Endorfy Stratus 120 PWM: Efficient fan on a budget

Cooling, Extra tests, Fans | | Ľubomír Samák

Evaluation

Why spend as much money on one fan as you would on four or five Endorfy Stratus 120 PWMs? There is a clear answer to this, but it may not be interesting to everyone. Especially when the fans are meant to fit well into builds designed with the best possible price/performance ratio in mind. That’s when low-cost fans make sense, and the end-user often dismisses the “imperfections” of the Stratus 120 (PWM) with a wave of the hand.

Evaluation

Aside from the clearance Thermalright X-Silent 120, the cheapest Endorfy Stratus 120 PWM is the fan with the second-best price-to-airflow ratio at the same dBA. The first is the Arctic P12 PWM PST, which is more efficient with obstacles at a comparable price. But even the cheapest of the Endorfy fans doesn’t lose much with them. It also has a higher static pressure. Its efficiency can be described as average, but this is a commendable statement considering the very low price.

More efficient fans are generally more expensive and sometimes quite significantly so. Still, it’s fair to point out that the P12 from Arctic has the upper hand virtually regardless of the situation (a particular application at a particular noise level). This does not mean, however, that it must always be the less attractive option. Spectrograms say that similar to the P12 PWM PST, the Stratus 120 PWM’s sound is also characterized by more pronounced tonal peaks in the lower frequency range. But still, it’s a little different.

While the Arctic’s fan frequencies are below 130 Hz (80–130 Hz), the Endorfy Stratus 120 PWM’s are above 130 Hz (130–220 Hz), which may be more comfortable for some. Especially when the tonal peaks of the Stratus 120 PWM are also thinner (less pronounced) – sharp, tall, but relatively thin. The acoustic profile of the Stratus 120 PWM may be more to someone’s liking, but it is still one of the main drawbacks of this fan. At this price range, though, it probably doesn’t need to be overly nitpicked.

For casual users without an allergy to acoustic detail, the Stratus 120 PWM is a very good choice. Here we return to the first sentence of the article, the question of why for many the extra cost of more expensive fans may not make sense. Especially when it comes to system fans in a case, where there are often enough positions to fit 5–8 fans. With a larger number of significantly slowed down Stratus 120 PWM fans, higher airflows at lower noise levels can be achieved than when a smaller number of efficient fans are used. Sure, as long as there are the same number of fans, the more efficient ones will have the upper hand, but they also take away from the cheaper builds what tends to be so important – an attractive price/performance ratio in terms of computing or gaming performance.

In combination with some cases, however, it is necessary to take into account that noise can be increased by vibrations passing onto the skeleton, but the same applies to the Arctic P12. From the in-depth vibration analysis of the Stratus 120 PWM, we know that this kind of “complication” did not technically have to apply to Endorfy fans at all. In fact, the variation between pieces is quite significant, and we even found one that didn’t transmit any measurable vibrations to the frame. But that’s probably because it had a perfectly straight axle, which is a matter of chance with high manufacturing tolerances. But again, in this price range, we can’t fault it.

Lower manufacturing tolerances, coupled with tighter quality control standards, would likely already put Stratus 120 PWM production into the red and make production unprofitable. Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to get a good piece, the amount of secondary noise (from vibrating the case sheet metal) might even be lower than with the Arctic P12, where we assume the main source of vibration is from the more intense blade undulations, which should be comparable with each piece. So with the Stratus 120 PWM it is probably mainly about the different quality characteristics of the axle.

Still, the intergenerational improvement of Endorfy’s low-end fans is significant. Think of the whirring motors of the Sigma Pro models. This is no longer the case with the Stratus 120 PWM. The motors are very quiet. There is basically nothing you can hear from their 1–2 kHz band. At a price of 6 EUR, the Stratus 120 PWM can be evaluated as an excellent universal fan, which does a good service both for air circulation in a case and on radiators of coolers. There is also extra compatibility with non-reinforced nylon filters, which is not commonplace even with more expensive fans.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš




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