As with my previous review the first thing to consider is that the db rating doesn't tell the whole story. Tone, resonance and other factors can be more important than pure sound levels.

Motor wine and rhythmic speed related clicking may not show up on the sound meter but when present i can confirm that they are very apparent and can be annoyingly intrusive. On the flip side you could have a fan that made no discernable whining or clicking but was 'showing' as rating high on decibels!


Apollish LED's in action.

All the Enermax's here fall into the 2nd category - most particularly at the full speed 12v sampling stage.

The Apollish produced no motor whine or hum of any kind. It registered as the loudest @ 12v but was not as intrusive as the Magma in my opinion. Back pressure also seemed good and airflow was maintained even when the voltage was dropped to 7v.

I must also mention that the temperature controlled speed setting was very smooth. Any kind of stepping with this kind of fan becomes very noticeable as a sudden change in the audible pitch of the fan. No such worries here.

It also looked amazing with all the LED's illuminating the highly polished chrome surface!

The Magma returned a powerful performance. Unsurprising considering its 'Extreme user' rating. Back pressure and airflow were both exemplary from what i could see. At 7v the Magma was not intrusive at all but at 12v it did make its presence known with a mild chuffing. Similar to the sound of a prop driven aircraft. Certainly not a major problem but compared to the others it was apparent.

The Cluster seems a good midpoint for most users. It was very quiet at both the tested voltages and did seem to push air well even at the lower RPM. It's LED's combined with the bright white livery really make a good looking fan!

Finally came the Everest. This is definitely a quiet fan. Very smooth running just like the others. It didn't push a massive amount of air but did a fine job considering the low RPM especially when @ 7v.

Definitely a silent PC fan design - it's temperature controlled fan speed system would work wonders in that environment and did a very good job here. Not intrusive yet very effective.

As with the Cluster the Everest looked beautiful with the four frame mounted LED illuminating the transparent fan and casing.


Cluster looked great.