 different sizes, 80/92/120mm, in the photo below you can see the 120mm version and 2 of the 4 mounting screws, as well as a close-up of the gasket installed onto a fan.

Madshrimps (c)

Madshrimps (c)


Although the product works as advertised, Acousti’s other vibration kit was more impressive:


Ultra-Soft Fan Mounts

While the fan gasket mentioned above will fit most fans, these Soft mounts will only work “flang type” fans (see the pictures on the previous page, all fans, except for the AF12, are flang type). Installation is extremely easy, first you pull the rubber mounts through the case’s mounting holes:

Madshrimps (c)

Madshrimps (c)


Then you align your fan and pull the mounts again until you see them popping out the fan’s bracket like this:

Madshrimps (c)


The whole installation takes only a fraction of the time compared to the gasket mount, and you don’t have to worry that your fan will fall off. The Ultra-Soft mounts might be very stretchy but at same time they provide for a secure fit, see this small movie for a demo:


Download/Full Screen - click here


For our performance tests we used the Ultra Soft mounts on all fans, except for the Arctic Fan 12, it was the only one which we had to screw tight, but its build-in anti-vibration system proved during testing that it was clearly working as no vibrations were transferred from the fan’s motor to the fan bracket; it’s really an impressive system.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


Let’s take a closer look at the fans in our roundup ->
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