Closer Examination

Except for the circle encompassing the impeller and jutting out ever so slightly on each side, the Bitspower Touchaqua NJORD is a typical 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan. It has a black frame and translucent white impeller, typical again of RGB fans today, with the latter having seven blades of a geometry not really convincing of a high static pressure design. Indeed, Bitspower claims these pair well with the current-generation Leviathan series radiators, which are currently based on the Black Ice Nemesis LS and LX and excellent at low-medium airflow as well. The stator vanes on the back also look fancier than most, and the closed fan corners have vibration-dampening pads to help isolate vibrations from sources out of their control. We see that the inner side of the frame is translucent as well, in addition to some of the frame's other sides, to maximize the lighting from the LEDs in the center of the fan.


Each fan is rated for 0.2 A (2.4 W) on the 12 VDC rail, which corresponds to the peak draw with startup boost and is surprisingly absent from the fan label on the back. I noticed a maximum operating current draw of 0.142 A (1.7 W on the 12 V rail), so you should be able to operate a good number of fans off a single 1 A header if start-up boost can be accounted for. Alternatively, you can also use the provided fan hub and leave nothing to chance by powering the fans directly through the PSU. Bitspower is also rating the LEDs, which are powered separately through another cable, for 0.7 A off the 5 VDC rail, which corresponds to a whopping 3.5 W. The fans use hydrodynamic bearings, which should work well in reducing bearing noise while being reliable enough to last longer than a typical sleeve bearing. The fan has a standard 4-pin power cable for the PWM motor that runs it, and another for the LEDs which terminates in a 3-pin connector that goes either to the 3-pin dRGB LED header on your motherboard or the provided RGB multifunction controller as a hub/controller for more fans, as with the three included in this triple pack.


Here is a look at the fan LEDs in action with the provided multifunction controller, be it static or dynamic. As mentioned before, I appreciate Bitspower going with the more standardized onboard control solutions from various mainstream motherboard makers rather than a more proprietary solution, and providing this controller gives users a last ditch means for control if they do not have a compatible motherboard.