Interesting review, thanks SPCR! I won't exchange my 92 mm Nexii soon.
BTW, not related to the article, how are fan blades manufactured? Is it by injection moulding?

Nice, of all the tested fans only one is readily available here in sweden/europe. Where there really no Adda or Pabst fans available? They are available everywhere around here.

Good review!

The Noiseblocker XE1, as an inexpensive fan, seems to be the better deal (I wonder who manufactures them).

PS: Ahhh, the Yate Loon 92mm is missing.

I wonder if the Antec Tri-cool is relatively quiet since I don't mind the fan noise of the 120mm Tri-cool.

For UK peeps who haven't won the lottery a cheap,quiet 92mm is Glacialtech Silentblade.



Good news, Silencio is back on Ebay so it is readily available again.

I would be curious to see how the Scythe FDB fans would compare, the bearings would not have the same potential issues as the sleeve bearings on all of the ones tested. They are also starting to become widely available, and are reasonably priced.

I also wonder if the benchmark point of a constant 15CFM might be too low. First, the good fans are all below the noise floor of the testing lab at this rate, so there is little to differentiate them, and second, part of the reason for choosing a 92mm over an 80 is to acheive a little more airflow at the same noise level. If I require only 15CFM, there are plenty of quiet, cheap and available 80mm fans that can fit the bill. Perhaps 20CFM would be a better mark for this size. Consider that for the next round?

Nice review! As one can see from my signature I'm Polish and would like to say few words about Fander fans (no, I'm not their representative )

These fans are widely used in Poland and are very popular among silent-pc-enthusiasts, so I guess the test sample wasn't selected specially for the purpose of this article.

I used to own two myself, but switched to another case and the 92's had to go. My examples were quiet and smooth and was quite happy with them. There is also a 120 mm version of Fander (FX120-W, rated 700-1400 RPMs / 31-67 CFM / 14.9-23.7 dB(A) - maybe I'll give it a try and compare it to my S-Flex -E and Nb BlackSilent XL2.

Oh, and indeed, "Żywotność" means MTBF in Polish

Cheers,
Bartek

nice, really nice, i had problem with deciding what fans i will get for my next build, but now i know that i will buy 4x 120 fanders, a white ones (there is also black flavour also).

Btw the date says 2/9/06. Nice to see you wrote this a year ago Devonavar


*goes back to reading article*

To quote the late James Brown "I feel good..."

Well, look at the sig and say...

WHO'S BOSS?

(No, really, I couldn't resist that - I'm sorry and I feel so stupid but I *had* to say that )

You know what's funny? Most of the tested fans are european make and also hard to find in the US

Makes me wonder if the reason for the lack of domestic products is because most of them just turned out poorly.

Fander fans are manufactured by Xinrulian (the 120mm model is actually the same fan as Zalman F3 ). Knowing that, it's easy to find the desired L10 life spec: 30 000 \ 25C.

Noiseblocker lists the bearing type as a "longlife" sleeve bearing, but it's not at all clear what "longlife" means or how it is achieved. The MTBF specification is listed at <68,000 hours, which puts the 20,000 hour rating of the Nexus' sleeve bearing (see Dynatron's web site) to shame.
Any life expectancy data is meaningless without a temperature binding.

Fander FX120 is not the same as Zalman ZM-F3: 700-1400rpm vs 900-1800rpm. or maybe i dont follow 'the same as' definition;-)

Yup, rotation speed differs but that's it. You can undervolt the Zalman a little to make it match .

Thanks. I'm surprised the Scythe 92/100 model wasn't included as the reference, over the Nexus - now we're all left guessing until round-two Good to see the NB BlackSilent do well - I'm sure the 80/120 versions will be even more competitive

If Zalman ZM-F3 is as good as Fander FX120 that's really good news; it is cheap and widely available here. However I am put off by Zalman's poor track record when it comes to fans.



Do you mean the Kaze-Jyu?

Zalman ZM-F3 costs a half of that what Fander wants for FX120. if they are really the same (i took a look o photos, took a look on specs, but im not 100% sure) - where is a catch?

jaganath
However I am put off by Zalman's poor track record when it comes to fans.
Not all zalman fans are the same. The ones made by Powercooler (F1 and F2) are low quality, but xinrulians (F3 and the 92-mm that comes with coolers) are usually good.

cienislaw
Zalman ZM-F3 costs a half of that what Fander wants for FX120.
And an original OEM-spec Xinrulian RDL1225S is twice as cheap as the Zalman . It's just marketing, each reseller valuates his sticker according to his own greediness. So be watchful and don't let them fool you.

Another good example: Silverstone FN121 and Glacialtech Silentblade GT12252BDL-1. Both are in fact Everflow R121225BL with some RPM tweaks, but the former costs twice as much as the latter, at least in Moscow. Why buy the Silverstone?

I was thinking the low speed panaflo would have messured up well here.

You should grab some of the Scythe Mineba 92mm's, there are some in stock and on sale at NCIX I believe. Also, try the 92mm Antec Tricool DBB. I use them in my Titan 550 case, and they seem relatively decent on the low setting. I would like to see if it would be worth upgrading to the Scythe's though.

Great review though!

As for the catch - main one is three years of tweaking and many turned down samples to achieve such parameters Fander was created mainly be me as I thought that there in 2003 was no good quiet fan in Poland. As for longlivety it's guaranteed for three years with fanswap replacement system, so You don't have to worry about it We're working on making Fander available across EU. If there are any companies interested in carrying this brand of Fans please do not hesitate to contact me: [email protected]

Yes quiet fans in the UK are almost prohibitively expensive so I plumped for some of the above. My Glacialtech Silentblades reside at the front of my Antec SOLO and whilst at full speed through my Silverstone fan controller they are a little intrusive, this doesn't matter when gaming. For desktop use I can set them to what I imagine is 7V without them being audible. I'd certainly like to see these fans reviewed by you guys, as some objective results would be good to see.

Good work!



Would it be possible to sell them on Ebay? I've bought DVDs and stuff from Poland and the postage wasn't too expensive.

That's the kiddie. IIRC, Mike C. said it was the best fan he'd come across, and I think he was referring to all fans, not just 92’s. There’s been some sample variance reported though.

ha, first time i see that someone buys dvds from poland. mostly i do in oposite way - buy in uk, then transfer to poland. but as always - different ppl, different needs.

as far as the content is concerned, it was a good review.

I was dissapointed however by the lack of "name brand" fans that everyone knows and argue's over.

Like:
Panaflo L series
Papst
Yate-Loon
Scythe
Antec
Vantec (mostly because its really popular at major retailers like best buy and comp usa, just so everyone has a common fan they can relate to)

Very nice review. Thank you



ebay would be a good start as well as directly from your website. i wouldnt mind buying directly from Poland if the site can be translated in english as well.

I am also surprised (disappointed) that not ONE Scythe fan was in the comparison, since we know they've tested them with the heatsinks before. Either the 92mm or 100mm versions would have been helpful, along with a Y/L.

Sigh, oh well, maybe an update in the future?

Site will be translated in several languages in following weeks