Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 & 14

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Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
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Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 & 14

Post by Abula » Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:25 pm

This is not really a review, as i didn't have much time to play with the fans yet, was more a initial testing in Asus and MSI motherboards in their respective fancontrols to check what will be the outcome of moving into the FT05 in terms of back (top) case fan and the CPU fans. Personally i wanted to test this fans, as some videos on youtube aim to show that this have better pressure than the usual pwm fans that i use like Thermalrigth TY147 and Noctua NF-A14 / A15 PWM, but still a lot more testing has to be done once i rebuild, either way this are just some test that i ran on the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 and 14.

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The fans were first ran on an Asus Maximus VI Gene, with FanXpert2, all the fans were ran on the CPU_FAN header (real pwm header), the sample 2 has higher idle rpms, but this is more like bug on FanXpert2, the range of operation and starting is the same for all 3 (or really close), this is more fanXpert2 conpensating for low rpms, but on the MSI i tested all 3 and all had very similar rpms under the same % pwm signal.

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These are the same fans ran on an MSI Z87-GD65 on the CPU_FAN2 (real pwm header), controlled by the bios mainly, was just to establish the lowest settings that the fans can run. Personally i like more pure bios as no extra software is loaded and remains independent to the OS,

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Both motherboards work fine controlling the Prolimatech PWM fans, at the lowest settings displayed above, they were inaudible to me, but they were also not behind a mesh/filter/heatsink, so this part will be done later on. Above 750rpms they start becoming noticeable, still a low end wosh, and above 1000rpms they are loud, i have no way to say how much db, so take my comments with a grain of salt as its mostly subjective and i have no super quiet chamber like SPCR. About the bearings, i personally couldn't hear much bearing noise even though they are real ball bearing fans, once i build will update either here or on the build into how it really perform behind a heatsink and as case fans.

PS @Quest, you were right, the Vortex 14 drop to 360rpms =)
Last edited by Abula on Sun Dec 20, 2015 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
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Location: ITALY

Re: Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 & 14

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Oct 27, 2014 11:15 am

Thank you Abula!

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
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Re: Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 & 14

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:03 pm

Abula wrote:some videos on youtube aim to show that this have better pressure than the usual pwm fans that i us
Just a brief note, I hope to develop it in another post.

Actually I used the Vortex on both the Prolimatech Armageddon and the Thermalright Archon SB-E X2, either alone or with the dedicated booster (I have four pieces): for what it worths, in the last year I gained the conviction to have found the best 140mm PWM fan *for quiet operation*.

Among the cooler I use, one of my favourite is the NH-C14: one of its major drawbacks (until the contemporary ASUS/ASRock 97-series) is that it sports voltage controlled fans, a fact which somehow limits a pure BIOS control. So last week I bought a pair of Noctua P14r PWM Redux, in order to mount on it.
Tonight I fired up them: well, they changed my mind at once.
I was able to stop them with PWM under 7%, and the actual speed range is about 200 (8%) -1700rpm (100%). Setting them with a PWM range of 8%-16% (about 210-380rpm) it seems to sound better than any 140mm fans I owned, including the Vortex Sleek, the Antec True Quiet and the Prolimatech Vortex Red/Blue, up to 900-950rpm they are actually among the quietest fan I ever heard, and they are fairly usable (quietness-wise) up to around 1200rpm.
I didn't performed any extensive torture test, but temperature on the Archon at 200-380rpm would seem comparable or better than the Vortex Sleek at 360-420rpm (both idle and load). Moreover it doesn't seem to have any appreciable bearing noise (while the Vortex Sleek develop some light whine above 500rpm).

That doesn't mean the Vortex Sleek isn't an excellent fan, just that at first glance the new P14r PWM amazed me probably a bit more (and it costs a tad less than the Prolimatech).

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 & 14

Post by Abula » Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:13 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
Abula wrote:some videos on youtube aim to show that this have better pressure than the usual pwm fans that i us
Just a brief note, I hope to develop it in another post.

Actually I used the Vortex on both the Prolimatech Armageddon and the Thermalright Archon SB-E X2, either alone or with the dedicated booster (I have four pieces): for what it worths, in the last year I gained the conviction to have found the best 140mm PWM fan *for quiet operation*.

Among the cooler I use, one of my favourite is the NH-C14: one of its major drawbacks (until the contemporary ASUS/ASRock 97-series) is that it sports voltage controlled fans, a fact which somehow limits a pure BIOS control. So last week I bought a pair of Noctua P14r PWM Redux, in order to mount on it.
Tonight I fired up them: well, they changed my mind at once.
I was able to stop them with PWM under 7%, and the actual speed range is about 200 (8%) -1700rpm (100%). Setting them with a PWM range of 8%-16% (about 210-380rpm) it seems to sound better than any 140mm fans I owned, including the Vortex Sleek, the Antec True Quiet and the Prolimatech Vortex Red/Blue, up to 900-950rpm they are actually among the quietest fan I ever heard, and they are fairly usable (quietness-wise) up to around 1200rpm.
I didn't performed any extensive torture test, but temperature on the Archon at 200-380rpm would seem comparable or better than the Vortex Sleek at 360-420rpm (both idle and load). Moreover it doesn't seem to have any appreciable bearing noise (while the Vortex Sleek develop some light whine above 500rpm).

That doesn't mean the Vortex Sleek isn't an excellent fan, just that at first glance the new P14r PWM amazed me probably a bit more (and it costs a tad less than the Prolimatech).
Thats some nice remarks, thanks for sharing, Noctua 140mm PWM redux was the second that i was thinking on getting for the build, im still thinking on it, and probably will get some samples sometime, but will see, maybe i should do an out of the case test comparing noctua vs the prolimatech, in both temps and noise (too bad i dont have a reliable db meter). Evil quest you going make me buy some =P

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 & 14

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Nov 01, 2014 12:02 pm

Abula wrote:Evil quest you going make me buy some =P

Don't call me guilty if you're a big spender, Abula! :wink:

Anyway, I hoped to test these fans thoroughfully today but it wasn't possible.
I've just started a thermal torture on the test bench when some setbacks called me elsewhere, so I have just preliminary results: actually the P14r wouldn't seem to clearly best the Vortex Sleek at the lowest speeds, but the the conditions weren't the same (the Noctua spun around averagely 272-278rpm, while the Vortex was around 366-370rpm, and the Prolimatech bested the Noctua averagely by 3°C).

Summarizing: wait if you need more reliable data, buy if just you wanna play. :wink:

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