Zalman ZM-F4 135mm Multipurpose Fan Review

Testing Methodology & Results

Today we’ll be testing 4 Aspects of these fans:

• Sound Pressure Level (recorded in dBA)
• Airflow (recorded in CFM)
• Static Pressure (recorded in mmH20)
• Heat Tolerance (testing done at 30*C)

The Testing Equipment that I will be using was purchased by me and it includes:

• Dwyer Differential Pressure Gauge Model 2000-00 AV
• General Tools DCFM8906 Digital Air Flow Meter
• Tenma Digital Sound Level Meter
• Kintrex IRT0421 Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer
• Universal Enterprises DM383B Digital Multimeter

Today we will be testing these fans against some other fans of my
collection to give a comparison against fans offered by the competition.

Whoa… let’s just say I’m a bit stunned. To reiterate from earlier in the review, this is a 135mm rotating at 1300RPM spitting out close to 70 CFM. That’s absolutely great.

I will not lie; I re-ran all of my tests twice at this point. This fan was almost going up to 26dB(A) like advertised, but it was throwing out almost 70CFM while doing so. On a quick point to point measurement, that is almost a 2.5 to 1 Airflow to Noise Ratio. To really put that in perspective, most 120mm fans have a good 2:1 ratio going on.

Well, here is where we run into what you could say is the downside to this fan. It is not really a fan designed for heatsinks. Static Pressure is only coming in at a hair below 2mmH20 which is still very good as most 140mm fans only have a static pressure rating between 1mmH20 and 1.5mmH20.

Nonetheless, if you are looking for top end performance on a heatsink I might suggest looking elsewhere. If you are looking for a great exhaust fan for your case, this would be a great choice.