Gamdias Aeolus M2 Review
First thoughts
When first opening the box I noticed 2 negative things about the fans, first being the small fan blade design and second a proprietary connector. There is an included fan hub and controller. The hub supports 5v rgb connectors and GDV connectors which you connect with the included cables. The cable to connect multiple hubs is nice to have for the people that love RGB.
Aesthetics
The fans themselves look aesthetically pleasing. The fans are fully controllable with the included controller or you can sync the rgb with the motherboard and control the fans with software. By using the remote control, to easily switch to high or low fan speed and 55 RGB lighting effects makes things simple.
Teardown and Build Quality
Unfortunately Gamdias advertises the fans having a “longer lifespan”. When tearing down the fan I was expecting a DBB but instead I got a rifle bearing. Rifle bearing has a spiral groove in it that pumps fluid from a reservoir. This allows them to be safely mounted horizontally since the fluid being pumped lubricates the top of the shaft. The pumping also ensures sufficient lubricant on the shaft reducing noise. These bearings do not have a particularly long lifespan nor do they perform very well. More info Just Having Some Fan! Identifying fan bearings
While tearing down the fans I noticed the fan housing was extremely brittle and just crumpled in my hands. Not the biggest deal since the average consumer will not be tearing down a fan.
Testing Methodology
In testing I will be comparing the Aeolus M2 to an Artic P12 and a generic Mettalic Gear fan. The test I will be conducting will be a paper test. The paper test shows how much air the fans can move by holding a piece of paper a few inches away from the fan and seeing how much the paper moves at 100% speed.
Test Results
The Gamdias Aeolus M2 performed a lot better than expected but didn’t not surpass the Arctic P12. The Gamdias Aeolus M2 did perform better than the Mettalic gear fans. In the pictures you can see the rpm is extremely inconsistent. In some cases the paper is fully extended and in others it’s just barely being lifted. This could be the fan hub controlling the fans with DC current or my methodology of testing.
Conclusion and Suggestions
Overall the fans did exceed my expectations and would work really well for generic case fans. I like them so much I will be taking 2 and putting them in my personal PC. My only few suggestions would be going to a PWM design “while still including a fan hub and daisy chaining” instead of a proprietary connector and changing the rifle bearing to a double ball bearing. The fan housing can be built stronger with a stronger plastic but I would rather focus on making the fans better then worry about the housing.