Silverstone AP123 fan review

[djdestiny]

At the same time as picking up the PWM Hub I picked up a AP123 to play around in the spirit of being a fan man.
This is probably going to be a plain review being that the premise that it's just a fan, nothing special about it.

Nice box actually, not the sort that allows you to see through when you lift up the flap but it's still nice.

Of course the reason why this fan is being reviewed is because Silverstone requested for it to be reviewed so I picked it up anyway and that it's another fan with static vanes
If they have faith in their product I shall see what they can do
I couldn't refuse to offer could I, being a fan addict.

Here are the specs for the fan
Silverstone AP123

Left and right sides of the box

Provided accessories and the fan and that's it. Why silver screws The addition of the 2 ended fan mounts is a good addition of course, for any fan.

The key point of this particular fan version the AP123 is the blade arrangement which is made up of 3 segments of 3 different blade sizes which SS claim silences the noise turbulence makes when it hits the grille very hard as always.

And yes, it's a real FDB bearing fan. Expensive but do I prefer it over my 2BB fans?
No. Real FDB is expensive and really good but if the bearing does go pop that's it.

 

[djdestiny]

The sleeve used is nice. Pity that they didn't sleeve it all to the end leaving a bit of exposed cables and those aren't black.
Not a big problem but I felt I must point it out because most of us is in for aesthetics anyway.
Probably the main reason you bought this is because a delta either looks too bland or you're scared of deltas since this isn't a cheap fan!
At 25$ it is as expensive as a JetFlo but it's still cheaper than an AP121

The grille is like rest of the AP-series just a thin shroud effectively.

That said, impressions is done with. Now for the testing.

Tools used : STW-6041, UNI-T UT351 Sound Level Meter, UNI-T UT361 Anemometer
Fans tested : SST-AP123, Delta FFB1212VHE ( @ same noise level)

We'll see if the AP123 with it's weird design can stack itself against my FFB1212VHE.
I know the FFB1212VHE is definitely better ... but by how much?

I tried matching the noise levels of both fans and ended up setting 1300rpm (+/-50rpm) on both fans

Model : FFB1212VHE AP123
Speed : 1320rpm 1350rpm
Airflow: 70CFM 35CFM
Noise : 28dBA 26dBA

(Of course, there is also more pressure on the FFB1212VHE by a huge margin)

It's probably dubious and usually doesn't mean jack but any fan that can get close to half of what a delta can get to is impressive actually and Silverstone's specs are actually underrated by quite a bit.
I should include that both fans have no tonality or whatsoever.

The fan isn't that impressive but it's the cooling you get that really blows your mind off, remember the AP123 is intended as a case fan and I would rather take this over a Noctua actually but I've never liked any Noctuas because they still are overpriced for what is effectively a sealed sleeve bearing

Most power users associate deltas as screamers but the FFB1212VHE isn't one them despite looking like a standard SCARY "delta" but the Deltas I use day to day aren't like that.

Now, testing with what it's supposed to do, case fans.

 

[djdestiny]

I tried it in many locations, front fan top fan and right at the back of the GPU as well as the top picture which I discovered lowered my motherboard's temperatures because there a hotspot.
This is the issue of using an AIO it usually creates big hotspots but then again an air cooler also creates hot spots when running at low RPM which I can because my processor isn't really power hungry despite being a Gulftown but they really aren't because they aren't W36xx or i7 chips

Placing it at the top doesn't really help because this is a big case and placing it in the front does not net any improvement as using my Delta AFB1212H up front (at 1.1krpm) so I placed it right behind the GPU.
What happens is that the AP123 really pushes all the hot air out through the back so the GPU effectively has it's own thermal zone and it lowered my idle and peak temps by about 5C and that's running on the lowest GPU fan speed setting (Powercolor has been VERY relaxed with the GPU fan speed setting as it's still something like 30-40% @ 62C)

As for cooling the motherboard it lowered temps by about a staggering 9C both idle and load when used to exhaust onto the motherboard.
OK, granted this is X58 so it won't be much use for mainstream platforms or X79/X99 but if you do have a hotspot placing a fan across the motherboards helps greatly

Cases should really modify their design to include mid-case fan mounts regardless of whether the HDD cages are there or not and AIOs should provide a side mount for a 120mm to blow against the motherboard.

That will really change the way of cooling as we know it and also, less restrictive HDD cages and less restrictive front panels will really help or HDD cages gone altogether.
Examples like the FD Define front panels are just useless, they obstruct so much airflow and with HDD cages there it's effectively useless and the best bit is that users LOVE to use really slow fans with no airflow whatsoever

A good case design is like the Jonsbo W2 which has HDD cages elsewhere and fans very close to the GPU and the CPU

So is the AP123 fan a good fan? Oh yea, you bet your dollar it is.
A component cooling fan it's very good but for case cooling probably better suited to a smaller case like Silverstone design them for.
At 25$ is it worth it? You'd have to think long about it because a Swiftech Helix 120 PWM is 17$ but the others like a SP120 and a Jetflo 120 are around 25$ and they don't provide the same level of cooling

It is not a radiator fan of course as it beats the point of the fan design in the first place and it hasn't got PWM control but it doesn't need it because it's really slow already.

The gist of all this is how you plan your airflow. Most just can't be bothered actually.

Otherwise, this is an great product with a couple of downsides but there are no perfect fans either.
Recommended or not? For small cases like a SG05 definitely yes.

 

[djdestiny]

I apologise for the pictures that aren't loading right now.