Two new Alphacool high-speed fans and one low-profile fan
Characteristic for the Alphacool brand are excellent radiators and various accessories for liquid coolers. However, the offer of fans is relatively narrow. That is changing a bit now. The company is expanding its offer in this direction wisely, with unusual designs. One of the new additions is a low-profile 120 mm and the other two fans excel at extremely high speeds, which are not common with computer fans.
The sale of fans has been Alphacool’s side job for a long time. And although they have some, it is quite likely that your radiator is cooled by fans of a competing company. After all, even the German manufacturer installs better ones, Silent Wings 3, in their own AIO in cooperation with BeQuiet!. This won’t probably change in the future, but Alphacool has released new fans that attract attention and are quite different from the rest. Within the ES series, these are two high-speed models. One is 80 mm (ES 80mm) with an operating range of 800–6000 rpm and the other one is 120 mm (ES 120mm), which should reach a speed of up to 4000 rpm. The specifications do not specify the lower speed limit, but it is a 3-pin fan with linear voltage regulation in the range of 7–12 V.
For the maximum speed, air flow of 205.6 cubic meters per hour and static pressure of up to 16.06 millimeters water gauge are reported. In both cases, these are extreme values for computer fans, which of course also include an adequately high noise level. The high static pressure (14.29 mm H2O) is also achieved by the 80 mm model, which is 4-pin (with PWM) and has a voltage supply limit of up to 14 V (6000 rpm) when regulating DC. It starts from 7 V at 800 rpm and Alphacool also states that the power draw is in the range of 7.92–10.2 W.
Both ES fans have double-row ball bearings and the mean time between failures reported at 70,000 hours. The smaller of the fans can be ordered for 22 euros and the larger one for 12.70 euros.
However, the most attractive of the new Alphacool fans may be the third one – SL-15 PWM. It no longer reaches such a high air flow or static pressure, but is interesting in its height that it is only 15 mm and can be used in situations where the standard thickness of 25 mm is no longer suitable. This can typically be in the case of ceiling mounting and collision with the motherboard or with the heatsinks of its power phase design. Or in the case of thicker radiators, there may be a conflict in the PC cases with the lower chamber in these spots as well.
Of course, the use of a narrower radiator is here to be considered. The SL-15 PWM does not have such excellent parameters at 600–1800 rpm. The airflow is stated in m³/h and the static pressure is only 1.2 mm H2O. By comparison, the competitive and also 15 mm SilverStone FW121 achieves 1.53 mm H2O according to specifications, but at the cost of higher speed and probably also noise. The price for the SL15 PWM is otherwise similar (11.70 euros), plus the fan has at least more durable ball bearings. But no longer double-row like those of ES, so the MTBF value is a bit lower (50,000 hours).
All new Alphacool fans are now available at the company‘s e-shop with relatively fast logistics (shipping from 1–3 days) and you may still get the delivery before Christmas with a little luck.
English translation and edit by Lukáš Terényi
