It could have been a very good, affordable fan with lighting. Moreover, the SickleFlow 120 ARB rotor design is efficient, at an excellent level, but all the good features are killed by one thing – an extremely noisy motor. It’s so noisy that a return trip from the factory output control would be appropriate. And it’s not just your everyday whir that you hear only from centimeters away. No one will ever miss this sound.
Although Computex takes place elsewhere, the occasion led our “editorial footsteps” to Cooler Master’s main building, where the larger, non-portable things are also located. We documented a lot—besides nearly two hundred photographs, you also have access to a long audio recording that you can listen to, for example, during a longer trip from somewhere to somewhere. The goal is to make sure you don’t miss any of the information we managed to obtain. Read more “Plans straight from the brain: We visited Cooler Master HQ”
For it to be possible to speak of a fully metallic construction, the basic prerequisite is that the blades are also made of such material. This applies to Cooler Master’s “A” series fans, whereas the lower-end—or cheaper, interpret that however you prefer—model uses aluminium only for the frame. Yes, this can still be described as a metal fan, but it is somewhat of a… “hybrid” design, although one equipped with RGB lighting as well. Read more “If aluminium fans, then fully aluminium (including the impeller)”
Our database now includes one hundred fans—75 in the 120 mm format and 25 models with a physical size of 140 mm. In this article, we have compiled all data into unified charts. What was once separated for clarity is now brought together again, and the commentary will also include a… look ahead regarding fan testing. But we can already reveal that there is still a lot more to come. Read more “The end, or just the beginning? 100 fans in HWCooling tests”
Thank you so much for this! I thought that I might have just gotten a bad batch with my CM AIO cooler. Although, in my case, it’s not rattling but an uneven hum that keeps going up and down.
And thanks to your other reviews, I ordered some Noctua NF-A12x25 today. That’ll hopefully solve that. All of my other fans are Noctua too and while not all the new and best, they at least produce steady noise.
Using Noctua NF-A12x25 fans will definitely solve the issue you’re describing. The sound of the tested Cooler Master fans can be perceived differently by everyone. It’s certainly not clean in terms of aerodynamics. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with your ears. 🙂
Yeah, I’m very happy with the A12x25s! Skimming the Noctua website also reminded me that based on their description, what I heard may have been that “beat frequency”. They of course took care of that with the RPM offset in their 2x package.
Using different motors to achieve different RPMs under the same PWM signal is indeed a clever trick to reduce noise while maintaining strong airflow and cooling performance. 🙂