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In looking at these scores, you can see that all of these fans performed from very well to excellent with the system at the normal default settings. The real truth comes out, however, when doing serious overclocking. The Antec fan came up with the worst scores while under heavy stress. Even at the lowest fan setting, the Thermaltake fan did better. The Enermax follows it up at both low and high settings, then the Thermaltake and finally the two brutes sharing the top spot. I found it very interesting that the Delta and the Vantec came in with the exact same scores while overclocking and almost identical at default despite the fact that the Vantec has a higher CFM rating by a good amount. The two adjustable fans were very quiet at their lowest fan settings, and fairly decent noise-wise at full speed, although at 5600 RPM compared to 3950 RPM, the Thermaltake was louder at full speed than the Enermax. The Antec sounded like everyone would expect a case fan to sound like. The big boys, on the other hand, were incredibly loud! The Tornado in particular was just over the top volume wise. Personally, I would not recommend the Delta or the Vantec unless your system is in another room that can be closed off. They are not tolerable while running in the same room right next to you. Let us not forget what heatsink these fans were running on. The Swiftech MCX-462 really showed its stuff as far as I'm concerned, once again proving it to be one of the very best heatsinks on the market. It has found a new home in my AMD unit, replacing the Volcano 7+ as my air-cooled heatsink of choice. But which fan am I going to go with? In comparing both the temperatures and noise levels of the fans involved, I have to give the nod to the Thermaltake Smart Case fan II. With its adjustable speed and good performance, it would definitely be my recommendation for these types of heavy-duty, high performance heatsinks. It now sits on top of the MCX-462 purring along at medium fan speed. Needless to say, this was not a comprehensive test of all types of fans, but I hope it gives you a good idea about what to look for when deciding what to buy for that big, nasty copper heatsink you've been drooling over. Till next time, stay cool!
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