Performance – 4/5
The Vardar performs well – it has good static pressure, but it simply doesn’t beat the legendary Gentle Typhoon. It’s also annoying that a fan rated at 1850RPM simply can’t get to 1850RPM even under the best of conditions.
Noise – 4/5
Again while the Vardar is a strong performer, the AP15 is still left in a class of it’s own. Of course total noise isn’t the only concern – the tone of the noise has to also be mentioned. I found both AP15s and Vardars to not have an annoying tone or any resonance issues when mounted to the PE 240 radiator.
Value – 3.5/5
At $18 these are not cheap and while the price isn’t the most there are also no extra accessories or options that would make it feel like great value. For reference Gentle Typhoons used to be $16-17, now that they are hard to source PPCs has some at $22.
Features – 3/5
While the PWM feature is a plus we were only able to turn the fan down to 700RPM. It would have been nice to extend that down. Luckily EK will be making an “extended range” option soon.
However there were no included accessories to reduce vibration when mounting to a chassis, and there are no built in LEDs. Nor did the sleeving cover every exposed section of wire. So “as is” the feature category is a bit lacking. It has to be mentioned though that the Gentle Typhoon was similar but worse in this regard.
Quality – 3/5
While the quality of the fans themselves look great we did experience some issues. One out of the seven fans was DOA and a second one went bad during testing. EK has apparently improved the packaging to reduce such issues and improved quality control now. Hopefully our concerns here will be put to rest.
Summary – Silver Award
Although the overall score feels low, the Vardar is actually still a very good fan. In a world without Gentle Typhoons it may be the best available, but GT’s are back again so it’s not so compelling anymore. It’s a little sad that after all this time that no company has been able to beat the performance of the legendary Gentle Typhoon. For these reasons we give it a silver award – it’s recommended, but it could have been so much more.
Where to buy: – $18 PPCS, $18 EK
[…] specifically the Vardar F4-120. Stren of Xtremerigs.net fame was kind enough to host the article there and EKWB thought it was good enough to be included in their press release. Now with the retail […]
Excellent review! I was wondering if you have any plans at looking at the performance of some of the Noctua fans, like the NF-S12A
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[…] an ER (Extended Range) version of the F4-120 (2200 RPM) model. I already had some of the original Vardar F4-120 and having recently received some of the F4-120ER I am now able to compare the two and share my […]
these fans are very noisy avoid them
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