Good Fan Brands

[momaka]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Anyone familiar with Top Motor?

Not greatly, but I have one that came with a junk computer. It's a sleeve bearing 80 mm fan. Was a little dry when I got it, but then again, it was running as the exhaust fan for the junk computer, and at 12V constantly.
After cleaning the sleeve properly and adding a bit of oil in it, it ran extremely quiet and pushed lots of air. So overall, I would rate it as decent.

Powmax - Figures these would be bad

I don't think Powmax make their own fans but only re-brands. I have a Powmax LP-6100D PSU, and it has two 80 mm ball bearing Yate Loon fans re-branded with a Powmax sticker on them. The whole PSU was re-branded as CompUSA and it wasn't that cheap either when I bought it way back in 2001. I could definitely see Powmax PSUs using the cheapest of the cheapest fans for their low-end units.

[c_hegge]

Re: Good Fan Brands

I'd put Top Motor on par with Yate Loon and Globe Fan. I think they're better than ADDA, but they aren't as good as NMB or Delta. Antec used to use them a lot in the SmartPower series, and I never saw one fail there (although that probably doesn't mean much - those PSUs ran them extremely slowly). I've seen the odd one die when used as an exhaust case fan in a Prescott based PC and run at full speed constantly, but they aren't too bad.

[theokretes]

Re: Good Fan Brands

While we have several threads mentioning fans failing and what they were replaced with, We don't have one with a list of good, reliable fan brands. From what I've seen:

Good Brands:
- Minebea/NMB
- Panaflo
- Sanyo Denky
- Delta
- Papst
- Noctua
- Nidec
- AVC

OK Brands
- Sunon
- Foxconn
- Yate Loon

Post what you have found with any other brands

Okay, I'd just like to say that the OP nailed it with that list. There's a lot of people who will buy some off-branded coolermaster sleeve and think it's a quality fan (gross!)

I like noctua fans for quick quiet general purpose applications. Funny colours, too :p

Vintage PAPST fans are totally crazy. Here's a real finger chopper, made of 100% pure metal, 120mm:

It sucks about 50 watts? One thing I like about the blade is that it'll keep spinning for a very long time after power is ceased.
But yeah... it would chop off your fingers at full speed, no doubt.

I always like buying metal-bladed case fans whenever possible. Requires a proper chassis for mounting

[Behemot]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Man, considering usual speeds of such fans, I'd say it'll chop off your fingers even at half speed

[Wester547]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Is it pretty safe to say that when a fan stops spinning and has a nice "rock" to it, and not abruptly stop, that it's in good shape?

I don't mean to bump threads but I'd like to know the answer to this as well. I ask because I've seen both fans without much of any lubricant at all and fans with ample lubricant stop "nicely" (particularly the smaller fans whose sleeves wear much less), but then I've seen 80mm ADDA fans and 92mm AVC fans for an example stop very fast and very abruptly with no lubricant left, but I wonder if that's just because they've slowed down so considerably. Does the amount of oil left determine how fast a fan stops when power is cut to it, and the rock to it (for reasons other than lower RPM)? I've seen some fans rock 5-6 times when they stop, others 3-4, and this ranges from 70mm fans to 92mm fans (I know it isn't always consistent). I guess it would heavily depend on the design though, how many blades there are, how large the fan is, how worn or dry the sleeve or shaft is in the case of sleeve bearing fans, the friction fans must overcome, etc...

[stj]

Re: Good Fan Brands

the bump is caused by the magnet in the hub aligning with the field as it disipates in the windings.

but the best way to see if a fan is in good shape is this,
for ball-race fans - run it and listen - if it sounds like a grinder or a rattle it's on the way out.

for sleeve fans, wihout power - put 3 fingers on the blades at equal spacing and try to gently rock the blades - there shouldnt be any movement.
if there is then the shaft or sleeve are worn down.

you see this a lot on chipset & gpu fans.

for checking the lube on sleeve fans, flick it and it should spin a litle and slow to a stop - it should not just instant-stop like it has brakes!

[Pentium4]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Just found out that Xfan is actually our beloved RUILIAN SCIENCE: http://en.x-fan.com/index.php

[stj]

Re: Good Fan Brands

i could have told you that - it's in the datasheets. :0

[momaka]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Rulian Science
Although that fan posted above doesn't seem so bad. When I think of Rulian Science, I think of those cheap cheap cheap fans in low-end CWT power supplies sold with the cases. They have a tendency to seize-up very quickly and never spin freely even when new.

i could have told you that - it's in the datasheets

But you didn't

[stj]

Re: Good Fan Brands

But you didn't

now i did.

here are the ones i got a few of.
the quality feels good, they run well.

i cant say how long they last because i got them for something that will only run a few hours a day - and it's not a psu or heatsink.

[Pentium4]

Re: Good Fan Brands

You know those "mysterious" no name fans found in a lot of generic PSU's with the two arrows in a circle? I think I finally found the manufacturer! "BOLUO XIN ZHEN HENG ELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED"
http://xzhdz.com/en/aboutus-default.html

[UserXP]

Re: Good Fan Brands

I found that Nidec CPU fans for Intel Socket478/775 processors lasted much longer than Sanyo Denki ones. I know this from experience. I think I still have one Sanyo Denki fan for one of these sockets, which works, but it sounds as if its grinding sand. All the Nidec ones still work (I know of 3 different PCs with them, running on everyday basis) and they are almost noiseless. Both brands use double ball-bearings, but in my book, I'd say that Nidec is quite a good brand.

[Behemot]

Re: Good Fan Brands

You know those "mysterious" no name fans found in a lot of generic PSU's with the two arrows in a circle? I think I finally found the manufacturer! "BOLUO XIN ZHEN HENG ELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED"
http://xzhdz.com/en/aboutus-default.html

Yo sure it belongs to "good" fan brands?

[Pentium4]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Yo sure it belongs to "good" fan brands?

No But I didn't want to start a new thread for it

[stj]

Re: Good Fan Brands

if you look at that site, they mostly do the plastics and sell the frame & blades without the motor.
i'v never seen that before, but it makes sense.

[Pentium4]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Interesting. So that's why they look so generic. If anyone is ever curious, their UL number is e313551

[TELVM]

Re: Good Fan Brands

Noctua "Redux"



These are just the previous generation models (with SSO bearing as opposed to the current SSO2), in more conventional colours and with less bling-bling and accesories to lower the price.

Still awesome stealthy fans.

[c_hegge]

Re: Good Fan Brands

The pictures of those Noctua Redux fans always look like they were taken in black and white

[Almighty1]

Re: Good Fan Brands

I thought when it came to fans, Panaflo (Japanese) and Papst (German) were the best as I know Panaflo was what was used in SUN Micro workstations and servers even though I've never owned one. Pabst I have one running 24x7x365 since 2000 which is 80mm 120VAC known as the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 2X, it is mounted to the outside of any power supply using the same screw holes as where the case screws normally go. Sunon seems to be popular as well. Not sure about Sanyo Denki is good or not as the only fan I ever saw of theirs is the Intel stock fan on their Pentium CPUs. I have 4 ADDA 80mm fans running 24x7x365 since 2000 due to the high CFM rate and other than being loud, it's reliable. The SuperMicro SC760 case which is made by Addtronics came with a 92mm NMB or Nidec fan that still runs since 2000 doing 24x7x365 and ofcourse I have 1 92mm, 120mm and 1 80mm fan, forgot the exact brand as it's sold by Enermax that still works after 11 years doing 24x7x365. My PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 450ATX power supply from 2000/2001 has a Nidec 80mm fan in it running 24x7x365 so it seems fans generally are pretty reliable although I think Panaflo probably has the least noise.