120mm Radiator Fan Roundup Part 2: Fan Harder
by Dustin Sklavos on October 22, 2012 12:01 AM EST(For a look at parts one and two of the fans we're testing (or actually have tested) you'll want to go back and check here.)
Enermax Magma
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| Airflow (in CFM) | Static Pressure (in mm/H2O) | RPM | Rated dBA |
| 69.15 | 1.4 | 1500 | 18 |
The Enermax Magma has pretty generous ratings, but it's also been one of the fans I've seen repeatedly pop up on forums as a solid choice for a 120mm radiator fan. Enermax's advertising materials promote the fact that it can run silently even at exceedingly high temperatures, but it'll be interesting to see if this fan is really all it's cracked up to be.
CoolerMaster Excalibur
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| Airflow (in CFM) | Static Pressure (in mm/H2O) | RPM | Rated dBA |
| 26.4-85.6 | 0.75-3.53 | 600-2000 | 13-30 |
The first of CoolerMaster's two entrants, the Excalibur is also one of the only PWM fans we have on hand for testing. Interestingly, both of CoolerMaster's fans look to have placed an emphasis on blingy design, but the Excalibur at least doesn't seem to have the same grossly exaggerated "miracle fan" ratings than the Sickle Flow from the last review had. And while the Sickle Flow was just grabbed off the shelf at a Fry's Electronics, the Excalibur and Turbine Master were both handpicked by CoolerMaster for this roundup.
CoolerMaster Turbine Master MACH 1.8
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| Airflow (in CFM) | Static Pressure (in mm/H2O) | RPM | Rated dBA |
| 80.3 | 1.96 | 1800 | 30.5 |
There are actually two models of Turbine Master; the MACH 1.8 is the faster of the two and designed for high performance rather than silence (in much the same way that Corsair has both silent and performance models of their 120mm fans). I'll say this for CoolerMaster; they can produce an interesting looking fan. The Turbine Master has more blades than any other fan in either roundup and comes with a nifty little removable dome for the fan hub.
Noctua NF-F12
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| Airflow (in CFM) | Static Pressure (in mm/H2O) | RPM | Rated dBA |
| 55 | 2.61 | 1500 | 22.4 |
I'll admit this is the fan I was most interested in checking out. The ratings listed on the packaging aren't particularly exciting, but Noctua has seen fit to equip the NF-F12 with a PWM connector as well as boxing it with a low noise adaptor. The whole package was actually pretty fancy, and while I'm not sure I'm a fan of the "chai latte" coloring I definitely got the impression that this was going to be a strong contender. Of course, for the price, it had better be.
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Conficio - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
First thanks for the informative review!I second that, Google chart tools - https://developers.google.com/chart/ - offers an easy way to present some good graphs.
7amood - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
finally, a simplified fan roundup review... THANK YOU!Maxal - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
How about putting results in chart, with Temp and Noise on X/Y axis?arthur449 - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
Thanks for the Die Hard 2: Die Harder reference. It brought a smile to my face.toyotabedzrock - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
I have had horrible luck with fans. They all go bad in a year.Even expensive ones.
Finally - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
Try Enermax T.B. Silence.Excellent price, very quiet and even IF they should fail after only 1 year, you have just "lost" 6€.
Here a link to put my recommendation in perspective: http://kdb.orthy.de/index.php?tablename=Luefter&am...
Udit - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
It's just a request ... please add scythe gt-1850 & glidestream 120 ... I have 4 gt-1850 on my h100 & really wanna change themscmikes - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
We all realize that it is impossible to review all rad fans. I would like to add a vote for the 109R1212H1011 120mm X 38mm from Sans Ace. They have worked great in my setups.Take care, and keep up the good work
Runamok81 - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
Dustin, you'll never make everyone happy, but I'm glad Anandtech is making the effort. Props to Dustin for listening to the comment-ers and revisiting this fan round up! BravoPurpose - Monday, October 22, 2012 - link
Four years ago I bought 12 Enermax Magma UC-MA12's.Within a year of 24/7 use all but four were broken.
My #1 cautionary recommendation for Magma fans is DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, try to pop the blades off for cleaning. Of the 8 broken fans, half of them broke because when attempting to remove the blades, the entire motor assembly separated from the PCB, or the PCB came up with the fan blades.
They do provide good performance at good noise levels...
I'm wondering why the all-star radiator fan is being omitted. It's a really huge failure to not include the Gentle Typhoon AP-15 so that we can get an apples to apples performance comparison against your data.
You talk about finding the 'outlier' but the one fan that's actually KNOWN to be *THE* outlier isn't present in your testing...
Especially since I switched to GT's and know from experience that the difference between them and the magma is NIGHT AND DAY. Top that off with the fact that you can get them for ~15 a pop... That's only 2 bucks more for the *BEST* performing fan out there.
Swing and a miss.