Nidec Servo Gentle Typhoon D1225C won’t lose to just any

Results: Cooling performance per watt, static pressure

Wondering how the Gentle Typhoon D1225C, the originator of the efficiently shaped rotor, is stacking up against much newer fans today? Very well. Outside the band of the most intense vibrations with annoying resonant frequencies, even from today’s perspective this fan has a top performance-to-noise ratio. In some ways it is even still unsurpassed, and the designers of the time built on strong physical foundations.

Results: Cooling performance per watt, static pressure

Explanatory note: From static pressure measurements, you know how efficient the fans are when set at the same noise level. We also measure the operating power draw in fixed noise level mode tests, so we can easily quantify which fan is not only more cooling efficient, but also more energy efficient. That is, which fan achieves higher static pressure per unit of power draw.







Why is there a missing value sometimes? There may be more reasons. Usually it is because the fan could not be adjusted to the target noise level. Some have a higher minimum speed (or the speed is low, but the motor is too noisy) or it is a slower fan that will not reach the higher decibels. But the results in the graphs are also missing if the rotor is brushing against the nylon filter mesh. In that case, we evaluate this combination as incompatible. And zero in the graphs is naturally also in situations where we measure 0.00. This is a common occurrence at extremely low speeds with obstructions or within vibration measurements.


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Those interested in 140mm fans have reason to rejoice. After the P12 Max, Arctic is also releasing the P14 Max, which is one size larger. These stick to the already established features, such as a significant speed increase, but also probably a noise reduction even at low speeds. By all accounts, these should be universal fans that will be efficient across the entire speed spectrum, and on all types of obstacles. Read more “New Arctic P14 Max: Anti-vibration and high speed” »

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Release of Noctua’s 140mm next-gen fans sticks to schedule

The title couldn’t fit a “despite complications with the frame”. Even though Noctua figured out that the fan blades could collide under adverse circumstances due to deformation of the frame in a more advanced stage of prototyping, it seems that the fix for this inconvenience didn’t take too long. We’re again at the point where it looks like Noctua’s 140mm LCP fans are right outside the doors of the retail market. Read more “Release of Noctua’s 140mm next-gen fans sticks to schedule” »

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Thermaltake Toughfan 14 Pro: Number one for radiators

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Comments (15) Add comment

  1. GentleTyphoon is the name of a family of industrial axial fans designed and manufactured by Nidec-Servo

    The D1225C achieves an aerodynamic design that pushes the limits of material and injection mold engineering at a constrained cost (the material used for the fan blades is probably only half as stiff as the LCP material used by NOCTUA), and to mass produce fan blades with the potential for significantly improved performance at the same specification I think has until now been limited by the injection mold and process and material properties.

    One more thing, this seems to be the only 120mm axial fan I’ve seen with a removable motor stator – they are held in the bearing housing by springs and catches and are easy to maintain.

      1. Thank you for that comment, you obviously have that fan very well studied. I’ll admit that I was convinced that first those fans were at least designed by Scythe and then that brand was sold to Nidec Servo. But it is true that Nidec Servo also appears as the manufacturer on the labels of fans that still bore the Scythe logo.

    1. You’re right. We’ve adjusted the labelling in the charts to make it right.

      “Nidec Servo Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B6ZPAA6” is too long and we can’t fit it into the charts like this. But it’s true that after cutting even D1225C, it’s incorrect, although it’s clarified right at the beginning of this article (it would be unclear in the next ones, where this fan will appear in the graphs). So we compromised with “NS Gentle Typhoon DC1225C (2150/12)”, where the model designation in parentheses is the speed/voltage. That works out in the charts, and is now hopefully a pretty accurate and unambiguous designation for this particular fan. 🙂

      Of the 120mm fans, the Enermax Magma or even the recently released ThermalTake SWAFAN 12/14 have user level removable rotors.

        1. Now we’re clear, okay. We will also discuss the selected fans later at HWC. Especially with regard to examining bearings and things around them. Still, it’s a bit strange for fans with fluid bearings, for example, to have such a large variance in MTBF.

          1. Personally, I believe that in the vast majority of fans there is no real FDB, those “fluid dynamic” bearings are just an imitation of the marketing of the SPM bearings on the HDD, or essentially a variant of the original fan sliding bearings, and most of these bearings seem to be processed by low-temperature alloy, very fragile, but once the lubricant failure is easy to Failure.

            Currently, the only fan bearings I’ve ever disassembled that match the SPM bearings on the HDD are in the RTX4090 fan, complete with thrust bearings and the exact same structure and material as the HDD disk bearings, also from Nidec.
            Even so, I personally think it is unlikely that such a bearing will operate completely on the fluid dynamic pressure layer when working in the fan (unstable working conditions and too low speed).

          2. L10 is generally used for marking the life expectancy of fans in industrial environments.
            MTBF is actually a very ambiguous value, and manufacturers can be very flexible in their interpretation of it.

            But even the L10 value is not exactly the same across companies’ testing standards, and the life expectancy of a fan is very difficult to verify by a third party (just as the life expectancy of an HDD has long become an illusory value).

              1. Even when disassembled, there are many difficulties in assessing the life of a fan, such as the performance of the lubricant, the accuracy and rigidity of the sleeve, the effective stock of lubricant and the loading capacity of the oil film, which are in fact difficult to identify through disassembly, but these implied performance indicators are critical to the life, and only some rough analysis can be made from the structure, such as whether the axial load response of the sleeve bearing is present and effective, the existence of sealing structure, the length of the sleeve, etc.

                Even for double ball bearings, the axial support length of the two bearings (which will significantly control the impact of rotor oscillation in operation), preload pressure, bearing housing and arbor and ball bearing inner and outer ring fit accuracy, motor drive and specific operating load and operating conditions will greatly affect the life and failure rate, the wrong design of double ball bearing fans will induce early failure and thus lead to a shorter life than the sleeve This has happened in the current products.

                In addition to this, the drive scheme and electrical reliability of the fan’s brushless motor will also have a significant impact on life, as will the mounting of the Hall sensor and the overall current efficiency of the motor. (For example, phanteks T30 has a more advanced FOC three-phase sensorless motor drive compared to competing products)

                I have disassembled many cooling fans and if you are interested I can share photos and some simple information via email when I have some free time.
                I keep hoping that these will one day help someone who needs it.

                1. Of course, even a fan with a more delicate bearing can have a longer life, as long as it is better able to prevent lubricant leakage or hardening (e.g. by dust particles entering and mixing with it). A detailed analysis of a disassembled fan could shed more light on these things too. Anyway, it’s not something we want to get into tomorrow. Naturally, like everything, it requires proper preparation to make the outputs relevant.

                  If you would be willing to send us your analyses of disassembled fans by email, preferably in the form of an article that we would republish, we would be honored. When you have time, you can email me at samak@hwcooling.net and we’ll work it out somehow. The insights from such an examination will certainly help a lot of people. 🙂

  2. as expected, the design works well, but the finetuning and material engineering made by Noctua proved to be unbeatable once again, especially when you are aiming at total silence, below values presented here, as the lower sound pressure goes the bigger lead A12x25 has

    1. Yes, the lower the noise level, the greater the contribution of non-aerodynamic sounds. You can see this well in the “33 dBA, no obstacle” spectrograph for example, where the GT DC1225 is, between 1–2 kHz (motor and bearings), significantly noisier than the Noctua NF-A12x25.

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