Fans with Magnetic Bearings (Enermax Marathon and the like)

[Kaishi]

Have you guys used any fans with magnetic bearings before?

I've seen 2 major designs for this: one where the motor (really just coiled copper wire) is placed in the center (like a traditional fan) but having the blades connected to the housing magnetically so as to reduce friction, and one where the "motor" wraps around the circumference of the fan blades and drives them by magnets placed in the fan blade tips.

The advantages of this design are that the bearings do not break down or wear out. There is nothing to break, they're about as solid-state as fans can be. They don't need oil, they don't get loud when one of the balls loses shape or placement (there are no balls, hah). The fan blade assembly can be completely removed for cleaning, too. Also, while I'm not sure if it is a good idea to do so, I've seen photo of someone running one of these fans while submerged in water with no ill-effects during or after. I think that's pretty impressive.

The disadvantages, as I understand it, are that these fans do not generally reach the same speeds or CFM of traditional fans.

I'm told that the Enermax Marathon fans in particular are very quiet. They're also pretty inexpensive, at $9 each on Directron

Does anyone have any experience with these? Do they move enough air to be worthwhile? Better than Antec TriCools? Buy or don't buy?

[thejamppa]

I like S-flexes that has magnetics too. They're really quiet and I believe Noctua has some sort of magnetic too. They're quiet no bearing sound and fain motor sound. Noctua's weakest link is blade design.

I'd say magnetic bearings are atleast worth of trying $9

[Kaishi]

can you recommend a particular model of another brand? I've heard about other designs but haven't been able to find any so far.

[Hypernova]

I like S-flexes that has magnetics too. They're really quiet and I believe Noctua has some sort of magnetic too. They're quiet no bearing sound and fain motor sound. Noctua's weakest link is blade design.

I'd say magnetic bearings are atleast worth of trying $9

S-Flex use fluid dynamic bearing. Nocuta use a magnet at the end of the shaft to stabilise the shaft. The OP is talking about fans that have completely magnetically suspended shafts.

[Kaishi]

I like S-flexes that has magnetics too. They're really quiet and I believe Noctua has some sort of magnetic too. They're quiet no bearing sound and fain motor sound. Noctua's weakest link is blade design.

I'd say magnetic bearings are atleast worth of trying $9

S-Flex use fluid dynamic bearing. Nocuta use a magnet at the end of the shaft to stabilise the shaft. The OP is talking about fans that have completely magnetically suspended shafts.

... Or fans that don't use a shaft at all by placing the magnets inside the tips of the fanblades, or in a circular band that surrounds the entire blade assembly (which I suppose would make that whole assembly the "shaft")

[jaganath]

have a look at posts by Felger Carbon in the User Review forum. he has rigorously compared the magnetic fans (Enermax Marathon etc) with the current favourite Scythe Slipstream, the Slipstream wins (and not by a small margin).

[Kaishi]

Jaganath: the slipstream does win, but it doesn't offer the benefits of the magnetic fans. What I want to know is if they have reasonable performance for the power consumption, low noise levels, and if the advertised benefits actually help anything at all.

I have 3 TriCool fans I want to replace, and I'm considering the Slipstream too, but I'm looking into unique designs because they fascinate me. My CPU cooler is running Noctua NF-P12 fans, which work as advertised. I'm very pleased with them.