Sharkoon is a company that has quite an array of computer equipment and modding supplies. Visiting their web site I was surprised at the variety of items they have available and wondered why I hadn't seen more of their stuff available before. Perhaps that is about to change. Let's hope so because it looks like they have many products we might be interested in.

Up for review today is Sharkoon's new Silent Eagle 2000 Fan. What is the fancy name all about and how is this "silent" fan different from many other silent fans on the market? In a word... dimples. The Silent Eagle line of fans from Sharkoon feature a new fan-blade design similar to that of a golf ball. Let's see if this new fan design really makes a difference.

Specs

From Sharkoons web site

Package

Installing the fan is accomplished in the same manner of any other fan with the exception of using the rubber insulating bolts included with the fan. The bolts are simply pulled through and stretched to pull the shoulder through the screw hole in the fans frame.

Performance

Now comes the question of testing. How do you go about testing a fan without equipment to measure sound and air flow. Well, sound is not that big of a problem since what really matters is how it sounds to the human ear. The main problem I had was overcoming the noise of the power supply. The solution turned out to be very simple... use the battery from my 12v Makita drill. Now that I had a silent power supply I needed something to compare it to. The best fan I had for this on hand was a Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2. With a built in rheostat I was able to dial it down to 2000 RPM for a fair comparison of both noise and airflow.

As far as sound goes, it was difficult to tell which fan was more quiet. Both fans were very quiet and the main difference was more in the pitch of the sound. The Silent Eagle 2000 was slightly higher in pitch and maybe slightly quieter than the Thermaltake fan. Both were quiet enough that at 2000 RPM they would be very difficult to hear over normal background noise and impossible to hear over the average PSU.

To test air flow I used two methods. During these tests the fans were connected to a PSU and not the battery I used for the sound testing. The first was to see how far away the fans could blow out a candle. I wasn't sure how well this would work but was quite surprised in the consistency of the results. I ran the test six times by performing it three times for each fan and then repeating. The Silent Eagle 2000 averaged 7 inches while the Thermaltake averaged 5.5 inches. Both fans blew out the candle within a quarter of an inch of all tests each time.

Now on to something a bit more scientific. While the candle test showed it was fairly reliable with its consistency of results I wanted something a little more solid. I mounted the fans to my wife's 900 MHz T-Bird with a Themaltake volcano 9 to see if there would be a difference in temperature. Keep in mind that this fan is not really intended to be used to cool a CPU. It is supposed to be used as a case fan.

The case temp during all testing was 28 degrees. Under load the Thermaltake fan running at 2000 RPM cooled the CPU to 49 degrees. The Silent Eagle 2000 was able to better that by 2 degrees, cooling the CPU to 47 degrees. Not the best temps in the world but, as I said, this was not meant to be used as a CPU fan. Obviously the Silent Eagle 2000 is pushing more air than the Thermaltake fan running at the same RPM but produces the same amount of noise (or less).

Conclusion

Overall, this fan gave a pretty good showing. I can just picture in my head the light bulb that came on over someone's head as he read on the internet about the reason for dimples on a golf ball and thinking that might work for a fan. The white fan blade (golf ball white?) with a black frame, while not unattractive, is kind of plain looking. Different colors or clear with LED's would improve its appearance. Also, it is currently only available in 80 mm. If this idea works for 80 mm, which it sure seems to, it should work for other sizes as well. I also wish the fan ran at a higher speed. While this fan pushes more air than a normal fan at the same rpm, at 2000 RPM or 1000 RPM in the case of this fans slower brother, it just doesn't push a whole lot of air. I feel a design like the Smart Fan 2 with a higher speed that can be controlled with a rheostat would work better for the performance enthusiast. As this is a new idea just coming onto the market perhaps we will see some of these changes in the future. Due to the innovative design and good performance, I award the Silent Eagle 2000 Eight out of Ten pimp hats and the PimpRig Approved Award. You can grab one of these fans at CrazyPC for $11.99 USD.

Pros
- Unique design
- Good air flow for size and speed
- Sleeved wiring
- Quiet operation
- Included rubber bolts

Cons
- Low speed
- Only comes in 80 mm
- Needs more color

PimpRig Rating //
(8 pimp hats out of 10)

Our thanks go out to the people at Sharkoon for supplying us with this sample.