Hardware Bistro

Product: BTF120PRO
Manufacturer: Xthermal
Supplied by: Xthermal
Price: 15USD/RM55
Launch Date: NA

 

Recently we have reviewed quite number of case cooling fans such as Noctua NF-P12, GELID Wing & Silent, and Nanoxia FX. Today we are going to review another case cooling fan; BTF120Pro from Xthermal which is a cooling supplier base in Poland. BTF120Pro is a transparent case fan and it has two versions; LED and without LED. Let us have a quick look on these fans.

 

Company Profile

Xthermal is a cooling company that based in Poland with their popular BTF Pro LED fan. Find our silent solution for you personal computer!

 

Features

- Ultra quiet and long lasting operation and unique design.
- 9 dB/A adapter
- A set of Anti Vibrations Bolts stop vibrations very effectivly.
- PXB bearing is based on sleeve bearing
- Enhanced lubricant provides smooth operation and specially designed electronics reduce electromagnetic noises.
- Transparent frame combined with black translucent rotor makes fan look modern and elegant.

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Xthermal BTF120Pro comes with simple and transparent packaging. As usual for most of the computer producers that outside US will have Multilanguage user's guide and this is same for Xthermal BTF120Pro. Since case fan is a simple product so frankly to say there isn't any official user's guide but only some basic features and specification; FYI.

 

There are some other accessories comes along with Xthermal BTF120Pro such as four anti vibration bolts, 3 to 4 pins molex converter and a 9 dB/A adapter. The anti vibration bolts are used to reduce the noise when mount the fan especially on a low quality PC casing and the 9 dB/A adapter is a converter that contain a small resistor to reduce the fan speed by reducing the current flow to the fan motor, with this the fan will operate with lesser noise.

 

Xthermal BTF 120

 

As we mentioned previously Xthermal has two models for their BTF product; with and without LED. These two fan models have two size; 120mm and 80mm but it looks like 92mm is missing which may disappoint some users. If the demand for 92mm is high, we believe there isn't any major problem for Xthermal to add 92mm for their product line since they already have the concept and capability to do so.

 

Xthermal BTF120Pro consists of clear transparent for the fan case body and black transparent fan blades. The whole Xthermal BTF120Pro is made by transparent material which looks nice and charming especially with its LED effect. There are seven fan blades of Xthermal BTF120Pro which is standard for a case fan. However the fan blades are a bit soft which may due to the design by reducing the noise of the fan.

 

Xthermal BTF120Pro is using PXB bearing which is an enhanced version of sleeve bearing but with better lubricant to provide smoother operation and reduce electromagnetic noises. Both of the LED and without LED versions of Xthermal BTF120Pro are having the same fan specifications; 1200RPM, 38CFM and 12 dB/A. With the additional adapter, the specifications will be 750RPM and lower noise; only 9 dB/A.

 

Both of the LED or without LED versions of Xthermal BTF120Pro are sharing same fan case body as besides the additional LED and wiring there isn't much differences between them. For the LED version of Xthermal BTF120Pro, there are four white LED located at the end of the each corner of the fan. Since Xthermal BTF120Pro is a clear transparent case fan, all the wiring and soldering must be done very well else it will be quite ugly and credit to Xthermal as all these things are designed and manufactured very well.

The whole Xthermal BTF120Pro is using transparent material and this is same for the fan cable as well. The cable is clear color with shield which can protect the cable from being damaged accidentally. Besides that shield cable is good cable management for better inner case air flow and case modding as well.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

Here is the picture of the Xthermal BTF120Pro LED version. The four white LED with the transparent fan case and fan blades, it looks very nice and we believe most of the case modders will love it very much like us. For the performance comparison, we installed this Xthermal BTF120Pro on a giant CPU cooler which is using 120mm fan.

 

Test Bed
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E8300
CPU Cooler : Tuniq Tower 120
Memory : 4GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive : 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate HDD
Graphic Card : Nvidia GeForce GTX280
Optical Drive : 16x DVD RW
Power Supply : GlacialPower GP-AL650A
System BIOS : F7
Operating System : Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software : Gigabyte EasyTune 6
Ambient Temperature : 26 Degree Celsius

Here are the test results of Xthermal BTF120Pro compares with other 120mm popular cooling fans in the market. As you can see during idle load, there isn't much different among them except the Xthermal BTF120Pro LED which is lagging behind. During peak load, there are some performance differences of Xthermal BTF120Pro compares with other fans. 

Xthermal BTF120Pro is not the best fan in this test and mostly due to its lower RPM; 1120 but it has the same performance with other higher RPM fans like Gelid Silent which are operated at higher speed; of course those fans will with higher noise as well. Among Xthermal BTF120Pro with LED and without LED, performance of LED version is lagging behind the non LED version which is due the current is sharing between the fan and the LED. With lesser current, the fan will operate slower which may produce lower CFM and directly affect the cooling performance.

 

Conclusion

The performance of Xthermal BTF120Pro is not the best in our review however bear in mind that Xthermal BTF120Pro is targeting for silent market as Xthermal still provides an adapter for user to further lower down the noise of this fan from 13 dB/A to 9dB/A which is extremely silent and it is the most silent fans that we have reviewed so far. If you are looking for a silent fan with moderate performance then Xthermal BTF120Pro without LED is one of your choices but if you are looking for a charming fan as well then you may consider Xthermal BTF120Pro LED. 15USD for Xthermal BTF120Pro is neither really expensive nor cheap but just average. We hope to see more products from Xthermal so that users will have more options.

Pros:
* beautiful fan for the LED version
* Extremely silent
* Comes with additional adapter with 9 dB/A

Cons:
* Not an ideal fan for extreme cooling

Thanks to Xthermal for providing this sample for us to review.

 

 

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