Or NMB-MAT? The scythe fans are supposedly surplus NMB-MAT fans.

Surplus or not, they have "NMB-MAT" clearly printed on the sticker .

I'm not sure about surplus, but they are definitely from the nmb-mat value line series. This can be determined my looking at the product code. The better grades have sealed bearings.

Definately value line. And looking at the codes in the pictures at scytheusa.com they are also OEM, not retail.

Typical airflow pattern with the 92mm fan on a tower style heatsink in a tower case:
Intake -> HD's -> Fan on the heatsink -> heatsink itself -> case exhaust fan or PSU fan

The fan on the heatsink is in the airflow before the heatsink itself, the case fan is on the airflow after the heatsink. So the air flowing through the fan on the heatsink is cooler than the air flowing through the case fan. Now explain to me why for the fan on the heatsink heat tolerance is more important than for a case fan.

If you have a "blow towards the mobo" style of heatsink, then the air around the heatsink and the rear exhaust opening is pretty well mixed and both the fan on the heatsink and in the exhaust opening will be in air of approximately the same temperature. Again: Explain to me why for the fan on the heatsink heat tolerance is more important than for a case fan.

The heatsink is warm, heat radiates.

And the "taking a while to reach top speed" thingie, my 92mm Nexus fans do that.

The amount of heat that is radiated by a heatsink in a PC is fairly small. (The big radiator part of a heatsink is <40°C in a typical setup. Almost all heat transport is done by conduction.) The part of that radiation that actually manages to penetrate the plastic casing of the fan to reach the heat sensitive parts of the fan is so close to nothing that you can ignore it.

Would anyone be interested in organizing a shared collection of fans that could then be checked out by contributing members for short term evalutation purposes? For example, if I wanted to compare the scythe minebea series, the scythe s-flex series, and maybe several nmb-mat (panaflo) L1A models, I could arrange to have them shipped to my address for a few days. I can perform my own tests using my system and fan controller. If only 12 people contribute one fan each, a fairly representative set of the best 120mm fans could be collected. This would require a lot of cooperation and may be a crazy idea, but I thought I'd ask anyway. The fans I have in mind to start the collection are as follows:

1] yate loon D12S-12
2] scythe s-flex
3] nmb-mat 120x38 L1A
4] nmb-mat 120x25 RB 4710KL-E00
5] papst 4412 F/2GL (3-pin)
6] papst 4412 F/2GP (4-pin)
7] adda ad1212mb-a73gl
8] globalwin ncb 120
9] enermax enlobal bearing 120
10]
11]
12]

etc.

Jeez. I need a fander bad.

I have this unused year old 92 nexus here that I am slapping on a new core duo system for my mom. I am using a xp-90c, the copper one that works better than that xp-120 supposedly.

fander would be awesome as it leaves a lot of room for higher cfms, that just in case room for a cpu.

Ebay them or something

built in fan controller makes life super easy. i can just place these in any situation and bam, new system is done.

I just received this 92mm nmb-mat (panaflo L1A) from digikey. So apparently retail versions are still made and relatively easy to find. They cost $8.50 and are available in low, medium, and high speeds. I'm breaking it in now and will compare it to my 92mm nexus and yate loon in the near future. The only drawback of buying from digikey is that the leads are bare (no molex connector).


92mm nmb-mat (panaflo L1A)
production date: Dec. 19, 2006

And on a related note, has anyone noticed these "Rexus" (?) branded NMB-MAT that recently showed up at Newegg? FWIW, there's lots of "BX" versions to select from.

Rexus fan linky

Yeah, that just shows the basic strategy of rebranding fans. Just take reject or surplus panaflos, raise the price, and sell them to the unsuspecting public.

Or, take a $5.00 yate loon (~ $1 in quantities), call it a nexus, and give them to spcr. I own a few as well.

Or (possibly) ordering versions that normally come with no tach signal with it (BX version) in quantity as a needed customer service/marketing opportunity. A guy named Frank Gehry suggested that buying one and checking its manufacturing data code (if one is present) might provide a clue. Or if you have other good 92mm fans, you could just listen and compare.

I am quite desapointed with thie review as there was no mention of the Xilence 92mm fan and any idea of how it comparred with the reference Nexus. This fran is beiong recomended by teh guys as Aria.co.uk as being quiet and I agree..but by how much?

Relabellers / rebranders will never order genuine new NMB-MAT, simply because they are too expensive and will allow very very little profit.

Regarding the Rexus NMB-MATs; Looking at the pics, few things give them away as surplus. For example, the Rexus / NMB-MAT 92M1BX has to be OEM surplus, simply because that model is not a retail release. The connectors are another thing pointing to surplus.

Also, I would like to point you to a FAQ written by Dorothy Bradbury. She was titled by SPCR as UK fan maven extraordinaire. The FAQ has plenty of information about bearings etc, but the part about relabelling is quite enlightening.



The FAQ can be downloaded from http://www.dorothybradbury.co.uk/pdf/FAQ-PDF.pdf

My own experience of the Xilence Red Wing 92mm suggests it is not even in the same ballpark as the Nexus and it would be borderline good enough to be considered by SPCR. There are many better 92mm, IMO.