PCCooler CPS F5 R120 BK in detail
Some really attractive things are often overlooked or given less attention than they deserve, for various reasons. This is somewhat the case with the technically remarkable fan from PCCooler CPS – the F5 R120. This 120 mm fan with its features is in the company of the most prominent names, although it has its weaknesses as well. These may or may not interest you either. It depends on the use case.
Evaluation
It can be an unrivaled, excellent fan, but it can also be an average or even slightly below average fan. It all depends on the environment in which you use the PCCooler CPS F5 R120. It performs best on a mainstream radiator around 28mm thick with an FPI of 22, where at very low speeds of around 700rpm, it even beats the Noctua NF-A12x25 with greater airflow. It’s so far the only one to do so out of the 120mm fans tested with a 25mm thickness.
Higher (than the F5 R120), continuously in first place, is only the Phanteks T30, which benefits from higher static pressure due to its greater thickness.The F5 R120 loses its dominant position as the speed increases, but even at medium speeds (up to about 1300rpm) it still holds its own in the top five. It’s true that at higher than low speeds, the cheaper Arctic P12 (PWM PST) is already on par with the F5 R120.
The PCCooler fan has the advantage in this comparison (with the Arctic P12 PWM PST) in quieter low frequencies, which are due to resonant frequencies caused by “inappropriate” vibrations at the blade tips. How much quieter the F5 R120 is due to the above aspect is well evident in the tests with no obstacle, where the tonal peaks of the lower frequencies of the PCCooler’s fan sound are lower across modes by about 4 to 16 dBu, which you definitely won’t miss. It’s not about noise at the same frequencies (the noisiest ones are lower with the Arctic P12, between 80–130 Hz), but about the noisiest lower frequencies. In the case of the F5 R120, they are in the 130–230 Hz range. Then, as with all fans (from airflow), there are tonal peaks also at sound frequencies around 375 Hz (+/- 5 Hz). The noise level of the PCCooler fan in this band can be described as average.
On the other hand, if there’s something the F5 R120 isn’t too keen on, it’s running on dust filters or on grilles. Here, the PCCooler fan achieves average (hexagonal grille) to below-average efficiency (plastic filter), or an airflow-to-noise ratio. That is, if you install the fan at all so that the filter screen does not come into contact with the impeller. This can happen in combination with unreinforced nylon filters, and the result is clear – an unpleasant grinding sound (against the dust filter mesh).
While it cannot be said that the F5 R120 is unsuitable for use on a grille or compatible filters, its attractiveness is a far cry from what it can do on radiators. Its manufacturer is not surprised by such behavior and, on the contrary, points out that the F5 R120’s intended use is beyond system cooling.
Even on radiators, however, you should always be careful not to set the speed too low. The acoustic properties can then deteriorate significantly as the disturbing motor sound (around 1210 Hz) builds up at the lower end of the operating range. Its activity is captured, for example, even in the quietest measurable mode on the grille, where it is already hitting the lower limit of the operating range. And maybe it’s a bit of a shame, too, that unlike many fans, this one (F5 R120) doesn’t switch off at low PWM duty cycle (and stalls out at about 515 rpm).
With the exception of maximum speeds and speeds around 1250 rpm, the vibrations of the PCCooler fan are very low. Only at roughly these speeds, be careful that the fan does not interact with the case and cause annoying secondary noise. It doesn’t have to but it can happen. That depends on the particular case. Below 1150 rpm, vibrations are negligible.
Power efficiency, or airflow per watt, is already at an average level. In this respect, PCCooler does not seem to have strived too hard for superior results (e.g. by reducing bearing friction), but, of course, this aspect for evaluation (and even use) is secondary. And, most importantly, it is appropriate to the price. What is key is the extremely high efficiency on liquid cooler radiators while maintaining an attractive price/cooling performance ratio, which earns the PCCooler F5 R120 the “Smart buy!” award.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
| PCCooler CPS F5 R120 BK |
| + Suitable for any use case |
| + Cooling efficiency (airflow/pressure per unit of noise) at a very high level |
| + Attractive price/performance ratio |
| + Top-notch efficiency on radiators at very low speed... |
| + ... beats even significantly more expensive fans in these conditions |
| + Wide speed range |
| + Virtually noiseless operation of bearings and motor (except at critically low speeds) |
| + Considering the price and high efficiency, a balanced sound frequency spectrum |
| + Decent quality of workmanship |
| + Really powerful motor |
| - Weaker efficiency with plastic filters... |
| - ... and with unreinforced nylon filter types, the rotor can collide with the screen |
| - Higher minimum speed (~515 rpm)... |
| - ... and does not support passive mode, does not "turn off" at low PWM duty cycle |
| Approximate retail price: 17 EUR |
- Contents
- PCCooler CPS F5 R120 BK in detail
- Overview of manufacturer specifications
- Basis of the methodology, the wind tunnel
- Mounting and vibration measurement
- Initial warm-up and speed recording
- Base 6 equal noise levels…
- ... and sound color (frequency characteristic)
- Measurement of static pressure…
- … and of 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 depending on 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
That’s a very a good fan overall. No noticeable weakness with decent noise profile, at a highly competitive price point. I’m surprised that a PBT only fan without an outer ring can perform this well. I wonder how the Arctic P12 Max compares (maybe it’s comparable to the ARGB version?)
P.S. Frequency plots aren’t accessible in the English version, and most (all?) links in the conclusion page are broken due to lacking -bk.
Thanks! Fixed. 🙂
The motor sound link is still broken. It’s the first plot in the “hexagonal grille” page, right?
So, this sound only appears when speed is very close to the minimum RPM? I don’t think I’ve seen this behaviour before, interesting. It should be easily avoidable by the user, but can be limiting for those who want an extremely quiet build.
Haha, no mistake escapes you. What a great thing that we have such attentive readers. 🙂
And yes, it’s the first spectrogram with the hexagonal grille. This mode has the lowest fan speed at which frequency analysis of sound is measured. Several fans with typically cheaper motors are struggling at the lower speed limit and this behaviour is accompanied by such annoying sounds. I don’t always point it out, but here it was extra interesting especially in the context of high efficiency at very low speeds. When you go from that optimum 700 rpm down to somewhere near 550 rpm, it may not be so great anymore. Because of that annoying motor sound that adds to the well audible spectrum.
The blades of the F5 R120 are relatively short yet thick. Although we did measure some vibration, I don’t think it was due to the blades being “too flexible”. Something else will be behind their occurrence, maybe some manufacturing inaccuracies (around the axle for example) and such. The lower MTBF value would suggest this, but I don’t want to speculate on these things.
What is obvious, however, is that even a cheap fan with shorter PBT blades doesn’t have to be the source of any vibration. We have already been convinced of this by a test of 15 Stratus 1220 PWMs, where the variance of vibration across the samples is very wide. But it is given by the high tolerances. If the vibrations were due to blade undulations, we would never, on any piece, measure 0.000. And in that one case (the gold sample) this happened even at maximum speed with a fairly high (1600) RPM.
Strongly recommand you to add the 9RA1212P4G001, and maybe the 9RA1212P1K001 and 9RA1412P1G001 from Sanyo into the compaing list.
Thank you for the useful tips. We will definitely take a look at the fans and try to add them to the results database. I can’t promise when this might happen, but we will contact Sanyo and see.