By: Aaron Lai

November 14, 2014

Have you ever tried to deny something to get the other person to say the opposite? For example, a lot of people try a false humility tactic by saying they are really bad at doing something, only to hope the other person they are talking to would say "No way! You are awesome at [insert thing here]!" It is funny how it actually works more times rather than not, which is not something I would use to boost my own self-esteem, haha. Of course, there are those people who actually are quite hard on themselves when they genuinely are great at what they do. Then there are people who deny something, when everyone knows it is actually true. I have a friend, whom I will keep unnamed, that continually insists he has no admiration to a band with a certain direction, nor to taking photos with his front-facing camera on his iPhone. However, he still brings up this singular direction band when he meets new people, and he takes self portraits, sometimes for no reason. Despite his own insistence both of these are false claims, it always seems like he brings these topics up frequently. Joking aside though, you can see both of these examples show that talk is cheap. Rather, true actions speak louder than words. You can make all the claims you want, but unless it is backed up by evidence, your words are useless. Furthermore, evidence against your claim will also deny your denials. This brings us to the SilverStone FQ122, FW122, and FW121 fans from a new line of chassis cooling fans. These two fan series have different intentions from the get-go. The FW lineup is intended to be a high quality performer at a low price, while the FQ series look to strike a balance between performance and quietness. These claims can be made by any manufacturer, but how do they actually play out in real life? Hopefully, today's review will answer these questions and more.

Today's review unit of the SilverStone FQ122, FW122, and FW121 arrived from the manufacturer's American headquarters in Chino, California. Unfortunately, they chose to deliver the products with UPS Standard. While the United Parcel Service has generally been a decent shipping choice for companies in the past, they have seemed to forget their job to keep the shipping products in the same condition as when they received it. I doubt SilverStone actually sent us a pre-dented box, as you can see one corner of the box is completely crumpled in. Luckily, the corrugated cardboard box still holds its composure, so the rest of the box is not affected, structurally speaking. As well, there are no holes in the box itself, so there is nothing leaking out.

Why would things leak out? This is because SilverStone has filled the box to the brim with white packing peanuts. With these soft and squishy foam pieces, all of the fans arrived here safely. SilverStone sent us two of each model, and in the picture above, from left to right, they are the FQ122, FW122, and FW121. Because these are just letters and numbers, I will keep this same ordering of the fans in the photos, for consistency's sake. The external retail packaging of the fans are quite similar, with a hard plastic shell holding the fan and its accessories. You can easily tell the FQ-series fan is different from the FW-series fans, as the cardboard inserts are completely different in style. The FQ122 has a full blue color, with a white stripe down the left side. The FW122/121 have a gray, white, and blue coloring scheme. The two series of fans are also swapped in terms of coloring, but more on this later. Otherwise, the location of the words and images are pretty much the same across all of the fans. SilverStone's logo can be found on the top left hand side of the package, and features are found underneath the fan. On the flip side of all of the cases are more languages of specifications. In case you are interested, we have obtained the following information from the manufacturer's website:

FQ122

Model No: SST-FQ122

Color: Blue blade, white frame

Bearing: P.C.F. bearing (Powder Copper Fluid Bearing)

Connectors: 4pin PWM

Rated Voltage: 12V DC

Start Voltage: 5V DC

Rated Current: 0.04 ~ 0.22A

Rated Power: 0.48W ~ 2.64W

Speed: 800 ~ 1500rpm

Airflow: 37.8 ~ 63.8CFM

Static Pressure: 0.41~1.5mmH2O

Noise Level: 14.5 ~ 24.9dBA , 15.9dBA@7V

Life Time: 150,000 hours

Dimension: 120mm (L) x 120mm (W) x 25mm (H)

Weight: 133g

FW122

Model No: SST-FW122

Color: White fan blades, blue frame

Bearing: Long life sleeve

Connectors: 4pin PWM

Rated Voltage: 12V DC

Start Voltage: 5V DC

Rated Current: 0.07 ~ 0.19A

Rated Power: 0.84 ~ 2.28W

Speed: 1000 ~ 1800 rpm

Airflow: 42.6 ~ 76.5CFM

Static Pressure: 0.31 ~ 1.52mmH2O

Noise Level: 18.4 ~ 28.1dBA

Life Time: 40,000 hr

Dimension: 120mm (L) x 120mm (W) x 25mm (H)

Weight: 130g

FW121

Model No: SST-FW121

Color: White fan blades, blue frame

Bearing: Long life sleeve

Connectors: 4pin PWM

Rated Voltage: 12V DC

Start Voltage: 5V DC

Rated Current: 0.02 ~ 0.09A

Rated Power: 0.24 ~ 1.08W

Speed: 800 ~ 2000 rpm

Airflow: 13.1 ~ 32.6CFM

Static Pressure: 0.31 ~ 1.52mmH2O

Noise Level: 14.7 ~ 24.6dBA

Life Time: 40,000 hr

Dimension: 120mm (L) x 120mm (W) x 15mm (H)

Weight: 109g

Page Index

1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications2. A Closer Look - Hardware 3. Performance Tests 4. Conclusion