What If Noctua Made A TURBO? | Fan Showdown S4E11

Summary

In this episode of Fan Showdown, Major Hardware reviews four wildly different fan designs: the organic-looking Biomass, the first-time design Body12, the hybrid jet/golf-ball/propeller-inspired FS1, and the turbo-themed Turbinator. The creator spends time praising each design’s creativity and fitment, especially Derek’s highly precise Turbinator build, which combines an A12x25-style frame with turbocharger styling and impressively clean print quality. Sound testing shows the Turbinator delivering the signature turbo whine, though it doesn’t lead the pack in raw noise or airflow. In the smoke test, all fans move air, but the Turbinator leaks some airflow out the back and ultimately ranks lower in performance than the strongest contenders. Even so, it stands out as the most visually striking and technically polished design in the episode. The video closes by inviting viewers to submit their own fan designs and take a shot at dethroning the legendary cheater fan.

Highlights

• Biomass looks like it grew out of a petri dish, and that’s a compliment 🧫
• Body12 is a solid first attempt and could go even further with more experience 🚀
• FS1 is basically a mashup of aviation, golf, and marine engineering vibes in fan form ⚙️
• Derek’s Turbinator is such a clean, precise build that it makes the host jealous of the print quality 😅
• The Turbinator’s turbo whistle is the kind of detail that makes this showdown so fun 🔊
• Even when a design doesn’t top the airflow charts, it can still absolutely win the style contest 🎨

Key Takeaways

• The Biomass fan goes for a biological, almost slime-mold aesthetic 🌱
• Body12 is a first-ever fan design that looks promising for a newcomer 🌟
• FS1 mixes jet engines, golf-ball dimples, and boat-propeller vibes into one design ✈️
• The Turbinator is an insanely well-fitting turbo-inspired fan with top-tier print quality 🛠️
• The Turbinator nails the turbo sound, even if it doesn’t win on airflow or noise 👂
• The cheater fan is still the benchmark everyone wants to beat 🏆

Overview

This episode has the classic Fan Showdown energy: weird ideas, clever engineering, and a lot of appreciation for people who decide to turn fan blades into art projects. Major Hardware walks through each submission like a judge at a very nerdy design contest, giving credit not just for performance potential but for creativity, fit, and overall vibe. The result is a lineup that feels like a mix between mechanical engineering and sci-fi sculpture.

The standout narrative of the episode is definitely the Turbinator. Derek’s design is described as almost absurdly well made, with parts that fit together so cleanly it feels professionally machined rather than 3D printed. The turbocharger inspiration gives it a cool factor that’s hard to ignore, and the host clearly loves both the concept and the execution.

When it comes to testing, the Turbinator does what it’s supposed to do but doesn’t dominate the leaderboard. The host notes the turbo sound, checks the smoke flow, and records airflow numbers for each fan, with the Turbinator landing lower than the top performers. Still, the episode ends on a positive note: even if the cheater remains unbeaten, this round delivers a memorable design and a reminder that anyone can jump in and try to create the next great fan.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 02:30: Introduction to Fan Showdown Episode 11 The episode opens with a welcome to Fan Showdown Season 4, Episode 11, and introduces several fans and their creators. The first fan, by Brock Brooks, is described as a biological-looking design inspired more by imagination than engineering, with the disc divided into three sections at different blade angles based on distance from the hub.
• 02:30 - 05:00: Biomass Fan Concept and Early Discussion The discussion starts by comparing the Biomass fan’s blade approach to a boat-style propeller rather than a traditional airplane propeller, explaining that Robert chose this design because it resembles the successful propeller-driven Cheater fan. The speaker frames it as a practical "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" decision and transitions into mentioning another upcoming turbo-looking supercharger project.
• 05:00 - 07:30: Robert's Turbo-Inspired FS1 Design Robert showcases the FS1's turbo-inspired assembly, explaining how the compressor wheel, intake, and nozzle sections fit together with precision and minimal support material. He highlights the exceptional fit, silent operation, and overall design quality, then notes plans to add Noctua anti-vibration pads before wrapping up with sound test results comparing the Turbinator, Body 12, FS1, and Biomass.
• 07:30 - 09:30: Printing, Assembly, and Turbinator Build Details During this chapter, the focus is on printing, assembly, and final build details for the Turbinator, including a smoke test of the unit and observations about airflow performance. The test showed that the Turbinator was working but leaking air from the back, likely due to the fan being too close to the cheater plate; a gasket was planned for retesting. Measured airflow placed the Turbinator at 317 feet per minute, below the Body 12 (526), FS1 (477), and Biomass (541).
• 09:30 - 11:00: Sound Test and Initial Performance Results The smoke test showed the Turbinator working, but with noticeable air leaking from the back, prompting a possible retest after adding a gasket if the fan can be placed close enough to the cheater.
• 11:00 - 12:30: Smoke Test, Airflow Measurements, and Rankings The episode wraps up with final airflow measurements and a ranking of the fans, noting that the Turbinator did not reach the top of the board but still stood out for its exceptional design. The host highlights the final placement results, mentions a set of fan rankings, and reinforces that the testing phase is complete.

What If Noctua Made A TURBO? | Fan Showdown S4E11 Transcription

• Segment 1: 00:00 - 02:30 hello hello hello welcome back to another fan showdown this time episode 11 of season four and we got some good ones i think i think you'll like it let's start with broadcast brock brooks brooksus brooksis and his fan biomass ruxin said that he created this fan without any real engineering or simulation instead he he took more of a seat of the pants type approach to uh to this design with a sprinkle of imagination bruxes said he wanted a fan that looked more biological than commercial and he decided to divide up his fan disc into three different segments with varying angles of attack based on how close they were to the center hub and i really like the biological inspiration of this fan there's really no like hard lines it looks more like something that kind of grew out of a petri dish like if you had some some slime mold and it grew into a fan this is kind of what it would look like so well done now as for the differing blade angles uh that's interesting to me i don't know if we've seen anything quite like that before it'll be interesting to see how it does in the performance of the fan now next up we have a fan that i call uh body12 and it was created by somebody going by the name of player one now the creator of this fan didn't give me a name per se i kind of said call it which uh what you think it should be called and then he wanted to be anonymous so i decided player one was what we were going to call him first that he came to mind and this is his fan player one didn't give much lore to the creation of this fan saying they stumbled across the fan showdown and decided why not download some modeling software give it a shot this is actually player one's first ever fan design and it looks pretty good solid solid choice a little taller than the standard a12x25
• Segment 2: 00:00 - 02:30 fan should do reasonably well i mean if it places towards the top with a little more experience player one could come up with a design that takes down the cheater third up today we have robert and his fan fs1 now robert did give more of a backstory to his fan and the inspiration behind it he actually he had more than one inspiration for this fan he took a few different inspirations and kind of smashed them all together into one design that he's hoping will take down them all robert's first inspiration for his fan was you know jet engines and airfoils and each of the four blades has an airfoil like you'd see on a wing implemented into its design the second inspiration robert went to was the common golf ball and you can see that kind of on the surface of all these blades now the texture of a golf ball we all know to be dimpled robert took that dimpled pattern and used it on the top surface of each of
• Segment 3: 02:30 - 05:00 his fan blades here now lastly rather than use you know rather than creating a fan that's similar to like an airplane propeller robert decided to kind of go the other way he decided to use the propeller kind of like you'd see on a boat he chose this route because he thinks that the cheater you know that cheater uses more of a propeller boat propeller type design and its fan blades and we all know how well the cheater did so he thinks you know why not if it ain't broke don't fix it so that's what he went with now this last one this last one is pretty impressive let me know if you think the same you may have noticed you may have noticed this big turbo looking thing in you know some some of my past videos uh after creating the root style supercharger and how well it worked i thought it was only proper that we create kind of like a pro charger type supercar supercharger just to see how it functioned if it did better worse plus it looks like a turbo and we all know turbos make everything way cooler so if that interests you make sure to stick around get subscribed so you don't miss that video when i get around to testing it when i have some more time but i think it'll be cool well that kind of ties into this next fan the turbinator and it was created by derek and it's what would happen if you took like an a12 x25 in a turbo and you smashed them together you would end up with a beautiful work of art i mean as soon as i saw this fan i knew that i had to test it i knew you all would feel the same also i learned after looking at derek's submission that my print quality is dog compared to derek's because
• Segment 4: 02:30 - 05:00 not only did he take the time out of his day to design this crazy turbo inspired fan he also went out and bought an a12x25 he ripped it apart and he printed out his design and tested it i mean look at that crispy print quality i'm not worthy i gotta get my printer tuned like uh like old derrick's there so that being said if you have any like tips or tricks or useful resources to tune a printer let me know in the comment section below you know i could use it but anyway the turbinator is a four piece design first you have a dedicated base section with all these tiny little stator veins all the way around it and on top of it and you can tell derek really really did his homework with this thing because this slips perfectly into the a12 x25 frame right over all four of the motor supports and there's even
• Segment 5: 05:00 - 07:30 extra cut out for the wiring to pass through top notch on top of that base structure you have the compressor wheel that again slips in there perfectly fits like a glove in between the stator veins over the compressor you have this intake structure now derrick's looked way better than mine you can see a little bit of remnants from my support i tried to sand it to uh be less embarrassed but the inside's fine but that goes over top of the compressor and it seats in there beautifully just like a nice press fit stays in there you just shake it just awesome and then if you push it down all the way it seats onto this stator assembly or stator part and keeps it in position which is which is really nice there you did a good job and then last you have the nozzle section that mounts to the back which this actually prints out great without support material has integrated stator veins and this goes on the back here and it's going to help redirect that airflow out the back of the fan and when it's all when it's all complete we have a work of art regardless of how well this thing finishes just in the design aspect alone derek's killing it this has to be without a doubt one of the most precisely designed and well fitting fans i've ever seen on the fan showdown everything went together as intended not a single part touches any other part there's no rubbing nothing just just silent now that being said in derek's photos i saw that he was using the noctua a12x25 anti-vibration pad that's kind of also like a gasket and i know that a lot of you have commented in the past that i should get one of those and i wanted to i went and looked for the ones that i that came with this fan couldn't find them probably them away because i'm a genius so i so i had to order some more i don't
• Segment 6: 05:00 - 07:30 have any i hope it doesn't hurt the design out very much but yes we will get some of those and install these on the fans asap let's get into the sound test though the turbinator came in around 54.5 dba the body 12 came in around 45 dba the fs1 came in around 57 dba and the biomass came in around 52 dba now although it's not that pronounced in the recording of the turbinator it did have that iconic turbo noise it's it's really hard to hear it was easy for me to stand in here but i hope that you noticed it because it's just awesome 10 out of 10 for design and then 10 out
• Segment 7: 07:30 - 10:00 of 10 for noise so here's the hoping it moves some air [Music] [Music] now in the smoke test the turbinator did did work and you can see that it is yes leaking some air off out of the back here now if the fan places close to the cheater we will retest it when i get the gasket but just looking at how much and how fast the air is moving out the nozzle here it doesn't look likely but if it does trust me i'll retest it the turbinator produced 317 feet per minute of airflow the body 12 produced 526 the fs1 produced 477 and the biomass produced 541 placing the
• Segment 8: 10:00 - 12:30 fans in 21st 24th 33rd and 43rd respectively so yeah the turbinator you know it didn't it didn't get to the top of the board but it placed first overall in my heart with this exceptional exceptional design now i hope you enjoyed the this episode of the fan showdown if you want to get in on the action head down to the description below i'll put links to everything you got to know where to go to find models of the a12x25 frames you know the dimensions to hit so make sure your fan fits on it like old derrick's here where to send your sdl files to the fan shown on gmail.com and then just other useful information to help you create a fan that hopefully will take down the legendary cheater because it's still there it's been there for a couple seasons somebody's gotta do it you can do it until next time