Aerofan

DougS · Post by **DougS** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 10:24 am

Hi, first post here. Was hoping to get some comments on the following new Coolermaster fan:

"AeroFan The AeroFan is a departure from the typical muffin type fan into the world of blower/squirrel-cage fans. This is taking advantage of the recent trend to rid the world of the large center hub in typical fans where no airflow is affected directly underneath it. This fan will fit in any place that a typical 80mm fan will provided you are using mounting screws and have 70mm of clearance for its height. The fan is ultra, ultra quiet spinning at a very low 1900rpm all the while pumping out 27CFM of air over 100% of the surface area underneath it. This fan is priced at $12.00 plus shipping."

Picture:
http://www.1coolpc.com/aerofan1.htm

Of course, "ultra, ultra quiet" is a relative term

Doug

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 11:37 am

Howdy DougS,

According to DirkVader.de (review link in german), the Aero fan at it's lowest setting is about the same as a 12V Papst N2GL at 27dBA (vs. ~25 for the NG2L). The numbers with their test methodology. The numbers seem decent, but the fan may still require further undervolting. And who knows what the noise of the electronics and bearings are like?

herosformula · Post by **herosformula** » Thu May 08, 2003 4:45 pm

This fan is offered on its own for $9 from newegg, I was purchasing some other items, so I added it to the shipment.

80mm x 80mm x 70mm, sleeve bearings, with third wire for rpm sensing, comes with a 3 to 4 pin connector for powering directly from a PSU, and came inside one of the most fantastic packages for a fan I have ever seen.

1900 rpm standard, 1800 rpm at full Zalman, it is a hot day so I am running it at 1400 rpm.

Blower type fans, because of their backward-facing vanes, can develop much higher pressures than axial fans, which is immediately apparent when you turn it on, at 1400 rpm you can discern the pressure cone 12" away. This is a huge advantage, since I have noticed that at 5V, my Panaflow would sometimes cavitate (spin but push extremely little air) requiring me to run it at higher speeds.

Since each vane is small and bound within the squirrel cage, it is difficult to hear individual fan blade noise. Putting your ear to the opening, its just a continuous rush of air.

I cannot discern any bearing noise while it is runing.

The motor does have a switching noise, similar to the 92mm globe fan on an Enermax. If they could steal the advanced motor design from Panaflow, they could have a real winner.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Thu May 08, 2003 8:44 pm

yea but blowers are extremely low cfm, but higher pressure.

Td_nw · Post by **Td_nw** » Thu May 08, 2003 9:16 pm

Supposedly Aero7+ (at 80mm vs. 70mm now) is coming out soon.
More suface = better cooling = less speed on fan

I am hopeing that the new version will also have a better finish, but you can always lap it yourself. Uuugh.

herosformula · Post by **herosformula** » Fri May 09, 2003 8:23 am

TD, I just got the fan, so I cannot comment on the heatsink.

While the ratings say lower, as other reviews have mentioned, it just doesn't feel like low CFM. It is keeping temperatures in my case equal to the 80mm Panaflow I usually have installed. This fan does have some drawbacks, but in the case where you are stalling axial fans, such as radiators or limited cases, it may have a niche.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Fri May 09, 2003 10:20 am

There seem to be multiple versions of this thing:
70mm or 80mm
ball or sleeve
with or without potentiometer

herosformula - you seem to have the 80mm, sleeve, no potentiometer version? At 12V, how does it compare to a Panaflo L1A (at 12V). And how low can you take the voltage and it will still start, and/or do some cooling?

herosformula · Post by **herosformula** » Sun May 11, 2003 3:34 pm

The Aero starts at any setting on a Zalman, although I do not know how low voltage that is. There is very little momentum arm, since the squirrel cage diameter is much smaller than with an axial fan of the same size. There is not much difference in noise for a large range of speeds. Only after about 1500 rpm does noise build significantly.

The motor noise is very high compared to a Panaflow. The fan blade noise is lower. Both fans kept temperatures about the same for the same amount of voltage.