You are going to think this is FAKE, IT IS NOT! - Fan Showdown S2E15 

I agree retest on the fan since it was backwards

I knew it looked wrong when mounted! I bet James will retest it for next episode

Up to see it retested.

Bump retest it

So it was backwards! It did look very odd that way. Another bump for retest :)

Does the stack have to be that large? or would it be possible to shrink it and maintain a similar performance?

@@jttech44 I haven't done that much testing on the shroud and differing lengths, it's hard to say just how much I could shrink it without tests, but the long length gives the air time to accelerate in the optimal direction which decreases the angle of the output flow. So there would be some equilibrium between the mass of the air being accelerated prior to hitting the fan and the rpm and torque of the fan. I'd assume you couldn't shrink it too much, maybe and inch or two. I'd be willing to test it though. Considering the fan roughly rotates at 1800 rpm with this design there is a good chance that shrinking it may actually increase performance.

@@Zuxxkij There's certainly a point where a stack is hurting you, especially with FDM printing that's not completely smooth.

I've never wanted to ask, so I have no idea, but do stl's ever get shared of these things? Or are they kept close to the chest in case they end up commercialized?

@@Zuxxkij I wonder how it would perform if the shroud were 5% wider at the mouth compared to the base? A slight funnel shape? Velocity would be required to increase due to compression, right?

I’m curious what the wing fan would do with a shroud now and it if would beat out the slug

@@Khandrake it's... in the video

@@petitjeangilles no - the new question is how much *other* fans would improve with that shroud. Even playing field.

That was going to be my question exactly. Put a shroud on the wing fork and I bet it wins.

@@brwainer I think the only reason that shroud worked for that fan was because it created a vacuum.

While it might be overshadowed in this contest, the design is more commercially practical for a computer fan. However the other fan seems more like it could be reversed and become a propeller. for boats and hovercraft or to pump hot air out of an attic.

This. Without the shroud, the Wingfork beats the Slug Mk2 and fits in the housing. Hands down winner.

True winner in my book as well.

That's what i came to say here as well. Did you see the line of airflow in that thing? That looks like superb static pressure.

@@Nauctshea I disagree, I think both are absolute winners! Especially the slug IMO, as it was quite a bit quieter and had a more favorable sound to it

Wingfork would make a great commercial design fan too, just like the other one from season 1. For commercial fans fitting in the housing and having a friendly production design are important factors. I would buy one!

Stock and modified classes.

my passive heat sink is bigger than that, and my case isnt so big, the 980 ti looks huge in there and only just fits but still room for that shroud on top of a traditional heat sink, maybe need to modify the side of the case to allow good flow, a drill and a few holes will fix that lol.

@Swim Fan Kinda missing the point of this aint ya?

@Swim Fan wow missing the point once again.

@Swim Fan you would prolly miss your mouth trying to swallow them if how much you miss the point is anything to go by.

Yeah, in the smoke test you could see it throwing a lot of smoke/air out the sides, thus losing a lot of air-pressure.

Retest

retest with shroud even

it wont fit if u flip it over because hole dont fit on hub size 2nd fan blade is larger then housing

yup the designer commented that it was mounted backwards

yep, totally backwards. i bet it performs REALLY well once he flips it

or just cap them so they can only be installed one way.

Flow direction is not changed by the reverse mounting, but the efficiency absolutely is. Flow direction is changed when the rotation direction is changed or the attack angle of the blades is flipped (which does not happen with reverse mounting).

Yeah, right? I mean, having a new winner is a big deal, but that thing is doing better than stock while being kinda quiet? I... kinda want one now.

Just take into account that these are not noise normalized

I'd be interested in printing one to use myself, replacing the Noctua blades for better performance. Imagine a better quality print or somehow injection moulding a lighter, thinner version!

@@peetiegonzalez1845 I mean, print one out on an MSLA printer out of a lightweight functional to engineering grade resin, and you've got yourself an amazing fan.

@@peetiegonzalez1845 3d print a mold for a carbon fibre part?

Seems like a slight misunderstanding the fan was either designed backwards or designed to pull air instead of push; like his test bench is set up to do.

@@neo1231 Designed backwards? Dude he just needs to rotate it and fit it the right way.

@@ndexer lol yeah I noticed that 🤣🤐😇

Right? It's the winner here by not exceeding the fan frame

Right? But sometimes it frustrates me I cannot find the STLs for some of the best performing fans but many of these take a lot of work which is why maybe they should post it to something like Cults3D for like 3-5$ so other people can buy the file to print.

Yeah, If I had space for a fan that long I would rather spend that space on a thicker rad and push-pull.

i want to see as well if 1. the shroud is 100% a upgrade to all fans designs now 2. how short we can make it without loss 3. is there diminishing effects with other shrouds+fans near it sucking up air the other fans otherwise would have got if so what is min/max IE 3x3 grid of 120mm fans to a 1x2 row of120mm fans

I would like to see that as well. Specially since without the shroud it would have placed 2nd, would it give as much of a boost to the 2nd place fan as well? Resulting in an even higher score for 1st? Not sure if 3rd place would benefit near as much, but that would make the testing of it even more interesting.

Considering how much testing the guy did, I'm guessing the fan was designed with the shroud in mind. Without the shroud, I think he would have designed it differently.

Yeah, if the wingfork had the shroud but not the slug mk2 would their places switch?

This is exactly what I wanted to comment. Try the shroud on the other best fans.

@@-NGC-6302- I guess the wingfork's side panels has a similar purpose to the shroud, to prevent the compressed air from escaping in radial directions. The shroud may improve the performance slightly further, but I don't think it would reach 1,4 °C as it did with the slug.

It would blow and not suck if it was on wrong way…so,it was on right as it was sucking

I would love to see it with the shrowd

I was just about to comment this. The superfan design even had an area intended for helping the air flow into the hub area of the blades, which makes zero sence pointed at the back of the fan.

Superfan in a mirror with a shroud

@@filipdahlberg4420 not true, if you flip a fan it still moves air in the same direction, but not as efficiently as the design intended. (The profile in inverted, but so is the rotational direction so it will still blow the same way)

you could just make it seal with the case vent and skip out on the fan at the back of the case, pipe fresh air from outside the box through the tower and suck it out the front with another case fan

Im also curious too.

Exactly! A shroud makes sense as soon as the thickness of the fan is deeper than the frame, but the shroud here seems much deeper than that. I suspect you'd get very similar results with a shortened shroud that is only as deep as the fan - which would make it a lot more practical to use.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was at least 1 of the 13 iterations..

You could do lots of testing with little waste by printing one long shroud and then trimming it back by about 10 mills between tests

With Rick Astley

Yeah, its a rare gem buried in the trash that is RU-vid.

Project Farm makes similar content, he doesn't produce viewer "products" but tests company products.

Oh yeah that guy. He’s got nice content, though not as exciting as the fan showdown

@@jhenry48809 - Back when PF started I would tease him about how he "must've had a steel rod up his butt" and when he finally cracked a smile in a video I was like "Finally you got that rod out." Still pretty dry content, but he's loosened up a bit over the years, as evidenced by the Farmabego.

you might also like makers muse's videos about RC car wheels

What you're referring to is a velocity stack, often fitted to carburettors and throttle bodies. And yeah, I'm surprised he didn't go that route, even if it doesn't offer a performance advantage it looks cool.

@@LyK0sa It may be a bit more difficult to print..?

it is flared out very slightly at the top, maybe i'll try it with a more aggressive curve soon. :)

@@Zuxxkij It's not as important with low velocity air, as there isn't much chance for flow separation. Probably marginal gains to be had.

I remember in another episode he noted some fan manufacturers have actually reached out to some of these creators, so it's quite likely!

honestly yeah

I thought this too

@@cpufreak101 yep, i remember that. it was a fan that the blades were sorta shaped like lightning bolts. and it performed pretty well. looked fantastic...... pun intended

What's truly amazing is how little it cost him -- he crowdsourced the development process to interested volunteers. I firmly believe that companies can and should do more stuff like this. For example, the pokemon company has been struggling to create animations for all 898 pokemon --- but do you realize how many people would jump at the opportunity to contribute an animation? If they asked their fans to help them out, they would be swamped by submissions. Within a month they would have to hire someone to help sift through the pile. Same thing goes for new game mechanics. People would design and playtest for them. But instead, they shut down fan games. They reuse animations from the 3DS. They disappoint fans by not even adding a simple difficulty option at the start of the game. For a more relatable example -- every single company has people working on the ground level with good ideas. How hard is it to ask them to pitch the ideas to their boss, who then passes it up the chain. Ask people to submit their ideas, and then use your bloated bureaucracy of middle management to filter for the best ones. Voila! The CEO ends up with 20 decent ideas on his desk, and gets to pick whichever ones he likes. Look at these fan designs. It works. And Major Hardware is just one guy, who decided to run a small project on the side. The fan design company would have the resources to hire someone to test many more designs, and then show us the most interesting ones. There's so much untapped potential. It kills me to watch business majors and CEOs not even try to innovate. So yeah. I'm a huge believer in crowdsourcing. Give your users an opportunity to pitch in. In exchange, the final product can be sold for less and reach a wider audience, which leads to even more opportunity for crowdsourcing funding, ideas, and development.

and as far as sound, it was pretty quiet too. the tip shape helped reduce the popping you get from a normal blade design, so the actual tone of the sound wasnt that intrusive either

i'd buy a whole box. cuz then i could print "theme fan blades" for my custom builds for customers

Nah, Noctua is eventually ONLY going to sell the fan hub and say "Print it your self loser."

yeah i could see where youre going with that. a vortex will increase speed, so having little jets formed into the walls to encourage a spin may speed it up

I second his vote for a retest!

Interest is more powerful than financial gain

Imo it desperately needs a shroud or velocity stack, the blades overhang too much, so the stock frame can't channel the airflow properly. At least that's my guess, as an uneducated pleb with no real knowledge of aerodynamics.

​@@LyK0sa I believe you're right, there is too much loss from the overhang to the base of the fan. It makes me wonder how an impeller shaped fan, with a shroud that hugs the blade profile for increased efficiency would do. In a scenario with contained airflow through pipes this would do well, but I wonder if the benefits of an efficient shroud would be negated by the airflow restriction, and low RPM.

That was my fan. The fan was unfortunately mounted in the wrong direction in the video and I hoped it would have performed better in the other direction :) But great fun to be selected :)

@@andreasglasser would be nice if we could push this to the top so you could get a fair shake. I know high performance quadcopter blades are designed the same way and they are quite a bit better in certain scenarios.

@@NainKaigo Yeah that would be so great :) Thanks

How are you subbed to so many they've removed the ability to group?

Someone else posted this comment, thought you might find it interesting: Not all fans would benefit from the shroud. The shroud makes a big difference if a fan has a shallow angle air intake or a sharp angle air intake. The Slug Mk2 grabs air from both shallow and sharp angles, however since the air flow is the fastest at the edges of the fan, the shroud allows for backflow of air, creating a vortex point, speeding up the center pillar of air, which due to convection causes more air to be pulled in. Fans like the noctua don't have as much of a surface area to process the additional air with, so the increase in effect would be marginal at best.

google "air filter dyno test engine masters" and look for a video where they test several air cleaners and stacks for true performance gains. the velocity stack, similar to the shroud here, performed extremely well

@@ghomerhust HA! I actually have already seen the exact video you're talking about. The one that ends with a salad bowl. But yeah, you're right.

I'm particularly interested in seeing the Dr Evil Rocket fan retested with the shroud... 😂

The best thing to do is underestimate the performance. It makes for a pleasant surprise every time.🤣

@@official_commanderhale965 every american car manufacturer in the the 70's. 427 big block "280hp" my ass lol

@@CsykKrit American engine designs prioritize torque over horsepower. The power measures are accurate, they just don't give you the whole picture. Given that the popular American excuse for competitive car racing is NASCAR, I'm not surprised.

@@rafaelmarkos4489 nascar makes some cool motors and that's it

it's funny you say that, I had a pc case that came with a cooling shroud back in 2001.

@@grelgen Some things don't catch on or trend that should, I think. Sometimes something super useful comes out that just becomes a hidden gem.

@@grelgen same

On EVERYTHING, alongside tests of shroud designs that are more open at the receiving end.

YES PLEASE!

Better yet get the actual "shroud" to come over and test the fan with him. I love that he's a fan of CSGO.

@@MRMIKE276 :P would be amazing!

Indeed, I like to se the superfan retested. I mean it hurt my eyes that such a well thaught out design could obviously not perform with that gab between the fan and the Noctua frame. So I suggest to retest it with a shroud that at least closes the gab to the top of the fan blades. and ty for giving us the values of the slug w./-o. the shroud

The creator of the superfan has posted a few comments in here. Turns out his fan was mounted backwards for the test. Hopefully it gets another attempt!

The creator commented and confirmed that the Superfan was mounted backwards in all three tests. I'd love to see it go the right way in the next episode, or a special update

Yeah I'm still waiting for that guy Thomas to come back from the early days of this show in Season 1. He made a neat fan and some fan company contacted MajorHardware asking if they could use that design, but no one could get ahold of the man Thomas that made it. If we do get contacted by a company for the shroud fan, the creator better respond XD

they would probably rip off the design without even asking

@@midlifehemi88 but he did respond eventually, there should be a comment of his on that video.

let's hope someone contacts me hahaha. That would be amazing :D

It probably wouldn't... the question of if a shroud helps with cooling or not is mostly dependent on the base fan, if a fan for instance have a shallow angle air intake or a sharp angle air intake, makes a huge difference, the Slug Mk2 grabs air from both shallow and sharp angles, however since the air flow is the fastest at the edges of the fan, the shroud allows for backflow of air, creating a vortex point, speeding up the center pillar of air, which due to convection causes more air to be pulled in but since the noctua doesn't have as much of a surface area to process the additional air with, the increase in effect is marginal at best.

@@livedandletdie Thanks for this clear explanaition, I understand better.

@@livedandletdie That makes sense, thanks for the insightful answer! I'd still like to see it tested though

I remember that salad bowl thing. it was something Motor Trend tested as a joke, but it ended up making more HP than no filter at all, and won the dyno showdown by a notable margin

it doesn't need a shroud, it was mounted backwards

Hehe

Nice Idea!

ive seen it. it blows..........

@@ghomerhust makes a change. Most of the other Onlyfans suck...

Yeah, but they are definitely NSFW...

If you have too much pressure, air circles around the fan frame.