Antec 80mm & 92mm Case Fan Review - PAGE 1

Introduction

Summer is approaching fast and what better time to upgrade that computer of yours. Why not add a couple of new case fans and maybe a few case mods to keep those summer temperatures down? Well, Antec's got the perfect solution for you then. These two case fan solutions are thermal controlled. That's right! They plug into the system/case fan 3-plug on your motherboard and can monitor your system temperature for you.

Antec 80mm and 92mm Case Fan Specs

Fan Dimension:	80x80x25.4mm	92x92x25.4mm
Weight:	73g	87g
Rated Voltage:	12VDC	12VDC
Speed:	3000±10%RPM	2300±10%RPM
Air Flow:	45CFM	49CFM
Noise:	34.5dBA	32dBA

My first impressions when I took the fans out of the box is that the fins of the fan were smooth and rounded. Most other fans had the fins cut with bits of plastic sticking out. These were clean and smooth. The fans have a rounded power cable and an external thermal sensor cable.

Aesthetics-wise, the fans look very much like other fans out in the market. Here we see the comparison of the Antec 80mm versus the generic case fan found in my Landmark case.

Design-wise, the fins are uniquely curved. Antec uses a slightly more angled curve on the fins to allow the fins to push air out efficiently.

Landmark Superred Case Fan Specs

Fan Dimension:	80x80x20mm
Weight:	N/A
Rated Voltage:	12VDC
Speed:	2000±10%RPM
Air Flow:	N/A
Noise:	N/A

Installation

Installation is pretty simple partly because the Landmark case only requires 2 of the 4 screws to secure the case fan in place. For the 92mm fan, I had to jerry-rig the fan onto the back of the case using zap straps. The fan was quite tightly secured when I plugged it in.

Test Procedures

The Test System:

AMD XP1800+ 1.53Ghz
K7S5A ECS Motherboard
Thermaltake Hardcano 2 Temperature Monitor
Enermax P4 300W PS
4 hour heatup period
Room Temperature 18.1°C

Idle temperatures were taken after 15 4hours of 0% CPU usage with no fans running. Essentially, after the 4 hour period, the fans were turned on and once the case temperatures stabilized it was recorded using the temperature probe on Thermaltake Hardcano 2.

Test Results

Stock Case Fan

80mm Antec Case Fan

92mm Antec Case Fan

The Landmark fan peaked at 2035RPMs and had a stable case temperature of 33.9C while the Antec 80mm peaked at 2883RPMs and reduced the case temperature to 30.6C. The Antec 92mm is slightly different from its 80mm counterpart and peaked at 2245RPMs with a stable temperature of 29.2C.

Conclusion

Both Antec case fans outdid the Landmark Superred case fan. While the Antec 92mm was the best performer, there was only a 0.6C difference between the Antec 80mm and 92mm in this test. Because of that and the fact that most cases only support the 80mm case fan, I would recommend the Antec 80mm case fan over the 92mm version.

Rating

Installation:	88%
Noise:	85%
Performance:	90%

Overall Score: 87.7%