As soon as I saw the shade of blue on this fan, I knew it was meant to be.
Here's the spec:
| Size Max RPM Max Airflow (CFM) Noise (dB(A)) Static Pressure (mmH2O) | 120 x 120 x 25mm 1500 31.4 31.4 1.21 |
Accessories: 4x Fan screws, 4x Anti-vibration mounts.
Design:
As people familiar with my personal views when it comes to the physical characteristics and styling of fans, prepare for a review full of unnecessary excuses to bring up how gorgeous blue is on this fan. We have actually had quite a bit of experience with air penetrator fans in the past and used the red led AP121's in our Daft Gam3rs build. This blows them out of the water when it comes to looks. But lets get on with the review.
| So the accessory section of the review is going to be short and sweet, there basically is no accessories. Unless of course you count anti-vibration mounts as one but here at HalTechTV we class them as standard as the case screws you should expect and so no surprises here, they are nice and black though. Moving on we have the cable which measures 50cm long and is sleeved extremely well with no showing of the cables underneath however a different material would be preferred over the nylon threading used here. We do also see that the cable like most fans is only sleeved to about 1cm before the fan and then coloured wiring is visible. I hope to see manufacturers start to fix this in future fans. | 
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Random insert of the gorgeous blueness! This is also a UV blue, great for you lighting guys!
Going back to the fan itself we have the infamous air channelling grille that like the rest of the chassis is a lovely black, complimenting the blue of the blades extremely well. This unlike the LED AP121's silver chassis is nice to look at even when the fan is turned off. Silverstone has improved every aspect of their designs here with the looks deserving more than just a small mention. Remember all the photo's can be enlarged by clicking them.
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With the release of this fan there was a big focus put on the fan blades themselves as you will notice that the 9 blade design is actually split into 3 sub groups of different shapes and sizes. We have the largest group being similar to any other standard look fan blade. The medium sized group with a slight bend at the end, almost like the wing tip of a plane. And finally we have the smallest group where the 'wing of the plane' has been completely bent in half. Unneeded explanations aside the design is an interesting one, similar though from a theoretical standpoint to Noctua's focused flow frame but implemented in a different manner.
| When it comes to looks on a fan I am starting to really see that for them to become an eye catcher and essentially a good looking product, they really have to break the mould and be unique. In my opinion the first air penetrator was one of the very few of its age to do so, this one however is taking things to another level that Silverstone hasn't gone before with it's air penetrator series. |
Before we finish up the design section of this review I would like to point out some things about the fan that I missed and some reasons why a few weren't as missed as I would have thought. The big feature we didn't see here was anti-vibration pads. So many companies now are implementing them in their designs that it seemed slightly odd for Silverstone to not do the same, or is it? Silverstone have never really been one for doing what everyone else does, in fact I wouldn't be going out of my way in saying they turn around and go in the opposite direction. Take cases for example, while everyone else is making huge monster cases, Silverstone has designed and implement a vast array of tiny tiny (it deserves the repeat) cases. In this case (repetition is annoying Hal!) I don't miss the anti-vibration mounts, fan speed reducers or even PWM functionality. The simplistic yet underlying complexity that this fan has really does attract me towards it. I like my molex adaptors though Silverstone (Do a sata power adaptor with your next release and I will love you more than I already do) and I wouldn't ever really think of a high end fan as one to not at least have something if not the full package. On to the performance!
Performance:
To start of we did a 'straight out the box' 12v open air testing and in all honesty we really didn't see anything too special and we actually thought it was quite loud. For a premium fan we felt a little let down but Silverstone had asked us to do some specific testing we don't normally do with our fans which reminded us that we might still have a surprise in store for us.
In open air testing we tested it against the NF-F12 and our stock fan sample. The AP123 and NF-F12 actually showed to be the same noise level but the F12 was surprisingly a higher pitch than the AP123 and so less admirable on pure 12v. In regards to airflow and static pressure, while this fan was nowhere near the same as the F12, take the testing to 30cm away from the fan and the F12 dropped significantly while the AP123 stayed consistent and outshone the other 2 with the stock fan being so pathetic I would rather buy a case without them. This makes the AP123 one of those fans you definitely go to when you need the air to go in a certain way, yes the static pressure rating is very average but what the fan does is maintain a lower static pressure in the air anyway by maintaining smooth airflow. A case such as the FT03 (a product we at HalTechTV don't here the end of!) is a prime example of the situation in which the AP series does its job well.
Taking the fans and putting them in a case and we saw a few interesting things. first off with the fans located in an area with space in front of it, all fans performed as they did outside in open air with the sound permeating through the case as if it wasn't there. The second was when we took the fan and put it in a situation where there is something obstructing the front of it and the other fans actually went up in pitch whereas the AP123 we actually saw go down a pitch! We did however only see this phenomenon when something was obstructing the fan from maybe half a centimetre or so in front of it. in scenarios such as in the front of specific cases where the fan had a bit of breathing room we didn't see any change on any of the fans.
On a side note, in regards to the noise we did notice that while running the fan as low as we could, we didn't see much benefit of having it at all, but running it at 7V and we saw the obvious decrease in performance but an even more dramatic decrease in noise that turned this fan into a rather nice silent performer.
In open air testing we tested it against the NF-F12 and our stock fan sample. The AP123 and NF-F12 actually showed to be the same noise level but the F12 was surprisingly a higher pitch than the AP123 and so less admirable on pure 12v. In regards to airflow and static pressure, while this fan was nowhere near the same as the F12, take the testing to 30cm away from the fan and the F12 dropped significantly while the AP123 stayed consistent and outshone the other 2 with the stock fan being so pathetic I would rather buy a case without them. This makes the AP123 one of those fans you definitely go to when you need the air to go in a certain way, yes the static pressure rating is very average but what the fan does is maintain a lower static pressure in the air anyway by maintaining smooth airflow. A case such as the FT03 (a product we at HalTechTV don't here the end of!) is a prime example of the situation in which the AP series does its job well.
Taking the fans and putting them in a case and we saw a few interesting things. first off with the fans located in an area with space in front of it, all fans performed as they did outside in open air with the sound permeating through the case as if it wasn't there. The second was when we took the fan and put it in a situation where there is something obstructing the front of it and the other fans actually went up in pitch whereas the AP123 we actually saw go down a pitch! We did however only see this phenomenon when something was obstructing the fan from maybe half a centimetre or so in front of it. in scenarios such as in the front of specific cases where the fan had a bit of breathing room we didn't see any change on any of the fans.
On a side note, in regards to the noise we did notice that while running the fan as low as we could, we didn't see much benefit of having it at all, but running it at 7V and we saw the obvious decrease in performance but an even more dramatic decrease in noise that turned this fan into a rather nice silent performer.
Conclusion:
You could very easily call this a premium fan but it defies the general construct of what people normally assume premium means. With this fan you don't get all the snazzy little accessories or the incredibly long list of featured and patented technologies, the fan is a no-frills performer with the build quality and beautiful design that premium is really about.
While the AP123 was slightly loud at 12V for our liking, it like the F12 is good at beating its competition even while running at a lower RPM so this really isn't an issue in the real world.
We rated this fan at an 8 because on the fan side of things it ticks all the boxes but to achieve the 9 or 10 all the accessories are an expectation. 8 IS still an extremely high rating at HalTechTV though and for what is basically JUST a fan this is exceptional. For its value we gave it a 9 due to the fact that it is currently on the market at the same price, even cheaper in some cases than the older AP releases, not to mention that it is on the same level as many fans that are 50% more expensive than it. Ok those other fans may have a few accessories here and there but if you are on the market for a premium fan and you don't care for the accessories you may never use, this is the fan for you.
Overall this fan achieved a 17 out of 20 giving it a very solid SILVER award and being borderline GOLD. Had it come with maybe the basics in terms of extras and released at the same price, I do feel we could be dealing with a GOLD here.
To put this review into one sentence. The blue colouring on this fan is perfection and is the solution to my problem of finding the right fans for my next build here at HalTechTV. If that's not a hint of something happening in the future I don't know what is.
While the AP123 was slightly loud at 12V for our liking, it like the F12 is good at beating its competition even while running at a lower RPM so this really isn't an issue in the real world.
We rated this fan at an 8 because on the fan side of things it ticks all the boxes but to achieve the 9 or 10 all the accessories are an expectation. 8 IS still an extremely high rating at HalTechTV though and for what is basically JUST a fan this is exceptional. For its value we gave it a 9 due to the fact that it is currently on the market at the same price, even cheaper in some cases than the older AP releases, not to mention that it is on the same level as many fans that are 50% more expensive than it. Ok those other fans may have a few accessories here and there but if you are on the market for a premium fan and you don't care for the accessories you may never use, this is the fan for you.
Overall this fan achieved a 17 out of 20 giving it a very solid SILVER award and being borderline GOLD. Had it come with maybe the basics in terms of extras and released at the same price, I do feel we could be dealing with a GOLD here.
To put this review into one sentence. The blue colouring on this fan is perfection and is the solution to my problem of finding the right fans for my next build here at HalTechTV. If that's not a hint of something happening in the future I don't know what is.
Verdict:
Rating: 8/10
Value: 9/10
Value: 9/10
