More fans, or how I bought Sunon fans

As I’ve already mentioned, I needed high-performance fans for one of my projects. First I bought a couple of AVC fans, then, almost as an afterthought, three more from Sunon. The tests showed that the AVC fans I bought don’t live up to their specs, but it was hard for me to judge what they should be like since I had nothing to compare them with. Today, though, I’ll show you the Sunon fans and compare them with the originals.

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I’ll start with the fans I bought in a brick-and-mortar store. By the way, I should clarify that I use the terms this way: a fan is simply a fan, while a cooler is a fan-and-heatsink assembly—in other words, a complete cooling unit.

So, I needed 70 mm fans with the highest possible power rating. A while ago, I bought two pairs of decent Sunon fans.
PF70201V1-000U-A99 — 20 mm thick, 3.42 W
PMD1207PTV1-A — 25 mm thick, 4.3 W.

The photo was taken a long time ago, but I did all the tests I needed back then.


I’ll start with the PF70201V1-000U-A99. I bought it at Kosmodrom in the summer of 2019, if I remember correctly — link.



There’s a datasheet for this model online, listing the main specs: voltage, current, power, airflow, and pressure.


There’s also a Sunon fan catalog, but for some reason this model isn’t in it. There is an interesting detail, though: for example, the PMD1207PKV1 is listed with a significantly higher power rating, yet it has the same airflow and pressure.
As you can see, the PF70201V1 and PMD1207PKV1 are the most powerful models in the 70 × 70 × 20 mm range.


A quick look at the tests.
It starts at 3.5 V and runs perfectly and steadily at 5 V.
At 12 V it draws 3.5 W, compared with the rated 3.42 W. At 15 V, you can push it up to 5.6 W.

Let me explain why I test all the fans at 15 V. Their airflow isn’t enough for me, so I run them at 15 V. Long-term use shows they handle this just fine. Besides, they don’t run like this around the clock, 24/7, so any reduction in service life is negligible.


Just out of curiosity, I also check how the fans behave when the exhaust or intake is blocked. I’ve often seen people confidently claim in the comments that power consumption will increase in that case.
Well, with this fan, it’s the opposite: blocking the exhaust reduces power by about 10%, while blocking the intake cuts it by almost a third. The point is that when you install a fan in an enclosure, you need to leave some clear space around the impeller; otherwise, it simply can’t breathe.


Next is the PMD1207PTV1-A fan. I bought it at the same place, at the same time as the PF70201V1-A99. Unfortunately, it’s no longer available.



Here, too, I’ll include the figures from the official datasheet.


This model is listed in the catalog and has the highest performance in this size class: 70 × 70 mm and 25 mm thick.
There are models with higher power consumption, but their airflow is the same; their electronics are simply less efficient because they operate at a higher voltage.


It starts at 3.1 V and also runs perfectly at 5 V.
At 12 V, power consumption is almost 4.6 W; at the 15 V I need, it’s over 7 W. I have to say, the airflow is seriously powerful—the fan kept getting blown away during testing. Even the makeshift things I used to hold it down weren’t enough.


Here, blocking the exhaust barely reduced the power, but blocking the intake still caused a noticeable drop. By the way, some of them also start speeding up in this mode.


And now I've gradually arrived at what I bought on AliExpress.
As last time, I had no complaints about the packaging: a cardboard box, with the fans tightly wrapped in bubble wrap.


There are three fans inside, just as I ordered. It all cost me $15.7 for 3 units, including shipping; the seller has gotten a bit greedy since then, and three now cost $18.15


All three look identical, but there are actually some minor differences. If you spin the impeller by hand, two of them rotate perfectly smoothly, while the third feels as if you can feel the magnets' poles. I don't know how else to describe it; it just doesn't spin as smoothly. All three fans are well balanced, though, and at first glance there's nothing to complain about. I was just concerned that there were differences, since fans of the same model shouldn't differ.


Clean and pretty, 5 out of 5.


1. The wires are short. I didn't measure them, but you can probably judge their length from the photo.
2. It has a four-wire connection. I somehow hadn't thought of that when ordering, since I was mostly looking at the model name.
3, 4. All the fans show signs of impeller balancing, and quite aggressive ones at that. I don't remember what the originals looked like, but there's absolutely nothing to complain about with the balancing here.


Let's connect it and test it.
It starts at around 3 V and runs steadily; 5 V is perfectly fine for normal operation.
But at 12 V, the power consumption is just... 1.12 W. Even raising the voltage to 15 V only increased the power consumption to 1.66 W.

So we're nowhere near the claimed 4.4 W, let alone the 4.6 W printed on the labels of these fans. To put it in numbers, the fan delivers only a quarter of the claimed power.


I accidentally tested the power with the exhaust/intake blocked at 15 V rather than 12 V, but I don't think that makes a fundamental difference; what matters to me is the difference.
So, blocking the air outlet doesn't change the power, while blocking the intake makes it drop.


The one I tested earlier was the sample that gave a slight sensation of vibration when spun by hand. I tested one of the ones that spun smoothly, and it was basically the same.


At this point I wondered whether PWM speed control might be to blame. I was about to buy a speed controller, but then thought, why bother? I can simulate all of this with what I have on hand.
First, I tested control by varying the voltage on the PWM input. At 0–1.2 V, it doesn't spin at all; at 1.2–1.3 V, it runs at about one-third power; at 1.3 V and above, it reaches maximum speed. I put the slight rotation at 1.2 V down to possible interference from the two connected power supplies.

PWM control works. I applied the standard 25 kHz at 3 V and varied the duty cycle. Note that at a 99.95% duty cycle, the fan didn't run at full power; I got the maximum when I turned off the generator output, leaving a steady 3 V at the output.

So, in practice, without external control, this fan runs at 100% of its power.


Now let's compare what I received with the original.
The original is on the left, the clone on the right. Differences:
1. The font used for the Maglev label
2. Power rating
3. CE mark
4. Protrusion at the bottom
5. Wires exit on the opposite side.
6. The order of the power wires: on the original, positive comes first, then negative, followed by the others; on the clone, it's all reversed.


The manufacturer even specifies the font color. There's no image for this model; this one is from the PF70201V1-000U-A99 datasheet.


I also came across alternative label designs on eBay. The first and third (probably some older version) look like the originals, but the second and fourth, not so much. Yes, the models in the photos are different, but as I understand it, the label design should be fixed.


I pointed out the wire connection order for a reason: the label position is also strictly fixed. There’s even a raised tab on the housing for it, with a matching cutout in the label. The fans I received have that tab on the housing, too.


For comparison, here’s the power at 5, 12, and 15 V. The original is on the left.


At one point I thought maybe it was simply a 24 V version with a label from the 12 V model. It didn’t occur to me, though, that a 24 V model would hardly start at 3 V.
Anyway, I first applied 20 V and watched how the power draw increased. I applied more, and at 22 V the fan gave up the ghost.
Since it’s not designed to come apart, I’ve set it aside for now. I’ll open it up later and see what’s inside. Maybe it can even be repaired or modified :)




Now for the conclusions.
As strange as it may sound, I liked the fans. In my opinion, they’re clearly genuine, well made, quiet, and well balanced. But despite all that, they’re definitely not PMD1207PTV1-A, or even PMD1207PTB1-A (the ball-bearing version). So if you need a good, quiet fan and this power level works for you, I can genuinely recommend them.

In fact, I got something I basically don’t need, because what mattered to me was high power, and the fans I got are four (4) times weaker. On top of that, 70 mm isn’t exactly the most common size, so now I don’t even know what to do with them.
I’m also planning to open a dispute, but I’m still deciding how much compensation to ask for.

And I have a big question: can anyone recommend a model of powerful 70x70x20 or 70x70x25 mm fans, and where to buy them? The first size is still available for sale, but the second is a problem: either the price is astronomical or they’re not available at all. For now, probably the most powerful ones at an affordable price are the AVC fans from the previous review.
Also, what’s the situation with shipping from eBay to Ukraine? Anyone know?

That’s all for today. I hope you found the review useful.