Alphacool Announces Apex Stealth Metal Fan

[TechLurker]

If reviews of these actually live up to the marketing, I'll probably consider them for a rebuild that makes use of 2 480mm rads. Though I'd also want 140mm versions to use too.

 

[eidairaman1]

Wish GN's fan-testing machines were ready for use.

Erm just have the Major Hardware- Fan Showdown Test Them

 

[chris.london]

All your questions are supposedly answered on the official page I linked, yalls need to have a look.
View attachment 316466

Some of that looks a bit dodgy. For one, the NF-A12 is obviously not the loudest among these fans.

 

[RH92]

Some of that looks a bit dodgy. For one, the NF-A12 is obviously not the loudest among these fans.

Yeah not just a bit , its very dodgy , for instance at 1250rpm they have the Mobius vastly outperforming the A12 by 10dB while TPU has the Mobius being marginaly outperformed by the A12 ... many values in that chart make no sense :

Don't get me wrong , could be that they have made mistakes in the chart but i would rather wait for 3rd party validation before making any purchase .

 

[MarsM4N]

If reviews of these actually live up to the marketing, I'll probably consider them for a rebuild that makes use of 2 480mm rads. Though I'd also want 140mm versions to use too.

I bet they will. Apparently they sent a sample out to igorsLab and he was very impressed.

The metal frame is very heavy & the fan is completely decoupled from the frame with 2 o-rings. Even the guys from Alphacool where surprised by the results, lol.

And here's one in action: [YT Short] Alphcool APEX STEALTH METAL FAN 2023 12月発売予定

Where's the catch?

$29 a piece.

 

[eldon_magi]

Imagine a 30mm deep 140mm version of this.. you could have the same cfm for 50% less rpm compared to your current 140mm case fans

 

[zlobby]

For some odd reason, the name sound like 'Steal Meth Fan'. IDK. Or something.

Imagine a 30mm deep 140mm version of this.. you could have the same cfm for 50% less rpm compared to your current 140mm case fans

Remember - you should also account for girth and shaft angle!

 

[FoulOnWhite]

They look cheap to me. Metal is zink, whaaaat, why not aluminium. I would have to spray them black too.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

They look cheap to me. Metal is zink, whaaaat, why not aluminium. I would have to spray them black too.

Aluminum can be inexpensive when stamped or extruded, not as much when cast. If the design requires casting, zinc is the cost effective choice.

 

[TechLurker]

They look cheap to me. Metal is zink, whaaaat, why not aluminium. I would have to spray them black too.

If you watched the video linked by someone else covering LTT's mini-coverage, it's supposedly because Zinc was cheaper for Alphacool and the weight seems to help further dampen the vibrations. As well, they come in 3 colors already, also teased in the video. Polished Steel/Silver, Metallic White, and Metallic Black.

Fortunately, LTT's mini-coverage also shows it's easy to disassemble so that one could paint the metal frame elements if they so desire.

 

[Th3Tob1]

24,6dBA is more than 22,6dBA with the Noctua NF-A12X25 (and they dont compare their fan with other brands) - but Alphacool stated in their product sheet in the comparison table, that the Apex Stealth Metal is still more quiet than the Noctua fan with 44dBA regarding to Alphacool.. hard to believe that the other facts of the Apex are true in my opinion.

Yeah not just a bit , its very dodgy , for instance at 1250rpm they have the Mobius vastly outperforming the A12 by 10dB while TPU has the Mobius being marginaly outperformed by the A12 ... many values in that chart make no sense :

Don't get me wrong , could be that they have made mistakes in the chart but i would rather wait for 3rd party validation before making any purchase .

Same thing as I thought, very strange in my opinion.

 

[Waldorf]

in almost 20y i have yet to see an Alphacool product being utter crap, or far off from what was "shown".
they had custom loop kits with modded eheim pumps, before others even offered (decent) kits,
that werent geared to the "look at me im using UV coolant" crowd.

and if some here would have spend looking at Alphacools "background" for a minute, some would ask about things like reliability,
as only handful pc part brands are doing stuff on industrial level.

but yeah, no 140 or larger size, is useless to me..

@ymdhis
what you call whisper quiet, isnt even "silent" to me.

personally, i have yet to see where the increased cost, translates into an actual noticeable difference over what my 6-10$ Arctic fans.
e.g. its not really providing much better flow (rad) when throttled to same lvl (inaudible at 2ft), nor does Noctua offer a 10y warranty,
at least not to the point where im willing to spend 25-30$ per fan.

@kapone32
enough ppl out there that can tell the difference.

i have 8dba fans for intake (about 2ft away from me), and i can hear them running at full rpm, and no, not because of the case.

avg "numbers" for humans dont cover every single person.
the same way not everyone can jump +6ft, but there are ppl out there that can.

 

[somedude.]

Shipping costs are insane!
If anyone's looking to purchase, here's the link:

Alphacool Apex Stealth Metal Fan 120mm | Alphacool - the cooling company

shop.alphacool.com

 

[Waldorf]

enough site/shops that sell their stuff, no need to order from them directly..

 

[somedude.]

enough site/shops that sell their stuff, no need to order from them directly..

I'm assuming this won't be anytime soon?

 

[FoulOnWhite]

24,6dBA is more than 22,6dBA with the Noctua NF-A12X25 (and they dont compare their fan with other brands) - but Alphacool stated in their product sheet in the comparison table, that the Apex Stealth Metal is still more quiet than the Noctua fan with 44dBA regarding to Alphacool.. hard to believe that the other facts of the Apex are true in my opinion.


Same thing as I thought, very strange in my opinion.

I have a lot of fans in my PC, 3x nocyua NF-A12x25 on radiator, 3x NF P12 redux 1700 on front, and 4 x Lian Li SL120, all my fans are controlled by a OCTO so they all run the same curve. it seems to me mostly the noise i hear is the air noise, not the actual fans. I don't see how you can make the air noise silent. My case is pretty quiet considering 11 fans, and the pump.

Not sure if the rubber rings are any better than any other method of isolating the fans, Most seem too use a rubber pad on the screw mounts. These will have the frame direct on the case with the ring isolating the fans workings from that. I guess it also depends on the quality of the fans bearing method. At this time i still personally think noctua make the best fans, but i guess that is choice.

Will TPU be doing a review of these?

 

[Waldorf]

depending on market probably.
havent looked for any of their parts recently tho.

@FoulOnWhite
dont wanna know how many ppl out there with cases being the issue, not really the fans.
while i know that some of the arctic fans have certain rpm ranges where they resonate with the case,
i havent used silicon/rubber between fan/case after i saw the bearing noise on my noiseblocker fans was more annoying (than airflow),
and spending more on a (solid) case.
even throttled down to bare min, when idle/low load, using 8/11dba fans throttle down to 500/300ish rpm),
only airflow is audible, not even the pump (throttled too tho).

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Says delivery 11-12 weeks on the alphacool website, really. I'd like to grab 3 of these to try on my rad to compare to the NF A12x25's, but that long till they are ready.

 

[EddyAlphacool]

Fans are online now for pre-order: https://shop.alphacool.com/AtsdCustomCategories/index/type/productstream/ps/58

 

[Waldorf]

@FoulOnWhite
probably because they announced em way before having sufficient stock, cant even find any outside their site.

ever used the Arctic Bionix?
120

 

[FoulOnWhite]

@FoulOnWhite
probably because they announced em way before having sufficient stock, cant even find any outside their site.

ever used the Arctic Bionix?
120

Not used them, no. I usually buy Noctua fans, but got the lian li ones as they were the first linkable ones i had seen, and its pretty good only needing one cable for 4 fans. None of my fans are connected to the MB connectors, they are all connected to a AC OCTO controller, which works great with my custom loop too.

 

[Waldorf]

Arctic fans offer similar feat (models with PST), with a 2nd female plug on each fan.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Arctic fans offer similar feat (models with PST), with a 2nd female plug on each fan.

View attachment 316687

I prefer the click together LI LI fans, it's very neat.

 

[TechLurker]

It seems to me mostly the noise i hear is the air noise, not the actual fans. I don't see how you can make the air noise silent.

If you ever visited the old forums for extreme overclockers and extreme silence chasers, the common way to make it silent required adding a lot of mass. Basically a maze of baffles made of wood, steel, or cardboard with egg crate foam lining the interior that forces a lot of air to bounce around and lose velocity out the exhaust, and just enough in front of the intakes to reduce resonance/intake noise. The cost penalty is air flow or fan life, given more work is required.

The "cheapest" was a 45 degree turns in a tube/tunnel/box with some egg crate foam ensuring there's no straight passage of the air and that most noise would be absorbed by the foam. The expected minimum standard was 90 degree turns. The hardcore determined that a foam-lined S-shape passage basically lead to no noise, with the second best being a U-shape with a 90 degree entrance at the end (kind of like մ ), and third best being a Y shape, using 2 entrances lined with foam leading to the intake or exhaust end, which allowed more airflow without increasing noise, but added a lot of bulk along the parallel path of the fans (a T shape alternative worked too, but increased the workload of the fans given airflow pattern being "less smooth").

 

[zlobby]

If you ever visited the old forums for extreme overclockers and extreme silence chasers, the common way to make it silent required adding a lot of mass. Basically a maze of baffles made of wood, steel, or cardboard with egg crate foam lining the interior that forces a lot of air to bounce around and lose velocity out the exhaust, and just enough in front of the intakes to reduce resonance/intake noise. The cost penalty is air flow or fan life, given more work is required.

The "cheapest" was a 45 degree turns in a tube/tunnel/box with some egg crate foam ensuring there's no straight passage of the air and that most noise would be absorbed by the foam. The expected minimum standard was 90 degree turns. The hardcore determined that a foam-lined S-shape passage basically lead to no noise, with the second best being a U-shape with a 90 degree entrance at the end (kind of like մ ), and third best being a Y shape, using 2 entrances lined with foam leading to the intake or exhaust end, which allowed more airflow without increasing noise, but added a lot of bulk along the parallel path of the fans (a T shape alternative worked too, but increased the workload of the fans given airflow pattern being "less smooth").

That's why I moved to rack mountables in an insulated networking cabinet. All is solid, quiet and reliable.

Come an year or two and I open it to vaccum/mop the micro dust that manages to sip through the filters. I'm now seriously thinking about a water or an oil filter for the ambient air that is circulating through the cabinet. This way it will be practically hassle-free.