Enermax UCEV12 120mm Fan Review

[J2T]

While fans are arguably one of the more important components in your PC, they are on many accounts rarely discussed. Fans have come a long way recently and thankfully we have progressed to where 120mm and not 80mm are the standard size anymore, offering greater efficiency and less noise.

Enermax is a company that has been around since 1990 and have made a pretty good name for themselves with their power supplies. Probably lesser known is their lines of cases, fans and peripherals. Today I am taking a look at the UCEV12, a 120mm fan from Enermax that packs a lot of features, but do these features warrant the extra cost? Read ahead to find out.

Overview

I'll start by saying that I understand the reason companies use the clamshell packaging, but I seriously hate them and the UCEV12 comes packaged in one. Aside from this fact, it is an attractive package that displays the fans many features.





After carefully cutting and prying the package open we have the fan and accessories included.





Accessories included with the fan are 4 screws, 4 shock proof isolator mounts, a molex power adapter and some sticker decals. The sticker decals are something new I haven't seen before and are a bit interesting.





The fan is clear plastic and has a small switch for turning the LED's on and off. Bundled with the 3 pin power connection is also a thermal sensor that controls the speed of the fan.





Probably my favorite feature is the removable fan blades for easy cleaning. The center assembly easily pops off making this the easiest fan to clean I have ever seen.





You can see here, the 'batwing' design for the blades that Enermax uses to increase airflow. There is a slight bump in the center of each blade.




Installation

As I mentioned earlier Enermax includes 4 insulator mounts to help eliminate any vibration noise, these are used in place of screws.





The on off switch for the LED's can be mounted in the frame and can be snapped in place on either side.





Installing is a simple matter of pulling the insulator mounts through the holes and connecting to either a fan header on the motherboard or a 4 pin molex connector from the power supply. You can also place the thermal probe where you choose to get the maximum benefit of increased temps.





And of course here is the action shot, of course if you don't like the LED you can always switch it off.





Testing and Conclusion

I unfortunately don't have access to any fancy testing equipment to test CFM and noise, so this will largely be a test using my senses in comparison to other fans. Listed below is the test system used.

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8400
MB: Gigabyte P35-DS3R
Memory: G.Skill PC28800 4GB
GPU: Biostar 9600GT
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: Western Digital 250GB SATA
DVD-Rom: LiteOn 18x DVD Burner - SATA
Case: Antec 300

Fans:
Enermax UCEV12
Antec Tri-Cool 120mm
YATE LOON 120mm D12SM-12

One thing I noticed right off the bat was how quiet this fan is, so it definitely lives up to the 8 to 12 dBa rating. Now this also combines with a feature that I sort of have mixed feelings about, the auto adjusting fan speed control. In typical use with the probe basically just hanging out, the UCEV12 runs at about 600rpm and at that speed doesn't move a whole lot of air. To get the fan moving takes a lot of heat; I used an iron turned to high and still could only get the fan up around 1200rpm. Even at that speed however, the fan is near silent and cannot be heard over either the Antec Tri-Cool or popular Yate Loon.

So where does that leave us with the Enermax UCEV12? In overclocking applications I wouldn't recommend this fan due to the lack of manual speed control. However where I think this fan would be ideal is in a HTPC application where silence is the key or if someone is just looking to run a silent PC.

Cryo-Labs would like to thank Xoxide for providing the Enermax UCEV12 for review.