News EK announces Vardar high-pressure fan family

I think they look really basic and crappy, for some this won't make any difference but I think I would prefer to stick with Corsair's offerings.

 

Gentle typhoons look basic and crappy, but they're still basically the best fans out there, although not in production anymore. Whilst aesthetics are very important to me, at the end of the day I can change what the fans look like, but not what they sound like.

 

After a guy with a dark helmet who sounds like hes practicing for a heavy breathing competition ?

 

Just bought 5 from thailand, Servo still make them as Servo Gentle typhoon and can be easily got in asia.

 

I did say that some wouldn't care what they look like and not everyone is a modding expert, so if these suit you, great but they aren't something I would consider, not when there are fans that look much better (personal opinion I know) and perform almost as good, possibly cheaper too.

 

These look suspiciously like a black version of the Gentle Typhoon. Hope so.

 

Cougar all the way my 120 will do 120 cfm and well below 30db cranked. Best fans ever

 

LOL best fans ever...because their own advertising says they are. The 1850rpm Gentle Typhoons are rated at 58 CFM @ 30dB... no way in hell a Cougar will top that. I have a number of fans that produce circa 100 CFM and they are LOUD, believe me, over 40dB. All things considered, even the Gentle Typhoon is audible when placed on a heatsink/rad. Cougar fans, like most others, are just average fans which are also very pretty and stupidly expensive. Nothing more.

Back to the subject of the OP... who cares what a fan looks like? LOL as if that's the least bit important for a rad fan.

They do look suspiciously like Gentle Typhoons (especially the ones with grey coloured impeller)



But the significant difference is that they have 7 impeller blades vs 9 of the original Gentle Typhoons. The high speed Gentle Typhoons have 7 impeller blades and what Servo calls a "rectifier ring" to support the blades at high speed; the blades of these EK fans are definitely broader and have an interesting flange at the tip, reminiscent of the Akasa Apache/Viper.

I'm surprised that a company like EK is putting time and effort into developing 120mm fans given that they will eventually die out IMO. It is nice that they are PWM fans though... this should be the case with ALL fans nowadays. I may have to buy one of the 3000rpm ones to compare it to Gentle Typhoons on one of my 120mm coolers.

The (claimed) sound profile is VERY similar to Gentle Typhoons, and FWIW the PQ curve is nothing to be sniffed at. More info here.

 

Why are 120mm fans going to die out ?

 

Argh. No 140mm fans.

Given that the minimum width of a standard ATX PC case is 150mm (and a standard 5.25" bay is 146mm), it would make sense to start catering for 140 width radiators that make optimal use of the available space.

Don't think 120mm fans are going to become extinct any more than 5.25" and 3.5" bays are. It's a common PC standard, and they tend to stick around.

 

Are they a standard ? I have often wondered how, or why we get fans in common sizes like 80mm, 92, 120, 140.

 

Dunno. I know that they range from 25mm, 40mm, 50mm, 60mm and 70mm to 80mm and 90mm. Why the 92mm combo breaker I have no idea, but apparently the mounting holes are identical to those of 90mm fans (apparently there are also 52mm fans). The next one up is 120mm.

I wonder whether it is related to 19" server rack dimensions somehow. The height of those components is multiples of 44.5mm (1.75"). But I still don't see it quite fit:

FAN SIZE CONVERSION MM to IN:
25mm = 0.98"
40mm = 1.57"
50mm = 1.97"
60mm = 2.36"
70mm = 2.75"
80mm = 3.15"
90mm / 92mm = 3.54" / 3.62"
120mm = 4.72"

 

Sorry to burst your little bubble, but this is what an actual 120cfm fan sounds like.

 

I should have been clearer: I don't think that 120mm fans are going to "die out" altogether; I just don't think they'll last much longer in the enthusiast/performance PC sector given that most high-end cases, rads and coolers are now designed specifically with 140mm fans in mind. That's precisely why I'm so surprised that a company at the forefront of PC cooling components has just...reinvented the wheel. Perhaps they think they are being clever by filling the Gentle Typhoon void, but I don't think such a void really exists; instead of competing with the likes of Cougar, Corsair, Noctua etc. they might have had better success setting a new standard in the 140mm cooling arena. Time will tell...

Granted, there will always be a use for all sizes of fans (I see your 92mm "combo breaker" and raise you a 127mm "wt actual f" Nidec TA500DC), but bear in mind that only a few years ago 120mm was the gold standard in the PC market, reserved for "performance" systems (LOL). As cases, coolers and rads have steadily grown in stature, so too the need for bigger fans has increased, and consequently the dominance of "standard" 120mm fans is at an end.

 

I do find it strange that on a site such as this with such a strong 'modding' contingency that there are those asking '...who cares what a fan looks like? LOL as if that's the least bit important for a rad fan'.

Well I care. Of course performance is important but once you get to a certain point things perform much the same as the next thing so why shouldn't looks come it to the equation as log as the looks don't compromise the performance?

 

I get that you care how fans look; it's just that you seemed to throw performance out of the window with your comment - baby out with the bathwater etc.

I would also say that you fundamentally misunderstand the modding community if you think that modders buy only what they think looks nice - you're confusing modders with builders. The whole point of modding (in the strictest sense) is changing -- modifying -- the appearance of components because you want to make an improvement or a customisation. If anything, these fans are the perfect candidates for modding because they do indeed look "basic" - this was EK's intention.

 

Thought you WC folks might be interested in this - looks like the EK Vardar might dethrone the Gentle Typhoon

Given how many 120mm fans I have, including Gentle Typhoons, I may have to bag myself a high performance 120mm cooling solution to conduct my own cpmparative review of the Vardars.