This review comes at a time when there has been a major restructuring at EKWB and, to their credit, they have met product releases for everything promised so far. These Vardar EVO fans were announced and released before all this happened, so everyone involved with the product, be it someone still there or otherwise, deserves props for taking an excellent fan and improving it.

The EK-Vardar F4-120ER was my top recommendation to most people getting into PC DIY watercooling, but they were tainted when bad bearings literally caused many a whine from the fan series (especially the 140 mm fans). Corsair, be quiet!, and a few others then brought out fans that went better with bearings for an optimal performance/noise balance combined with good fan design to where EKWB had to counter. Granted, all three of these companies are operating at different volume scales, but for the enthusiast today, I would say the EK-Vardar EVO 120ER is strongly worth considering as well. It comes in two classic color options, pushes a ton of air, and the 0dB start-stop feature is nice as well since it has this fan produce no noise and hardly collect dust in that state. These are not for those who prioritize noise since they are louder than most fans, but that is mostly because of the high airflow, and, thus, airflow noise, at the same fan speeds as others. The hydro-dynamic bearing does well in minimizing bearing noise at lower fan speeds, which is really where the ball bearings were hurting.

At $20, this is not an inexpensive fans, but it costs the same as the older fan it directly replaces. There are fans today that cost nearly double the price, those that come with RGB lighting to boot. These fans are thus also not for the customer looking for some bling. If you are looking for pure performance, these are for you, and the cons listed above are really a result of me scratching at the bottom of the barrel here. The EK-Vardar EVO 120ER thus gets a high score and strong recommendation accordingly.