Introduction

In the computer industry, cases are a rather hit and miss affair. With some monstrosities such as the forthcoming Thermaltake Ten to the elegant Lian Li cases, we have seen computer chassis come and go.

Remember the days when computer cases were a drab off-white colour and full of razor sharp edges?  In those days building a computer was considered baptism by fire!  The nearest a consumer could get to an elegant case was from Apple and these had the resemblance of boiled sweets  In today’s  world we  see many types of computer enclosures and in many interesting shapes. To add another factor into this ‘whirlpool’ of chassis configurations; we now have the consumers themselves making their own cases!

Company Background

Fractal Design was founded in Sweden in the year 2007 by a Mr Hannes Wallin! They first entered the Scandinavian Market in 2007 and two years later they had explored additional markets in Europe; namely Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK amongst others.  They also have recently signed a contract with their new distributor in Australia.  In addition, during the second Quarter of 2010 they will enter the North American market!

Their goal is to be widely recognized for a high end level of design and products.  Fractal is putting great effort into choosing the right partners in each region, and their strategy is to work with a good structure of selected distribution partners and retail/e-tailers!

One of the core ideas of Fractal Design is to provide products with an extraordinary design level. The principles of their products have been stylish, simplistic and clean; which they prefer to call the Scandinavian design! Their ethos is to produce products that incorporate the above, but without compromising quality, functionality and pricing.

In today’s world of hot, heated hardware, there is a product for just about every price zone which can either been seen as an advantage or, to many who are inexperienced with the latest tech churning out by many companies, a huge headache. Trying to find the best value for the money can be challenging even for the avid hardcore techie. Coolink is a company that hopes to rectify things and make it a lot easier for you, the consumer, with their products as their branding stands for “an effective conjunction of no-frills performance, excellent quality and attractive pricing”.

About Coolink

“While Coolink held a strong presence in the Asian market ever since the late 90ies, it was not until 2005 that the brand was introduced to the European market on a large scale. After the launch of Coolink-Europe.com in late 2005, Coolink quickly became a well recognised brand for high-quality cooling components in Europe too.”

“Kolink International Corporation is a cooling specialist established in 1996 and well known among industry insiders. Throughout the years, Kolink designed and manufactured many top-performing heat-sinks under various brand names that succeeded in international markets. An experienced R&D team and ultra-modern production plants in Taiwan ensure continuous progress, efficient manufacturing conditions and strict quality standards.”

Fans

From this reviewer’s perspective, Coolink isn’t a brand to normally associated with top performance and/or quiet cooling. Their latest SWiF2 fans have been around since as early as July, yet we had not heard of them. Rather being over shadowed by some top name brands of the likes of Noctua, Sharkoon, Scythe, and many more. However, with regard to the latest SWiF2 fans we will be reviewing today, Noctua has personally handled their marketing and product – which to many readers’ eyes can only be something of a great benefit we hope?

Company CEO Statement

“ With more than a hundred thousand satisfied users, our Silent Whisper Fans have created a huge following among those looking for true high-end fans at a reasonable price”, says Timothy Chu, Coolink CEO. “Today, we’re thrilled to revive the series with new, further improved models as well as an exciting new colour scheme. Of course, the new SWiF2 family remains true to our vision of linking excellent quality with attractive pricing.”

Featuring an all new 11-blade impeller design, the design goal for the SWiF2 120mm fan was to improve its airflow and airflow to noise ratio, making it suitable for a broad range of applications. Thanks to its unique blade design, the SWiF2 120mm improves upon its successful predecessor’s airflow to noise ratio by up to 40% at low fan speeds.

Cooling

Cooling. Where do we start? If you’re like this reviewer, fans & upgrading go very much hand in hand. It wouldn’t be surprising to find that your avid hardware enthusiast would go through 20+ different kinds of fans, brands, types & sizes in 12 months. Why would we, as consumers, go through so many in what many feel as such a short period of time you may wonder? It may well have something to do with a lot of marketing, word of mouth, reviews and too much time on forums.

You can understand then it is a very hard task indeed from a company’s perspective to sell products like fans to what would be considered an already controlled area by top branded companies. For instance, you as a reader and purchaser come to learn, know and love a brand such like Noctua from reading far too many reviews and listening to far too many ‘fanboys’. Why would you swap your (expensive) fans out for something that boasts the same when you already know that (what you perceive) is already the ‘best’? It’s a hard decision to make and something all companies try to compete for – your mindset and values. Can we manipulate your views today with Coolink’s new SWiF2 fans? Let’s have a go.

Case Cooling Diagram