Lots of PWM fan questions.

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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Erelyes
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:45 am
Location: New Zealand

Lots of PWM fan questions.

Post by Erelyes » Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:23 am

My motherboard's fan control (Asus Fan Xpert) only controls fanspeed via PWM, not voltage. I am hence in the market for PWM fans.

I have four options here;

Code: Select all

Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 (300-1350rpm) (~$21 NZD) (FDB)
Scythe Slip Stream        (0  -1300rpm) (~$25 NZD) (Sleeve)
Zaward Golf Fan G2        (300-1300rpm) (~$28 NZD) (???)
Scythe Kama Flex          (300-1600rpm) (~$33 NZD) (S-FDB)
My questions are;
1. Has anyone had experience with the Zaward fans in general?
2. Does anyone have experience with any of the above PWM fans specifically?
3. Is the ramp in speed with PWM fans linear?

The Arctic looks like the best bet (cheapest, and FDB); and I am very happy with my 1000rpm Arctic F12L Pro; it has lasted a long time and is surprisingly quiet. But wish to check all my options first and learn a bit more about PWM fans!

lodestar
Posts: 1683
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Lots of PWM fan questions.

Post by lodestar » Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:44 am

If you like the Arctic Cooling fans there will be little point in considering the others. I have used them before, but prefer one of the other fans on your list, the Scythe Slip Stream SY1225SL12LM-P. The PWM sharing of the ACs is a plus point, but it only works with other Arctic Cooling fans. So if you want a PWM fan chain, it has to be all Arctic Cooling fans. The AC PWM sharing does not work with third-party PWM splitter cables or the Zalman PWM Mate. It does work with fan speed control software such as Asus Fan Xpert or (if your motherboard supports it) SpeedFan.

Zaward is not a particularly well know name but their fans are reasonably OK. Their 140mm PWM G2 models are probably more attractive than the 120mm, because there are relatively few 140 PWMs available. Zaward have a 'Duro' bearing, which seems to be an improved sleeve bearing of some sort.

The answer to your question 3 is that it depends on the fan. Some fans like the Noctua 120mm PWM focused-flow NF-P12 model do have a linear relationship between duty cycle and fan rpm, so for example 0% duty cycle = 0 rpm. Many other fans don't. This is an example, the PWM fan profile for the 120mm Zaward Golf Fan G2:
http://www.zaward.com/sites/default/fil ... 1293602066

SebRad
Patron of SPCR
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Location: UK

Re: Lots of PWM fan questions.

Post by SebRad » Tue Jan 10, 2012 6:25 am

Hi, I used an F12 PWM as my CPU fan for some time and had no complaints over it. Previously had it's predecessor, 12025PWM but the bearings started to go and as I'd moved to Arctic Cooling F fans everywhere else...
At the bottom of my thread for my rig as it was I note the rpm vs the PWM for the F12 fan. From that point of view the 12025 was better as it ramped up slower than the F12, of course depends on how you control it whether that matters, for me using Speedfan not really as I could set whatever PWM I needed/wanted.

I've heard good reports of Scythe PWM fans and bad reports for Nexus PWM fan(s).

Regards, Seb

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