What is fascinating about the Arctic P14 is the particularly high contrast of price to (cooling) efficiency. These fans are among the cheapest, while at the same time achieving top results with respect to all 140 mm fans in terms of airflow per unit of noise. And that’s even through obstacles. Arctic has made almost the maximum out of the funds available to produce the fan, and it is definitely worth it.
Measuring the intensity (and power draw) of lighting
Modern fans often include lighting. This is no longer a “cooling” parameter, but for some users the presence of (A)RGB LEDs is important. Therefore, we also measure how intense this lighting is in our tests. These tests are the only ones that take place externally, outside the wind tunnel.
We record the luminosity of the fans in a chamber with reflective walls. This internal arrangement is important to increase the resolution for us to measure anything at all with lower luminosity fans. But also so that the readings do not blend together and it is obvious which fan is emitting more light and which one less.
The illumination intensity is measured in the horizontal position of the fan, above which is the lux meter sensor (UNI-T UT383S). This is centered on the illumination intensity sensing chamber.
The illumination is controlled via an IR controller and the hue is set to RGB level 255, 255, 255 (white). We record the brightness at maximum and minimum intensity. According to this, you can easily see if the brightness is high enough, but conversely also if the lower level is low enough for you.
In addition to the brightness intensity, we also measure the power draw that it requires. This is again through the shunt, which is between the Gophert CPS-3205 power supply and the (A)RGB LED driver. After this we get a reading of the lighting power draw. In the graphs we show it separately, but also in sum with the motor power draw as the total maximum fan power.
These results are more or less useless if I just want an answer to a simple question. How loud are these fans?
I have another simple question for you.
How deep is the sea?
…Both questions are, besides being simple, also silly. (No offense) 😉
Just as it depends on where the depth of the sea is measured, it also depends on what kind of noise corresponds to what kind of airflow.
If you are only interested in noise at max RPM and you are not using regulation, then look at the last two graphs (max airflow and corresponding noise)
I don’t think I fully understand your question. Can you please elaborate? I’ll be happy to answer in detail. In case you mean noise level at maximum speed, then the corresponding graph is at the end of each chapter. Click through the 14. to 19. chapters and you’ll receive an answer to your question. Noise level, of course, also depends on the obstacle a fan is facing. 🙂