When you look around the net at sites such as this one, you'll find a mixed bag of items under the spotlight. One such area of items are cooling items, which doesn't just mean your CPU; VGA coolers, HDD coolers and Bay coolers for your system, not to mention Watercooling can all be seen. The item we are looking at here is for cooling your system.
Another thing you will probably come across is items that have visual presence from either the overall design or perhaps from lighting of some kind. CCFLs, LEDs and UV reactive components can be had easily enough, and if you have a window they can be quite desirable.
Put the two together and we have , designed to increase airflow and cool your case interior, specifically the cards in the PCI area as well as look good to boot.
Specifications
Model: SP-FC70-BL
Outline Dimension: 195x92x20mm
Fan size: 70x70x15mm
Voltage: 7-12v
Power: 9W
Speed: 2400-4000 RPM
Airflow: 17.73 – 29.54 CFM
Current: 0.327A – 0.750A
Noise: 25 – 36.64 dBA
Bearing Type: Ball Bearing
Life: 50,000 hrs
Weight: 300g
Features
Increase Air Circulation, Lower Case Temperature
Built-in Ultra Bright UV LED Lights
Adjustable Fan Speeds
Perfect for Windowed Cases
The Vantec Spectrum Fan Card comes in a clear heat sealed pack designed to hang on a hook at the store, showing off exactly what you're getting upfront. All the usual PR and information is available at a glance. Due to the nature of the product, not much is included or needed; you get the cooler itself, a screw and an installation guide sheet.
The Cooler is designed to install into a free PCI slot and is manufactured from UV reactive, translucent blue plastic. Two fans are on the cooler and each of these fans is surrounded by 4 UV LEDs which naturally reacts to the plastic. One side of the cooler is protected by limited grill like spokes, but the other side is left wide open. Considering the fact this will be placed inside a case it's not too big of an issue but might have been nice to mimic the previous sides grill like spokes.
The wiring for the cooler is of a silver and clear manufacture, very reminiscent of OFC speaker cable. Vantec have fitted the Spectrum Fan Card with a pass-thru style Molex connector so you won't lose one powering this item.
The PCI insert is simply a blanking plate of plastic, it isn't designed to interface with the system in anyway and is there purely to hold the cooler in place.
Moving finally to the PCI Plate end we can see a sliding switch to control the fan speeds and therefore the noise levels from the cooler. I'm pleased to see that adjusting the speed has no effect on the lighting levels as this is the usual downside to using LED fans.
Once installed and powered up you will find the Vantec Spectrum card cooler does provide quite a bright glow almost at CCFL levels, but don't rely on this to light your entire case as its position simply won't allow for it. This is the sort of item that would be complimented by the glow from other lighting sources such as CCFLs or laser LEDs.
Testing
Test rig: Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ (), Abit AN7, 512MB of Corsair TwinX XMS3200, MSI GeForce FX5950 Ultra, Antec P160 Case, W&CC Watercooling, Aerocool AeroPower II Titanium PSU, 80gb WD HDD, 80gb Seagate HDD
For load purposes, I created a batch file that moved 4 copies of the contents of my WinXP disk from one Hard Drive to another whilst also running a looped demo of our in-house Call of Duty demo. Readings were taken 3 times over a course of 24 hours and averaged out. Room temperature at the time of recording the temperatures was 24C.
|
|
Idle
|
Load
|
|
Sys Temps Without
|
27
|
31
|
|
Sys Temps @ Low Speed
|
27
|
31
|
|
Sys Temps @ High Speed
|
26
|
30
|
Temperatures in C, Lower is better
I think the results speak for themselves here but there are a few comments I want to make. At low speeds the Vantec Fan Card won't do much for the internal temperatures and this is to be expected since all you are doing is moving around the hot air in the case. What is needed here is a direct feed of cooler air from outside the case but without modifications it just isn't going to happen. A nice feed from a side panel fan would be beneficial.
At high speeds we can see a 1C difference but this comes at the price of a high noise factor too. Even at low speeds someone who is sensitive to PC noise is probably going to be irritated but if your system is noisy anyway you won't notice any difference until you increase the speed.
Final Words
Vantec have taken a few of the more common ideas floating around and created an item that visually looks very good. Unfortunatly this is the main appeal of the Vantec Spectrum Fan Card, as its cooling abilities are not fantastic and it will increase your overall system noise at high speeds, the only speed that makes any effect to overall system temperatures. Items such as the MSI GeForce FX5950 Ultra showed no difference in temperatures either and this card was the recipient of the majority of the airflow produced from the card, which is a shame.
Logic dictates that if you have a side panel fan blowing air into this area then you will probably have better results than me. Bottom line, think of this as more of a visual aid for your system than anything else, bit like putting a bonnet (hood) scoop on a 1.0 litre car.
Pros: UV Reactive Blue translucent plastic manufacture, UV LEDs onboard, Speed control, easy and quick fitting to a free PCI Slot, Visually pleasing
Cons: Not much difference in temperatures, Will add to overall system noise especially at high speeds
Bottom Line: This is more of a visual aid for your system than anything else, bit like putting a bonnet (hood) scoop on a 1.0 litre car. It does look good but don’t expect big drops in system temperature. Those with side panel fans might find better results. You can get this product from our friends at .
Hit us up in the Forums if you have any Questions or Comments.
HOME
