Gelid Zodiac fan: ARGB LED and excellent price/performance ratio

Evaluation

Aside from whether the fan is named after the zodiac or a serial killer from California, we know all about Gelid’s latest fan. In the end, the inspiration may stem from the latter as well. After all, it has a backlight option and at the same time “kills”, performance-wise, the price-equivalent fans without it. And attractive models at that. But there is one thing that can erase all the good features.

Evaluation

The Gelid Zodiac excels in obstacle-free airflow, in the quietest mode at very low speeds it is continuously at the very top. Many competing fans can’t even be regulated to such low noise levels. Whether because of higher starting speeds, a whirring motor, or a combination of these imperfections.

At higher speeds, the efficiency, or the ratio of airflow to noise level, decreases relative to other fans, but is still above average. That is in theoretical (and in some cases practical, with more filter spacing) operation without obstacles. With obstacles, it’s worse, as the relatively lower static pressure starts to show up. The situation is somewhat reminiscent of the Arctic BioniX F120, but don’t walk away from the article just yet – the Zodiac may have the performance edge and, more importantly, it’s more pleasing to the ears.

Overall, the Gelid fan is more attractive especially at low noise levels, which are optimal for system cooling. The rotor or motor housing does rub against the nylon filter screen here, but it works well with designs with a reinforced or offset screen.Compared to the BioniX F120, however, the Zodiac doesn’t drone on a grille and acoustically it’s better than the Fractal Design X2 GP-12 PWM, the SilentiumPC Fluctus 120 PWM or even the Noctua NF-P12 redux, which, at the same dBA on a hexagonal grille, has a more reverberant presentation with significantly more intense frequencies around 320 Hz. These fans are admittedly more powerful at normalized fixed-decibel noise levels, but because the Zodiac doesn’t have such pronounced peaks, it’s less annoying at higher average acoustic pressures. And you can see for yourself how the Zodiac, in “36 dBA” mode, for example, outperforms the Noctua NF-P12 redux at “33 dBA”. While it doesn’t surpass the Pure Wing 2 on a hexagonal grille in acoustic smoothness, the Zodiac isn’t far from it.

From the text above, the Zodiac is a pretty decent system fan, but beware.The price/performance ratio is excellent, and although the Zodiac always lags behind the likes of the Aorus 120 ARGB, it’s 2.5 times cheaper. And this justifies everything except one fundamental flaw. And that is the failure of PWM control. You can see in the graphs that starting speed is low and even the very lowest (the fan is really stable down to about 42 rpm), but only via DC control.

Through PWM, the minimum speed is around 840 rpm and you can’t tune the fan to the most efficient modes this way at all. With linear control it can be done, but it is again dependent on the control range on the motherboards. On some, you may not be able to set the required voltage at all, and so even in those cases you won’t get the operation the Zodiac is best at. And even if you do, there’s one more annoyance. The motor rattles when starting over lower voltages. This sound stops only after being driven to high speed with a higher voltage setting, at least for a short time. While motherboards and even more modern standalone controllers can do this, this is certainly not what solid speed management looks like. It’s a result of saving, which probably had to be reflected on something.

The energy efficiency of the motor is otherwise excellent, The air flow per unit of power draw is top-notch, as is the price/performance ratio. The motor also has big performance gaps for situations where more work needs to be done. Typically through time, bearing wear and lubricant loss/drying when friction naturally increases and more force is required for operation. Also worth mentioning is the negligible vibration and since this is an illuminated fan, the wide luminance range with an above-standard maximum brightness and above-standard minimum brightness should also be praised. The lighting can be adjusted for good visibility in a bright workplace and your eyes don’t have to suffer even in a darkened closet. This is all perfect, but that pulse control…

If we stick to it as a common operating practice, the fan ceases to make sense as a system fan (higher speeds are ineffective for circulating air through the cabinet, the cooling is unnecessarily noisy) and the Gelid Zodiac is more or less a lost cause on radiators. On thinner finning the efficiency is still so-so, but on a denser radiator it falls into the zone of severe underperformance. Yes, Zodiac belongs to this category in terms of price, so we can’t blame it that much. After the pleasant pampering in the best applications, we may be already inadequately strict in the evaluation. Well, judge for yourself, the image of this fan is already familiar to you.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Gelid Zodiac in detail
• The basis of the methodology, the wind tunnel
• Mounting and vibration measurement
• Initial warm-up and speed recording
• Base 7 equal noise levels…
• .. and sound color (frequency characteristic)
• Static pressure measurement…
• … and airflow
• Everything changes with obstacles
• How we measure power draw and motor power
• Measuring the intensity (and power draw) of lighting
• Results: Speed
• Results: Airlow w/o obstacles
• Results: Airflow through a nylon filter
• Results: Airflow through a plastic filter
• Results: Airflow through a hexagonal grille
• Results: Airflow through a thinner radiator
• Results: Airflow through a thicker radiator
• Results: Static pressure w/o obstacles
• Results: Static pressure through a nylon filter
• Results: Static pressure through a plastic filter
• Results: Static pressure through a hexagonal grille
• Results: Static pressure through a thinner radiator
• Results: Static pressure through a thicker radiator
• Results: Static pressure, efficiency by orientation
• Reality vs. specifications
• Results: Frequency response of sound w/o obstacles
• Results: Frequency response of sound with a dust filter
• Results: Frequency response of sound with a hexagonal grille
• Results: Frequency response of sound with a radiator
• Results: Vibration, in total (3D vector length)
• Results: Vibration, X-axis
• Results: Vibration, Y-axis
• Results: Vibration, Z-axis
• Results: Power draw (and motor power)
• Results: Cooling performance per watt, airflow
• Results: Cooling performance per watt, static pressure
• Airflow per euro
• Static pressure per euro
• Results: Lighting – LED luminance and power draw
• Results: LED to motor power draw ratio
• Evaluation