Effect of blade surface texture and notches etc to noise

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EsaT
Posts: 473
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 1:53 am
Location: 61.6° N, 29.5° E - Finland

Effect of blade surface texture and notches etc to noise

Post by EsaT » Thu Jul 11, 2013 1:27 am

Don't know if anyone else looked this review thoroughly but there seem to be clear conclusions which can be drawn from it.
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/874-1/c ... mm-dc.html

While fancy blade shapes and surface textures might sell their effect to noise seems to be mostly negative with possible resonances at certain speeds.

Zaward Golf (ball) Fan is one example.
Then Zalman ZM-F3... And Noctua P12 is no surprise.
And then comparison between SlipStream and GlideStream.

Also brittle bling bling plastic has obvious effect.
Xigmatek 1254 has quite spiky curve and also Nanoxia lacks smooth curve despite of standard blade design.
And all Enermaxes have spiky curve...

Mr Spocko
Posts: 229
Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:56 pm
Location: UK/Eire

Re: Effect of blade surface texture and notches etc to noise

Post by Mr Spocko » Thu Aug 15, 2013 2:12 am

I can only speak on my own building experience using a number of fans, and I personally feel it's got a lot more to do with marketing and "looking different" than actual performance.

I replaced my TX-3 fan with a Noctua NF-B9 92mm fan, which I compared to a Gelid Silent 9 fan.
The Noctua was not as quiet, was not as effective at cooling at lower rpm speeds either.

So I sold the Noctua, with all it's fancy blade design and kept the "normal" Gelid
Not that I dislike Noctua, I still use the odd ULN 120mm fans now and then and they're decent enough. But for me it proved one point, a Noctua are basically overpriced, and they don't always deliver with their marketing claims. The fancy cut outs on the blades didn't count for a can of beans.

Though to be fair to Noctua, they do seem to last.
I doubt these different blade designs make much difference at all, bar obvious stuff like balancing of the blades it's pretty simple in my view. Marketing BS is probably the best term to use

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