Bjorn3d.com - Satisfying Your Daily Tech Cravings Since 1996
Bjorn3d.com
Case Mods & Accessories,Heatsinks / Coolers

Bluegears b-flexi and b-cools fans

Date: 2007-02-27 | Author: Victor Wu
Company: Bluegears, Inc

Related Reviews:

Introduction

Despite the shrink in the die size and enhanced technology that allow manufactures to produce cooler components, the internal components in a computer still generates quite a lot of heat, especially if you are looking for the best and fastest parts.  In order to dissipate the amount of heat from the system, most cases today are designed to mount multiple fans in order to effectively and efficiently keep these components cool and enhance their life-span and possibly even help to increase the performance as cooler system allows better overclocking.  However, finding a good fan is never an easy job as it requires a balance of the noise level and efficiency.  A good fan not only have to be quiet but also able to pull enough hot air away from the case.  Today at Bjorn3d, we will take a look at Bluegears’s b-cool and b-flexi fans and see whether or not they will be a good choice for anyone out there seeking a quiet yet efficient fan.

Bluegears are extremely generous as they have send both 80mm and 120mm of their b-cool and b-flexi fans for us to review.  These fans are not your normal boring fans, rather, both b-cool and b-flexi fans have some special cool features incorporated into the fan.  Let’s take a look at them in depth.

B-cool80 and b-cool120

Feature/Specification

 b-cool80

 b-cool120

Dimension 
80mm x 80mm x 25 mm
120mm x 120mm x 25 mm
Air Pressure 
NA
1.6±10% (max)
Air Flow 
23 CFM ±10%(max)
49 CFM ±10% (max)
Speed 
2300 RPM ±200
1700 RPM ±10% (max)
Noise (dBa) 
25 ±10%
29.5 ±10%
Input Current 
0.3A(max)
0.4A(max)
Input Power 
3.6W(max)
4.8W(max)
Rated Voltage 
DC 12V
DC 12V
Operation Voltage 
11.0-13.8 VCD
7.0-13.8 VDC
Insulation Resistance 
NA
10MΩ min. at 500VDC

Dielectric Strenght

NA   5mA Max. at 500V AC 60Hz. for 1 min.

Rotation

 NA CW view from name plate side  

Air Flow direction

 NA Air intake over the struts  

Insulation Rank

 NA UL:Class A  

Life Expectancy

 NA 20000 hours continuous  

Bearing

 Sleeve Sleeve 

Output Signal

 NA Frequency Generator  
 


b-cool80 (left) and b-cool120 (right)

The Bluegears b-cool fans are 25mm depth, sleeve bearing fans that come in two sizes: 80mm and 120mm.  There’s a selection of white or blue background light and the fans come with a bag of screws and a 3 pin to 4 pin molex power adapter.  The cable for both fans are bundled together instead of loose individual lines.  The 80mm b-cool fan comes with a fan grill attached while the 120mm version does not come with a fan grill.  The fan grill on the 80 mm fan is a bit rised and attached to the fan so it is not removable. 

 
 
b-cool80 (left) and b-cool120 (right)
 


B-cool fan has build in temperature sensor on the fan and it can display the temperature on the side of the fan where the fan is sucking the air.  In additino to the fan temperature information, the fans will also light up blue color when it's in use.  Despite both b-cool80 and b-cool120 will display temperature information, the 80mm fan will only show the word "cool" while the 120mm version will show more dynamic display.

b-cool80 will display rotational speed and the temperature of the fan
 
The 120mm version has more dynamic display that shows the fan speed, temperature, and the word “cool/warm/hot” depend on the temperature.  When the temperature is below 35.9 °C, the display will show "COOL", when it is at 36°C to 45.9°C, it will show "WARM", and it will show "HOT" when the temperature is in the range from 46°C to 99°C.   It is not that easy to show off the dynamic of the display with a few pictures so I took a video to capture the display on the 120mm fan which you can download here and see the cool display of the b-cool120 (you can also hear the noise of the in the clip).
 
 
b-cool120 will show the rotational speed, the temperature, and the word cool/warm/hot depend on the temperature.

The 80mm version is rated to run at 2300±200 rpm with the air flow of 23±10% CFM and 25±10% dBA noise level, while the 120mm version is rated at 1700±10% rpm with air flow of 55±10% CFM and 32±10% dBA noise level.

Due to the placement of the fan grill and the LED, the fans are best mounted onto the surface where the fan is blows air to the components rather than pull air away.  If it is mounted in other way around, the information will not show up since the chip is only on one side of the fan.


Feedback

Disclosure: Bjorn3D review products are sometimes provided by the vendors who manufacture the hardware. Review samples are in some cases retained by the reviewer that reviews the product for further comparison to other similar products. Companies that buy ads on the site do not get any special treatment when it comes to reviews and any ad-sales are not connected to the reviews or the review scores.

SEARCH





Popular content