Fans

A good quality chassis fan will not only make your PC cooler, but will significantly reduce its noise output too. We round up 55 fans to see which deserve to be spinning away in your PC.

Antec

Manufacturer:	Price:
Antec	£6.49 inc VAT
Reviewer:	Review Date:
James Gorbold	Aug 2006

	OVERALL RATING

SCORE

4/6

Antec currently manufactures the best PC case in the world, the P180, but the company also produces a range of fans. We tested the TriCool DBB series, which is so named because each fan has a double-ball bearing (DBB) motor that's fitted with a digital speed controller that allows you to set the fan to Low, Medium or High speed.

The TriCool 120mm DBB has three speed settings: 1,200rpm (Low), 1,600rpm (Medium) and 2,000rpm (High). It's claimed performance figures are 39cfm at 25dBA (Low), 56cfm at 28dBA (Medium) and 79cfm at 30dBA (High).

We measured the airflow as being 16cfm, 55cfm and 101cfm at Low, Medium and High speeds respectively, while the corresponding measured noise levels were 20.1dBA (below background noise), 32.dBA and 43.2dBA. As our results show, at Low speed, the TriCool 120mm shifts very little air but is incredibly quiet, while at Medium and High speeds, it produces irritating levels of noise, which means that we can't recommend it.

The smallest TriCool fan is the 80mm DBB, which also has three speed settings: 1,500rpm (Low), 2,000rpm (Medium) and 2,600rpm (High). Antec claims that the 80mm DBB produces 20cfm at 18dBA at Low speed, 26cfm at 24dBA at Medium and 34cfm at 30dBA at High.

At Low speed, the 80mm DBB failed our 'black sack' test, but at Medium speed, it moved 17cfm at 28.6dBA, and at High speed, it moved 22cfm at 34.9dBA. Like its larger brother, the TriCool 80mm is hard to recommend due to its poor airflow and irritating noise levels.

Click here to see full reviews report.

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