30x 120mm Fans Roundup - Tested on WC Radiator

Cooling/VGA & Other Cooling by Martin @ 2009-05-19

Today we have a guest article from Martin who tested 30 different 120mm fans when mounted on a water-cooling radiator. He measured generated noise, cubic feet per minute of air moved with each fan, allowing for some impressive comparative result charts. If you arere looking for a 120mm fan upgrade, this article is a must read!

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Introduction & Test Setup

Today we have a guest article from Martin (from XS) who tested 30 different 120mm fans when mounted on a water-cooling radiator. He measured generated noise, cubic feet per minute of air moved with each fan, allowing for some impressive comparative result charts. If you’re looking for a 120mm fan upgrade, this article is a must read!




These tests were made possible by www.petratechshop.com, www.ncix.com, www.feser-one.com and XS member HondaCity.

Test Setup and Gear

I'm purposely measuring noise point blank range at the fan to maximize resolution on the measurement. I wouldn't worry about the numbers as much as the relative differences, my meter may be in need of calibration too, but it's what I have so it's what I'm using.

I don't understand noise well enough yet either, so I'm just measuring at the hip. It's obviously interesting how a 30-40dB spec fan can produce over 70 at close distances. Also my ambient noise level hovers around 47-50db. I'm leaving my regular PC running in the background so that all the measurements I run have about the same ambient noise level. I think this may be more important than trying to measure in total silence which in itself is near impossible to do (on a budget).

Madshrimps (c)


  • Tools
    The radiator is an XSPC RS120. The fan is mounted without any sort of gasket (Finger Tight M4 Screws/nuts), I only place a piece of tape on the noise side to prevent air from causing problems with the noise measurement. I adjust voltage with my Mastech HY3005D lab power supply. Voltage is measured at the plug to the fan to eliminate vdroop in the wiring. Amperage is measured on the power supply display. RPM is taken from my crystalfontz CFA-633.

  • Test Procedure
    - Mount fan to radiator with M4 screws until nuts are a hard finger tight on all four corners.
    - Set sound level meter to edge of fan/radiator just far enough to prevent touching.
    - Run fan for 5 minutes to warm up fan and anemometer.
    - Reduce voltage to zero to record ambient noise level.
    - Increase voltage to 5V.
    - Record amperage from mastech PSU, dB from sound meter, RPM from PC Crystalfontz CFA-633, CFM from Anemometer (if >9cfm)
    - Increase to 6V repeat recording as noted above.
    - Repeat measurements on even volts including 5V, 6V, 7V, 8V, 9V, 10V, 11V, 12V. Voltage held to .03v and measured at fan 3 wire plug.

    120mm Fans Tested

  • ADDA AD1212HB-A71GL
  • Delta AFB1212SHE
  • Servo Nidec Gentle Typhoon DC1225C12B5AP-15
  • Koolance Fan-12025MBK
  • Koolance Fan-12025HBK
  • Koolance Fan-12038HBK
  • Panaflo FBA12G12M
  • Panaflo (NMB MAT)FBA12G12U
  • Sanyo Denki San Ace 109R1212H1011
  • Scythe Kama-Flex S1225FDB12M
  • Scythe Kama-Flex S1225FDB12H
  • Scythe S-Flex SFF21E
  • Scythe S-Flex SFF21F
  • Scythe S-Flex SFF21G
  • Scythe Slip Stream SY1225LS 12SH
  • Scythe Ultra Kaze 1000 DFS123812H-1000
  • Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 DFS123812H-3000
  • Nanoxia FX12 2000
  • Noise Blocker XL-1
  • Noise Blocker XL-2
  • Noise Blocker XLP
  • Noise Blocker M12 S2
  • Noise Blocker M12 S3 HS
  • Silver Stone (Everflow) R121225BU
  • Thermaltake TT-1225 (Thunderblade)
  • Yate Loon D12SL12 Curved Blade
  • Yate Loon D12SL12 Straight Blade
  • Yate Loon D12SL12 LED version with Straight Blades
  • Yate Loon D12SH12 Curved Blade
  • Zalman ZF1225ASH

    Video/Sound Recording

    To help with the problem that noise level doesn't necessarily fit with noise quality, I'm including some video recordings to capture the fan's particular noise quality traits. I'm testing on the same platform and recording the CFM and voltage in the video for reference. The only difference is I'm not adding a piece of tape to seal (Between Fan/Rad) since I'm not measuring noise level. This may result in slightly lower CFM numbers than the charts, but they are all tested equally the same, so the CFM numbers on the videos are good relative numbers. Anyhow, pay particular attention to the sound tone and motor ticks when undervolting. These are important traits I don't think you can capture in a number and I feel are much more important the the dB number I've included in the charts. You can also get two videos going side by side and listen to specific voltages. One strategy would be to compare the video sounds where the CFM numbers match, this would give you a means to compare noise quality/tone per CFM produced through a radiator. Note that the anemometer isn't very accurate until about 10cfm, number below that are not to be trusted, you'll see what I mean when you watch the video.




    On the following pages you'll find detailed results of each fan, as well as a noise recording at different voltages.
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    Comment from Rutar @ 2009/05/19
    impressive testing, now even with power consumption but:

    The chart is too hard to read, you need to make additional charts for groups of 10 fans. Of course, if someone could code it so you can select several fans and then the chart would be created that would be best. Don't let great test data go to waste because of the presentation.
    Comment from leeghoofd @ 2009/05/19
    Welcome onboard Martin !
    Comment from jmke @ 2009/05/19
    it was a one time guest article
    Martin's main focus was water cooling gear; this was his final big group test (until the bug bites again )

    his site is at http://martin.skinneelabs.com/ where you can find plenty of water cooling reviews
    Comment from jmke @ 2009/05/19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rutar View Post
    The chart is too hard to read, you need to make additional charts for groups of 10 fans. Of course, if someone could code it so you can select several fans and then the chart would be created that would be best. Don't let great test data go to waste because of the presentation.
    will see what I can do, he send me the source file; don't expect a database just yet, but different presentation is doable I think; although X/Y scatter charts are still the best for this; problem is that the Legend is hard to read
    Comment from Rutar @ 2009/05/19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jmke View Post
    will see what I can do, he send me the source file; don't expect a database just yet, but different presentation is doable I think; although X/Y scatter charts are still the best for this; problem is that the Legend is hard to read
    They type of chart is not the problem, it is just that because there are so many similar looking graphs that its hard to tell which fan is which graph.

    if they would be groups of 10, the problem would be smaller even if those are groups of similar performers.
    Comment from jmke @ 2009/05/19
    will have to re-arrange the data for this to work; will take some time, don't expect it before next week

     

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