GlacialTech UFO V51 CPU Cooler Review

Fan Design

The fans which accompany the V51 are Power Logic PLA09225S12L, 7 bladed fan 92mm units which are rated for a maximum 29.56 CFM at a top speed of 1600rpm. In a very interesting twist both of these fans are the exact same model even though one rotates clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. However, the most interesting thing about these fans is they use Enter Bearings. This is a technology tweak of the Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) by EverFlow which best known for being a Thermaltake OEM partner.


Whatever you want to call these fans, one thing is certain: they are QUIET. They display very little shaft or off axis blade slop and are generally a very, very tight fan. When running at full speed, we did not notice much in the way of vibrations or noise at all for that matter. Of course these fans are not exactly moving that fast either and we would have been very disappointed with anything less.


Another interesting thing about these fans is the fact that they only use a single old style 3 pin header. This means that your motherboard controls both fans at the same time. Also on the positive side, the fans wires were not only nice and long, they were also fully sheathed and combined seamlessly into one plug up close to the cooler. This may not seem like a big deal but this little tweak does make for a cleaner install and helps keep air flow restrictions to a minimum.

All in all these are great, well behaved fans. Even though there are two of them we do have to wonder if their mediocre static pressure performance will be enough to cool our i7 system. It really is a juggling act when it comes to noise versus performance and while we like to see dual fans come standard we do have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, GlacialTech erred too much on the side of low noise / low performance. Let’s find out how good a job they did and put our worries to the test!