| SilverStone SST-AP181 Air Penetrator Fan |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by David Ramsey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 08 August 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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SilverStone SST-AP181 Air Penetrator Fan ReviewSilverStone is a company that needs no introduction to most enthusiasts. Although they're best known for their extensive line of computer cases, the company also produces power supplies, fans, and other computer-related hardware. As high end computer components increasingly use more power and thus generate more heat, dealing with the increasing "thermal load" of an enthusiast-level systems becomes more and more difficult, especially if you don't want to resort to water cooling or even more exotic methods. Although simplified all-in-one water cooling systems like the CoolIT ECO A.L.C. have performance equal to some high-end air coolers, the vast majority of systems continue to be air cooled. A systems builder or enthusiast must weigh a variety of factors when choosing fans for their air-cooled system. The main criteria when selecting fans are airflow, typically expressed in cubic feet per minute (CFM) and noise, measured in decibels (dB or db(A)). Some manufacturers will also specify the "static pressure" their fans can maintain when blowing air into an enclosed or obstructed area; this is useful information when a fan is blowing into an obstruction like a radiator, but less important when it's not.
One big different between fan specifications and other part specifications is that most users have no way to verify them, since measuring the air flow, noise, and static pressure of a fan is difficult or impossible without specialized equipment. What we can do is test the cooling performance, and in this test, Benchmark Reviews will compare the cooling performance of the SilverStone SST-AP181 "air penetrator" fan with the performance of SilverStone's stock 180mm fan in the Fortress FT02 computer case.
Manufacturer: SilverStone Technology Full Disclosure:The product samples used in this article has been provided by SilverStone Technology. Air Penetrator Features
SST-AP181 Specifications
Features and specifications provided by SilverStone Technology
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Comments
You might be able to run the fans with a separate fan controller, leaving the attached switches set to "high", but not knowing how the attached switches are wired up, it's just a guess.
Since you'll be running the system at its stock clocks, why bother with a fan on the Megahalems at all? As my tests showed, a Megahalems will keep a 980X nice and cool with no attached fan, just using the airflow from the AP181s.
I would like to know when you install the Prolimtech SM Cooler in FT02 your review, could the FT02 case side panel be closed? Isn't the spec for this cooler very tall and could touch the side panel case?
#benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=553&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=
I am thinking of getting similar sized cooler for my RV02 like CM Hyper 212+ GP which is cheaper.
Your assistance is very much appreciated.
Thank you.
Cheers,
Harry
thank you for the review. I was wondering, is it possible to thest the Thermalright HR-02 in the passive setup with the FT-02 case (AP-181 fan)?
That would be lovely :)
Take care
They were noisy so I put a drop of sowing machine oil in the bearings.
I was going to ditch them for new fans and was considering the air penetrator. It is expensive in Aussie. Would this type of fan be a good radiator fan?