Enermax Releases New Adjustable Speed Fans
by Dustin Sklavos on July 28, 2013 6:21 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Enermax
Some time ago we did a roundup of radiator fans and found that the Enermax Magma turned in remarkably impressive thermal performance for its acoustics. I'd heard rumblings here and there about questionable reliability of these fans, but I even recently saw a boutique desktop system that was using a pair of Magma fans on its closed loop cooler instead of the stock fans.
Now they're releasing a couple of new series of fans which feature integrated fan speed control beyond just conventional PWM. While fans with integrated speed switches aren't totally unheard of, they're still somewhat rarefied. Each of the new fans in the Cluster Advance, Everest Advance, Magma Advance, and T.B. Vegas lines incorporate what Enermax calls "APS Control," or "Adjustable Peak Speed Control." What this boils down to is a trio of fan speed settings on each individual fan that allows the user to set an effective limit on how fast the fan can spin. More control is always appreciated, and even a minor 2/3-speed cap on something like the Enermax Magma might wind up striking an ideal balance between thermals and noise.
In addition to the integrated speed control, these fans are also equipped with what Enermax dubs a "Twister Bearing" that's different from conventional sleeve or ball bearings. They rate each fan's reliability at over 100,000 hours.
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psuedonymous - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
This sounds reminiscent of the old Antec Tricool fans (bundled with the original P180). Is the switch just a speed setting, does it cap the possible fan speed (under PWM control), or does it remap the range of PWM available?Operandi - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Why?With BIOS fan controls getter better and better manual fan controls are completely useless. All this would do is cut down your cooling headroom.
stickmansam - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Some MB's still have limited 4 pin PWM headers. I only have 3 and the other 2 are 3pin that lack control. This would be good for situations like these. Or using these for molex fans if you use more fans than you got headers so you don't have to get a fan controller.MrSpadge - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
This might be useful when you chain several fans onto one PWM header (I don't have enough of them) and want further differentiation between fans (e.g. more on the CPU cooler, less on the case fans).coolhund - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
Why would anyone say the Magmas have questionable reliability??? They are the most reliable fan I have ever used.I have been running 6 of them for 5 years, 12 to 16 hours every day and they still run strong and as inaudible bearing & motor as on day one. Plus I have used about 20 more of them in many rigs I built for other people, where they also are absolutely reliable in every single aspect.
However I wish instead of these here, they would finally make some more unusual models with the twister bearing and finally get rid of that counter-productive "halo" frame on most of their fans. Like 10/15 mm height ones.