EK Vadar Series Fans

[TeeBlack]

EK announces new high-pressure 120mm fan EK-Vardar | EKWB




EK-Vardar 120mm cooling fan family currently consists of five models - four regular and one Furious Vardar with the latter built in distinctive all-black design. All fans come with four self-tapping screws and are pre-sleeved (F1-F4: black, FF5: red) for your convenience.

_____________Fan Speed ___PWM% _dBA
EK-Vardar F1-120 (1150rpm) 1150 60-100 23.7
EK-Vardar F2-120 (1450rpm) 1450 50-100 25.6
EK-Vardar F3-120 (1850rpm) 1850 50-100 29.5
EK-Vardar F4-120 (2200rpm) 2200 40-100 33.5
EK-Furious Vardar F5-120 (3000rpm) 3000 40-100 42

[PM_DMNKLR]

I'm confused as to why EKWB doesn't say what their CFM ratings are. I imagine they're pretty high, but I've been disappointed before. Those dBa ratings would steer me clear of them regardless though, unless I could keep the system they're installed into in a closet or something, lol.

[TeeBlack]

they look like Gentle Typhoons to me. Same fan speed ratings and everything. only difference i see is that the fan motor part looks a little different. i have a feeling these are just rebranded GT's. remember Servo and Scythe have parted ways and Scythe can no longer sell GT's or use the name "Gentle Typhoon". but i could be wrong though. just something to think about.

[PM_DMNKLR]

You know, I actually thought the exact same thing!

[nSone]

2 fins less than GT though

[killjoyjim]

Nice looking fans

[Ciarlatano]

they look like Gentle Typhoons to me. Same fan speed ratings and everything. only difference i see is that the fan motor part looks a little different. i have a feeling these are just rebranded GT's. remember Servo and Scythe have parted ways and Scythe can no longer sell GT's or use the name "Gentle Typhoon". but i could be wrong though. just something to think about.

They aren't. There was some speculation about this for a while, and an EK rep had intimated in the OCN forums that they were, but in the end....they are simply a design using the same color scheme and speed ratings. Obviously done to make people assume this.

But as was pointed out - completely different blade design and not even the same number of blades.

[nSone]

I must get em just for the pun of it
FK Vardar [from my town]
EK Vardar [same color scheme]

[grumpydaddy]

The whole subject of fans and their respective qualities is, and I think will remain, one in which the sales department always gets precedent over the designers.

Sound pressure levels might be useful if the distance they were measured at and upon what axis was mentioned. So why do we need this figure to be weighted? Furthermore each of us perceives sound differently.... it is a qualitative thing as well as a quantitative issue. Manufacturers.... just one decibel rating is not good enough.

What then about the airspeed or volume of air being moved? They give us a figure relating to use in free space which may be of some use when the fan in question is purely a case fan but even then there will be resistance to flow. On a radiator the comparative resistance is huge. Pump manufacturers seem to be able to give us pressure vs flow rate graphs but do we see the same info for fans? No. We get just the maximum Pressure and Maximum flow

No, Until the designers are let loose and allowed to present the graphs and the industry sets a standard for sound testing that includes sample sound files, we will just have to continue buying these to assess for ourselves.

Altogether a pretty poor show but all manufacturers seem to be the same. Shame really. All it would take is one company to really put the needs of their users first.

[PM_DMNKLR]

I have Tinnitus (was born with it), and as a result I also have some hearing loss. If I can hear the fan from 2 feet away, it's too loud. This is 1 of many reasons I really like Prolimatech, Deepcool and Bitfenix fans. Not only are they easily adjustable with a fan controller, but even on full 12V they're not super loud. The stock Cooler Master fans and the Zalman CNPS9700NT in my PC are far louder than is acceptable (I hear the friggin' things clear across my 2 bedroom apartment, even in my bedroom! Add to that the fan on my GPU always at 100% (I set it that way intentionally), and it's even worse. It actually used to be a little louder, but the noise dropped enough to be noticed after I took my NV690 case apart and cut the plastic honeycomb crap out from the top and front. It kinda looks funny in the front, being that's where the stock green LED 120mm fan is (bright, doesn't push much air, and it's noisy), but it's much better than it was before.

Anyway, as I was getting to, if I can hear it then it's too loud. Being I have some hearing loss, if I can hear it so loudly then I'm sure it would drive anyone with normal hearing absolutely insane. I know my wife hates it, lol.

[grumpydaddy]

The 120mm fan still seems to be king and yet bigger, slower fans are kinder on the human ear with its greater sensitivity to the sort of frequencies that 120mm need to run at to move enough air.


THAT is what we use fans for.... Moving air, a lot of air if possible. Doing that quietly requires some thought...... So why have manufacturers of high end GPU's been happy to make them 3 slots wide but not really much taller thus enabling the use of larger diameter fans? I feel that the majority of cases used for higher end GPU's could handle such a move.

[Ciarlatano]

The whole subject of fans and their respective qualities is, and I think will remain, one in which the sales department always gets precedent over the designers.

Sound pressure levels might be useful if the distance they were measured at and upon what axis was mentioned. So why do we need this figure to be weighted? Furthermore each of us perceives sound differently.... it is a qualitative thing as well as a quantitative issue. Manufacturers.... just one decibel rating is not good enough.

What then about the airspeed or volume of air being moved? They give us a figure relating to use in free space which may be of some use when the fan in question is purely a case fan but even then there will be resistance to flow. On a radiator the comparative resistance is huge. Pump manufacturers seem to be able to give us pressure vs flow rate graphs but do we see the same info for fans? No. We get just the maximum Pressure and Maximum flow

No, Until the designers are let loose and allowed to present the graphs and the industry sets a standard for sound testing that includes sample sound files, we will just have to continue buying these to assess for ourselves.

Altogether a pretty poor show but all manufacturers seem to be the same. Shame really. All it would take is one company to really put the needs of their users first.

This is an industry wide issue, not simply a fan issue. Having no specific criteria for ratings extends to PSUs, audio, the absolutely ridiculous "XXXW TDP" found on coolers, etc. There needs to be some type of standardization to the numbers or they are absolutely meaningless. Many companies simply make a fortune using slight-of-hand numbers in their marketing, knowing full well that the average consumer only looks at a surface number and never bothers to find out what the number actually represents. Is the average consumer going to look at the engineer's graphs? Well, no, the young gamer whose main concern is color matching the LEDs on the fan isn't - and like it or not, that is the largest chunk of the consumer pie chart. But, the enthusiast minority will, and they will find it very important.

So, it actually behooves the manufacturers of quality products to supply this info. Other manufacturers will dodge the whole thing with "don't look behind the sail...erm...curtain!" tactics.

[Skyguy]

Vadar fans? Wow, hearing the Dark Sith Lord from my case will be pretty awesome!


Sorry, I could resist LOL.....tltle