Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
The Thermaltake SWAFAN GT12 has quite a standard appearance, sporting no RGB LED lighting like the Thermaltake SWAFAN 12 RGB or SWAFAN EX12 RGB. Minimalism is what you get here, being a basic black colored fan. There are some accents on the corners of the fan, having gray rubber pads to aid in dampening noise by reducing vibrations. Of course, the highlight of the SWAFAN series are the swappable blades. Similar to many other fans, the SWAFAN GT12 has a bit of branding on the middle of the impeller no matter what fan blade you use. You will notice that the specified fan blade will be named here as well, making it easier to keep track of which blade is which. The fan blades are very smooth to touch on all sets. Overall, the design is quite standard to a regular fan with no added gimmicks.
Internally, the SWAFAN GT12 uses hydraulic bearings. These bearings are similar to regular fluid bearings, but it is also lubricated using oil. The use of hydraulic bearings increases its longevity and consistency while also lowering the noise produced compared to other types of bearings. The one negative to this type of bearing is the same as all other fluid bearings, as they must maintain pressure to prevent wear and mounting orientation consideration may be required. The mounting position may be a moot point, as these fans are rated for 40,000 hours, which is a bit short even for a fan. We will see how much noise this fan outputs when we test them later.
Taking a closer look at all sets of blades, you will see quite a standard approach coexisting with many other fans. There is a small gap in between each of the fins, having no overlapping areas. The high air pressure blades run a little longer, leaving no gaps in between each blade. The angle each blade sits in comparison to the rotating middle is about 45 degrees, with the high air pressure blades having a more aggressive roughly 30 degrees angle. The curvature of the blades is about average for all except the high air pressure blades as you may expect, rather this set is a lot flatter.
There is a total of seven blades on the impeller of all blades. The impeller is a relatively regular size compared to other fans. Additionally, we have the inclusion of the reverse fan. These reverse fans add a nice unique aspect to the installation as the use is purely aesthetic when it comes to mounting. Rather than flipping the fan over, you can simply swap to the reverse fan blades to avoid showing off the arms on the output side. To swap between blades, it is a simple pop out and pop in of the fan blades. When taking off, it does not require too much pressure, as I found I never felt as though I would be breaking the fan. The re-installation is very similar, as you simply push and clip the blades into place. This should be much easier than having to remount a fan to reverse the direction of airflow. We will see how this swappable design performs in our performance tests on the next page.
On what is typically your output side, four arms hold the fan in a manner as seen in the image above. These arms will minimally obstruct air from passing through. There is a single cable on the Thermaltake SWAFAN GT12 attached to the fan for power and lighting controls. The cable is a standard 4-pin PWM fan header that is approximately 900mm in length. This should be more than long enough to maneuver around in most cases for a clean build. This cable is quite flexible, but is not sleeved. The addition of sleeved cables would be preferred for durability, but this is adequate.
Looking at the specifications, we can see the maximum CFM or cubic feet per minute rating of the Thermaltake SWAFAN GT12 is 54.71 CFM for the high air pressure blade, 62.23 CFM for the high airflow blade, and 58.17 CFM with the reverse fan blade. This is a little on the lower end compared to other 120mm fans we have seen. For example, the recently reviewed be quiet! Silent Wings 4 had an airflow of 76.7 CFM.
Air pressure is another important metric to evaluate the performance of a fan. In scenarios where there is mesh or a heatsink that obstructs airflow, the fan is required to have the strength to pump air through it. This is measured in mmH2O. The Thermaltake SWAFAN GT12 specifies 3.17 mmH2O with the high air pressure blade, 2.7 mmH2O with the high airflow blade, and 2.23 mmH2O for the reverse fan blade. Note these values are achieved by the fan spinning at the max speed of 2000 RPM. Another important aspect of fans is their noise level, which is measured using dB, or decibels. The specifications state a noise level of 26.5 dBA using the high air pressure blades, 28.3 dBA with the high air low blade, and 29.8 dBA using the reverse fan blade. Taking this into account, this fan can be considered to be average in noise level when considering their rated RPM and airflow.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
