Gadgetory

in general terms of bearing is a machine element that constrains relative motion and reduces friction between moving parts in cooling fans specifically the purpose of a bearing is to allow the blades to spin around inside the frame as efficiently and reliably as possible but there are so many kinds of them and the pnn bearing hasn't been invented yet so until that happens how do we know the pros and cons of each kind let's kick it off with sleeve bearings the most common bearing type and PC cooling fans the main advantages are easy they are inexpensive and quiet especially at first but they should only be mounted vertically for best results and compared to other bearing types their performance especially over long periods of time is unexceptional a sleeve bearing is what is known as a line contact bearing which means that the contact surface area between its moving parts is actually quite large this isn't inherently a catastrophic problem but it makes them more susceptible to failure due to changes in lubricant viscosity from higher ambient temperatures and from lubricant loss over time this combined with the way that they often die quite suddenly makes the less suitable for industrial or mission-critical environments which leads us nicely into the second most common pc fan bearing type ball bearings they're more expensive than sleeve bearings and in louder at the beginning of their lives but they make up for it because their point contact design reduces friction and allows them to last longer especially in hotter environments like say for example in a server off to used gaming PC and they stay closer to their out-of-the-box performance over a longer period of time like sleeve bearings the main cause of failure of a ball bearing is lubricant loss but because of the way they operate and the fact that they tend to be found in better design products that are manufactured with tighter tolerances overall this will take longer to occur add to that that a ball bearing fan will fill in a slower more graceful manner and you've got yourself a fan that's much more suitable for cooling a component that won't take kindly to a sudden lack of cooling like a CPU or power supply but not all ball bearing fans are created equal cheaper single ball bearing designs will use one ball bearing and one sleeve bearing at each end of the shaft while more expensive dual ball bearing designs use ball bearings throughout for improved LAN jet and performance consistency so depending on how much reliability you need you can plan your budget accordingly now I don't want this video to come off as a PSA about the dangers of sleeve bearing things in non demanding environments or where extreme silence or longevity aren't really needed a traditional sleeve bearing may be perfectly adequate and on top of that not all sleeves are necessarily inferior fluid dynamic or hydro bearings are the last common bearing type and are fundamentally a modified sleeve bearing compared to normal sleeve bearings and even ball bearing designs they are the most expensive due to the Matsushita licensing fees that they must pay in order to sell them the genuine ones anyway but the way that they use the fans own rotation to create a pressure field that stabilizes the fan and dramatically improves lubrication performance results in an extremely quiet bearing that generally lasts longer than either of the first two that I talked about the thing to watch out here though for is that the fluid dynamic bearing name isn't trademarked so many manufacturers have created their own sometimes inferior variants that sell under the same name buyer beware our last bearing type is the other category I mean you see hydro bearings aren't the only enhanced sleeve bearings rifle hydraulic and SSO are a few more examples with each taking a different approach to the goal of improving sleeve bearing performance I'll use SSO bearings as my example the main problem with sleeves is that if they're not adequately lubricated they wear out extremely quickly this proprietary design among other changes adds magnetic stabilisation and fluid dynamic bearing design elements to improve stability longevity and silence especially at lower speeds and they can be mounted in any orientation to boot not that it so that's pretty much it or wait there's two more things actually first factor into everything I just said that the design and quality of the construction of the rest of the fan plays a major role in its performance and it's reliability regardless of bearing type and second here's a handy little fan maintenance tip it's never a bad idea to consult the manufacturer for the best possible method but using a drop or two of a high-grade synthetic lubricant under the sticker on the back will improve the lifetime of even the worst sleeve bearing fan in the world so give that a try if you want to save a couple of bucks and keep fans out of the local landfill speaking of saving a couple bucks if you enjoyed this video about fan bearings be sure to check out the fans from today's episode sponsored Coolermaster they produce a wide variety of PC cooling components I mean it's right there in the company name with everything from CPU air and liquid coolers to standalone fan upgrades for your case that ranged from plain-jane black ones to fancy LED ones show them some love for supporting tech wiki by checking out the link in the video description thank you very much guys for watching like it if you liked it dislike it if you dislike this video leave a comment if you have any feedback on the video or if you have suggestions for future fast as possible and as always don't forget to subscribe to tech wiki for more videos just like this one