DeepCool FT14: More revealing (than others) and more capable

DeepCool FT14

It took years, but finally DeepCool managed to modernize its fans in the 140mm format as well. The DeepCool FT14s present themselves with very attractive specs – both the airflow and static pressure are above standard, but the key is how these fans will fare in practice compared to competing models. What makes the FT14 visually different from those at first glance is that you can see inside the motor.

To start off, it can be stated that DeepCool hasn’t developed 140mm fans for some time. The CF140 models are already quite an old thing, and since those the latest in the same (140mm) format are only the FT14, which still have the status – “yet to hit the stores” (December 29, 2024). We will test them now, which will give you an overview of their characteristics before they can be bought.

The geometric basis lies in the relatively large blades, which, in addition to their large surface area, are characterized by a moderately aggressive curvature of the leading edges. The compressive strength is quite high, although “only” PBT is used – the thickest spots (blade tips) go up to 4 mm. The tensile strength is worse, but as long as you treat the fan gently (this means, for example, making sure that no cable enters the impeller in flight…), you don’t have to worry about the fact that the FT14 fan blades break quite easily.

The aerodynamic design is based on seven blades with medium gaps. The spacing of the blade tips from the frame tunnel is then average, roughly 3 mm. The overall diameter of the impeller is about 130 mm, the internal cross-section (area of the impeller hub) is then 45 mm. When we wrote about the FK120’s blade cross-section being above standard for its (120 mm) format, it should be noted that it is “only” average in this case.

   

The surface of the blades is matte and relatively smooth on both sides, without any details that should act as aerodynamic enhancements. All optimizations are based on the fundamental shape defined by smooth transitions.

The front of the fan is unusual with its transparent motor cover. It makes it easy to see the twelve coils. The torque of the fan is three-phase and there is a good chance that the rotation will be very smooth, with a minimum of vibration.

In order to be able to see inside (of the motor) even in the dark or with weaker light, DeepCool used white LEDs for lighting, which are placed around the perimeter of the impeller hub. For those who do not wish to be disturbed by the light (LEDs), there is a switch on the back. This allows the lighting to be switched off. And that is the only way – it cannot be done in software. The DeepCool fan uses only one, 4-pin cable for the whole power supply (i.e. including LEDs). The intensity of the lighting is low (and fixed, there is no way to adjust the brightness), but it is concentrated in a very small area.

   

The motor control is primarily pulse (PWM). The cable is quite short, with only 22 cm. The second connector, for daisy chaining (with the possibility of connecting another fan in parallel), is already 7 cm from the frame.

The shorter cable with connectors closer to the frame will be appreciated by many, for example because there will not be a lot of excess cabling left behind when installing on radiators. Nevertheless, an extension adapter in the accessories would have been useful (but is missing), so that at least the outermost fan could be connected from a greater distance to the motherboard header or the hub.

Note: The Specifications chart, which used to be in the following place, is now on the second page of the article. We have reserved a separate chapter for it because of its growing size and the resulting relatively large height. This separation should thus contribute to better user control, especially on mobile devices with smaller displays.

And one more thing: To navigate through the result graphs as easily as possible, you can sort the bars according to different criteria (via the button on the bottom left). By (non)presence of lighting, profile thickness, brand, bearings, price or value (with the option to change the sorting to descending or ascending). In the default settings, there is a preset “format” criterion that separates 120mm fans from 140mm fans.


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Comments (2) Add comment

  1. That’s unexpected results. I would have guessed it performs better on radiators than vs no obstacles, but it’s the opposite!

    Is the buzzing noise only present under ~750 RPM, or is it there across the whole speed range? On higher dBA settings, I can still see some of the peaks at 1-2 Khz.

    1. There will probably be some buzzing at higher speeds, but because of the diminishing contribution to the total, in contrast with the aerodynamic noise (which drowns out these sounds) it fades out alongside other, significantly noisier frequencies. The buzzing is, of course, more pronounced at lower speeds (like ~750 rpm), at the limit of minimum rpm. But we don’t have a spectrogram for those. 🙂

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