Alpenföhn have sent use their Föhn 140 Wing Boost fan for review. Follow the link to check out how it does!
Alpenföhn have expanded their acclaimed Wing Boost series of fans with a new 140mm model.
The Föhn 140 Wing Boost has all the great design features present in the 120mm version reviewed last year.
Alpenföhn have impressed the PC market for a few years now with their innovative cooling products that cater for all aspects of PC cooling. These specifically include CPU, HDD, GPU, RAM, chipset and notebook cooling. They even provide their own thermal paste and of course system fans to work in conjunction with their heatsink products.
Föhn 140 Wing Boost Specifications
Fan size – 140 x 140 x 25 mm
Speed – 1100rpm @ 12v and 600rpm @ 7v
Air Flow – 104.7 m³/h
Noise – 19.4 dBA
Life – 100,000 hrs
Voltage Rating – 12v DC
Connector – 4 pin PWM
Weight – 200g
Rubber fan mounts x 4, 400mm 4pin to 3pin extension adapter and a molex pass through with a 7v adapter for reduced RPM ‘silent’ usage.
Speed – 1100rpm @ 12v and 600rpm @ 7v
Air Flow – 104.7 m³/h
Noise – 19.4 dBA
Life – 100,000 hrs
Voltage Rating – 12v DC
Connector – 4 pin PWM
Weight – 200g
Rubber fan mounts x 4, 400mm 4pin to 3pin extension adapter and a molex pass through with a 7v adapter for reduced RPM ‘silent’ usage.
The Wing Boost has modest specifications and should hopefully prove to be a quiet case fan design.
It uses the same rubber coated frame as the 120mm version which should help absorb vibration transfer and consequently noise… especially when combined with the supplied rubber fan mounts.
Packaging and accessories
A familiar sight greets us with the Föhn 140 – it’s packaged in an essentially identical box. The front contains a window so prospective purchasers can peek at the product they’re considering buying.
Box front.
The rear contains the specifications I placed on the previous page as well as a large panel identifying three of the fans main design features! As you can see at the base of the specifications section the Föhn 140 comes with Alpenföhn’s excellent 3 year warranty.
Box rear.
Once unpacked you’ll find the bundled accessories including the 400mm extension and 3pin converting cable, the 7v converter with integrated molex pass through and the four rubber fanmounts.
Supplied accessories.
The Föhn 140
Rather unsurprisingly the fan itself looks very similar to the Föhn 120 from last year. Its dimensions are of course greater than the 120 and there are two sets of mount holes to accommodate both 120mm and 140mm fan mount holes. The 4pin PWM cable is covered by a rubberised braid which should offer a good deal of protection during install and usage.
Fan front.
The rear contains the Alpenföhn logo and product code as well as other basic info.
Fan rear.
Up close you can see the Wing Boost design fan blades – combined with the hydraulic bearing and rubber coated frame the Föhn 140 is geared towards quiet operation. You can also see the dual fan mount holes in the picture… this should help case and heatsink compatibility a great deal allowing the Föhn 140 to remain a flexible option for different installation requirements.
The Wing Boost blades up close.
Testing
The Alpenföhn Föhn 140 will be compared to a selection of fans tested here at Vortez in the past.
I used the sound pressure level meter below to test the db rating of the fan at 12v, 7v and 5v.
SPL meter.
Due to the sound level meter only registering a db rating of 50db+ I will have to adjust the sampling distance to allow the fan to register on the meter.
Originally I decided to test the fan at each rated voltage at a distance of 2cm but since this can introduce some proximity based noise issues I have changed my testing method.
I will instead identify the distance at which the fan (running at 12v) produces a 50db reading. Once a reading is taken I will then identify the distances for the same decibel rating at 7v and again at 5v.
When the data is complete I will use a ‘damping of sound level with distance’ calculator to work out the db rating for a listening distance of 2m. This will give a clearer understanding of the actual volume of the fans we have here.
For testing I used a hotwired ITX PSU which is a fanless silent model. This will provide power for the fan’s without producing any noise interference itself.
Results
Running @ 12v and recorded @ varying distances
50 db @18cm
After conversion the results @ 2m are as follows
29db
Running @ 7v and recorded @ varying distances
50 db @ 7cm
After conversion the results @ 2m are as follows
19 db
Running @ 5v and recorded @ varying distances
50 db @ 2cm
After conversion the results @ 2m are as follows
10 db
Summary of fan performance
As with my previous review the first thing to consider is that the db rating doesn’t tell the whole story. Tone, resonance and other factors can be more important than pure sound levels.
Motor wine and rhythmic speed related clicking may not show up on the sound meter but when present I can confirm that they are very apparent and can be annoyingly intrusive. On the flip side you could have a fan that made no discernable whining or clicking but was ‘showing’ as rating high on decibels!
Alpenföhn Föhn 140.
The Föhn 140 is certainly the big brother to the 120. A great quiet performance in terms of the dB rating but once again I noticed an inherent clicking. As I’ve mentioned before it could well be down to the PWM motor on board pulsing at the lower voltages.
Indeed, running at 12v there is no discernable ‘clicking’ noise only the whooshing of the fan blades – drop the voltage to 7 or even 5 and the clicking rears its ugly head.
Besides the clicking there is no motor whine, no resonances and no chuffing. At 12v back pressure is excellent but is somewhat at the expense of noise. A couple of these in a PC case will certainly be noticeable. It’s very quiet at 7v however and still maintains a good pressure – at 5v it’s virtually silent but back pressure does suffer.
I’d also like to point out that although tested at 5v the fan was unable to spin up at this ultra low voltage. That being said, I do find this unsurprising as Alpenföhn only state that the Föhn 140’s operating voltage ranges from 7v to 13.2v. If you did want to run this fan at 5v it will happily do it you’d just have to start it up at 7v+ and then reduce voltage.
Lastly the Föhn 140’s rubber frame and mounts certainly help aid quiet operation and the inclusion of both the 120mm and 140mm mount holes are certainly a thoughtful design addition too.
Conclusion
The Föhn 140 is another credit to Alpenföhn. Good design features, a nicely considered set of accessories and solid performance.
My only real reservations lie in its slightly intrusive 12v performance and that PWM ‘click’!
It’s certainly a little disappointing although I must add that it’s not an issue limited to this fan range – other fans from a wide selection of different manufacturers suffer from the same problem and when compared to their non-PWM brethren come out 2nd best.
That said I believe you could happily use the Föhn 140 as both a heatsink and case fan. It’s good airflow performance while using the supplied 7v adapter provides the best of both worlds. Sufficient back pressure with only that hint of PWM click.
Alpenföhn Föhn 140.
At just under £14 the Alpenföhn Föhn 140 makes a decent case for itself. Whilst it doesn’t perform to the level of the very best 140mm fans out there it’s price is around 20% cheaper than those competing models meaning it certainly offers decent performance for a relatively reasonable cost.
Pros
+ Good airflow and pressure at both 12v and 7v
+ Nice accessory selection – specifically the rubber mounts and 7v adapter
+ Rubber frame that aids vibration absorption
+ Braided cable
+ Dual mount solution – 120mm and 140mm
+ 3 year warranty
Cons
– Not the quietest at 12v
– PWM click at lower voltages
+ Good airflow and pressure at both 12v and 7v
+ Nice accessory selection – specifically the rubber mounts and 7v adapter
+ Rubber frame that aids vibration absorption
+ Braided cable
+ Dual mount solution – 120mm and 140mm
+ 3 year warranty
Cons
– Not the quietest at 12v
– PWM click at lower voltages
