Toroidal fan: YouTuber builds quiet fan with novel shape

The Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presented a new propeller shape at the end of January 2023, which is primarily intended for drones and is supposed to enable particularly quiet flight. A YouTuber now applied the concept to a PC fan, which is supposed to enable particularly quiet operation.

Toroidal propellers: YouTuber builds quiet fan

MIT’s toroidal propellers are said to reduce noise while flying due to their unique design in drones. And they do so without the need for any additional components. This is made possible primarily by the design of the blades, which merge into each other in a round or teardrop shape.

YouTuber Major Hardware tried out the advantages of this concept for PC fans in a self-experiment using a 3D scanner. In his video, which we have included further down in the article, he shows how the volume and airflow behave in comparison to a classic fan.

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Torodiae fans reduce volume only noticeably to a certain extent

The result turns out to be quite impressive. Especially with high-frequency fan noise, the toroidal design can noticeably reduce the volume. In terms of airflow, the first test model of the fan from Major Hardware was a bit behind the Noctua NF-A12x25, which served as a reference in the test, and the average volume of the Noctua fan was also lower.

However, the fan in the Torodial design showed its strengths especially in high-frequency noise above 500 Hertz. However, the YouTuber also points out that PC fans rotate much slower than the rotors of a drone and the noise reduction is not quite as high.

In addition, this is only the first test model of the self-built brand, which cannot yet hold a candle to conventional fans with a classic fin shape. However, it still has potential. Maybe this is the future of fans? In a revised and improved form, of course.