The Alphacool Apex Stealth has had a roller-coaster of a launch. There was some skepticism about why the metal frames would be needed at all after Alphacool debuted the fans at Computex last year. After all, vibration noise is not really a big contributor to fan noise under typical operation. But where it comes in handy is by effectively damping down the sound signature of the fans to where the higher frequencies are toned down more than the lower frequencies. This makes the Apex Stealth sound more pleasant as well as "quieter" as a result of psychoacoustics. I can't understate how big a deal this is given the numbers on the previous page don't tell you the whole story. This is a fan that should be right up the alley of those prioritizing low noise. Having a zero RPM mode also helps further, as does the part where the fans spin quite low to allow for easy setup of custom fan curves.

Then came the marketing hype where there was data presented making these fans seemingly the best in the world in terms of low noise and high performance—simultaneously. Let's just say there were enough questions about the data and a certain early review to where even Alphacool has changed the product page to reflect data from former TPU editor Aris's fancy Longwin machine now. A slew of pre-orders, and perhaps also some cancellations followed thereafter with other reviews not agreeing with the earlier results. I am here to say that, based on my testing of two retail units, the Alphacool Stealth is a good fan overall. It's extremely quiet as mentioned above and has decent performance even when used as a radiator fan. This is a hybrid fan that I can see best suited with lower airflow restriction radiators—some of Alphacool's own offerings come to mind—as well as other use cases including case fans and air coolers alike. Don't expect the best performance on an more restrictive CLC radiator perhaps, or even a more standard open-loop radiator as I use. There are other fans on the market which excel in such situations and the Apex Stealth ends up bested not only in terms of pure performance but also measured performance/noise. Some of those fans are thicker admittedly, but even equivalent 25 mm thick fans do better and cost the same, if not less.

The best way to treat the Alphacool Apex Stealth is as a versatile fan that does well enough for most people. The long RPM range helps, as does the quieter operation, to where you can run these fans at ~1500-2000 RPM and be plenty happy with the net cooling and operating noise inside a case. I also like that these come in different colors and finishes allowing you to go safe with a matte black or flashy with a glossy gold even. The 3000 RPM version also costs the same, so you might as well purchase these if you have a decent fan control solution. If not, and knowing that these fans don't scale with performance as well past 2000 RPM, you might as well get the slower speed versions and call it a day. You won't have to worry as much about power draw then either! Based on the data as well as my subjective experience of the fan's sound signature—remember that I am also the audio editor here—I do think the Alphacool Apex Stealth will please many who know what to expect now that the dust surrounding these fans has settled. But they're not for everyone, especially at the asking price given the relative performance deficit.