SilverStone SST-AP121 120mm Case Fan
Sep 6th, 2010 | By JaredPerhaps the biggest feature for the AP121 is the way it channels the air in a more targeted manner. I wish I had a smoke machine to demonstrate this, luckily Silverstone did create a video so if you want to get a quick look you can go to view it. I can attest by just powering on a standard fan and the AP121 and placing your hand in the airflow you can definitely feel the difference in air direction. Typical fans have a dead spot towards the center while the AP121 has a steady flow across it.
This makes the AP121 ideal for intake applications (think of hard drives) and of course heatsink applications. I decided to first test out the AP121 by comparing it to the stock fans on the Thermaltake Frio reviewed earlier. I used the system below for testing.
CPU: Intel E8400
MB: Biostar TPower I45
RAM: G.Skill PI Black PC6400
Video Card: HIS HD 5870 iCooler V Turbo
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB – SATA
DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
Case: Cooler Master HAF932
OS: Microsoft Windows 7
Ambient Temperature: 22-24C
For testing I used the Thermaltake fans (PLA12025S12HH-LV) at their highest and lowest settings. Since the AP121 is near dead silent on its highest setting I only tested at full speed.
At first glance this may not look too significant until you consider the noise level. I would put the AP121 on the same noise level as the Thermaltake fans set to low, but you get almost the same performance as those same fans set to high. This is pretty significant since the Thermaltake fans are quite loud on high. The AP121 has very impressive performance in my book.
Next I decided to test out the AP121 in a case intake scenario. For this test I used the following system:
CPU: AMD Phenom II 720 BE
MB: Gigabyte 790XTA-UD4
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600
Video Card: Sparkle GeForce GTX465
PSU: Ultra X3 600W
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB – SATA
DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
Case: Cooler Master 690 II Advanced
OS: Microsoft Windows 7
Ambient Temperature: 22-24C
In this scenario I compared the AP121 to the stock 140mm intake fan that comes with the 690 II Advanced. To get load temperatures I loaded up PCMark Vantage and took temperature readings using Everest Ultimate.
While there were no changes to temperatures in the CPU or motherboard chipset readings, there is a noticeable drop in both hard drive and GPU temperatures. Another win for the AP121 as it proves all of the features Silverstone put into it pay off in performance.