By now anyone who aspires to build a killer rig, and house it in the best built and best looking case possible, has SilverStone Technologies on their short list. But SilverStone also offers many products other than cases, such as power supplies, CPU coolers, external storage devices and a host of accessories to trick out your next project. We will be looking at several of these lesser known items in the weeks and months ahead, but today we are talking fans and fan controllers; and like everything SilverStone produces, they are unique among their peers.

The first thing you'll notice about the FM series fans is the color. SilverStone isn't the first manufacturer to use a particular color to set their product apart from the crowd; Noctua uses an understated red brick color against a white frame, Enermax opts for translucent blades and Thermaltake has used the same butt ugly orange for years. But the plain white of the SilverStone fans looks particularly classy. In a sea of translucent, multi-color, neon, UV, anodized bling bling, the pure white makes a definite statement. Whether the look will hold up under all the dust they will eventually collect remains to be seen, but fresh out of the box they look killer.

The FP33 fan controller is typical SilverStone. The machine turned fronts on the knobs and the precise silver bevel around the edge are the kind of little details that set SilverStone products apart. It's everything you need in a budget fan controller and nothing else.

Package

The package arrived safe and sound packed with enough styrofoam peanuts to make a plastic elephant drool. The graphics are clean, simple and tell you everything you need to know in six languages. SilverStone was even kind enough to design their retail packaging so it wouldn't clash with my border collie. You have to respect a company that goes the extra mile like that. ;)

FM92 Fan

First up is the FM92 fan. As with all the FM series fans, the FM92 comes with a fan controller, as it should. Why "should" it come with a controller you ask? Simple, all the FM fans are very powerful for their size and as Peter Parker's Uncle Ben once said, "With great power, comes great responsibility". These suckers cranked all the way up are LLLLOOOUUUD. Cranked a good portion of the way up they are LOUD. The FM92 is rated at 80.92 cfm or 12.12 cfm higher than Panaflo's most powerful 92mm fan, the Ultra. This is a range few manufacturers dare to tread (Delta being the glaring exception) because of unreasonable sound levels. But this kind of potential does make the FM fans an excellent choice to pair with a CPU cooler; using the fan controller you can find a noise level you are comfortable with.

Pardon me if I use the word "unique" one too many times during this review, but it is certainly appropriate. SilverStone has two models for every common fan size; one a typical box design and the second a oversized vented funnel design. The second approach allows for a much larger fan using a standard bolt pattern. The FM92 has room for 110mm fan blades in a 92mm frame. The venting is designed to reduce the back pressure associated with common funnel type fan adapters. The one drawback is that it won't fit everywhere a standard box fan will. Mounting it on my Thermalright XP-97 heat sink with it's unorthodox wire mounts was a bit of a pain, but it can be done. A side by side mount such as those found in many large cases and on radiators for water cooling would be impossible with this design.

You'll notice by the back of the fan controller that it doesn't house the typical big clunky rheostat and accompanying heat sinks. The fan control is solid state and the PCB (printed circuit board) resides inside the fan itself. That's certainly one way to cool it. The two pin control wiring is more than long enough for most any installation. Power is supplied via a standard 4 pin molex with a pass through and r.p.m. can be monitored using the three pin connector. The controller housing is available in silver or black aluminum.

Specs

Dimension: 92 x 92 x 25mm (mounting frame) 110 x 110 x 25mm (overall)
Material: Plastic (PC)
Color: White
Bearing: Dual ball bearing
Rated Voltage: 12 VDC
Start Voltage: 5 VDC
Rated Current: 0.38A (Max. 0.60A)
Rated Power: 4.56W (Max. 7.20W)
Speed: 1800 ~ 3800rpm
Airflow: Max. 80.92CFM
Static Pressure: Max. 6.15mmH2O
Noise Level: 19dBA at 1800rpm, 48.6dBA at 3800rpm
Life Expectancy: 50,000 hours