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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Details on the FANs

Antec Tricool

The Antec Tricool in this roundup comes from an Antec Sonata II case, the retail fan is transparent and has the same specifications.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


Features and extra’s Retail:
  • 3 Speed switch (as the name suggests)
  • 3-pin and 4-pin power connectors (the Sonata II version only has 4-pin)
  • 4 mounting screws

    Where to buy?


    Coolink SWiF-1201

    Formerly known as Noiseblocker SX1, the Coolink’s version is transparent and challenges Papst’s performance/noise ratio.

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


    Features and extra’s Retail version:
  • Rheobus and PCI mounting bracket
  • 3-pin and 4-pin power connectors
  • 4 mounting screws

    Where to buy?

    Papst 4412 F/2GLL

    Papst has been very popular for several years known for good reason, as these fans have set the standard for providing an excellent performance/noise balance.

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


    Features and extra’s Retail version:
  • 3-pin power connection

    Papst works with a lot of resellers but none are directly listed at the Papst homepage. Froogle will surely be able to give you a nice list. For our US and none-European readers it might be harder to get their hands on Papst fans. If you know of an equivalent fan in your country please let us know, so we can try to include it in our roundup.


    AcoustiFan AFDP-12025

    Acousti’s whole product line-up is geared toward silent computing, their latest additions is this fan series (available in 80/92/120mm), the DustPROOF fan promises a long lifetime of trouble free and silent operation.

    If you were wondering why we have included close-ups of the motor area on each fan, here’s why:

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


    The motor area is completely blocked of, and if we may believe Acousti this serves two purposes:
    1) Keep dust out of motor.
    2) Cuts down ability of noise leaking out from the motor.

    Number one will be very hard to test, because ever after running the fan in a system since November last year there’s still no build-up of dust on any of the main parts in the computer. A longer evaluation is needed and because we don’t like to release this roundup in 2007 we decided to just go ahead and trust logic: by sealing of the motor area, dust has less chance of messing things up inside.

    Number two we can test by verifying if the fan is silent when running at different voltages. Speaking of different speeds, the Acoustifan also ships with its own fan-speed control device; But not an interactive one like the Antec 3-speed or Coolink Rheobus.

    Madshrimps (c)
    More info and schematic here


    The 3-Speed fan cable allows for 3 different voltages to be fed to a fan, with the 7.5v line being restricted to fans rated up to 4W (12VDC&0.33A), otherwise the resistor will heat up and the device can no longer work correctly. We found this out the hard way when we hooked up the Titan fan which is rated at 0.85A, when using the 7.5v connector the fan would spin at a lower rate than using the 5v connector.

    Features and extra’s Retail version:
  • 3-pin to 4-pin combo fan speed control
  • 4 mounting screws
  • 4 zip ties for cable management

    Where to buy?


    Titan TFD-12025SH12C

    This fan came included with the Titan Siberia CPU cooler, but can also be bought separately. The 100+CFM specification is quite impressive, but the noise generated will never make it an interesting product for those looking for a silent solution.

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


    Where to buy?


    Arctic Fan 12

    Most people are familiar with Arctic Cooling’s Freezer line of CPU coolers, so you won’t be too surprised when you look at Arctic Fan’s design. Arctic Fan’s fan blades and motor are decoupled from the fan’s bracket by nifty rubber suspension.

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


    As you can see from the pictures above, there’s only one side you can fix the fan in place, this restricts its use to rear case fan; it can not be installed in the front of a case; or on a CPU directly (without modding).

    Features and extra’s Retail version:
  • 4 mounting screws

    With its ingenious anti-vibration system and promising a good noise/performance balance at different speeds the Arctic Fan 12 is a prime candidate for excellent case cooling

    Where to buy?


    Now that you know the ins and outs of each fan, it’s time to put them to the test ->
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