Some 120mm Fan Reviews: Vardar, Slip Stream, Gentle Typhoon

[baii]

140mm fan maybe, use a shroud or 280/420 rad

You have ty14x, phanteks and nzxt. All in the color you want., and good performance.

As far as I read, pwm gt is a, well, gt, nothing more, nothing less.

[quest_for_silence]

The first post has been updated with the results for the Fractal Design HP-12.

I was curious to understand how come at first glance you thought it doesn't click, but then you recognized it as still clicking.

So last night I compared the Venturi with my Noctua iPPC F12 3000 PWM, and I think to have found a possible explanation: the HP12 does click, indeed, but in a strange way.

At around 400rpm I was able to heard it clicking but faintly and smooth: comparatively my iPPC F12 sounds like an helicopter (comparatively the latter is prominently clicky, particularly at the lower speeds, between 210 and 340rpm). Long story short, I was able to hear the HP12 clicking at any pace, but just keeping it at about 3-5cm from my ear, yet at 10-15cm from it that clicking just fades in the night background (and as I said it has a somewhat different "clicking tone" than the Noctuas).

Last curiosity I have is whether you reverted to the Slipstream DB, or not.

[Ashun]

When I first got the Venturi fans, I installed them right away on the upper radiator to replace the Corsair SP120s. My head is about a meter away from the top of the case normally, so I didn't hear any of the clicking that was obvious with all my plain Corsair and Thermaltake case fans.

In order to critically listen to the fans and take measurements, it's actually quite a bit of work to set it up. Only then did I notice the clicking. And as I said in the addendum, it's only audible out to 60 or 70 cm, and I'm further away than that.

As for choosing between the Venturi and Slip Stream DB, I have three of the Slip Streams on the 360 rad, and two Venturis on the 240. I'm running the Slip Streams at 510 rpm, and the Venturis really low at 360 rpm. This is fine on idle. Of course I increase the fan speeds when gaming because I've got that highly overclocked 780 Lightning.

I don't have a reason to decide on one and only one fan because I don't have any sort of aesthetics in mind. I even wish that the Thermaltake V51 case I got didn't have the window because there's nothing I really care to see inside. I was also getting sick of purchasing fans and being disappointed!

The Slip Stream DB would be the perfect fan if: (1) no tonality at 750+ RPM, (2) rubber corners.

[44TZL]

@Ashun .. just wondering...did you ever try the lower RPM GTs? When I look at the SPCR 120mm fan roundup results, I think I noticed the AP12 performs better than say an AP15 at the same speeds (800rpm).

[Ashun]

44TZL, I haven't tried any of the others. But even though SPCR had better things to say about the 800 RPM model, I'm still concerned with the bearing noise.