They have really bad quality assurance, though. And even if you have them at 20%, they are still far noisier than my old Noctuas at full speed (they have no PWM)
anyone whos been around PC building for a long while will know these are basically the classic Gentle Typhoons (just modernised). A fan that has gone through various brands over many years. A grail fan of the ages
The old GT were great, but do these have good motors on them? Some of these GT re-issues by other brands have had issues with reliability and motor noise.
TL;DR: the XPG branded Gentle Typhoons has an almost 100% chance of catastrophic failure on at least one batch (S/N 4M13xxxxxxx). I'd never thought I'd recommend a Cooler Master product over a Gentle Typhoon, but the CM Mobius 120 vanilla at $9 trounces everything unless you're fine with fan noise above 40dB and need every little bit of performance. I have a lot of GTs from three different iterations (og Servo, Scythe and the new XPG) and the old ones (10+ years) are capped at ~1800rpm, DC controlled and can be too noisy if installed stock. Silicone or rubber fixers are a must, at least for me. They're built like a tank because the original fan was designed for enterprise applications. Never had a single failure or noise coming from the motor or unbalanced blades from a sample of around ~20 units, with some approaching 15 years of use. I.e. the good, old Gentle Typhoon everybody knows. The XPG Vento Pro is made by Nidec as in every other versions, comes with passable silicone dampers on each corner, PWM control, extension sleeved cables, and it's capped at ~2250rpm. I bought five XPG units last August, two of which had a severe blade plastic stretching issue, causing frame striking and several blades cracked near the base/motor housing. Apart from me, some other people had the same problem, and it's very likely caused by a faulty batch with the S/N starting with 4M13xxxxxxx; all reports are from faulty fans with this SN. All others with S/N 4L4xxxxxxxx are fine but I'm keeping a close eye on them. All XPG units were bought from the same e-tailer here in Brazil, FWIW. It was a steal for approx. $10, though. That said, I bought two CM Mobius 120 vanilla and two Mobius 120P ARGB for testing after some hush hush on various OC forums. The vanilla one is still on sale for ~$9 and the 120P ARGB is going for ~$12. I would never test a Cooler Master fan if the price wasn't so cheap. Anyway, I mounted them on a Noctua D-15 cooling a 5950X OCed to ~250W package power. The Mobius vanilla slightly outperformed all my Noctua A12x25 for a third of the price and was within margin of error from the XPG GTs but way quieter. Like Michael and Igor's Lab found out, the ARGB version is worse in every way. I run a custom loop with 3x 360 Magicool G2 45mm thick rads on my gaming PC with a 5800X3d and a 3090 shunt modded, so about 600W of heat. In this configuration, any half-decent fan will do the job, so pick the cheaper, quieter ones.
They're not better in every way, but they are so close that it's hard to recommend anything else really unless you absolutely need super high end performance like with the T30 screaming at 3k RPM. Spending an extra $20-$30 a fan to gain 1 or maybe 2C seems a little silly imo.
I hope the OC 140 will be out soon so I can replace my old bequiet ;). However, I also wanted to commend you on your attention to detail in filming, editing, music selection, and the clarity of the charts. They were easy to read and understand. When I watch other's video, I need to pause several times to be able to understand what is going on. Kudos to you Mike and your team for producing such high-quality work!
I remember buying P12s for $5 CAD regular price. I still have those fans running in my case after several years. I think my oldest fans are 10 years old.
@@HardwareCanucks Ugh, and here i was hoping to upgrade my system by the end of 2023! Will probably go with a Be Quiet Pure Base case, with wholly 140mm ARGN fans. But i'm reluctant to buy anything without Mike's endorsement haha! 😅
The fact that the Arctic P12 can be had for $7 (when bought in a 5-pack) and the Pccooler 120 Halo can be had for $10 (when bought in a 3-pack) pretty much makes any bigger brands irrelevant. Even on sale.
Haven't been a fan of Cooler Master since they made cheap garbage in the early/mid 2000's. Even though it appears they've greatly improved the company R&D and product quality, I still don't feel as though I'm missing out on much. Been using Noctua since 2007 and I'll stick with their SSO/SSO2 bearing design for the time being. My first set lasted 9 years, no failures. Switched to their Redux line for a different color. Those are 7 years old, no failures. Everyone seems to be trying to mimic Noctua's designs - whether blades, tolerances or introducing fluid bearings. Suddenly everyone want's to be the fan king, which is fine...it helps drive innovation and competitive prices.
Idk, it's probably specifically my hearing profile, but CM's fans universally emit a wheezing sound to my ear that I can't stand. It's always good to have more competitors in the market, though. Thanks for continuing this fan testing series. Stay awesome!
@@BOXabaca I'm also cursed by those fans, the motor hum they emit makes them unbearable at about 1000 RPM, which is supposed to be their sweet spot. The only fans I've had that don't annoy me are the case fans of the O11 Air Mini, for some obscure reason. They're extremely basic, yet they have the least offensive sound profile. Very weird
There's also Silverstone's Shark Force 120 argb that I want to see getting tested. SilverStone claims this fan has 100cfm of airflow and 4.66mmH2O of static pressure at 2500rpm, which if it is true, it's gonna be argb performance king.
Silverstone has historically had very poor airflow/static pressure to noise ratio fans from comparisons I've seen over the years. I'd say the exception would be the air penetrators. Would be nice to see if some of the newer models were improving. I believe they may actually have an ARGB air pen now.
Could you update your Air Cooler testing to standardize on a heatsink with a denser fin array configuration more representative of current gen air coolers? That is to say not the U12S since it has a relatively low fin density specifically to make it work well with lower speed / lower static pressure fans in a way that prevents the next gen higher static pressure fans from really standing out from the crowd like they would on something with higher fin density like say the Scythe Fuma 3?
@@HardwareCanucks I'm not sure you know what I meant. Like does the fan create a focused air flow behind it or is it a wide pattern. Fan blade design and frame design can dictate how the air is dispersed when it exits the fan and determines how effective it is at traveling thru a case. For example a wide pattern wont really travel well thru a case but a focused flow will. Just missing information like this. If its in the video I must have missed it. But the Rad and heatsink testing is great stuff.
I tested this fan, at 1350rpm -10%pwm-, keeps the cpu temps, cooler than all.the other fans I own (a12x25, gt2150, t30, p12max, sw pro4, etc), but the sound frequency drove me crazy. I dont know if maybe I got a defective sample. On a heatsink the sound is lower but as a case fan its even worse.
Great work here once again Mike 💪🥰👍! Tbh thou, unless you generally spend a lot, you get better results which is he norm. CM did an amazing job here and when you getting about 10c> cooling compared to the opposition, then I feel it’s worth spending extra for these fans. When you’re getting a few 0c here and there …. Get the cheapest around.
Why NOT? ;) Most cases are pretty dark anyways. To be honest though its the manufacturing process. What you're looking at is the raw material sorta like Noctua's Sterox.
Would be nice if you could do a video comparing fan controllers (and their software, as well as compatibility with 3rd party software like fan control and argus) from NZXT, Phanteks, Aquacomputer and so on.
That would be a great idea! I'm using "fan control" to control my case fans by a mixture of GPU and CPU temps. It also can decrease the increments so the fan wouldn't spike up so suddenly.
Because the Noctua fan wasn't tested in the same continual conditions as some of the others so it would be disingenuous to include its results. The same goes for others like the Pro 4, Wonder Snail, etc.
Noctua is a solid middle of the pack fan. Its in the bar charts but not everywhere since it wasn't tested in certain instances and in the same environment which means we couldn't directly compare it in some cases.
Blades can't expand if they're fully encased in a plastic pipe. I'd love to see someone do an extremely in depth comparison between linked blades and the new plastic that doesn't expand that noctua is using. See which is better, because we know which is cheaper.
@@blue-lu3iz Noctua historically was the best back in the 2010s, but other manufacturers have improved by leaps and bounds the last few years while Noctua has remained mostly stagnant. They can't afford to have silly 8 year development cycles for just ONE fan or they're going to be left in the dust. I'd say more progress has been made in the last 5 years in cooling than in the previous 15.
By the way, there is another point, SF120M has very noisy bearings, if you put NSK instead of native ones, they will look much more advantageous. I have 4 SF120MS, all behave about the same, the bearings are clearly audible at any rpm. Everything would be fine, but I recently received a defective mobius 140p, in which I decided to put a ball bearing instead of a native sleeve (yes, that noctua, that coolermaster, that the rest of the upgraded plain bearings are beautifully called "FDB", but in fact this is an ordinary sleeve), and after installing NSK - of course you can hear them, if you put your ear directly to the bearing on a running cooler, but from a distance of 50cm, it is almost impossible to distinguish the bearing, they are so quiet (at both minimum and medium and maximum speeds). And the native bearing of the SF120M is audible even from a meter at any speed (we are talking about an open stand, the situation in the case will be slightly different). And what is good is that it is easier to change a ball bearing to another ball bearing than to change a sleeve to a ball bearing if the hands grow from the right place. Of the quiet ones, I found NSK bearings, but perhaps there are other quiet ones too, it already depends on the region of residence that you have on the market. p.s. the bearings on the P12 max are a little quieter than on the cooler master, but I think it makes sense to upgrade them to NSK too
I've been using the Mobius 120 argb and 240 argb for almost a year now and I gotta say, these things are amazing they're really quiet for RGB fans and really keep my PC cool, and I personally really like the look of there RGB. All I really want is a 200mm version so I can replace the 200mm sickleflow's that came in my HAF 500.
So can I just swap the stock fans that came with my Corsair H100i Elite Capellix from two of the Mobius 120 OC and just plug it into the fan hub it came with? Or should I just keep what came with it
I love these fans, I was able to snag 4 140P RGBs and 2 120P RGBs for $20 each, albeit in 6 different transactions. I had to buy one at a time to clip the coupon.
Curious of the actual "sound" as I have found a few brands that test well but I cannot stand the sound profile. Noctuas have always been great in that department.
Arctic p12 max has very good reviews for db measurements but I cannot stand them when they go beyond 1800 rpm. Noctua actual noise profile is very tolerable or really silent throughout the rpm range. (Referring to A12x25)
@@HardwareCanucks I run mine at around 1500 rpm, but when I manually change them to max speed the are awesome and move a lot of air through my Corsair x7 rad…
@@cezarnebun9607 If yoi spend less on fans you can afford larger/more rads. 1x 360mm (Corsair) + 3x Noctua A12x25 = 177€ 2x 360mm (Corsair) + 6 Arctic P12 =195€, that's 18€ more for double the rad surface. I have 2x 480mm XR7 and 2 360mm XR7, push pull, all Arctic P12 running at 500/550rpm max, a single Noctua A12x25 at 1200rpm stands out if placed inside my system when gaming. (I tried, you can clearly hear when the fan it's on or off over the other 30+ fans spinning at 500rpm) I know my case is extreme but rad surface is king.
I love your fans videos, is there any chance to make some compairson video between 140mm fans? Which 140mm fans would you choose? I see a plenty of good options in 120mm category which simply doesn't exist in 140mm.
Would replacing my stock thermalright assassin king mini fan that only hits 1500 rpm be very noticeable improvement under high loads? It maxes at 95c on prime95 in around 8 minutes. It gets to high 80s and low 90s during gaming session on games that have a CPU load of around 90%+. Or at the price of fan ($30 currently), I may as well switch to a peerless assassin mini? Another questions, does my tower being 5 millimeters or so from the glass hurt performance?
TL;DR: the XPG branded Gentle Typhoons has an almost 100% chance of catastrophic failure on at least one batch (S/N 4M13xxxxxxx). I'd never thought I'd recommend a Cooler Master product over a Gentle Typhoon, but the CM Mobius 120 vanilla at $9 trounces everything for dual-tower air or AIOs unless you're fine with fan noise well past 40dB and need every little bit of performance. I have a lot of GTs from three different iterations (og Servo, Scythe and the new XPG) and the old ones (10+ years) are capped at ~1800rpm, DC controlled and can be too noisy if installed stock. Silicone or rubber fixers are a must, at least for me. They're built like a tank because the original fan was designed for enterprise applications. Never had a single failure or noise coming from the motor or unbalanced blades from a sample of around ~20 units, with some approaching 15 years of use. I.e. the good, old Gentle Typhoon everybody knows. The XPG Vento Pro is made by Nidec as in every other versions, comes with passable silicone dampers on each corner, PWM control, extension sleeved cables, and it's capped at ~2250rpm. I bought five XPG units last August, two of which had a severe blade plastic stretching issue, causing frame striking and several blades cracked near the base/motor housing. Apart from me, some other people had the same problem, and it's very likely caused by a faulty batch with the S/N starting with 4M13xxxxxxx; all reports are from faulty fans with this SN. All others with S/N 4L4xxxxxxxx are fine but I'm keeping a close eye on them. All XPG units were bought from the same e-tailer here in Brazil, FWIW. It was a steal for approx. $10, though. That said, I bought two CM Mobius 120 vanilla and two Mobius 120P ARGB for testing after some hush hush on various OC forums. The vanilla one is still on sale for ~$9 and the 120P ARGB is going for ~$12. I would never test a Cooler Master fan if the price wasn't so cheap. Anyway, I mounted them on a Noctua D-15 cooling a 5950X OCed to ~250W package power. The Mobius vanilla slightly outperformed all my Noctua A12x25 for a third of the price and was within margin of error from the XPG GTs but way quieter. Like Michael and Igor's Lab found out, the ARGB version is worse in every way. I run a custom loop with 3x 360 Magicool G2 45mm thick rads on my gaming PC with a 5800X3d and a 3090 shunt modded, so about 600W of heat. In this configuration, any half-decent fan will do the job, so pick the cheaper, quieter ones. Edit: I'm currently running 9x Mobius 120 vanilla on all my three 45mm rads all exhaust, one Mobius 120 rear and two NF-A15 front mesh intake on a O11D Evo, all paired with liquid temperature. Loop is cooling a 5800X3D and a shunt modded 3090, approx. 600W on full load. You can check my bench runs and temps on Hwbot.
That's interesting since I've personally been running 6x XPG GT's on my girlfriend's PC for about 4 years now without any issues but none of them are from that serial number you mentioned. Either way the Mobius is amazing, the OC even more so if you can find it for a decent price and the ARGB...there's better fans out there. - Mike
Not yet. Designing a 140mm version of a high performance is very, very hard due to a number of factors we discussed in our Noctua interview at Computex.
I have a question I hope you can help me with. I'm not exactly sure how you do your testing, whether you are using real CPU's or some kind of heat generating device similar to Gamers Nexus so I don't know what software you use to measure temperatures. On my Ryzen 5 5600, most software records multiple CPU temperatures such as CCD, Tctl/Tdie, CPU package and individual cores. Which temperature do you use when telling us the performance of these coolers? Thanks! Reply
I have a doubt.. Theoretically, aren't maglev bearings the best for durability in the fans? I though ball bearings and fluid bearings had wear issues over time?
Ball bearings are what is used industrially for longevity, the only issue they MIGHT develop is a bit of mechanical noise with a shitton of use, but it doesnt necessary mean they will.
The problem with "maglev" isn't necessarily longevity....its the noise they produce. Corsair's ML series are LOUD relative to their performance output.
Can you review the Thermalright TL-B12? Seems to have a similar design to the Noctua NF-A12 and Nidec GT and it’s only $12 in the US, which is like a third of the Noctua.
If you want pure Airflow fans, nothing come´s close to the Noiseblocker NB-eLoop 140 Fans. Got 3 of them in my front of the case, and they push 109,22 m³/h at 16,95 dB(A) at 900 RPM you cant hear these things, even if you try. Also variants fromr 600-1400 RPM are available.
Tell me you guys are chomping at the bit to get the Alphacool Apex Stealth Metal fans in october or november. I'm saving on upgrading my PC fans until that's out. Otherwise I might've been buying these Mobius OC fans
Out of curiosity, I tested the Cooler Master mobius oc impeler on the XPG VENTO PRO, and I got less noise and vibration; higher cfm and static pressure... I was surprised to see the have the same mechanism and ball bearings! 😊
Thanks for your fan testing, completely thorough and usable real world data. Didn't even need to buy a $100,000 fan tester and brag about it without actually ever producing any content like some other channel, you just plain delivered.
We prefer real world analysis and bragging isn't our thing anyways. As a matter of fact, in our recent conversation with Noctua, they mentioned "fan testers" actually end up giving a lot of results that'll never be translated to real world, in-system realities: ruclips.net/video/BAJAJ3KKfRA/видео.html
Methodologies take us months and months to put together, not to mention test and validate our testing procedures / equipment / systems. Don't expect 140mm before 2024. Its being worked on though.
Thanks for sharing, I appriciate all the effort and time you invest on it. Also your language is so easy to understand.... These fans are not for me, because of the motor sound at low speeds... But it's great for those who use a closed case.
BTW, It's not the loudness we are interested in when we ask for sound samples, it's the pitch of the noise aka tonality. To give you an example, look at Gentle Typhoon vs Noctua. They are almost the same on paper, but if you ever tried to use 3 of each on a rad, you know what I'm talking about.
"Its great at above 48 decibels" I don't know about you Mike, but I don't want my PC at that noise level generally. This is not such a strong benefit in my opinion. Atleast the low noise performance of the oc version is quite good.
120mm is a hard sale as many diy is 140mm and the niche passive cooling. Then you think of noctua for fans or even bequiet.. then again corsair overprice link ones
i have 2 of these on my Hyper 212... and my 12600k on gaming load hovers around 45c with these running nearly silent. and the RGB on the models i got looks so good too
P12 Max has some teething problems right now with some batches. Its something we're going to be covering. That being said, I clearly mentioned that its ONE OF the bang for buck leaders WHEN / IF you can find it on sale like I did.
I would love to purchase the ARGB ones in white, but in Germany they`re almost out of stock everywhere and the pricing is horrible. Even a Lian Li Uni Fan is cheaper then the white Mobius ARGB. 😐
The P12 Max continues to impress for being a $9 fan
Even not being budget limited, I'd still go with the P12 Max. Why spend 3-4x as much for nearly no gain?
Longevity? at least in my experience with some of my Arctic fans. But I'd still buy them again! 😄 Most of them are still running.
Yeah that's pretty much my takeaway too. Why complicate things with 3 different models when the P12 Max matches the higher-end model for cheaper?
They have really bad quality assurance, though. And even if you have them at 20%, they are still far noisier than my old Noctuas at full speed (they have no PWM)
@@blue-lu3izYep, I think these fans should outlast the cheaper Arctic fans.
it's morbin time
🐐
My favorite part of this review is when he said it's morbin time
The memes are strong with this one. ;)
Morbin Zord !
Clicked the vid just for this
Hats off guys simply the most relevant dataset for enthusiasts looking for a quiet, powerful and cost conscious build.
Thanks. We spent and still spend a long time trying to present all the results we get in a meaningful and understandable, user friendly way.
Hands down the best youtube channel for cpu coolers/fans love your work and enthusiasm Mike!!
I appreciate that!
Indeed! You are doing great work. Appreciated!
anyone whos been around PC building for a long while will know these are basically the classic Gentle Typhoons (just modernised). A fan that has gone through various brands over many years. A grail fan of the ages
The old GT were great, but do these have good motors on them? Some of these GT re-issues by other brands have had issues with reliability and motor noise.
TL;DR: the XPG branded Gentle Typhoons has an almost 100% chance of catastrophic failure on at least one batch (S/N 4M13xxxxxxx). I'd never thought I'd recommend a Cooler Master product over a Gentle Typhoon, but the CM Mobius 120 vanilla at $9 trounces everything unless you're fine with fan noise above 40dB and need every little bit of performance.
I have a lot of GTs from three different iterations (og Servo, Scythe and the new XPG) and the old ones (10+ years) are capped at ~1800rpm, DC controlled and can be too noisy if installed stock. Silicone or rubber fixers are a must, at least for me. They're built like a tank because the original fan was designed for enterprise applications. Never had a single failure or noise coming from the motor or unbalanced blades from a sample of around ~20 units, with some approaching 15 years of use. I.e. the good, old Gentle Typhoon everybody knows.
The XPG Vento Pro is made by Nidec as in every other versions, comes with passable silicone dampers on each corner, PWM control, extension sleeved cables, and it's capped at ~2250rpm. I bought five XPG units last August, two of which had a severe blade plastic stretching issue, causing frame striking and several blades cracked near the base/motor housing. Apart from me, some other people had the same problem, and it's very likely caused by a faulty batch with the S/N starting with 4M13xxxxxxx; all reports are from faulty fans with this SN. All others with S/N 4L4xxxxxxxx are fine but I'm keeping a close eye on them. All XPG units were bought from the same e-tailer here in Brazil, FWIW. It was a steal for approx. $10, though.
That said, I bought two CM Mobius 120 vanilla and two Mobius 120P ARGB for testing after some hush hush on various OC forums. The vanilla one is still on sale for ~$9 and the 120P ARGB is going for ~$12. I would never test a Cooler Master fan if the price wasn't so cheap. Anyway, I mounted them on a Noctua D-15 cooling a 5950X OCed to ~250W package power. The Mobius vanilla slightly outperformed all my Noctua A12x25 for a third of the price and was within margin of error from the XPG GTs but way quieter. Like Michael and Igor's Lab found out, the ARGB version is worse in every way. I run a custom loop with 3x 360 Magicool G2 45mm thick rads on my gaming PC with a 5800X3d and a 3090 shunt modded, so about 600W of heat. In this configuration, any half-decent fan will do the job, so pick the cheaper, quieter ones.
Not enough fan vids out there, appreciated.
Would love to see a Mobius oc 140
You and a lot of other people. ;)
Cool video, Mike. I’m a fan of your work and always blown away by how thorough you are. Keep it up (no pressure)!
Thanks!
Haha! I see what you did there. Such fan behavior!
Me too, big fan! I rely on Mike's reviews for filtering through all the "hot wind" of marketing claims! 😁
Hey Mike! Would you consider doing the best 120mm slim fan round up? Great content BTW. Realy useful. Keep it up!
There are several coming out later this year so maybe in early 2024.
With Arctic P12-Max-s being cheaper and better in every way, it's hard to choose something different!
They're not better in every way, but they are so close that it's hard to recommend anything else really unless you absolutely need super high end performance like with the T30 screaming at 3k RPM. Spending an extra $20-$30 a fan to gain 1 or maybe 2C seems a little silly imo.
@@Gruntsworth But this one has lifetime warranty?
@@Gruntsworth Numbers don't lie fam!
@@polelix1023 Lifetime warranty doesn't matter, especially iif you know how to fix fans yourself
@@JABelms How?
always happy to see the aircooler guy!
I hope the OC 140 will be out soon so I can replace my old bequiet ;).
However, I also wanted to commend you on your attention to detail in filming, editing, music selection, and the clarity of the charts. They were easy to read and understand. When I watch other's video, I need to pause several times to be able to understand what is going on.
Kudos to you Mike and your team for producing such high-quality work!
Am I crazy to think that 25 bucks for a fan is stupid expensive? A rebate in some regions really isn't a plus here.
I remember buying P12s for $5 CAD regular price. I still have those fans running in my case after several years. I think my oldest fans are 10 years old.
Hopefully we can get a similar database for 140mm fans soon, I’d love to replace my old bequiets
We are working on it but don't expect the methodology to be in place until sometime in 2024.
@@HardwareCanucks Ugh, and here i was hoping to upgrade my system by the end of 2023! Will probably go with a Be Quiet Pure Base case, with wholly 140mm ARGN fans. But i'm reluctant to buy anything without Mike's endorsement haha! 😅
@@HardwareCanucksThank you for your hard work by the way!
Looking forward to your Alphacool Apex Stealth Fan review. Cool and quiet. Bring it.
Why is a12x25 not on aio test?
The fact that the Arctic P12 can be had for $7 (when bought in a 5-pack) and the Pccooler 120 Halo can be had for $10 (when bought in a 3-pack) pretty much makes any bigger brands irrelevant. Even on sale.
Haven't been a fan of Cooler Master since they made cheap garbage in the early/mid 2000's. Even though it appears they've greatly improved the company R&D and product quality, I still don't feel as though I'm missing out on much. Been using Noctua since 2007 and I'll stick with their SSO/SSO2 bearing design for the time being. My first set lasted 9 years, no failures. Switched to their Redux line for a different color. Those are 7 years old, no failures. Everyone seems to be trying to mimic Noctua's designs - whether blades, tolerances or introducing fluid bearings. Suddenly everyone want's to be the fan king, which is fine...it helps drive innovation and competitive prices.
I like this content, it's so hard to compete in this sector it's fun to see anyone do so well at low noise levels.
I hope to see a best 140mm fan roundup soon
Why there is no Noctua A12x25 on the final temperature tests (AIO and Air cooler) but it exists on the air-flow comparison?
help me out t30 phantek or this mobius oc?
Idk, it's probably specifically my hearing profile, but CM's fans universally emit a wheezing sound to my ear that I can't stand. It's always good to have more competitors in the market, though. Thanks for continuing this fan testing series. Stay awesome!
Annoying sound profiles in other fans is why I am forever stuck with A12x25's. Nothing else sounds "unannoying".
@@BOXabaca Really? How about arctic?
@@BOXabaca I'm also cursed by those fans, the motor hum they emit makes them unbearable at about 1000 RPM, which is supposed to be their sweet spot.
The only fans I've had that don't annoy me are the case fans of the O11 Air Mini, for some obscure reason. They're extremely basic, yet they have the least offensive sound profile. Very weird
There's also Silverstone's Shark Force 120 argb that I want to see getting tested. SilverStone claims this fan has 100cfm of airflow and 4.66mmH2O of static pressure at 2500rpm, which if it is true, it's gonna be argb performance king.
Silverstone has historically had very poor airflow/static pressure to noise ratio fans from comparisons I've seen over the years. I'd say the exception would be the air penetrators. Would be nice to see if some of the newer models were improving. I believe they may actually have an ARGB air pen now.
That's what they CLAIM. There's a lot of claims in the industry and testing doesn't back it up. The SharkForce looks interesting though.
Could you update your Air Cooler testing to standardize on a heatsink with a denser fin array configuration more representative of current gen air coolers? That is to say not the U12S since it has a relatively low fin density specifically to make it work well with lower speed / lower static pressure fans in a way that prevents the next gen higher static pressure fans from really standing out from the crowd like they would on something with higher fin density like say the Scythe Fuma 3?
the mobius oc dropped my itx builds peak cpu temps by 25 degrees F. couldnt be happier
CM always knocking it out of the park!
There a more to case airflow than cfm. What is the airflow pattern?
But good info to think about.
That's exactly what I said. Hence why we have other tests.
@@HardwareCanucks I'm not sure you know what I meant. Like does the fan create a focused air flow behind it or is it a wide pattern. Fan blade design and frame design can dictate how the air is dispersed when it exits the fan and determines how effective it is at traveling thru a case.
For example a wide pattern wont really travel well thru a case but a focused flow will.
Just missing information like this. If its in the video I must have missed it.
But the Rad and heatsink testing is great stuff.
I appreciate your amazing content. I would love to see more fan round ups. Currently planning my next system.
Thanks! Right now we're looking into 140mm through a completely updated methodology.
Got some Alpenföhn Wingboost 3 in my system and I can tell ya, my PC has never been this cool and whisper quiet before. Absolutely amazing fans!
Is there a way you guys can start focusing on the 140mm versions as well they’re always left out
I tested this fan, at 1350rpm -10%pwm-, keeps the cpu temps, cooler than all.the other fans I own (a12x25, gt2150, t30, p12max, sw pro4, etc), but the sound frequency drove me crazy. I dont know if maybe I got a defective sample. On a heatsink the sound is lower but as a case fan its even worse.
I just got one and the bearing noise from the motor is terrible 🥲
Interested in seeing more content with that fan with the metal frame that was at Computex.
was wondering if you were going to look at the new Cooler Master MA824 air cooler. Would love to see how it stacks up with the Deepcool assassin IV
Hasn't the MA824 been out for like 3 years now? I believe its just been updated with an all-black version.
Thank you, Mike. You are the best. 👍
Hope they make a 140mm version.
Looking to add some more fans to my Corsair 5000D case. Looks like I'll grab a couple of these! Thanks for the informative video!
Great work here once again Mike 💪🥰👍! Tbh thou, unless you generally spend a lot, you get better results which is he norm. CM did an amazing job here and when you getting about 10c> cooling compared to the opposition, then I feel it’s worth spending extra for these fans. When you’re getting a few 0c here and there …. Get the cheapest around.
Love all your content. You're the reason I subbed to the channel.
Oh thanks!
Why blue ? Like are they trying not sell them.
Why NOT? ;)
Most cases are pretty dark anyways. To be honest though its the manufacturing process. What you're looking at is the raw material sorta like Noctua's Sterox.
Would be nice if you could do a video comparing fan controllers (and their software, as well as compatibility with 3rd party software like fan control and argus) from NZXT, Phanteks, Aquacomputer and so on.
That would be a great idea! I'm using "fan control" to control my case fans by a mixture of GPU and CPU temps. It also can decrease the increments so the fan wouldn't spike up so suddenly.
Why do various Noctua option get included and then removed between your various charts in this video?
Because the Noctua fan wasn't tested in the same continual conditions as some of the others so it would be disingenuous to include its results. The same goes for others like the Pro 4, Wonder Snail, etc.
Shame that Noctua NF-A12 wasn't included. Otherwise looking very good.
For PR purpose they must exclude the best competitor out of picture haha
It was included. Look at the charts.
@@animefreak4453 Only appears in two charts.
Noctua is a solid middle of the pack fan. Its in the bar charts but not everywhere since it wasn't tested in certain instances and in the same environment which means we couldn't directly compare it in some cases.
The A12 isn't a good competitor. At least not anymore with the new crop of fans. Its good, just not great.
Hi Mike, it seems there's no Noctua A12x25 in the real-world comparisons, any idea how they'd compare?
Thank you for making these, helps a lot.
Blades can't expand if they're fully encased in a plastic pipe. I'd love to see someone do an extremely in depth comparison between linked blades and the new plastic that doesn't expand that noctua is using. See which is better, because we know which is cheaper.
@dalebob9364 They(noctua) obviously don't think it was the best. So kinda a moot point there mate.
@@blue-lu3iz Noctua historically was the best back in the 2010s, but other manufacturers have improved by leaps and bounds the last few years while Noctua has remained mostly stagnant. They can't afford to have silly 8 year development cycles for just ONE fan or they're going to be left in the dust. I'd say more progress has been made in the last 5 years in cooling than in the previous 15.
@@blue-lu3iz Noctua just don't sell shitty products. Corsair and Cooler Master do.
@@blue-lu3iz I bought ised Noctua ans they're great.
By the way, there is another point, SF120M has very noisy bearings, if you put NSK instead of native ones, they will look much more advantageous. I have 4 SF120MS, all behave about the same, the bearings are clearly audible at any rpm. Everything would be fine, but I recently received a defective mobius 140p, in which I decided to put a ball bearing instead of a native sleeve (yes, that noctua, that coolermaster, that the rest of the upgraded plain bearings are beautifully called "FDB", but in fact this is an ordinary sleeve), and after installing NSK - of course you can hear them, if you put your ear directly to the bearing on a running cooler, but from a distance of 50cm, it is almost impossible to distinguish the bearing, they are so quiet (at both minimum and medium and maximum speeds). And the native bearing of the SF120M is audible even from a meter at any speed (we are talking about an open stand, the situation in the case will be slightly different). And what is good is that it is easier to change a ball bearing to another ball bearing than to change a sleeve to a ball bearing if the hands grow from the right place. Of the quiet ones, I found NSK bearings, but perhaps there are other quiet ones too, it already depends on the region of residence that you have on the market.
p.s. the bearings on the P12 max are a little quieter than on the cooler master, but I think it makes sense to upgrade them to NSK too
What desktop speakers are those in the background?
Edifier R1280T
What is lubrification?
I've been using the Mobius 120 argb and 240 argb for almost a year now and I gotta say, these things are amazing they're really quiet for RGB fans and really keep my PC cool, and I personally really like the look of there RGB. All I really want is a 200mm version so I can replace the 200mm sickleflow's that came in my HAF 500.
So can I just swap the stock fans that came with my Corsair H100i Elite Capellix from two of the Mobius 120 OC and just plug it into the fan hub it came with? Or should I just keep what came with it
I love these fans, I was able to snag 4 140P RGBs and 2 120P RGBs for $20 each, albeit in 6 different transactions. I had to buy one at a time to clip the coupon.
Curious of the actual "sound" as I have found a few brands that test well but I cannot stand the sound profile. Noctuas have always been great in that department.
Arctic p12 max has very good reviews for db measurements but I cannot stand them when they go beyond 1800 rpm. Noctua actual noise profile is very tolerable or really silent throughout the rpm range. (Referring to A12x25)
The P12 Max sound awesome
You shouldn't be running fans at high RPM anyways unless you have a very specific use case scenario. ;)
@@HardwareCanucks I run mine at around 1500 rpm, but when I manually change them to max speed the are awesome and move a lot of air through my Corsair x7 rad…
@@cezarnebun9607 If yoi spend less on fans you can afford larger/more rads.
1x 360mm (Corsair) + 3x Noctua A12x25 = 177€
2x 360mm (Corsair) + 6 Arctic P12 =195€, that's 18€ more for double the rad surface.
I have 2x 480mm XR7 and 2 360mm XR7, push pull, all Arctic P12 running at 500/550rpm max, a single Noctua A12x25 at 1200rpm stands out if placed inside my system when gaming. (I tried, you can clearly hear when the fan it's on or off over the other 30+ fans spinning at 500rpm) I know my case is extreme but rad surface is king.
I love your fans videos, is there any chance to make some compairson video between 140mm fans? Which 140mm fans would you choose? I see a plenty of good options in 120mm category which simply doesn't exist in 140mm.
What would you rather pick for the same price : 2x of these (120mm) bad boys, or 1x Fractal Design Prisma AL-18 PWM (180mm) ?
Just bought 5 p12 max for €30 total and is still the value king for me. But this fan came as a surprise to me.
That's a crazy deal man. Do you have any issues with them at lower speeds?
I hope you have some of the new AlphaCool fans coming. I'd love to see your review.
Their RGB fans were absolute trash in our roundup: ruclips.net/video/9hf33vKtMTM/видео.html
@@HardwareCanucks The new fan should be really something else they say.
Would replacing my stock thermalright assassin king mini fan that only hits 1500 rpm be very noticeable improvement under high loads? It maxes at 95c on prime95 in around 8 minutes. It gets to high 80s and low 90s during gaming session on games that have a CPU load of around 90%+. Or at the price of fan ($30 currently), I may as well switch to a peerless assassin mini? Another questions, does my tower being 5 millimeters or so from the glass hurt performance?
TL;DR: the XPG branded Gentle Typhoons has an almost 100% chance of catastrophic failure on at least one batch (S/N 4M13xxxxxxx). I'd never thought I'd recommend a Cooler Master product over a Gentle Typhoon, but the CM Mobius 120 vanilla at $9 trounces everything for dual-tower air or AIOs unless you're fine with fan noise well past 40dB and need every little bit of performance.
I have a lot of GTs from three different iterations (og Servo, Scythe and the new XPG) and the old ones (10+ years) are capped at ~1800rpm, DC controlled and can be too noisy if installed stock. Silicone or rubber fixers are a must, at least for me. They're built like a tank because the original fan was designed for enterprise applications. Never had a single failure or noise coming from the motor or unbalanced blades from a sample of around ~20 units, with some approaching 15 years of use. I.e. the good, old Gentle Typhoon everybody knows.
The XPG Vento Pro is made by Nidec as in every other versions, comes with passable silicone dampers on each corner, PWM control, extension sleeved cables, and it's capped at ~2250rpm. I bought five XPG units last August, two of which had a severe blade plastic stretching issue, causing frame striking and several blades cracked near the base/motor housing. Apart from me, some other people had the same problem, and it's very likely caused by a faulty batch with the S/N starting with 4M13xxxxxxx; all reports are from faulty fans with this SN. All others with S/N 4L4xxxxxxxx are fine but I'm keeping a close eye on them. All XPG units were bought from the same e-tailer here in Brazil, FWIW. It was a steal for approx. $10, though.
That said, I bought two CM Mobius 120 vanilla and two Mobius 120P ARGB for testing after some hush hush on various OC forums. The vanilla one is still on sale for ~$9 and the 120P ARGB is going for ~$12. I would never test a Cooler Master fan if the price wasn't so cheap. Anyway, I mounted them on a Noctua D-15 cooling a 5950X OCed to ~250W package power. The Mobius vanilla slightly outperformed all my Noctua A12x25 for a third of the price and was within margin of error from the XPG GTs but way quieter. Like Michael and Igor's Lab found out, the ARGB version is worse in every way. I run a custom loop with 3x 360 Magicool G2 45mm thick rads on my gaming PC with a 5800X3d and a 3090 shunt modded, so about 600W of heat. In this configuration, any half-decent fan will do the job, so pick the cheaper, quieter ones.
Edit: I'm currently running 9x Mobius 120 vanilla on all my three 45mm rads all exhaust, one Mobius 120 rear and two NF-A15 front mesh intake on a O11D Evo, all paired with liquid temperature. Loop is cooling a 5800X3D and a shunt modded 3090, approx. 600W on full load. You can check my bench runs and temps on Hwbot.
That's interesting since I've personally been running 6x XPG GT's on my girlfriend's PC for about 4 years now without any issues but none of them are from that serial number you mentioned. Either way the Mobius is amazing, the OC even more so if you can find it for a decent price and the ARGB...there's better fans out there. - Mike
Any word on a 140mm Mobius OC? Currently CM's website only lists the 140mm ARGB variant.
Not yet. Designing a 140mm version of a high performance is very, very hard due to a number of factors we discussed in our Noctua interview at Computex.
@@HardwareCanucks Thanks for the reply! I'll check out that interview.
One thing that keeps me with Lian Li is that sweet daisy chain.... at this price point, this should be standard.
What controller do I buy to control mobius ARGB 120mm
Control from your motherboard if it has ARGB
Great video!
Mike, you should check out the new Scyth Grand Tornado. Up to 3000 RPM, Full LCP material.
I have a question I hope you can help me with. I'm not exactly sure how you do your testing, whether you are using real CPU's or some kind of heat generating device similar to Gamers Nexus so I don't know what software you use to measure temperatures. On my Ryzen 5 5600, most software records multiple CPU temperatures such as CCD, Tctl/Tdie, CPU package and individual cores. Which temperature do you use when telling us the performance of these coolers? Thanks!
Reply
We always use real CPUs. Not static heat loads. For Ryzen CPUs we use Tctl/Tdie since that's what the CPU reports for fan speed control.
@@HardwareCanucks Thank you so much! Looking forward to your next cooler comparison video, always a great watch.
I have a doubt.. Theoretically, aren't maglev bearings the best for durability in the fans? I though ball bearings and fluid bearings had wear issues over time?
Ball bearings are what is used industrially for longevity, the only issue they MIGHT develop is a bit of mechanical noise with a shitton of use, but it doesnt necessary mean they will.
@@KarolusTemplareV hmm.. so the corsair ml fans are just a gimmick?
The problem with "maglev" isn't necessarily longevity....its the noise they produce. Corsair's ML series are LOUD relative to their performance output.
@@HardwareCanucks I see... So the name is actually misleading
Can you review the Thermalright TL-B12? Seems to have a similar design to the Noctua NF-A12 and Nidec GT and it’s only $12 in the US, which is like a third of the Noctua.
Excellent work, as always! It would be nice to see a comparison between the 200mm fans on the market.
Lub dynamic bearing - thats marketing jargon. W
If you want pure Airflow fans, nothing come´s close to the Noiseblocker NB-eLoop 140 Fans.
Got 3 of them in my front of the case, and they push 109,22 m³/h at 16,95 dB(A) at 900 RPM you cant hear these things, even if you try.
Also variants fromr 600-1400 RPM are available.
had two of those and it died within 3 years of use, very disappointing.
@@GBR9794 Back luck i guess.Have 2 systems of them running since 2017 no issues.
There's two issues with Noiseblockers: availability and longevity. Neither seems to be very good.
I hope they come up with a slim version.
Yup! We covered it in the Computex video. For the time being it will be used on some of their low profile coolers though.
how about icegale xtra ?
can't wait to see the alphacool one in computex
Just wait for the Alphacool metal fan
That's a whole another dimension
Not sure about that at all. We've already seen Alphacool make some outlandish claims with their Aurora series and then have them fall completely flat.
@@HardwareCanucks that is why we have some very fine folks like you to bust those claims :)
I assume they don’t make a low profile version?
I think there is a 120mm slim...heard that somewhere. Coming out soon is my guess.
Its going to be used in their low profile coolers but not sure if its coming as an individual model.
3:45 “Lubrification”. Mans is just making up words 💀
Its my French showing through.
I love how you guys do testing on your fans.
hope you will test that metal fan that was announced recently :)
Would love to see a review of corsair’s af elite fans…
both on unrestricted and cpu cooler, the regular Mobius 120 is the only one I can compare with the XPG Ventro Pro -GT2150-, for us who prefer silence.
Unfortunately the Mobius 120 OC is in Germany hardly available at all and if it is available it is very expensive.
When the world morb'd the most, he morbin'd
Would like to see Fractal and Thermalright fans being tested.
The thermalright C12 ARGB was a champion but capped at 40db, you can see it in the other ARGB video
@@LuisDiaz-qg3eg I saw that but that's just one model. They have like a dozen different fans especially in the non-ARGB range.
Tell me you guys are chomping at the bit to get the Alphacool Apex Stealth Metal fans in october or november. I'm saving on upgrading my PC fans until that's out. Otherwise I might've been buying these Mobius OC fans
Out of curiosity, I tested the Cooler Master mobius oc impeler on the XPG VENTO PRO, and I got less noise and vibration; higher cfm and static pressure... I was surprised to see the have the same mechanism and ball bearings! 😊
Which fan bro?
@@danteraisaina9020 XPG Vento Pro or GT2150
Brown NF-Axx Noctuas are simply the best.. I don't have time to check which model from which brand is not a scam
Thanks for your fan testing, completely thorough and usable real world data. Didn't even need to buy a $100,000 fan tester and brag about it without actually ever producing any content like some other channel, you just plain delivered.
We prefer real world analysis and bragging isn't our thing anyways. As a matter of fact, in our recent conversation with Noctua, they mentioned "fan testers" actually end up giving a lot of results that'll never be translated to real world, in-system realities: ruclips.net/video/BAJAJ3KKfRA/видео.html
I might be MOEBING out for my new build
Still waiting for a fan roundup of 140mm fans.
Methodologies take us months and months to put together, not to mention test and validate our testing procedures / equipment / systems. Don't expect 140mm before 2024. Its being worked on though.
Thanks for sharing, I appriciate all the effort and time you invest on it. Also your language is so easy to understand.... These fans are not for me, because of the motor sound at low speeds... But it's great for those who use a closed case.
Secret Airflow Monster is my wife’s name every morning. I can hear the exact minute she wakes up! 💨
dBA aside, ball bearing noise ≠ FDB noise
That's why they don't include sound samples.
And we never will until RUclips improves its audio compression or unless its for a very specific situation
@@HardwareCanucks I call BS! I said on another comm, boost the audio in post.
BTW, It's not the loudness we are interested in when we ask for sound samples, it's the pitch of the noise aka tonality. To give you an example, look at Gentle Typhoon vs Noctua. They are almost the same on paper, but if you ever tried to use 3 of each on a rad, you know what I'm talking about.
@@Tealc2323 🤦♂
Cooler Master: it's morbin time.
"Its great at above 48 decibels" I don't know about you Mike, but I don't want my PC at that noise level generally. This is not such a strong benefit in my opinion. Atleast the low noise performance of the oc version is quite good.
I agree. Hence why more emphasis in this video is put on its performance in the lower achievable decibel ranges.
It's Mobin' time!
120mm is a hard sale as many diy is 140mm and the niche passive cooling. Then you think of noctua for fans or even bequiet.. then again corsair overprice link ones
i have 2 of these on my Hyper 212... and my 12600k on gaming load hovers around 45c with these running nearly silent. and the RGB on the models i got looks so good too
How tf is the mobius OC a bang for the buck leader for under 30 bucks? The p12 max is a third of the price with pretty much the same performance.
P12 Max has some teething problems right now with some batches. Its something we're going to be covering. That being said, I clearly mentioned that its ONE OF the bang for buck leaders WHEN / IF you can find it on sale like I did.
I would love to purchase the ARGB ones in white, but in Germany they`re almost out of stock everywhere and the pricing is horrible. Even a Lian Li Uni Fan is cheaper then the white Mobius ARGB. 😐
5 hours after this video went up, the U.S. Amazon price for the OC is $24.
Yeah, seems they sold through of their "sale".