OcUK Needs Your Help! Who wants to have a play with some NEW Phobya Fans?

FMTopfan said:
Very good review powelly2010, love that you included the video as the noise levels were quite evident, even two Phobya's were very quiet. It is a shame about the temps because you would think a couple 120mm 1,500rpm fans in p/p with a single fan cooling capacity of 57cfm would be able to hit at least 50c on their default settings. At least you don't have to endure that noise anymore on your old Coolit, that's got to be worth keeping them on - whether for cooling your CPU or buying more for case fans.
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yeah i was a bit dissapointed abit the temps but that may have something to do with the amount of dust on the coolit or might of needed to reapply TIM, either way i think there great fans and have ordered another for my 360mm rad when i get it :) i should see a real good improvement on temps then :D
 
ok what exactly would you like to know about the fans

I got mine yesterday and tried them vs standard 140mm corsair 800d fans


phobia 1100rpm 140mm Red Fans
Pros
Push noticable more air than the corsair fans
Braided black cable is very nice
on par with the corsair fans noise wise so better noise/airflow ratio
Cheap

cons
LED's are very poor, there not bright enough to be of any use yet there not dark enough to ignore
feel very cheap, other than the cable they feel super cheap

Corsair 800d 140mm stock fans
Pros
Free with the case
Dark so nice and stealty

Cons
crappy typical corsair cables
Low airflow / noise ratio (loud for no reason as they push such a little ammount of air its shocking)

If im totaly honest, I would not change my 800d fans to these because if i wanted more performance from my fans i would go for somthing with a higher cfm and if i wanted silence there is things a lot quieter out there, but these dont sit in the middle either I do however think the cfm on ocuk website for this fan is wrong but that could just be me

Im looking for a 140.2mm rad atm to see if the static pressure is any good (was looking for one anyway) but if the static pressure isnt very good the only thing i can reccomend these for is if you are on a tight buget and you need a 140mm fan for one that is broken or isnt supplied with the thing yo uneed it for.

No pics yet as my phone cable is at my brothers (he also has my digital camera the *****)
 
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Ahoy! After a successful trip to the post office collection this morning I have the Phobya Nano-G 12 red led fans to test :)

To start a quick set of decibel readings off my iphone for my current set up (on average it's 40 over ambient and I'm just using a free app)

Front big sliverstone fan - 20 (adjusting for the high ambient start)
Rear Noctua 12 fan - 26 (drawing air out the case)
Corsiar psu - 16-22 (fan is very variable)
Side of case where my cpu heat sink is (with another Noctua fan) - 26
6870 area - 21 (stock fan playing fm)

General room noise with the pc under my desk 25 odd

The two fan's will replace my Noctal's at the back and on the cpu


Right part 2 with both the fans in direct replacement of my old ones.

Front fan - 28
cpu arean - 23
Rear fan area - 28
gpu area - 22
psu - 18

General room noise again 25

Basically as a quick summary of things I like and things I don't like.

Pro's - PWM enabled is a god send, with the case open you could see it running at half speed on the cpu.
The red led's are quite nice (got a little red glow behind my pc now)

Con's - Without PWM they are loud on full speed (my case fans from the motherboard don't have that and compared to the noctua nf-p12 at full speed there is a much more noticeable fan noise)
The screws provided with the fans are pants and don't fit :( (using the weird rubber grommets that came with the noctua)

Overall I am just going to run the single cpu fan for now to see how hot it gets and assess if a rear fan is actually needed (noise reasons) though now I can hear my psu and front fan's which have slightly odd rattles

As a sort of 2 day later update of playing about I have found running one fan on my cpu (i7 920 stock with a zalman tower thingy) has been very good. Temp's stable at about 35 degrees and never risen above 60 in game. More importantly I haven't heard the fan at full tilt (getting round my complaint about the one on the rear).

So as a recommendation they are pretty good, provided you have the hardware to control them. Again the only downside really is that the provided screws that came with mine didn't really work.
 
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6653997931_c5f8ec082f_b.jpg




Awesome pic

You need to sort your cable mgmt out though :D
 
Only jokin on your cable mgmt mate, following on the theme from earlier, the 300 is a cracking case, its lack of cable routing spaces is probably its only downpoint.. Some nice corsair midrange cases look to be coming over the hill.
 
Will try and get my comparison done this weekend coming. Will be comparing it to a 180mm Silverstone fan rates at just slightly less cfm however its the fan directly below my 2 gtx260 in sli so will be using that as a guide at how good it is at coiling. :)
 
Comparison of Phobya G-Silent 18 700RPM Fan against Silverstone FN181-BL


Phobya G-Silent 18 700RPM
Power: 3W
Rated speed: 700rpm (+ / -10%)
Airflow: 169 m³ / h / 100 CFM
Noise level: 18 dB / A
Connector: 3 Pin Molex

Silverstone FN181-BL
Rated Current 0.25 Amp
Rated Power 3W
Speed 700 rpm +_ 150 rpm
Airflow 100 CFM
Static Pressure
Max 0.98mmH2O
Noise Level
18 dB(A)

So on paper both fans near identical. Lets start with looks. The Silverstone fans have very bright Led lights and a lovely light blue glow given off across the blades when spinning. Look good both in daylight and at night without being distracting. As shown below All photos with no to minimum flash but im still crap at taking photos of led :p



Phobya however when it came to looks was a different story. The Leds are red however they were noticeably less bright in fact almost dull across the blades is a very faint red glow I don't know if this was the intent but to be sure I powered it off a molex with adapter instead of the motherboard header and the brightness and speed did not change so must be by design. it is a very dull soft glow and is dwarfed by the brightness of the Silverstone on each side I can imagine a row of 3 may look good but still very dull.

Silverstone recorded fan speeds 720rpm to 740rpm Phobya 654rpm to 659rpm so both are within the specified tolerances on the boxes.


I used the temperature of my 2x 260GTX 216 in SLI to determine how good the fans were at directing the airflow were it matters this seems like a good comparison for my needs but yours will vary.

Temperatures for the Silverstone before 15mins of BF3 64player Caspian border.
Room ambient temperature 18.7c
GPU 1 idle at 52c
GPU 2 idle at 39c
Fan speed 40% for both

After 15 mins of bf3
GPU 1 max recorded at 84C
GPU 2 max recorded at 69c
Fan max recorded GPU 1 at 62%
Fan max recorded GPU 2 at 40%

Now on to the Phobya

Room ambient temperature 18.6c
GPU 1 idle at 51c
GPU 2 idle at 41c
Fan speed 40% for both

After 15 mins of bf3
GPU 1 max recorded at 83C
GPU 2 max recorded at 71c
Fan max recorded GPU 1 at 61%
Fan max recorded GPU 2 at 40%

So performance wise the phobya pips it on 1 graphics card but appears to lose ground on the second card so it appears they are pretty much even. So choice comes to looks. Noise they are both identical at nearly inaudible.

Phobya showing brightness and comparison. The phobya barely even shows up on the camera it is very dull.



Packaging was simple and the box looks good and is sturdy. Overall for the price of the fan its a good choice for someone who wants a little ambient case lighting without the in your face blue led lighting of the Silverstone and performance is on par with the Silverstone in my opinion its all down to your personal case preferences for lighting.

Yes my cable management is terrible and yes I am also terrible at pictures so I made a small video as well. showing the fan difference uploading now
 
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Dave18, I wouldn't worry too much about the photos as they're fine, or even what you case looks like as it's not about that.

Your post was informative and to the point which will have helped people. Although it wasn't made clear if your PC was freshly started up or it had been left on. And for the second test to be fair it needs to be the same conditions as the first, not starting straight after the first test without getting the components cool again. I'm assuming you left a long enough period of time between tests as nothing from the results looked odd, if anything the second test was ever-so-slightly lower and the room temperatures were the same. I've got to say well done for your patience in being consistent and the time it must have took to post your findings :)

Quick fun tip: I often find taking photos at night that using a DSLR (or borrow one) around the £500 price-point like the Canon 550D I have has a nice ISO range (for minimal noise) for use on a tripod - this avoids the need to use flash. You should start the ISO at 400/800 and use manual focus, any lens will do for this purpose. For some nice exposures use f4.0, or there abouts. You'll want to minimise any blurry shots so using a timer or remote trigger will help if you want perfection.
 
joshua_brighton said:
Far too late to be on the forums, missed that the competition ended a month ago. I apologise and am ready to accept a bollocking.
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Your not the first to do so joshua. The many reviews of the fans above would have easily given the competition ending very easily as was the point of the competition. At least you realised an hour later and corrected your post.
 
FMTOPFAN

Thanks for letting me know about some of the details I missed :).

The Pc was tested from cold boot straight into BF3 within a few minutes. The PC was left about an hour between tests as I also fitted a new bluray drive while I had it open and cable management taken allot longer than planned :p
Thanks for the tip on the photos I used to have a dslr but went for a compact TZ7 that doesnt appear to be the best with low light. I did change some iso settings but really needed a tripod to get some steady long exposure shots.

Much appreciated bud thanks.
 
DAvE18 said:
FMTOPFAN

Thanks for letting me know about some of the details I missed :).

The Pc was tested from cold boot straight into BF3 within a few minutes. The PC was left about an hour between tests as I also fitted a new bluray drive while I had it open and cable management taken allot longer than planned :p
Thanks for the tip on the photos I used to have a dslr but went for a compact TZ7 that doesnt appear to be the best with low light. I did change some iso settings but really needed a tripod to get some steady long exposure shots.

Much appreciated bud thanks.
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Your welcome :)

I've used also digital compacts for years but because of the smaller sensors, the images are always too noisy (your Panasonic TZ7 loses clarity beyond ISO400) which is why 90% of the time I use a DSLR. Although your camera has anti shake, i'd still look for a tripod if you were after one anyway as they are around £100 for a decent one. Otherwise simply rest the camera on a side table or a load of books for the purpose of occasional shots. Major downside is you can't tilt (a cushion would work) and camera may still move but not as much compared to freestyle.

Even enhancing the image from a compact in PS won't help that much because your limited by the quality of the photo in the first place, a HDR shot would be ideal for LED fans and is easy achieve with DSLRs. PS aligns the RAW layers as well as options for exposures in the merger. Here is one example of how amazing it looks. I'm sure someone with one of these fans will be an avid photographer and will want to post their HDR creation!
 
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