Akasa Ultra Quiet PaxPower amber series 120mm fan

Today I will be looking at Akasa’s offering in the silent fan market, the PaxPower amber series. I have seen a couple of silent fans so it will be interesting to see how this compares.

Out of the box

The fan is packed as you would expect and never had any damage on it. This is available in both 80mm and 120mm sizes with a claimed 18db is it that low? Well let’s get this fan out of the box and take a closer look.

All the normal accessories you expect to come with a fan are there with the screw and the 3 pin to 4 pin adaptor, I also noticed when removing this from the packaging how light it was as it felt much lighter than the nexus fans.

The fan itself is a twin ball bearing type and has 7 blades and spins at 1400 rpm. The blades color is Amber with a clear plastic outer (hence the fans name)  I looked at the fan and surround carefully and could find no imperfections, it is also at this moment I notice the fan is also very thin being only 25mm wide, here let me show you with a photo.

As you can see it is rather thin, I am not sure about the claims so much air it can push now because of it size compared to the nexus, and the only way to find out is to put it in to test it. So time to screw it up and get the tests going, before I do here are the Specs.

  FAN SPECIFICATION Dim: 120 x 120 x 25mm Rated speed:  1400 RPM Sound: 18.0 dB(A) Air flow: 44.8 CFM Bearing: Twin ball bearing Life expentancy: 80,000/ hrs DESCRIPTION Precision balanced low air impedance fan blades for ultra quiet acoustics INCLUDES 3 to 4-pin adapter  4-case screws Retail pack ORDERING INFORMATION AK-183-L2B

Now that is a claim 44CFM from just 18db sounds promising, but will it actually be that low? To find out I am going to through these in the case with the nexus fans. To be fair I will just use 1 fan in the same case with a 80mm to 120mm adaptor on the Cpu Cooler and take temps on each to check airflow claims. If this sounds strange to you ill tell you why I am doing it this way. The nexus silent 120 is claimed to be at 22db and with 33CFM so if I get idle temps with that on the Cpu cooler and then with the Akasa Amber series I should have lower temps as well as a audible improvement.

 Now that’s impressive you have to believe the claimed airflow I used the nexus for a week and got an average idle of 43c, with the Akasa Amber series I was getting 41c and it was with out a doubt quieter than the nexus. Under load it excelled to0 with the nexus fan only able to keep the temp down at 49c and the amber series 45c. this gives you a good indication on the better performer and considering it makes a audible difference at only 18db it has to be a winner

Conclusion

What can I say low noise and high airflow was the plan and that is exactly what Akasa have done. It’s a bit strange really as the fan is quite thin, but hey I am not complaining the design works and that is what’s important. It’s the thinness that threw me off as I was thinking no way could it beat the nexus being that thin but it did hands down, Quieter and better airflow definitely my choice for a silent fan. if you want silent Akasa is the name , A great fan designed well with an impressive airflow

Pros

Well Packaged

Very quiet at 18db

Excellent Airflow for a 1400rpm fan

Excellent value for money

Only 25mm thick (ideal with some placements of 120mm fans)

Cons

NONE!

Review by R.Bowzer

Thanks to Akasa for supplying the fans

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