• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Thermaltake Releases SWAFAN RGB Radiator Fan Series with Easy Reversible Airflow Design

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,297 (7.53/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Thermaltake today introduced the SWAFAN 120 RGB and SWAFAN 140 RGB case fans optimized for used in liquid-cooling radiators. These fans come with easily-swappable impellers, and include two sets of them, each with a different airflow direction. You could just flip a case fan around to reverse its airflow direction, but that would expose the ugly reverse side of the fan hub with its regulatory markings and wiring sticking out, not to mention the pillars of the frame that hold the hub in place. This approach ensures you have just the impeller and its pretty RGB setup facing you. This is especially useful when you have the radiator sandwiched between two sets of fans in a push-pull configuration. The swappable nature of the impeller also makes it easy to clean these fans.

Both the SWAFAN 120 RGB and SWAFAN 140 RGB come in black and white color variants, and in packs of three fans that include an RGB controller. The fans feature hydraulic bearings rated for 40,000 hours. The fans each take in a 9-pin connection that resembles the USB 2.0 headers on the motherboard, which it uses for both power (main function) and RGB control. The included lighting controller is hence essentially a USB 2.0 hub that interfaces with the motherboard over a USB 2.0 header, and takes in a 4-pin Molex for additional power.



Thermaltake designates the two impellers included with these fans as "black labeled" and "silver labeled." The black-labeled impeller is the "standard" one that pushes air through the frame and out the back of the fan; whereas the silver-labeled one is the "reverse" impeller that pulls air through the frame. The SWAFAN 120 RGB turns at speeds ranging between 500 to 2,000 RPM. For this fan, the standard impeller offers up to 53.02 CFM of airflow at 2.58 mm H₂O static-pressure, and 30.5 dBA noise output. The reverse impeller offers up to 54.85 CFM of airflow at 2.19 mm H₂O static-pressure, and 36.5 dBA noise output.

The SWAFAN 140 RGB offers the same 500 to 2,000 RPM speed-range as its smaller sibling. Its standard impeller pushes up to 77.6 CFM of airflow at 3.12 mm H₂O static pressure, and 34.5 dBA noise output; while its reverse impeller does up to 71.3 CFM of airflow at 2.59 mm H₂O static pressure, and 40.5 dBA noise output. The standard and reverse impellers of both fan models offer vastly different specs because they feature a different fan-blade design.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Nov 6, 2020
Messages
23 (0.02/day)
That's cool and all, been able to swap out the impellers for a reverse flow, but that decibel increase of 6.. from a low hummm, to a literally TURBINE.
 

Hxx

Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
303 (0.08/day)
proprietary connector, black cables for white fans, molex power on the usb controller wow, additional software required i take that the connectivity aspect was completely ignored and recycled from 2015.
 

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,297 (7.53/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
proprietary connector, black cables for white fans, molex power on the usb controller wow, additional software required i take that the connectivity aspect was completely ignored and recycled from 2015.
The connector is not proprietary. You can plug it into the 9-pin USB 2.0 header of your motherboard.
 
Joined
Aug 14, 2013
Messages
2,373 (0.57/day)
System Name boomer--->zoomer not your typical millenial build
Processor i5-760 @ 3.8ghz + turbo ~goes wayyyyyyyyy fast cuz turboooooz~
Motherboard P55-GD80 ~best motherboard ever designed~
Cooling NH-D15 ~double stack thot twerk all day~
Memory 16GB Crucial Ballistix LP ~memory gone AWOL~
Video Card(s) MSI GTX 970 ~*~GOLDEN EDITION~*~ RAWRRRRRR
Storage 500GB Samsung 850 Evo (OS X, *nix), 128GB Samsung 840 Pro (W10 Pro), 1TB SpinPoint F3 ~best in class
Display(s) ASUS VW246H ~best 24" you've seen *FULL HD* *1O80PP* *SLAPS*~
Case FT02-W ~the W stands for white but it's brushed aluminum except for the disgusting ODD bays; *cries*
Audio Device(s) A LOT
Power Supply 850W EVGA SuperNova G2 ~hot fire like champagne~
Mouse CM Spawn ~cmcz R c00l seth mcfarlane darawss~
Keyboard CM QF Rapid - Browns ~fastrrr kees for fstr teens~
Software integrated into the chassis
Benchmark Scores 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
Meaning you’re locked into their drivers and/or software?

PR forgot that they’re Alexa compatible :p
 

Hxx

Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
303 (0.08/day)
The connector is not proprietary. You can plug it into the 9-pin USB 2.0 header of your motherboard.
"The fans each take in a 9-pin connection that resembles the USB 2.0 headers on the motherboard, which it uses for both power (main function) and RGB control"

That my friend is called proprietary :). I get what youre saying that the control box connector is not proprietary. Generally that is the case because it needs to be hooked up to a motherboard so its typically a usb 2.0 type thing plus sata/molex power. But the connection from the controller box to the fans is proprietary meaning you can't just plug the fans into a 4pin pwm and 3pin argb connector on your motherboard (unless TT sells some adapter) so you have to use the controller box and TT software no matter what if you want to use the fans.

My experience with other companies, corsair nzxt phanteks lian li - they have separate cables for data and argb and either have pwm and/or regular argb connectors or at the very least they provide an easy way to adapt to motherboard standards so you wont have to use some controller box and some bloatware for lights.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 14, 2013
Messages
2,373 (0.57/day)
System Name boomer--->zoomer not your typical millenial build
Processor i5-760 @ 3.8ghz + turbo ~goes wayyyyyyyyy fast cuz turboooooz~
Motherboard P55-GD80 ~best motherboard ever designed~
Cooling NH-D15 ~double stack thot twerk all day~
Memory 16GB Crucial Ballistix LP ~memory gone AWOL~
Video Card(s) MSI GTX 970 ~*~GOLDEN EDITION~*~ RAWRRRRRR
Storage 500GB Samsung 850 Evo (OS X, *nix), 128GB Samsung 840 Pro (W10 Pro), 1TB SpinPoint F3 ~best in class
Display(s) ASUS VW246H ~best 24" you've seen *FULL HD* *1O80PP* *SLAPS*~
Case FT02-W ~the W stands for white but it's brushed aluminum except for the disgusting ODD bays; *cries*
Audio Device(s) A LOT
Power Supply 850W EVGA SuperNova G2 ~hot fire like champagne~
Mouse CM Spawn ~cmcz R c00l seth mcfarlane darawss~
Keyboard CM QF Rapid - Browns ~fastrrr kees for fstr teens~
Software integrated into the chassis
Benchmark Scores 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
But the connection from the controller box to the fans is proprietary meaning you can't just plug the fans into a 4pin pwm and 3pin argb connector on your motherboard (unless TT sells some adapter)
The fans can be connected with USB 2 as well. Not that you're wrong, just saying. TT has been pushing this garbage for years while everyone else is moving on to traditional pwm + argb headers.


Edit: My bad, you are correct, the individual fans don't match the USB pin-out
 
Last edited:
Top