Fan Speed
Starting off with the Thermaltake GF1 SNOW in its ‘generic’ fan configuration, the results provided would suggest that this has been designed to primarily operate on a 3-speed setting. At a high load, the fan speed operates at around 425-450RPM. At mid-loads, around 375-400. And finally, on low-loads, this drops down to around 250-275RPM.
Any way you look at this though, the speeds are low and in terms of noise output, the fan utilised within this PSU is barely audible.
So, what about that ‘Smart’ hybrid mode? Well, the short answer is that while it does lower the fan’s operational speed, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really seem to offer that much to deem it an entirely useful feature. – Throughout our testing, the fan never deemed things cool enough to switch off entirely (a usual feature of this kind of functionality). Instead, it seems to typically drop the fan speed by around 50% at mid to lower load outputs.
Given how quiet this PSU was in its ‘standard’ mode though, while you can use this ‘Smart’ functionality if you want, by and large, it seemed a bit redundant to us. For the minimal returns, at hardly any acoustic difference, we’d suggest just keeping this PSU in its standard mode.
