http://www.techpowerup.com/207572/ek-announces-fans-specially-designed-for-radiators-ek-vardar-series.html
 
Company's first fully in-house engineered computer cooling fan

 

EK Announces Fans Specially Designed for Radiators: EK Vardar Series

PRESS RELEASE by btarunr Thursday, November 27th 2014 07:56 Discuss (4 Comments)
EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to announce company's first fully in-house engineered computer cooling fan, designed and built primarily for highest-performance computer liquid cooling systems - the EK-Vardar. This product is the result of one year worth of development, CFD analysis, careful motor selection and anechoic chamber testing.

Dubbed Vardar, this family of cooling fans carry the name of a type of the cold northwesterly wind blowing from the mountains down to the valleys of Macedonia. It is a type of ravine wind, enhanced by a channelling effect while blowing down through the Moravia-Vardar gap, bringing cold conditions from the north to the Thessaloniki area of Greece. Most frequent during winter, it is blowing in the rear of a depression when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over the Aegean Sea.  

"High-pressure fan design have distinct blade characteristics", said Vlado Schweiger, chief hydrodynamic engineer at EK Water Blocks. "The key task was to optimize noise profile throughout entire fan operational range."

The key characteristics of EK-Vardar Fx-120 series fans are:

• High-static pressure / low noise profile - unlike other general-purpose computer cooling fans, the EK-Vardar family of fans is built specifically for computer liquid cooling systems, namely radiator cooling. The 7-fin fan blade design is optimized for high pressure operation while maintaining the low noise profile throughout the whole operation range of the fan.
• High-quality motor and bearing assembly - Proven electrical design, actively cooled motor windings and Double Ball bearing with 50.000 hours lifespan (MTBF) ensures uninterrupted operation for years to come. Phase-width modulation (PWM) fan speed allows performance on demand.
• Sealed-edge fan casing - The classic, yet effective square shape of the fan casing ensures optimal performance in either pull- (suction) or push (pressure) regime without hydraulic losses thus ensuring optimal cooling capacity of your liquid cooling radiators.
• Timeless design - the EK-Vardar fan fits subtly into any liquid cooling computer without drawing too much attention. Single- and two-tone colour design with monochrome fan sticker. Less is more.

EK-Vardar 120mm cooling fan family currently consists of five models - four regular and one Furious Vardar with the latter built in distinctive all-black design. All fans come with four self-tapping screws and are pre-sleeved (F1-F4: black, FF5: red) for your convenience:

Got permission from EK to post my findings for the F4 fan I had requested:

Note that this is a pre-production sample, but I couldn't resist requesting one for the sponsored build in the TX10-D. The packaging is finalized and tells you exactly what fan it is (the F4 in this case) and also the maximum fan RPM.



On the back we get tech specs and also the P-Q curve which, as others have seen, is similar to that of the respective Gentle Typhoon fan.

Nothing new on the side, and we see the contribution from Slovenia and the manufacturing company in China listed out here.

As I said this is a pre-production sample, and so there was only the fan in here. The final versions should come with 4 self-tapping screws and a few other cosmetic improvements. But enough about all this, let's take a look at the actual item:












As I said, cosmetic improvements incoming :p
I believe the heatshrink is getting a makeover and the label on the back of the hub will be done, not 100% sure about the retail sample sleeving material but I will likely buy a few anyway. We will come to why very soon, but before we proceed I wanted to share a few images of the other fans I tested out recently that look similar:



The Scythe Gentle Typhoon GT AP-45 (AP-00)

The advertized specs list a PWM duty cycle of 40-100%, but I was able to get it to as low as 20% on a single fan. The RPM response curve is mostly linear, especially from 25-95% where I suspect most people will be running this at anyway. Noise levels aren't the lowest I have seen at a particular fan RPM but when adding in the airflow through a radiator (a 11 FPI, 30mm thick 120mm radiator in push orientation), things get very impressive. As always, measurements were done 6" away from the fan to minimize background effects and also get the measurements in the >95% confidence range of measurement of the instruments used.
Here's how the GT AP-45 and eLoop B12-4 stack up (having removed the Swiftech Helix120 owing to potential uncontrolled variables and re-plotted as requested):

I will say that the AP-45 was not at it's best from 9-11 V here with an unpleasant buzz that I could hear in the open- not necessarily an issue inside a case a few feet away. But you can see that while the AP-45 and Vardar F4 are very identical in airflow through the radiator, the Vardar F4 is slightly quieter most of the time. The eLoop B12-4 needs a lot more fan speed to hit the same levels of airflow as the other two, and with it comes more noise. Another thing I will point out is that I was able to get the AP-45 all the way down to 186 RPM at 2V without issues, but at that point the airflow was lower than the reliable detection limits of the anemometer. Needless to say I am going to get a few more of these for the TX10-D radiators, and will test out the other NB eLoops also soon.

Depends on the price, and also availability. GTs aren't really available except via Coolerguys in the US and at a higher price than before.

wrinvert
this looks like a very promising replacement to the GT ap series. its peaked my interest.
 

+1 The hub and blades kinda remind me of the GT's. Spec's look to be pretty good too.

Pre-production model though, let's see how the retail samples look.

140mm ones coming in Feb apparently.

EK Vardar vs Gentle Typhoon, DazMode Video

 
Good fans, but if you ask me didn't reach Gentle Typhoon.
After so many years Gentle Typhoon deserve Gold medal as best PC case fan ever.
Only is question 1850 RPM version or 2150 RPM version.
I hoped EKWB will make something similar, difference is most obvious on 3000RPM where Nidec Gentle Typhoon Black is almost 10dB more silent than EKWB Vardar. On 2150 RPM difference is about 5dB.
But EKWB is much better than Noctua Industrial.
 
Noctua Industrial 2000 RPM (2130 fan controller) - 59dB
Gentle Typhoon 2150 RPM (2130RPM controller)  - 50dB
EKWB Vardar 2150 RPM (2130 RPM controller)    - 54dB
 
EKWB Fans look very good in work.
More clips will be probably available soon.
 
 

Bad link on 2nd one = Oops! That page can’t be found. I do appreciate the many different subjects that you offer info, though.

I'm fine with getting the Corsair SP fans. 

I don't know, these fans are nice too, same as CORSAIR SP120.
I would keep SP120 without colored rings. These fans are not bad at all, if they are more silent than Noctua Industrial that's success.
But I think EK should drop price little, this would be price for performance and silence same as Gentle Typhoon.
If they concentrate on people who want to buy and finish everything on their site for 10-12e that would be ideal price,
example 4 fans =50 euro.
10e is .... my god... 10 is 11$... isus. I now saw that. Last time was 10e = 16-17$.
That's why EVGA tax is so sick.
I just want to say 10e is 16$, and to check again...