Closer Examination

An immediate look at the EK-Meltemi tells us it is definitely based on the EK-Vardar fan and akin to the Hulkbuster variant of the normal Iron Man armor for all fellow nerds out there. It is a 120x120x38 mm fan, making it 13 mm thicker than the EK-Vardar and most other fans it directly competes against. We have covered thicker fans in the past, and I will not get tired of doing it anytime soon. We see the same solid PBT construction for the fan frame as with the EK-Vardar fans, and a square frame with the same style of seven curved blades with a lip on their leading edges adds to the comparison further.

As with the EK-Vardar EVO 120ER, there are no vibration-dampening corner pads, but there are cutouts around the open corners enterprising customers can use with some foam pieces if they so desire. We do see arrows to point out the direction of airflow or the impeller's rotation if you are unsure, and the EKWB logo on the frame is on the other side. I would have definitely liked some rubber pads here, if only to help isolate vibrations from sources out of their control.


The main difference outside of the added thickness, and indeed as a result of it, is that EKWB has used an even bigger motor paired with a new electrical design. The EK-Vardar was already getting up there with the large fan hub, and it is almost comically large here, measuring in at ~58.75 mm (~2.3") in diameter for the front hub compared to the ~50–52 mm for the EK-Vardar fans. This means the actual blades on the impeller are quite short, and these fans also do not have the benefit of using Noctua's new A-series impeller technology that allows the blades to get as close to the fan frame as feasible. I am already worried about there being a large dead spot in the airflow field, especially in a push configuration, and such a fan may well benefit from a plenum/shroud.


Each fan is rated for ~0.13 A (1.66 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 0.085 A (1 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 get a powered PWM splitter and leave nothing to chance by powering the fans directly through the PSU. EKWB had switched over to using hydro-dynamic bearings for the Vardar EVO fans, which works well in reducing bearing noise and also minimizing the stigma from the bad batch of ball bearings that affected the original Vardar fans, so why they went back to dual ball bearings here is confusing to me. Admittedly, they remain excellent for longevity and reliability provided you don't get a bad batch to begin with, but are not the quietest to where you can potentially hear the bearing noise when the fans are spinning at lower RPMs and airflow noise is not high.

The fan has a single power cable for the PWM motor that runs it. As such, we see the four individual wires that make up the cable, and these have insulation which is color-matched to the rest of the fan in addition to the cable sleeving, which is a nice detail. The sleeving begins shortly past the edge of the fan's frame, is done in a heatshrink application, and terminates in a 4-pin fan connector to be plugged into any standard 4-pin PWM header on your motherboard or similar fan controller. The cable itself is 50 cm (~20") long, which is longer than average for most fans and works well with large cases that support watercooling.