Fans for quiet running and very aggressive cooling — Joe
SUMMARY: Fan for each end of the cooling spectrum.
The good guys at Vantec were nice enough to send samples of their fan products which represent the “extreme” ends of the fan spectrum.
Vantec’s Stealth Fans are for noise sensitive applications. Since there is no such thing as a free lunch, these fans (60, 80 and 92mm units) trade off airflow for low noise. As such, they are good units to in non-aggressive applications where noise is a big concern.
I’ve used these in some heatsink tests, and yes, they are quiet, and yes, they don’t deliver top results. No surprises here – specs as follows:

Nice fans for quiet running.
A bit more interesting are the new “Tornado” series. These two fans represent the other side of the spectrum – for very aggressive applications.

These fans feature stators –

fixed vanes in the base – which serve to “straighten out” airflow so that the air stream comes off the fan more at a 90 degree angle; airflow from non-stator fans radiates out further from the fan base. Stator fans are more efficient at directing air into a heatsink.
A look at the key specs
80mm Tornado | 92mm Tornado |
84 cfm | 119 cfm |
5700 rpm | 4800 rpm |
55 dBA | 56 dBA |
9.1 watts | 12.5 watts |
indicates just how aggressive these fans are – lots of airflow, lots of noise. Both fans use a four pin plug for power and a three pin plug for tach readings using the motherboard’s fan header. Each fan has a finger guard for good reason – extreme fans will do a number on your fingers – I can guarantee it from experience!
I could see using these for extreme CPU cooling, although I would use a rheostat with them to dial the noise down when not doing anything particularly stressful. I plan to use them for some heatsink testing, so stay tuned.
These fans are available from the Heatsink Factory.
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