When you’re looking at PC fans, there’s two general categories they’ll be grouped into: performance fans and silent fans. Performance fans will give you incredibly high airflow ratings, great for overclocking, water cooling, and other areas where a large airflow is needed. Performance fans usually come at a cost though – they can be pretty loud. Silent fans are fairly self explanatory – they’re optimized to be as quiet as they can and move as much air as they can – although always a much reduced airflow compared to a performance model. Now that new bearing designs have allowed a lot of manufacturers to really conquer the silent fan market, they’ve spent their attention on making performance fans quieter, while still keeping those high airflow ratings they’re known for.
The Wing 14 is the the latest performance fan from GELID. This is a 140mm fan (also compatible with 120mm mounts) that comes straight from the “Gamer” class of fans in GELID’s product lineup.
Provided By: Gelid Solutions
Price: $20.00
Closer Look:
The Wing 14 fan comes in a black and green box with nice large text all around and some small diagrams outlining the features.
Inside you’ll find the fan, a fan speed reduction cable and mounting screws and rubber mounts.
The Wing 14’s blades are also UV reactive, so if you’ve got a UV cathode nearby this fan is bound to look pretty sweet inside your case.
Features & Specifications:
GELID uses a self-lubricating Nanoflux bearing design on the Wing 14 – a bearing we’ve seen before in some of their other fans. This bearing has a MTBF of 100,000hrs which is backed by a strong 5 year warranty from GELID. Along with being self-lubricating, which will greatly extend the life, this bearing also allows for the fan impeller to be removed for easy cleaning. GELID also says this bearing design is fully waterproof – a nice safety measure for liquid cooling systems, I confirmed these claims! The Wing 14 also has some pretty good performance numbers as well – it will push 135.92CFM of air at full speed (reduced to 80CFM with the speed reduction cable). Noise levels will range from 20.5dBA to around 26dBA when at full speed.
Nanoflux Bearing (NFB)
Patented Nanoflux bearing incorporates a clever magnetic design, very high precision manufacturing and runs friction-free and operates noiseless. Electromagnetic fields are exploited to keep solid parts from touching. The load is carried by a magnetic field.
a) Key Features of Nanoflux Bearing (NFB)
The Nano-technology composite ensures lowest abrasion and extreme durability (MTTF 100’000 hours). Compared to other Magnetic bearings this technology allows the impeller to be detached and thus the fan blades can be cleaned easily.
Caption: The material of the Nanoflux bearing is self lubricating and even waterproof.
Caption: The fan impeller can be removed from the black fan case by applying gentle pressure.
b) Nanoflux Bearing (NFB) compared to sleeve and ball bearings
Even though conventional sleeve and ball bearings currently dominate the fan market however both have their disadvantages. While sleeve bearings have very low noise emissions and are very cost effective, they tend to leak oil; once the oil has dissipated the fan can no longer operate. Ball bearings, on the other hand, while providing longer operating life are costlier, noisier and are prone to damage.
GELID’s Nanoflux bearing uses magnetic flux to limit contact and friction between the bearing and the shaft. High precision self-lubricated material eliminates oil leakage. The result is a ultra quiet long life bearing.
Fan Speed Reduction Cable
The RPM fan speed can be decreased to super silent 900 RPM while connecting the fan speed reduction cable.
Rubber Fan Mounts
Vibration from fan motors can travel into a PC case and become amplified when a fan is fitted tightly. This ‘vibrational’ noise is annoying if you wish to build a very quiet or virtually silent PC.
These rubber mounts have been designed specifically to deal with fan-induced vibrations and are an ideal alternative to standard fan screws, leaving vibrations 100% decoupled from your PC case.
Features
– High quality materials insures long life even at high temperature
– Rubber fan mounts will not break or tear during installation
– Fan size fits to most PC Case chassis with 140mm fan mounting
– Quick & Easy Tool Less Installation
Conclusion:
The GELID Solutions Wing 14 makes a great buy if you’re looking for a high performing 140mm fan (120mm compatible) that won’t drive you crazy with annoying noise levels. The Wing 14 maintained a very nice noise level and wasn’t hard on the ears even when running at full speed. Airflow levels on this fan are also high, making it a wonderful option to use for CPU cooler fan upgrades or water cooling radiators. This may seem high priced for a case fan for some, but worth every penny.
