I pity those who work in the marketing department of PC component manufactuers. They have to tough job of trying to make products such as fans and heatsinks sexy. Every year there are new boasts about how new product X is better than generic product Y, when in fact there really isn’t much of a difference at all.
A new Japanese company called Zaward has come out with a new cooling fan for PC systems which claims to reduce noise by 15% when compared to other fans at the same speed. Zaward claims that this is due to the implementation of dimples on the fan blades which are similar to those appearing on golf balls.
Any analytical mind scoff at this idea, as dimples such as these would increase turbulance, which would result in a noisier fan. The principle of dimples on golf balls are actually designed to increase turbulance, but reduces turbulance seperation IN A SPHERE. Reduced seperation aids in higher lift for the golf ball, which makes it drive further. As a matter of fact, golf balls could become more efficient if the dimples were hexagonal. It’s science. Look it up.
The difference in turbulance between a regular sphere and dimpled sphere
Fact: Additional surface roughness increases turbulance. Good for the aerodynamics of a sphere. Bad for practically everything else, as increased turbulance also results in increased noise.
Needless to say I have some reservations about the marketing claims of this fan. Here are the Features and Specifications.
On the next page we look at what you get… |
The small package comes with the fan itself, an installation manual, four rubber mounting pins, four rubber washers, and four standard fan screws. The fan cable has been sleeved with black fiber and has heatshrink applied to both ends of the wires. The cable has a 4-pin header, so this is suitable as a regular case fan or CPU fan that supports additional RPM monitoring.
Installing the fan is just as easy as any other fan, and the included rubber pins can help reduce noise in your PC rig.
The fan is very quiet, even when running at its full speed of 1300rpm. At 20 dBA the fan is barely audible even in a quiet room. We did test this fan against 120mm fans with similar specifications (1,000 to 1,500 RPM with a range of 16dBA to 21dBA) and the cooling performance was practically the same. It’s not even worth creating a graph.
On the next page we render our verdict
The fan is quiet, which is due more to its maximum RPM speed of 1300 rather than any fancy aerodynamic gimmick. The Zaward G2 Golf Fan has a better build than a generic fan, and comes with extras that give this package a bit more polish, like a sleeved cable and the inclusion of anti-vibration pins.
It’s a good fan, and if you’re wanting quiet then it does a good job. I just can’t state with any clear conscience that its dimpled blade design makes it any better than another fan with the exact same specifications. Unforunately Zaward believes that thier innovation warrants a higher price for their case fans, which based on our findings just makes it overpriced.
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