Sunbeam 80mm Blue UV CCFL Fan

Reviews: Cooling

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
JacolTech
Apr. 29, 2003

A Word of Warning:

Before I start with the review I want to make sure that you know one thing... You will not be able to mount this fan if your case relies on fan clips to mount fans. Because of the large round CCFL UV tube on the fan you will not be able to mount it via fan clips. If you do not have screw holes to mount fans in your case, do not bother reading this review because these fans are not for you. If you do have screw holes, you should read on because you can mount this fan via screws.

Package and Contents

When you open the box and take a look at the packaging you will see plenty of pictures of the fan in action. The packages shows every color of the fan so that you can see what the others look like as well. On the back of the package it lists the features and specifications and it also has installation instructions. The instructions are step by step on the box so I will not tell you how to install it. The jist of installation though, is turn off the computer, mount the fan with screws, plug fan into inverter, plug inverter into 4pin molex, turn computer on, flip switch to on position, enjoy. Installing a fan is easy, so lets move on...

Performance

Since all of my cases have fan clips, I was unable to mount this fan, as I explained above. To test the fan I plugged it in and used it outside of the case. The first test was plugging the fan into a 4pin molex for power, and it worked great. The UV light is reasonably bright, airflow is ~ 32 CFM, and noise level is 28dBA. When I compared the airflow of my LED fans and this fan, I was surprised how much of a difference in airflow there was between them. The LED fans are rated at 33CFM and this fan is rated at 31.73CFM, but this fan was blowing much more air than the LED fans. In my second test, this was not the case... For the second test I plugged the fan into a fan controller (Zalman ZM-MFC1) and put it on the highest setting (12V) and it blew considerably less air than it did when plugged in via 4pin connector directly from PSU. I didn't think that could be right so I plugged in the fan to a different channel and had the same result. To test a little further I used a different fan controller (Vantec Nexus) and tried it on a couple of different channels but got the same result, less airflow. This stumped me because a 4pin molex should put out 12V just like a fan controller 3pin should put out 12V so I decided to test a little more. I unmounted one of my LED fans and unplugged all the others, and then I plugged it in via 4pin connector directly from PSU. Once it was plugged in I checked to see how much airflow there was and then I quickly unplugged it and plugged it in via fan controller. With the LED fan I got the same amount of airflow no matter how I connected it.

Because of the above testing, I recommend that you plug this fan in via 4pin connector directly from the PSU if you want maximum airflow. The only explanation I can give for the fans behavior is that it seems the wires were put in backwards... What does this mean? It means that when you use a 3pin connector to power the fan, the 12V wire is only getting 5V. I can not say this is the cause for sure, but I think it is definitely something Sunbeam should look into. Enough about the airflow...

When you turn on the UV CCFL, the entire fan lights up because it is made out of UV sensitive plastic. The CCFL is bright enough to light up any UV sensitive computer components inside your case. I do not have UV sensitive components, so I used a sheet of paper and a highlighter so you can get an idea of what the lighting is like.

Conclusion

The fact that you need screw hole fan mounts in your case to be able to mount this fan is a big downside. If you do, however, have the ability to mount fans via screws in your case, these fans are great. Whether or not you have UV senstive components in your case does not matter because the fans themselves are UV sensitive. If you wanted to you could even purchase UV paint for making your cables etc. UV sensitive. The airflow was great via 4pin connector, but for some reason lost some power via 3pin. If you get this fan, connect it via 4pin connectors. Overall this is a great fan for those who will be able to mount them. If you can mount fans via screws, I highly recommend these UV CCFL fans. If you do not have the ability to mount fans via screws, and you want UV lighting, I recommend checking out some 12" UV CCFLs @ JacolTech.

Pros

Bright UV
Great airflow (via 4pin connector)
Entire fan is UV-sensitive
Unique looking

Cons

Must mount via screws
Less airflow when connected with 3pin connector

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