GlacialTech SilentBlade - new contender on 120 mm market?

[Jan Kivar]

I noticed on Monday that one of our local retailers (http://www.verkkokauppa.com, some others carry it also) has a new 120mm fan on the list - GlacialTech SilentBlade.

It differs slightly from the other 120 mm fans I've seen as it has nine blades. It's rated 19 dB(A)/37 cfm, and it's running only at 950 RPM, so the given value could actually be quite near the real value (Nexus 120 mm is ~23dB(A)/37 cfm and 1000 RPM).

It has two ball bearings, both 2-pin and 3-pin connectors. There is also a RPM wire but no mention whether it's a feature or not. The best thing is the price: after a short search the lowest price was under 9€ (Nexus is ~5€ more expensive here). The clear plastic version seems a bit more expensive, but we don't need one...

Here's a .PDF.

Cheers,

Jan

[ferdb]

Decent airflow/pressure curve for 950RPM. The fact that it's ball bearing doesn't bode well for silence though. Guess we'll have to see.

[MikeC]

Also, clear plastic... brittle, resonant polycarbonate

[Jan Kivar]

Also, clear plastic... brittle, resonant polycarbonate

Aye, that's I said that we wouldn't be interested in that version...

Cheers,

Jan

[eidolon]

Polycarbonate is not a brittle material.
So I highly doubt the material is polycarbonate. Crystal Styrene is what it's most likely made from. Now that's a resonate brittle material.

[threevok]

It looks like there are 2 materials offered.

[Aleksi]

I'm getting one of these fans sometime this or next week. I'll write about expressions here. But, I did get a chance to test it at my friend's house. I did NOT have a comparison fan (Nexus), but when running the Silentlblade at 12V, I thought it actually pushed less air then Nexus. Also, the only noise coming was a very small whooosh. The bearings however made no / very little noise.

These are just my first expressions. I'll compare it with Nexus. (Always better to give a review of sound levels, when there aren't women babbling )

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

I did a Google search on GlacialTech SilentBlade 120mm and got this info:

Bearing: 2-Ball
Voltage: 12V DC
Air Flow: 37.0 CFM
Rotation: 1,700 rpm
Noise: 19 dBA

Material: Impeller & Frame:
- Black: PLASTIC {UL 94V-0}
- Transparent Blue: PC BAYER 2805-SMALT PLASTIC {UL 94V-0}

from here. The site is apparently in Canada...




...and yet...
Specification:

- Bearing Type : 2 balls
- Rated Voltage : 12V DC
- Rated Current : 0.10 AMP
- Input Power : 1.20 W
- Fan Speed : 950 RPM
- Air Flow : 37 CFM
- Noise : 19 dBA

from here.

[glisoni]

For what its worth, I have a few 80mm SilentBlade-s, and they are silent. 1700 rpm@12V, so bearing noise. I placed them in my PSU and case as exaust. Real nice performance.

[nici]

I was just about to search the forums for these when i spotted this thread Ill go and buy one of these now from verkkokauppa.com and try it out and let you guys now what i think of it compared to Papst and Nexus

[Tibors]

Polycarbonate is not a brittle material.
So I highly doubt the material is polycarbonate.

Material: Impeller & Frame:
- Black: PLASTIC {UL 94V-0}
- Transparent Blue: PC BAYER 2805-SMALT PLASTIC {UL 94V-0}

For the people less chemically inclined: PC BAYER 2805 means it is made of MAKROLON 2805. That is the commercial name of a type of polycarbonate sold by Bayer.

Something else we all know and is made of polycarbonate are CDs. If you have ever tried to bend a CD, heard the resulting crack and seen the splinters of plastic, then you know how brittle polycarbonate is.

[Tobias]

I don't know how much the 120mm fan sounds compared to either nexus or papst, but I know it is very quiet. So quiet at 12V that I could hardly hear it holding it in my hand in open air. I have tried undervolting it, but I can't really hear any reason to...

[nici]

These are niice I bought one blue and one black(13,50€/12€) and they sound exactly the same, they hum No seriously, no bearing noise i can tell of just the airflow wich is pretty quiet I would say airflow is about same as Nexus but these seem quieter at 12V, i can easily see me running these at 12V They have nine blades and they feel like good quality Btw. it says EverFlow R121225BL on the black and F121225BL on the blue.

There are probably different kinds of polycarbonate, the better Radio-Controlled cars have PC bodies and you can stomp on some of them and drive into walls without them cracking. they crack if you cut them roughly though. Sharp edges=no no. As long as my fans are spinning and not making a racket im satisfied..

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

Has anybody found where to get one of these in the USA? My Googling yielded tons of places in the UK, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, etc., but never here in the USA...

[Jan Kivar]

Based on a sample size of one on both cases, Nexus beats the SilentBlade, but only by a slight margin. Noise-wise.

SilentBlade vibrates a bit on all voltages, whereas Nexus doesn't vibrate at all. Both have some motor ticking noise, Nexus more than SilentBlade.

At 12V, both sound much alike. SilentBlade sounds a bit smoother than Nexus, which growls (again, just a bit). SilentBlade's pitch is higher.

At 7V, both still sound much alike. Nexus ticks louder than SilentBlade. Maybe this is part a masking phenomenon because of SilentBlade's bearing noise. At an arm's length, one can just hear both Nexus's tick and SilentBlade's bearing noise, plus feel the vibration of SilentBlade.

No clear difference emerges, even at 5V. Nexus still ticks louder than SilentBlade, but the bearing noise of SilentBlade more than evens things up.

Subjectively, Nexus was the quieter of the two. Again, these experiences are based on a sample size of one for both fans. And, as said on the first line, Nexus beats SilentBlade noise-wise. In contrast, SilentBlade is more than 5€ cheaper than Nexus, which is a nice thing if one is on a really tight budget.



I used a brick adapter with adjustable voltages (predefined steps). I measured it, and 12V is about 12,7V, 7V is about 6,5V (the actual setting is 6V on the brick), and for 5V about 4,85V (brick setting 4,5V). So, at 4,85V, SilentBlade managed to start every time, whereas Nexus started only 80% of the time.

So, I whipped out a Zalman Fan Mate. With creative wiring, I managed to measure 5,05V out of the Fan Mate. At this voltage, both fans started reliably. Nexus was still a bit shy when compared to SilentBlade, but still managed to start every time.

Next, as discussed briefly in this thread, I tried to measure the current used by the fans. At 12,7V, Nexus pulled 85 mA when spinning, and when I stopped the fan, current rose to 105 mA. SilentBlade took only 52 mA when spinning, but with the rotor locked it pulled a whopping 127 mA.

Dropping the voltage to 6,5V; Nexus 50 mA spinning, 61 mA locked and for SilentBlade 34 mA spinning, 71 mA locked.

Lastly, I tested the effect of Fan Mate to the fan's current: I measured 11,3V, when the brick was putting out 12,7V (so, a drop of 1,4V). Nexus took 71mA while spinning and 88 mA locked. SilentBlade took 46 mA spinning and pulled 113 mA locked. The locked figures might not be 100% comparable to the other locked -measurements - I had to use a pen to stop the fans as I ran out of hands.

Hope You enjoyed the read.

Cheers,

Jan

[nici]

I tried googling for them in the usa too but didnt find anything on glacialtech or eveflow. I found 92mm Everflow with 9 blades on www.directron.com , it looks like these but its smaller. No 120mm though..

edit: Kivar--> Im shure your tests are correct, i didnt notice any vibration or bearing noise on my fans though as i do with the nexus. I guess its safe to conclude that fans arent made to the worlds tightest tolerances..

edit: One thing i did notice is that when the fan is spinning putting your fingers on the suck side,without touching the blades, does not increase noise. But if i do it on the Papst it starts to sound like a propeller airplane!! Does this mean the Glacialtech can be used with a grille without increased noise..? I have to test that later

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

Is there a perceptable difference in the air flow between the SilentBlade and the Nexus?

Also, does anybody want to ship a couple or five of these to Mike for his mondo-comparo?

[EndoSteel]

SilentBlades are made by Everflow (same guys that make fans for Thermaltake), which means they have crappy bearings .

[nici]

I noticed they are made by EverFlow, after all it says everflow on them.. Do you mean the bearing are crap bevause they will wear out fast? Because i cant hear bearing noise at 5 or 12V on either of them.

[greeef]

edit: One thing i did notice is that when the fan is spinning putting your fingers on the suck side,without touching the blades, does not increase noise. But if i do it on the Papst it starts to sound like a propeller airplane!! Does this mean the Glacialtech can be used with a grille without increased noise..? I have to test that later

This is interesting to me - does this mean these fans perform well in pressure-related applications?

I've been loth to filter my fans as yet because of the airflow decrease and consequent voltage-upping required (my evercools aren't very quiet)

I would think that more, smaller blades do perform better in pressure applications, otherwise aeroplane turbines would look different...

griff

[EvoFire]

hey NeilBlanchard, that site you posted (anitec) is right around where I live. They are in Vancouver on Kingsway, and have some of the best prices in town... but the warrenty is pretty crappy... Once you bought it, its urs, and whatever goes wrong, you deal with it.

[mathias]

I wonder if the 9 blades have any benefit for the 80mm version. The prices are pretty good, and because they use ball bearings, they could make good PSU fans.

[nici]

Well you could always buy them and test if the 80mm benefit from 9 blades

A little update, the black one still works excellent but the transparent started to make a funny noise.. Bearings probably. It sound a bit like there was a piece of paper hitting one of the fan blades every time it passes, its low frequency but increases with speed.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

hey NeilBlanchard, that site you posted (anitec) is right around where I live. They are in Vancouver on Kingsway, and have some of the best prices in town... but the warrenty is pretty crappy... Once you bought it, its urs, and whatever goes wrong, you deal with it.

If you are so inclined, you could buy a couple and send them on to Mike C. (check the thread called "Calling all good fans...") so he can include them in the big roundup -- and it would count as a contribution to the site!

And if they are as good as they seem, and folks start inquiring about buying them -- then they should be available at a lot more places, including here in the USA...

[EvoFire]

I might just buy 1 and check it out as I need a 120mm fan and that one is one of the cheapest I have found. If its any good, I would probably recommend it, but buying some for Mike, I will have to see(cash strapped )

[EndoSteel]

nici
Do you mean the bearing are crap bevause they will wear out fast?
Exactly. Just a couple of months - and they're screwed up. So if want to use the fan for a long time, you'll need to salvage a couple of decent bearings.

[nici]

OK Im Folding now so its running 24/7, only at 660rm or so though. Only time wil tell now i guess..

[GameManK]

i got to this thread from this one

i'm curious. now that it's been a few months, have you guys had any problems with those bearings?

[Jan Kivar]

I have my GlacialTech in a PSU, so it's next to impossible to compare. It doesn't make any ill (bearing) noises though ATM.

Cheers,

Jan

[Tobias]

I have mine running as CPU-fan and it has been for almost half a year now and no problems with it. The only fan-noice I hear is from the undervolted Panaflo L1A I have in my PSU. I'll definately buy this again, when the need arises...