Turbine fans by Aerocool

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w00dy
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Post by w00dy » Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:23 am

Well fan has arrived and 1st impressions are excellent !

Fan is quite lightweight and held in the hand is vibration free.

Airflow at 12v is marginally higher than Nexus (observation only) and noise about same as Nexus (again observation only).

At around 7v - VERY quiet - again IMHO comparable to the Nexus 120mm. Airflow *MAY* be very slightly higher.

At 5v the fan emits no clicking or other noise - nice and smooth.

Blue LEDs stay on at 5v but only slightly - at 12v the Blue LEDs are subtle rather than glaring.

On the whole EXTREMELY impressed - well worth a closer look.

Fan bought from Tekheads - £11.32 + shipping each. I am off to order another as they seem to me to be as good as the Nexus, have open corners (so you can use fan isolators without cutting) and have Blue LED's for free (which may put some off I know).

akwok
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Post by akwok » Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:42 am

Pictures dude! Sounds pretty sweet from what you say, and it looks pretty damn good too!

Picutres picutres pictures! :D

w00dy
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Post by w00dy » Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:10 am

Image


Image

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:33 pm

This fan sounds like it has a potential to replace the Nexus...

But we need some pro testing and comparisons done with eachother!

mathias
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Post by mathias » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:52 pm

slimeballzz wrote:But we need some pro testing and comparisons done with eachother!
And more importantly, more samples.

akwok
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Post by akwok » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:56 pm

I want to get my hands on one but NCIX hasn't had any shipments in yet.

DG
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Post by DG » Mon May 02, 2005 2:08 am

Any other experiences with fan?

acaurora
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Post by acaurora » Mon May 02, 2005 4:49 am

FrozenCPU now carries it. I have TWO on order.

EDIT: Newegg now carries them, but only teh one with the silver blades / black frame. Personally, since it 's going to be sitting inside my case, I don't care. Plus, it's cheaper, but only by a few bucks ;P

jamesavery22
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Post by jamesavery22 » Wed May 04, 2005 12:17 pm

acaurora wrote:FrozenCPU now carries it. I have TWO on order.

EDIT: Newegg now carries them, but only teh one with the silver blades / black frame. Personally, since it 's going to be sitting inside my case, I don't care. Plus, it's cheaper, but only by a few bucks ;P
Saw in the newegg pics that you can take off that cone thing. That thing actually do anything?

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Wed May 04, 2005 12:48 pm

I was wondering how it behaves with P.W.M fan control.
If it does turn out to be ok I also hope to see it Down Under as fan choices here are VERY limited at best.

acaurora
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Post by acaurora » Wed May 04, 2005 3:46 pm

The little plastic thing that looks like a cone does nothing - just makes it look more like a jet engine -.-;;

They will be arriving this Friday wohoo1!!

BrianE
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Post by BrianE » Wed May 04, 2005 4:25 pm

Wouldn't the cone make it more aerodynamic... even if it is just a tiny bit? :P

mathias
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Post by mathias » Wed May 04, 2005 7:46 pm

No one has yet mentioned anything about the unusual shape of the blades, besides that it's supposed to look like a turbine. I don't remember any other fans with fins that aren't curved and angled inwards. I'm under the impression that this will make it blow more centrifugally, which would handicap it at blowing straight at something, but might make it a lot better at pulling air.

acaurora
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Post by acaurora » Wed May 04, 2005 10:12 pm

Well I'll let you guys know Friday, I got 2 coming in to compare to 2 Nexus 12cm real silent case fans.

DrCR
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Post by DrCR » Thu May 05, 2005 9:05 am

Awesome. Looking forward to hearing from you with orders on the way! The pitch of the fan looks pretty shallow...a good thing for high restrictive enviroments. And with that many blades and little if any gap between the blades, it gets even better from the theorical side of things. :)

To quote ferdb from a responce he once PMed me concerning another fan...
My experience with the fans I have used is that the more complete the blade coverage is (the smaller the gaps between blades) the better it does on a restrictive environment. Also blades with a shallower pitch angle seem to do better on restrictive environments. This is countered by the fact that more blades means the blade noise pitch will be higher for the same RPM and more noticeable to the ear.
Personally I wouldn't jump to any conclusions as there are so many variables. The only real way to find out is to test one
Makes since when you think about it.

DrCR

__________

acaurora
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Post by acaurora » Sat May 07, 2005 4:57 am

Well, I got the fans in. My results are pretty much comparable to w00dy's.

and man these things ARE quiet....

but not AS quiet as the Nexus =[

While I do not have any raw measuring tools for CFM and noise, at full power the AeroCool seems to be a touch louder and of a medium pitch, unlike the Nexus which is of a low pitch. But I think I'll still keep 'em ;P

In terms of airflow, I don't know if it is just me, but the AeroCool seems to push more air, and I'm guessing because of the high number of blades is why the air feels to be moving faster in certain areas (i.e., the air will be moving faster around the perimeter of the fan, and less air from the middle), whereas the Nexus seems to push air in a uniform fashion.

Oh, and anyone that has this - Have any of you tried taking the hub cap off? I tried but wasn't able to - those things are screwed on tight! I tried using a rubber can opener mat and it wouldn't work and I didn't want to break one of the blades =[

GameManK
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Post by GameManK » Sat May 07, 2005 6:58 am

mathias wrote:No one has yet mentioned anything about the unusual shape of the blades, besides that it's supposed to look like a turbine. I don't remember any other fans with fins that aren't curved and angled inwards. I'm under the impression that this will make it blow more centrifugally, which would handicap it at blowing straight at something, but might make it a lot better at pulling air.
In other words, it might best be used as an exhaust fan?... or even an inatake fan... just not as well as a CPU fan

interesting.. still a little too expensive for my tastes but you get what you pay for

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Sat May 07, 2005 7:43 am

Hello:

As somebody pointed out earlier, since the AeroCool's blades are basically straight, it is going to "flare" the air out more, since the air "slips off" the ends of the blades. Most fans have blades that are swept forward and so the air "slips" towards the center hub, and so they "hold" the air in a straighter column as it blows away from the trailing edges. The air coming away from the AeroCool is going to be more conical; getting wider as it blows away from the trailing edges.

Tiamat
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Post by Tiamat » Sat May 07, 2005 8:01 am

Rusty075 wrote:I've never had an L1A that doesn't start at 5v, and I've had plenty. Tiamat, are you sure about the voltage, there's no real accurate way to judge just from the knob on the controller.
Sorta sure. The LEDs on the sunbeam controller switch colors at 7V supposedly. My panaflo 80mm L1As stop rotating just after the color changes on the LED.

I got them from Jab-tech - they are all chinaflos though.

I probably just got a bad batch...?

mathias
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Post by mathias » Sat May 07, 2005 12:07 pm

GameManK wrote:In other words, it might best be used as an exhaust fan?... or even an inatake fan... just not as well as a CPU fan
I think it would be lousy as an intake fan, if you're using it to cool hard drives, and good as a CPU fan, as long as it's pulling air away from the heatsink.
acaurora wrote: While I do not have any raw measuring tools for CFM and noise, at full power the AeroCool seems to be a touch louder and of a medium pitch, unlike the Nexus which is of a low pitch.
Damn. I guess I still want my 50mm thick fan.

PS
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Post by PS » Tue May 10, 2005 1:50 am

Regarding the "hub cap" thing:
RonG (on NeilBlanchard's Fan Idea thread) wrote: This article discusses air conditioner fans, but has some ideas that might be applied to smaller ones. Specifically, they talk about using foam to close the gap between the shroud and the blades of the fan, and letting the fan blades wear out a groove in the foam if there is some overlap. They also write about extending the shroud ( approximately one diameter ) and putting a cone over the center hub.

http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/bldg/baihp/pubs/develop/
There's an interesting thing there about a conical addition to the fan hub (they call it a "conical center body"), and its effect airflow... :D

Of course if you have higher airflow at similar rpm's... you can run your fan slower = quieter

oakdad
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Post by oakdad » Tue May 17, 2005 9:45 am

So is this fan worthy of the 120mm fan list? Anyone know how it handles pmw?

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Mon May 30, 2005 11:50 pm

has anyone tested one of these on a radiator? Maybe a black ice pro or extreme?

vahagn
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Post by vahagn » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:24 pm

Any projections as to when these will reach melbourne/australia? ... :)

atomidude
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Post by atomidude » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:08 pm

vahagn wrote:Any projections as to when these will reach melbourne/australia? ... :)
the fans are here, i got one Wednesday from www.coolpc.com.au
not too bad, quiet at 750rpm, decent airflow too. i'm using it as an intake fan mounted on the side cover. doing a pretty good job, cpu is at 49C on prime95 for an hour, the 6800 vga is in high 40s idle, 67C after 3dmark05. hdd stable at 33C. all of these cooled by the Aerocool titanium turbine at 750rpm, everything inside the case being passive, ambient atm is 18C.
so yeah, is a good fan, quiet, decent airflow, but at the nominal speed (950rpm) is buzzing a bit. i think the rated 19.66 dBA is a bit optimistic, hehehe. anywhere below 800rpm is extremelly hard (if not impossible) to hear from 1m.
since Nexus fans are not available here in Oz, it seems the turbines are your best bet if looking for a quiet fan. oh, did i mention that, unlike the PAPST and SilenX fans, it works well with PWM? :)

vahagn
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Post by vahagn » Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:35 pm

okay, sweet! thx atomidude.

I'm going to use one of these in my shuttle SB83G5 'cause i hate the noise level of the stock cooling fan on this rig. Will take a small amount of work to fit the 120mm fan in their tho' as the stock on is 92mm, but i've checked and there is *only just* enough space if i make some interesting changes. :)

Sutcliffe
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Post by Sutcliffe » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:23 am

I live in Australia as well, and as mentioned previously we can't get any of the Nexus fans locally. I was looking at getting some 120mm Coolermaster NEON LED fans as they appeared to have good specs (low rpm & noise) but after seeing these turbines I might get the turbines instead. What do you guys reckon?

atomidude
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Post by atomidude » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:36 am

Sutcliffe wrote:I live in Australia as well, and as mentioned previously we can't get any of the Nexus fans locally. I was looking at getting some 120mm Coolermaster NEON LED fans as they appeared to have good specs (low rpm & noise) but after seeing these turbines I might get the turbines instead. What do you guys reckon?
listen to me mate, don't touch the coolermaters, they're crap. i've got one a few weeks ago, it will buzz at any speed... turbines are much better imho

ckolivas
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My impression

Post by ckolivas » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:57 am

Ok mine arrived and I've played with it for a day or so. Here is my mini review:

I purchased the "2000" model which has chrome blades and a black surround.

Here are some photos - click to enlarge to full size.

Here's what it looks like in the packaging:
Image

and rear:
Image

Looking at the front of the fan:
Image

and the rear:
Image

and the all important (open) corners:
Image

Down to business:

It looks very nicely constructed and I was surprised at how light the whole fan was. The blades are extremely light and appear quite fragile. Removing the turbine shaped cap required some force and I was really worried I'd break the blades in the process. The leds are nice blue things on all four corners embedded in the surround, but generally I don't go for the bling factor so I couldn't care less. However for those that are interested, the LED illumination works at 5v or at minimum pwm control albeit much less brightly. I can see how hard my pc is working by the ambient light level as well as the noise :P Looking at the fan while the LED is working it acts like a strobe and the fan blades appear to move in different directions depending on speed. I have no idea if the rpm monitoring is active or not because the rpms are just too low for my sensors to pick up, and there is no mention on the packaging or web site if rpm monitoring is supported.

At 12v this is a very quiet fan, but not absurdly quiet. The pitch of the fan sound is definitely different to other 12cm fans being significantly higher and resembles more that of an 8cm fan - presumably due to the 16 blades. Dropped to about 7v it is virtually inaudible over my other fans. It turns at all voltages from 5-12 and all levels of pwm control from my motherboard. It did not reliably start at 5v in all planes though. Strangely in one horizontal plane blowing down it was ticking madly like it was hitting something but I could not see anything hitting the blades and they moved freely. Fortunately I did not plan to use it in this direction. Over the range of voltages or pwm it exhibited no unpleasant noises dropping flow smoothly. Compared to a Nexus? Probably at the same airflow it is subjectively noisier, however the important thing is if you drop the voltage enough, this fan is inaudible.

The airflow pattern from this fan is indeed going to limit its effectiveness in certain applications. The blown air is sprayed outwards from the fan blades and not forwards from the fan which would create a massive dead spot if you tried to blow it towards something :|. It's much more suited to a case airflow position or sucking from a heatsink. It should also be fine blowing into a PSU since all the air will be directed the correct way. All in all a very decent fan with some caveats, and definitely worth its money. In Australia where our choice of locally sold fans is limited it is right up there.
Last edited by ckolivas on Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

amjedm
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Re: My impression

Post by amjedm » Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:20 am

ckolivas wrote:
The blown air is sprayed outwards from the fan blades and not forwards from the fan which would create a massive dead spot if you tried to blow it towards something :|. It's much more suited to a case airflow position or sucking from a heatsink.
ckolivas, you have more or less said it in the above but just wanted to confirm

The fan won't be a good in a psu? I have a Yate Loon LED fan in the psu and was hoping to swap as the Aerocool seemed quieter.

Thanks.

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