Performance Testing

Please refer to this dedicated test setup page as it applies to this review as well.


Silverstone rates the Shark Force 120 with a fan speed range of 0 to 2500 RPM. The provided two samples went from an average 2431 RPM at 100% PWM down to 169 RPM at 10%, following which the fans will turn off if you have a fan controller capable of zero RPM (0% PWM duty cycle). I will mention here that a lot of fan controllers simply can't get lower than 10% PWM duty cycle. So there is a chance you may not see the fans turn off at all but, if you do, they do turn back on at 210 RPM or so. As such, there is an effective control range of 0-100% here along with a massive RPM range of control, so needless to say this is plenty for PC cooling applications be it for someone who prioritizes noise or those who want better cooling. The RPM response curve could be more linear though, especially given the big drops at higher PWM duty cycles. It makes it less trivial to set up custom fan curves, but this is far from being a dealbreaker. Sample variation is minimal when it comes to the spinning speed, although I did notice a slightly larger discrepancy at higher fan speeds when it comes to the fan noise. Context is needed to talk more about the fan's relative performance and noise, so I have comparison charts below for some fans tested at set RPM values, or as near as they can get to those.


The charts above help compare the Silverstone Shark Force 120 with other fans at different chosen RPM values reflecting usage scenarios most popular with watercooling, although some fans go higher as is the case here. The charts are to be considered for comparison within this result set only and are not to be compared with results from another test elsewhere owing to different testing conditions. Note that these are average values for all samples of each fan and do not reflect any sample variation, and I also suggest looking at RGB fans separately from the others given they tend to sacrifice some performance by having LEDs take up space where the rotor blades could have been pushing more air through. The main takeaway here is the Shark Force 120 is one of the better performing fans in pushing air through a radiator, but it ends up also being one of the louder fans at the same time. Some of this is of course to do with the airflow itself, although I feel like the blade design gimmick isn't exactly working out as advertised. I will also confirm there was no perceived vibration or bearing noise during testing, including at the lower fan speeds.


Instead of having CFM/dBA charts that can potentially be taken for more than they really offer, I am going to show three other fans as a comparison for further context. These include the subject of this review—the Silverstone Shark Force 120—in addition to three other high performance fans that Silverstone's marketing made me want to compare against. These include the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Pro, the Lian Li UNI FAN P28, and the Phanteks T30-120, all of which are quite impressive not only in terms of pure performance but also from a performance/noise basis. Unfortunately here we see the Shark Force 120 fail to keep up with the competition—it's simply too loud for the offered performance, thus resulting in a reasonably large gap between it and the other three fans.