Cooler Master Mobius 120 Fan

[zlobby]

The only marketing feature they added is the price. They're trying to capture the "if it's expensive, it's probably good" audience.
View attachment 281608

Well meme'd, sir!

 

[Icon Charlie]

There is a reason why I stay with Artic fans. After all of these years you can only do so much in terms of blade builds and speeds to achieve the CFM's in a fan.

 

[shovenose]

Overpriced.

 

[Dristun]

30 bucks and you can't even flex with noctua brown on the plebs.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Overpriced.

Premium price for a premium product.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The description of a "Loop Dynamic Bearing" as a sealed bearing with oil inside is the same description of 99% of the non-magnetic bearings that have been used in cheap fans for decades already so that's just marketing BS-speak.

So this is a Mobius 120mm:

Specifications from Cooler Master:
Flow: 63.1 CFM
Max RPM: 0-2050
Bearing: Loop Dynamic (whatever that means)
Max Loudness: 22.6dBA
Price: US$33 at newegg

and this is a Sickleflow 120mm:

Specifications from Cooler Master:
Flow: 62 CFM
Max RPM: 650-1800
Bearing Type: Rifle
Max Loudness: 27dBA
Price: US$10 at newegg

The Mobius fan seems like a bit of a rip-off, eh? Sickleflow has a stellar reputation for a reason so I have a hard time believing that the Mobius fan is worth it. Its max loudness is a good deal less than the Sickleflow but that 0RPM state would be a lot more bothersome than one might think. It's a lot more jarring to go from silent to not silent and that would be more noticeable than if the fan's idle is 650RPM, regardless of the dBA level. This is because a fan that idles at 650RPM forces your brain to ignore it as background noise and become accustomed to it. A spinning fan ramping up would be less noticeable than a fan being off and then turning on, especially if you're sensitive to noise (which I'm not but many seem to be).

Yeah, I'd give the Mobius fan a hard pass. Cooler Master already has a great solution that makes more sense and that's before talking about solutions from Arctic, Noctua and Thermaltake.

Premium price for a premium product.

Cooler Master Sickleflow is also a premium product for 1/3 the price.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Cooler Master Sickleflow is also a premium product for 1/3 the price.

But it's not brand new!

 

[VSG]

I mean, there's a reason why I didn't talk a lot about the bearing. The product page is hilarious with animations that probably cost more to make than to come up with the fan design.

 

[Avro Arrow]

But it's not brand new!

Well, that's true. We all know that everything new is better, eh? Especially if it costs WAY more!

I mean, there's a reason why I didn't talk a lot about the bearing. The product page is hilarious with animations that probably cost more to make than to come up with the fan design.

I get the feeling that it's the same bearing as in the Sickleflow but they changed the wording to make it sound like technomagic.

Just ask this guy:

"Tell me Captain Sheridan, do you believe in magic? You know, like 'Loop-Dynamic Bearings' and 'Ring Blades'?"
- Technomage Elric, Babylon 5

 

[zlobby]

Well, that's true. We all know that everything new is better, eh? Especially if it costs WAY more!

I get the feeling that it's the same bearing as in the Sickleflow but they changed the wording to make it sound like technomagic.

Just ask this guy:

"Tell me Captain Sheridan, do you believe in magic? You know, like 'Loop-Dynamic Bearings' and 'Ring Blades'?"
- Technomage Elric, Babylon 5

They do not have a name as you understand the concept. They are called the Fan. The Fan of God. The Fan of death. The Fan that reaches forth and cools your PC... They are cooling, they are cooling!

 

[Chrispy_]

There is a reason why I stay with Artic fans. After all of these years you can only do so much in terms of blade builds and speeds to achieve the CFM's in a fan.

Artic fans;
Not great, but good enough and dirt-cheap.

 

[Eddie58]

There is a reason why I stay with Artic fans. After all of these years you can only do so much in terms of blade builds and speeds to achieve the CFM's in a fan.

My Arctic P12 fans had a horrible hum/whine on most of the RPM range except for very low and very high values. Replaced them with some cheap Thermalright TL-C12-C fans which don't have a hum and perform slightly better than the Arctics.

 

[Mussels]

but that 0RPM state would be a lot more bothersome than one might think.

I'll never understand anyone who thinks this
I have zero RPM modes on all my GPUs and most of my PSU's and not once - not ONCE - has that transition EVER been audible.

You'd be nuts to get something like this and have a fan curve that tells the fan to go from silent to 2000RPM without inbetween steps

 

[Ferrum Master]

I just realized with agressive CPU boost algos and high TDP.

We have a real turbo lag in our PCs now too. We have to wait till the fan spins up to keep the CPU cool for higher turbo.

Just lol...

 

[80-watt Hamster]

I'll never understand anyone who thinks this
I have zero RPM modes on all my GPUs and most of my PSU's and not once - not ONCE - has that transition EVER been audible.

You'd be nuts to get something like this and have a fan curve that tells the fan to go from silent to 2000RPM without inbetween steps

The fans on my 3050 grunt/rattle on startup, so it can potentially be an issue. But they're functionally inaudible at 700 RPM, so easily enough solved.

 

[Avro Arrow]

They do not have a name as you understand the concept. They are called the Fan. The Fan of God. The Fan of death. The Fan that reaches forth and cools your PC... They are cooling, they are cooling!

Rock on brother!

I'll never understand anyone who thinks this

Well, I know that it's more noticeable to me and I honestly don't care about fan noise. When I'm gaming, I hear the game, not the fans.

I have zero RPM modes on all my GPUs and most of my PSU's and not once - not ONCE - has that transition EVER been audible.

It depends on what you're doing I suppose. If you're gaming, it's probably because you hear the game. For me, I could have six case fans going and after a minute or two, I won't notice any of them. They just blend into the background. Everyone's made differently I guess.

You'd be nuts to get something like this and have a fan curve that tells the fan to go from silent to 2000RPM without inbetween steps

You'd be nuts to think that I had that in mind.

 

[Chrispy_]

I'll never understand anyone who thinks this
I have zero RPM modes on all my GPUs and most of my PSU's and not once - not ONCE - has that transition EVER been audible.

You'd be nuts to get something like this and have a fan curve that tells the fan to go from silent to 2000RPM without inbetween steps

Anecdotally, I've dealt with enough GPUs to say that a sizeable minority of them with 0-rpm modes do have audible startup spinout. Several different Zotac and Palit cards seem to do it when new by design (or bad fan-control). The oldest cards I have in large numbers are Gigabyte RX570 cards and most of those now also grunt when they spin up/down and that's likely age. I sell them on ebay to keep them out of landfill so I've already tested about a dozen since the year started.

It is still a minority though, and I've been taking whatever sensibly-priced GPUs I can source since early 2020 so I've dealt with far more different SKUs than I'd like to under normal circumstances.

 

[Mussels]

The fans on my 3050 grunt/rattle on startup, so it can potentially be an issue. But they're functionally inaudible at 700 RPM, so easily enough solved.

If thats gigabyte, you can blame their terrible QA for that - lotta reports about the fan blades warping/stretching at higher speeds and grinding into the fan frames on the start/stop

 

[80-watt Hamster]

If thats gigabyte, you can blame their terrible QA for that - lotta reports about the fan blades warping/stretching at higher speeds and grinding into the fan frames on the start/stop

EVGA, actually. I was somewhat surprised.

 

[Mussels]

EVGA, actually. I was somewhat surprised.

I had two EVGA 970's i had to resell due to insane coil whine, they weren't always perfect

bad fans are bad fans, and shouldnt be blamed on zero-RPM - hell enough people use compressed air cans, over-rev the shit out of the fans and break the bearings and then blame anything but themselves when they click and grind and take forever to settle back into position each boot

 

[sLowEnd]

EVGA, actually. I was somewhat surprised.

I wouldn't be. Apart from some of their higher end SKUs like the Kingpin, Classified, or some FTW stuff, the component choice on most of EVGA's cards never screamed "high quality" to me. It's mostly average, or during the Geforce 8-Geforce 200 days downright bad for some SKUs.
e.g. This terrible 9600GSO

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=3f713ab5-a004-49f5-850b-0e2c15b86cf2

or this awful GTS 250

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=1A33A2BB-FDFC-4BA6-A0D5-1F5AD1E38169

 

[80-watt Hamster]

I wouldn't be. Apart from some of their higher end SKUs like the Kingpin, Classified, or some FTW stuff, the component choice on most of EVGA's cards never screamed "high quality" to me. It's mostly average, or during the Geforce 8-Geforce 200 days downright bad for some SKUs.
e.g. This terrible 9600GSO

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=3f713ab5-a004-49f5-850b-0e2c15b86cf2

or this awful GTS 250

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=1A33A2BB-FDFC-4BA6-A0D5-1F5AD1E38169

Yeah, pobody nerfect, though I'd had several to this point, and the 3050 was the first one to have something obviously wrong with it out-of-the-box. Getting OT, though.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I wouldn't be. Apart from some of their higher end SKUs like the Kingpin, Classified, or some FTW stuff, the component choice on most of EVGA's cards never screamed "high quality" to me. It's mostly average, or during the Geforce 8-Geforce 200 days downright bad for some SKUs.
e.g. This terrible 9600GSO

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=3f713ab5-a004-49f5-850b-0e2c15b86cf2

or this awful GTS 250

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=1A33A2BB-FDFC-4BA6-A0D5-1F5AD1E38169

What made EVGA legendary wasn't necessarily their quality, especially not in the early days with GeForce-8 or the 9000-series but their incredible level of customer service. If you had a problem, EVGA would fix it, and FAST! They even had a thing where you could trade your card in for a new one and that went on for years. This assurance made a lot of customers buy their cards which made EVGA extremely rich.

As a result, EVGA had the budget to make their later cards innovative and of high quality. It used to be said that "EVGA is to GeForce what Sapphire is to Radeon".

 

[lexluthermiester]

What made EVGA legendary wasn't necessarily their quality, especially not in the early days with GeForce-8 or the 9000-series but their incredible level of customer service.

I disagree on both points. Quality has been excellent since about 2004.

 

[VSG]

Keep the discussion on the topic please, this is the reviews comment section.