SWAFAN 12/14 RGB: Fans that just won't be easily beaten
Just when it seems that the pointlessness of some things must have gone through the roof, along comes SWAFAN 12/14 RGB. We can’t put it any other way, Thermaltake is taking advantage of the fact that casual users don’t know how a fan works. After all, paying for two rotors is a better “bargain” than having to orient one as you need it. At least if they didn’t have the same performance characteristics… That’s not how elite companies are built.
One frame, two rotors, from which you can choose the “right one” according to the application. This depending on whether it is to be an intake or exhaust fan. In some circumstances this would make sense, but Thermaltak’s implementation is… And now it’s very hard to find the right words. Quite definitely, the particular design of the new SWAFAN 12/14 RGB fans is unworthy of a company that can be considered one of the biggest and most successful in its field.
To release a fan with two rotors that have virtually identical blades, only with one in an inverted shape, is to mock your customers. It’s as if Thermaltake is saying that you can’t rotate the fan to suit your needs and it’s better to swap the rotor. Yet both have very similar blade shapes, the material they are made of will most likely be the same and so it is already obvious at first glance that the performance characteristics will not differ too much. No such thing as one having a higher or lower airflow or static pressure. This will be a carbon copy and we assume that the special parameters of this fan will never be released by Thermaltake.
Thermaltake’s PR article presenting the SWAFAN 12/14 RGB fans is also uninformative. Its role is to hook people who don’t think too much about fan design and aerodynamics. If it makes sense from any perspective, it’s only from a business one, for Thermaltake. If only it was at least about making one rotor “prettier”, shinier or just to be able to talk about some added value. You really won’t find that across these rotors, and the only advantage of the whole concept is really just in easier blade cleaning.
The rotor can be easily removed, which makes maintenance easier compared to fixed designs. Enermax came up with a similar innovation in the past with the Magma fans. While such a system is useful, there is a question of what the frequent demounting and mounting of the rotor on the stator will do to the centering. The undesirable effect could be an increase in vibrations with each additional (de)mounting. But with cleaning every half a year, perhaps it would not be so serious. It will also depend on the sturdiness of the axle and also the adapter through which the rotor is attached to the stator.
Thermaltake SWAFAN RGB will be available in two formats – 120 mm (SWAFAN12 RGB) and 140 mm (SWAFAN14 RGB). The ARGB lighting is also supposed to be a selling point, with up to 30 LEDs used in total. Some on the stator PCB, the rest within the ring that externally surrounds the rotor on both sides.
Thermaltake hasn’t revealed the price, but you can expect these to be some of the most, if not outright most expensive fans in their formats. For those two rotors in the package alone.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
