Silverstone Shark Force 120 mm Fan

[Chrispy_]

Erm No they're not they're usually listed with max Current draw not max Watts my own Asus Strix X570F - F Gaming Tuff X470 and Strix X670E - E Gaming Wifi all list it as Max Current Draw in Amps in their manuals I've also seen the same in several Gigabyte mobo's that I've installed for customers

Thankfully they're all DC fans so max power is just 12x the stated max current, Case fans have been 12V since before I started working on PC hardware 30+ years ago.

 

[Athlonite]

Thankfully they're all DC fans so max power is just 12x the stated max current, Case fans have been 12V since before I started working on PC hardware 30+ years ago.

I already know that but apparently VSG is not conversant with mobo manuals stating Volts/Amps per fan header not Volts/Watts or they state all 3 as in 12V:: 1.2A:: 14.4W.

 

[DaveLT]

I think the most interesting Shark force is the SF160, not the 12cm
For the 12cm? I rather buy a pile of Arctic P12 Max... but the SF160 is also well less than 20$ in china (where I usually get my stuff from, I dont live in China). So why its 30usd in US is baffling
In fact, for the price of SF120 I can almost buy the 12cm version of the LCP fan (ProArtist HF12) I posted in a thread previously

Or for less, a Jungle Leopard P1 which is also a 12cm LCP fan. It's made by Fluence Technology in China which is the OEM facing company of PCCooler

(All 3 fans here are LCP)

 

[Spin1]

It's not quite fair to compare our Shark Force 120 with other thicker fans because we can't bend physics to make a 25mm fan outperform a 30mm thick fan unfortunately. Our goal was to create the best standard sized (25mm thick) fan we can so that includes using genuine Panasonic/Matsushita-licensed Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) which is a more expensive bearing than one used in the Phanteks T30. But by far the largest cost was R&D. We were originally inspired by the Speedo swimsuits with shark skin surface that swimmers were wearing back in the 2008 Olympics to break all sorts of world records (which were banned the following year). Back then, the technology just wasn't available to us to mass produce fan blades with patterns like that so we had to wait about a decade for the production technique to improve before we attempted grafting shark skin-like pattern on fan blades. After numerous prototyping and testing of different patterns density and ribbed sizes, we finally settled on the current one that was capable of making the fan quieter spinning at same speed as an identical fan without the shark skin pattern.

So yeah, if you are looking for one of the best standard sized (25mm thick) 120mm fans available, we have one in the Shark Force 120.

If thickness doesn’t matter, we also have a 38mm thick model called "FHS120X" that you can check out with 143.98CFM airflow rating and 11.66mmH2O. It costs less than the Shark Force 120 too!

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/fans/FHS_120X/

I haven't tried the Silverstone Sharkforce 120 so I can't comment on it but it's possible for a 25 mm fan to be around the same performance as a 30 mm one. The Iceberg Thermal IceGale Xtra 120 is proof.

I tested the following 25, 27, and 30 mm thick, 3000-ish RPM fans in an unscientific manner - purely by hand feel - in 2 configurations: free air, pull-intake on a holed case-panel (HAF 932 side-panel):

• Arctic P12 Max 120 (25 mm)
• Cooler Master Mobius OC 120 (27 mm)
• Iceberg Thermal IceGale Xtra 120 (25 mm)
• Phanteks T30 120 (30 mm)
• Super Flower Megacool 120 (30 mm)

After testing, it was clear those 5 fans were split into 2 categories for me:

Fans blasting air like a beast

• Iceberg Thermal IceGale Xtra
• Phanteks T30
• Super Flower Megacool

Fans outputting a decent breeze of air

• Arctic P12 Max
• Cooler Master Mobius OC

I did tests with all at equal 3000 RPM and at max RPM (3300 RPM for some of the fans) which made no difference to the results. The order and gap of results also didn't change between free-air and case-panel intake (although the case-panel intake test certainly affected sound differently for each fan).

The Megacool was 1st, then the T30 and IceGale Xtra were just slightly behind. It was hard to pick the 2nd place between the T30 and IceGale Xtra as the T30 shot air straight outwards (almost like a beam) while the IceGale Xtra had the air shooting out at around 45 degrees upwards and 45 degrees downwards. The Megacool's stream wasn't as lazer-straight as the T30 but not as divided and angled as the IceGale Xtra, it was sort of in between but I could still tell the Megacool was a bit more powerful. However, they're all easily in the same general "category".

The P12 Max and Mobius OC were extremely weak compared to the other 3. They quite literally felt like they were in a completely different category all-together. The P12 Max and the Mobius OC were very close to eachother. The Mobius OC felt slightly more powerful (nothing major) and therefore edged out the P12 Max.

The IceGale Xtra, T30, and Megacool were not just a bit more powerful than the P12 Max and Mobius OC but in an entirely different category when it came to how much air, how hard the air hit, and how far the air traveled. The difference was quite shocking.


P.S. I was then going to add a BeQuiet Silent Wings Pro 4 120 to the test but seeing how poorly the P12 Max and Mobius OC performed compared to the IceGale Xtra, T30, and Megacool, and because the Silent Wings 4's on-paper specs are closer to the P12 Max and Mobius OC, I didn't even bother.

 

[DaveLT]

P12 Max is 25mm. Not 27mm.
Unless you confused the P12 with the P14 (All Arctic P14 are 27mm)
P12's always had a design that focused airflow in a cone and while it didn't put out much air at 2000rpm, the max series adds that ring which focuses airflow even more so but the main key reason is stabilizing the fan blade's centrifugal effects and that allows them to really crank up the RPMs
So while the airflow is marginal for a 3300rpm fan, it also doesn't sound like a 3300rpm fan
In short, your comparison is extremely subjective

 

[Spin1]

P12 Max is 25mm. Not 27mm.
Unless you confused the P12 with the P14 (All Arctic P14 are 27mm)

Yes, my mistake. I forgot, the 120 is 25 mm and the 140 is 27 mm. I corrected it.

In short, your comparison is extremely subjective

It's absolutely subjective (I even said it was unscientific) but there being a large difference between the [120 mm] Icegale Xtra, T30, and Megacool compared to the [120 mm] P12 Max and Mobius OC is way beyond what only an instrument can detect. It's easily detected by just regular human senses.

 

[DaveLT]

Yes, my mistake. I forgot, the 120 is 25 mm and the 140 is 27 mm. I corrected it.
It's absolutely subjective (I even said it was unscientific) but there being a large difference between the [120 mm] Icegale Xtra, T30, and Megacool compared to the [120 mm] P12 Max and Mobius OC is way beyond what only an instrument can detect. It's easily detected by just regular human senses.

And there is no "noise level" element to your subjective comparison

 

[SilverStone Technology]

I haven't tried the Silverstone Sharkforce 120 so I can't comment on it but it's possible for a 25 mm fan to be around the same performance as a 30 mm one. The Iceberg Thermal IceGale Xtra 120 is proof.

I tested the following 25, 27, and 30 mm thick, 3000-ish RPM fans in an unscientific manner - purely by hand feel - in 2 configurations: free air, pull-intake on a holed case-panel (HAF 932 side-panel):

• Arctic P12 Max 120 (25 mm)
• Cooler Master Mobius OC 120 (27 mm)
• Iceberg Thermal IceGale Xtra 120 (25 mm)
• Phanteks T30 120 (30 mm)
• Super Flower Megacool 120 (30 mm)

After testing, it was clear those 5 fans were split into 2 categories for me:

Fans blasting air like a beast

• Iceberg Thermal IceGale Xtra
• Phanteks T30
• Super Flower Megacool

Fans outputting a decent breeze of air

• Arctic P12 Max
• Cooler Master Mobius OC

I did tests with all at equal 3000 RPM and at max RPM (3300 RPM for some of the fans) which made no difference to the results. The order and gap of results also didn't change between free-air and case-panel intake (although the case-panel intake test certainly affected sound differently for each fan).

The Megacool was 1st, then the T30 and IceGale Xtra were just slightly behind. It was hard to pick the 2nd place between the T30 and IceGale Xtra as the T30 shot air straight outwards (almost like a beam) while the IceGale Xtra had the air shooting out at around 45 degrees upwards and 45 degrees downwards. The Megacool's stream wasn't as lazer-straight as the T30 but not as divided and angled as the IceGale Xtra, it was sort of in between but I could still tell the Megacool was a bit more powerful. However, they're all easily in the same general "category".

The P12 Max and Mobius OC were extremely weak compared to the other 3. They quite literally felt like they were in a completely different category all-together. The P12 Max and the Mobius OC were very close to eachother. The Mobius OC felt slightly more powerful (nothing major) and therefore edged out the P12 Max.

The IceGale Xtra, T30, and Megacool were not just a bit more powerful than the P12 Max and Mobius OC but in an entirely different category when it came to how much air, how hard the air hit, and how far the air traveled. The difference was quite shocking.


P.S. I was then going to add a BeQuiet Silent Wings Pro 4 120 to the test but seeing how poorly the P12 Max and Mobius OC performed compared to the IceGale Xtra, T30, and Megacool, and because the Silent Wings 4's on-paper specs are closer to the P12 Max and Mobius OC, I didn't even bother.

Thanks for sharing! For sure we can also claim that our Shark Force 120 can be "around" the same performance as 30mm thick fans. We just couldn't say it can "outperform" 30mm thick fans.