Coolermaster Neon LED Fan Review

Case modification and customisation has been popular for some time now. A very popular modification is to use lighting to show of certain parts of your case. This is generally achieved using cold cathode tubs which provide lots of coloured light. Now in order to use this light to its full potentional you need to have a case window. Not everyone has one or wants one of these but what is nearly always on show in a case is the fans. Some clever modders decided to put two and two together and add led's to their case fans. These mods were quite hard to replicated and werent often as tidy as they could be. However fan manufacturers noticed the gap in the market and introduced clear fans with the LED's already included. Coolermaster are just such a manufacturer.

What are the specs of the fan?

• Size: 80 x 80 x 25mm
• Rated Voltage: 12 VDC
• Bearing Type: Rifle bearing (Patented)
• Input Current: 0.15A
• Rotation Speed: 2500rpm
• Acoustical Noise: 25.0dB(A)
• Air flow: 32.11 CFM
• Input power: 1.80W
• Life Expectance: 50,000 hours

Features

• 4 Blue neon LED's for maximum glowing effect
• 3 pin connector for mainboard speed detection
• No additional wires required
• Four pin molex adapater and 4 fan screws included
• New Rifle bearing - The More Silent Solution

First Impressions

When the fan first arrived I was keen to see what it looked like as I've not had a chance to play with a clear fan before, nor one with LED's. First thing I noticed was the packaging, this is clearly intended as an on-shelf item for large computer store's. Inside the package you get several items:

• Blue LED Fan with 3 pin connector
• Four Pin to three pin wire adapter to allow the fan to be connected directly to your power supply
• 4 fan screws for attaching the fan to your case

The LED position

This fan includes a total of four blue LED's , these are located in each of the four corners for the best spread of light possible. Each LED is embedded into the sides of the fan pointing inwards so that the light shines not only into the fan but round the clear perspex for added effect. Power is provided by cables running round the outside to each led, and then subsquently to the normal fan power source. No external power connectors are required for the LED's. This way of powering the LED's is great there are no untidy extra wires lying about to cause problems.

Firing up the Fan

Plugging in the fan for the first time is very exiting, I was imediatly impressed by the light given off by the LED's. Its a nice rich colour of blue and the light is spread round the whole fan. The next thing I noticed was the noise given off by the fan it was not to noisey but compared to a 19db papst fan its hardly silent. The airflow it shifts is very good at 32.11cfm it will be more than good enough for almost all applications. The reason the fan is quite quiet for the amount of air shift is due to the rifle bearings that Coolermaster have included in the design of the fan. These also give the added bonus of extra life on a normal sleeve bearing fan (around 25,000 hours against the stated figure of 50,000 hours for this fan).

Gallery

Pro's

• Provide good airflow
• Not too noisy
• Look excellent
• Blue LED's, I love blue
• Good package(four pin adapter)
• Good price
• Should last a long time also

Con's

• Only one colour available at present.

Conclusion

There is not much you can say about this fan, it looks ace , provides good cooling without being too noisy. The price is quite good also at around £10 in the UK.