Of all the companies that sent in fans for this month's Labs test, Thermaltake must make the widest variety of products. Over the last three years we've reviewed Thermaltake HSFs, fan controllers, hard disk coolers, cases, water-cooling kits and PSUs.

Thermaltake produces three different models in its Silent Cat series: the 80mm A1780, the 92mm A2013 and the 120mm A2329. In Thermaltake's own words, all three Silent Cat fans are 'extreme silent'. Apart from the fact that this description is grammatically incorrect, how one fan can be more silent than another is beyond us; a fan is either silent or it's not.

The A1780 spins at 2,500rpm and Thermaltake claims that it can move 31.77cfm at 21dBA. We measured its airflow at 40cfm and its noise level at an unpleasantly loud 32.7dBA. The 92mm A2013 also spins at 2,500rpm, and Thermaltake claims that it can move 52.24cfm at 21dBA, although we measured its airflow at 61cfm and its noise level as being a very annoying 39dBA. The largest Silent Cat, the 120mm A2329, spins at just 1,600rpm, and is claimed to be able to move 62.2cfm at 16dBA. Thermaltake is right in one respect; the A2329 is quieter than the A2013, but at 36.3dBA, it's still far too loud for comfort. We measured the A2329's airflow at 76cfm.

Given that the Silent Cat series of fans are marketed as 'extreme silent', it's utterly ridiculous that all three fans should be so loud - 'extreme irritation' would be more accurate.

Thankfully, the Silent Cat fans aren't the only fans Thermaltake has to offer, and from the moment you unpack the A2330 Silent Wheel, it's clear that this is no ordinary fan. Instead of being mounted in a square frame, like every other fan in this test, the A2330 is a 130mm fan fitted inside a round bracket, so it can be screwed into a standard 120mm fan mount. Clever, eh? But why would you want to squeeze a 130mm fan into a 120mm fan mount? The theory is that the larger the fan, the larger the surface the area of the blades, which means that larger-diameter fans produce high airflow at low rotational speeds.

The motor of the A2330 spins the blades at 1,400rpm, and Thermaltake claims that it can move 54.4cfm at 16dBA. We measured the airflow at 47cfm, a little lower than Thermaltake's claims, and its noise level as being 24.8dBA, which is audible, but still reasonably quiet. The innovative design of the A2330 means that it's able to shift much more air per dBA than most 120mm fans, so kudos to Thermaltake for trying an approach other than that of simply raising the motor speed. Ultimately, however, there are regular 120mm fans that are quieter, although the A2330 is still worth considering.

Fortunately, most companies seem to have stopped producing illuminated fans, which is a good thing, as most LED fans were fully paid-up members of the cheap, nasty and gaudy society. The A2345 iFlash Mini certainly fits the latter criteria; once spun up, it projects the word Thermaltake in bright red onto the tips of the fan blades, along with a two-digit display that shows the temperature of the air moving through the fan. The word Thermaltake then proceeds to dance around the fan, all the time backlit by a bright blue LED. In a word, it's horrendous. We measured the airflow of the A2345 iFlash Mini at 18cfm, but its noise level was a very loud 36.5dBA. If you really want an illuminated PC then we recommend that you buy cold cathode lights instead, and stick to using regular, non-illuminated case fans.

Click here to see full reviews report.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• Shuttle XPC SX48P2 Deluxe - Desktop PCs
• SilverStone Raven - Peripherals
• Raptor Gaming M3 Platinum - Peripherals
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 - Processors
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Graphics cards
• DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS - Motherboards
• BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX MaxCore - Graphics cards