Akasa APACHE fans

[Pob255]

Just looking at Scan as I've been thinking of uping the 92mm PWM fan on my ultima90 to a 120mm PWM fan and I spotted this
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1036586

Here's the Akasa page about it

http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?t...model=AK-FN057

However I cannot find any other info or reviews on it.
has anyone spotted anything about these fans?

I will say that I've seen blades that shape before, on server high volume air flow fans

Don't like the colour much but as it will be inside my p180 that's not a major issue

[ad_no1]

Hi

There is a review about the fan in the following link:

http://tech-reviews.co.uk/reviews/ak...-apache-fan/1/

[Pob255]

Well one of my recent orders from Scan was a few quid short of free P&P so I added the akasa Apache fan to it.

It arrived today, I'll do a mini-review shortly but had to open it up, look at it and do a quick test before I thought about taking photos.

Don't know what it is about me and fans, I just have to get them up and running before doing any thing else.

Inital impression, Very nice
The Apache is not as heavy and hefty as a Scythe S-FLEX, the frame is very solid none the less.
Plugging it in and compairing it against an Antec Tri-cool, it's slightly less noisey and moves about the same amount of air as the tri-cool on medium.
It's slightly more noisey than the tri-cool on low but moves more air, then again that's not surprising as on low the tri-cool moves very little air.

A more complete mini-review to follow . . .

[Pob255]

Ok here's some more details & some photos

To start with the box front and back

Unlike other fans I've bought the box is a fair bit larger than the fan.

Here's the reason for the large box. It's actually larger than the box my yate loon 140mm fans came in.

the inner packageing is quite large, formed plastic with a plastic lid, holds it all in place and protects it from any knocks or damage at any point.

I put the fan on the kitchen ballance scales with an antec tri-cool to compair them, they weight the same.
The plastic feels the same but the frame of the Apache is deffinately slightly more solid, the tri-cool has a slight amount of flex in it, where as the Apache is rock solid.


Here's the blurb on the back of the fan, it's got a Underwriters Laboratories mark on there, however looking all over the fan and the box I cannot find the Underwriters Laboratories number on there anyware.
The reason I was hopeing to find one is that this fan is on Scythe's japanese website http://www.scythe.co.jp/cooler/apache-fan.html
Combined with the same Hydro Dynamic Bearing that is used in the Scythe S-Flex, I was wondering if they are made by Scythe for Akasa or simular.

Anti-vibration rubber plugs, these are soft quite strechy and double wedged, so it grips both sets of holes on these open frame holes.
Here's a photo of a plug inserted so you can see.


On to the fan wire/connector

As you can see it's full sleeved, right up to the plug, although it stops about 1cm short of the frame.
The material used to sleeve the wire is not a woven braid, but some rubber like material.
On closer inspection, it looks like there maybe a woven meterial under it, so I'm guessing it's a woven braid that has then been rubberised.


All told this does seem to be a very good fan, I've not done much in the way of performance testing, just some simple eye/ear/feel tests vs a tri-cool see my post above this one
One thing I'll add was I could hear no noticeable motor noise at ether 12v or 5v

I'll have to dig through my cupboard of computer bits to find the 120mm fan clips that came with my thermalright Ultima90 before I can install it in my case and test how well it work on my cpu cooler.

Replaceing my 92mm PWM cooler fan is the main reason I got the Apache and if it wasn't a PWM fan I would not of bothered, but that's because I've already replaced the antec tri-cools in my case and I much prefur the automatic fan control of PWM on a cpu cooler fan

I cannot afford to replace all the fans in my case at £10 a go, but if I had a motherboard that used all PWM fans, these would be on my list of fans to look at.

And to sign off here's an arty shot of the Akasa Apache



This has definately made it onto my personal list of good but expensive fans, right next to the Scythe S-flex.

If anyone else has any questions about this fan, please ask and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

[staffsMike]

So it's noisier than the tri-cool (set to low) at 12V?

[Pob255]

Yes at it's full 12v 1300rpm it is some ware between the Antec tri-cool medium and low setting for sound.
At 5v (???rpm, I'll have to test it pluged into a motherboard) it's so close sound level wise that I cannot tell the two apart by ear.
However at it's lowest setting the tri-cool is very quiet and it becomes very hard to tell fans apart by ear without a very very quiet environment.

At 12v the Apache definately pushes out the same amount or slightly more air than the tri-cool on medium.
Again too hard to tell at 5v vs low setting, but for me the tri cool on low just does not move enough air, it's the reason I originally replaced the tri-cools in my p180, when under load the combo of my e6600 and 9800gtx+ was building up quite a bit of heat that the tri-cools were struggling to get rid of, thus inturn causeing my cpu & graphics card fan to ramp up to higher speed.
And there's no point in running the tri-cools on there quietest setting when the cpu&gpu are makeing more noise than the tri-cools would on medium.

EDIT: one other point, the Apache seems to have a wide exhaust cone like the tri-cool, most other fans I've used have far more narrow exhaust cones

EDIT2: I did some comparasion tests of the tri-cool vs silverstone FN121 and Sharkoon system (medium) fan, I'd say the Apache comes in around the FN121 performance, but is higher build quility and less vibration.
Since fitting the FN121's in my case I've noticed vibrations when run at full speed, front one is ok beacuse I used rubber plug mounts, however the top fan in the p180 has to be directly mounted and plugs cannot be fitted.
http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-syst...ml#post1640291

[Vimeous]

Pob thanks for the mini-review.
Your admittedly subjective comparative tests are far more useful than just saying "If the max airflow of 57.53 CFM is true too, this fan is incredible. 57 CFM is pretty high for a case fan and for a SILENT case fan, blimey; I think we’re onto a winner." like the affore mentioned tech-review.
You've given me a frame of reference to help me choose.

I'm saving to replace my Antec Pro-Series 120mm's (http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=ODA2) as they make my PC sound more like a small air-con unit! I was considering the Akasa Amber or Sharkoon "Golf Ball" but I'll have a closer look at the Apache now.
Fingers crossed it pushes as much air as it claims

[Pob255]

Well I'm not surprised that's a 2000rpm fan

IMO The Apache fan is:
Good quality build
Good performance
PWM

If you want a 120mm PWM fan then this is the one I would look at getting.
If you don't care about PWM I would consider something else.

Would I put it up there with Scythe and nocturn? yes.
However every time I actually look at fans side by side Speed is the single biggest impact on both sound and air flow.

[Vimeous]

...the Antec's were originally bought to cool a cupboard containing a PC so noise was pretty much ignored. Then when the ambient temp of our study went north I was glad for any fan at all!

The latest Custom PC has a pretty big fan review with quantifyable testing. Despite the large number of fans reviewed they missed the Akasa Apache and Amber but they did cover other popular models. Combine that with comparisons like yours and I've a much better picture of what I need.

Thanks

[nibbler]

Dang is the new custom PC out?
I need to go buy that tomorrow

[Sukh]

Sorry for the bump, but would an Apache on low volts be quieter than an Amber at the same low volts?

Anyone own both, and is able to compare?

Thanks!

[Biscuit]

ambers are freaking awful.

I bought them because i figured undervolted they would be ok but no... they have the most annoying resonance. The apache fans so far in my experince are far far far better but they are really designed for PWM rather than normal undervolted use.

[DannyM]

I cannot afford to replace all the fans in my case at £10 a go, but if I had a motherboard that used all PWM fans, these would be on my list of fans to look at.

I stumbled across this mate after reading what you had wrote and buying one of the fans!

http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?t...model=AK-CB002

At the moment I have the fan set not to use PWM so I'm guessing it's running at max speed.

How does the PWM work exactly? I know my motherboard supports it, and I reckon it'd be quite handy as far as sound is concerned, but how does it know what temperatures to read? Is it a setting that I'd change in my BIOS?

[Pob255]

That PWM splitter runs off the CPU PWM fan header on the motherboard, so it's directly linked to the CPU temperature only.

Some motherboards also use PWM on the other headers with additional temperature sensors.

PWM = Pluse Width modulation, what this means is that instead of reduceing the voltage to slow the fan, which can cause issues/noise from some fan motors, it sends the 12volts to the fan in pluses.
ie turning the motor on and off very quickly, thus reduceing the speed of the fan.
This alows for lower speeds, some motors just will not be able to start the fan blades turning if the voltage is reduced to low, and eliminates undervoltage motor buzz.

Control of the fan speed under PWM function is controlled at the motherboard BIOS level based on the readings of a temperature sensor.

The settings you'll have will depend on what motherboard you have, a good PWM should have 4 options.

Target temperature (rated in C or F based off CPU temperature for a CPU fan header)
Start or Minimum Fan speed (given in % or 0-255 number rateing)
Delta temperature (this is +/- of the target temperature)
Stepping (This is the size of the fan speed "steps")

Now what happens is this, when you start up your pc, the PWM fan will start up at the Minimum speed, the motherboard will automatically check the current temperature vs the target temperature, and factor in the Delta.
If the temperature goes over the target temperature by the amount given by the delta it will then increase the fan speed by one step, it will keep increaseing the speed by one step as long as the temperature is above the target temperature + delta.
If the temperature is equal to the target temperature + or - the delta range then the fan speed will remain unchanged.
If the temperature falls below the target tempture - the delta then the fan speed will be reduced by one step, as long as it is above the minimum fan speed.

So the up shot of all this is the fan speed is controlled automatically by the motherboard based on your settings.

So let plug in some numbers to give you an example
Fan rated speed 1400rpm
Target temperature 45c
minimum speed 25%
delta 3
(step is often droped from newer motherboards)

When you start up your pc the fan will run around 450rpm and will continue to do so untill the cpu temperature goes over 45+3=48c
The motherboard will now automatically increase the fan speed untill the temperature goes below 48c and will keep the speed setting the same untill the cpu temperature goes below 45-3=42c
When it falls below 42c the motherboard will now start to decrease the fan speed and will keep decreaseing it untill the cpu temperature goes above 42c or reaches the minimum speed setting.

If you use that Akasa adaptor to control multiple fans off the motherboard cpu PWM header then all the fans will react to the cpu temperature too the motherboard PWM settings.