Bitspower Griffin 120

Introduction

Bitspower Griffin is the newest attempt to kick the Noctua NF-A12x25 off its throne! By using Liquid Crystal, a 1800RPM quick motor, and a lot of air, Bitpower is stepping into the ring! Let's find out how it went!

What's in the Box?

Although the main subject of upgrades is usually the item itself, Bitpower made sure to deliver it inside a higher quality packaging as well.

On the box, we will find the usual amount of imagery and some short specs, but everything looks very organized and quite esthetically pleasing without being overbearing.

Once everything is unwrapped, we will find the following items:

• Bitspower Griffin 120 Fan
• 1x 500mm PWM Extension
• 1x 500mm PWM Extension with RPM limiter
• 1x Set of Fan Screws

Installation

Installing Bitspower's Griffin 120mm fan is nothing unusual. Position the Fan, screw in the screws, done.

Just keep in mind that you might want to stick to the slightly longer screws found inside the Fan's box. Due to how much the rubber is protruding over the fan's screw holes,  other Fan's screws might not be able to grip the actual fan frame.

From there, we need to control the fan.

Instead of using a longer cable coming from the fan, the Griffin decided to go the same route as Phanteks with their T30. Added to the fan we have a 100mm long 4-pin PWM cable with an additional splitter. 

If (and that's probably true), the 100mm one is not long enough, Bitspower includes a 500mm long PWM extension in the box.

However, thanks to the splitter being added to the fan, we can daisy-chain multiple fans to one another and just run a single cable to the motherboard.

But keep in mind that there are 2 extensions included in the box, a regular Extension called "Performance" and a restrictive one called "Silent" - make sure to use the "Performance" one.

Appearance

As mentioned before, Bitspower decided to make their Griffin fans' frame and wings out of LCP. A material that is proven to be much more durable and less prone to bending if the fan spins at higher speeds.

However, with the usage of LCP comes a special color, and the Griffin definitely rocks it. In a grey-isch finish with fiber-like accents, it was definitely a good idea to not paint it differently.

Additionally, each corner of the fan is covered with an incredibly thick piece of rubber in a slightly lighter grey tone. An accent which we are also quite big fans of.

And as usual for LCP fans, the central part of the fan has a completely unnecessary hole in order to make the central shaft visible. A questionable decision in our opinion.

Overall, the Griffin does look quite well made. The usage of LCP gives it the iconic grey color tone which you may or may not like.

On a side note, due to the thickness of the rubber around the corners, the overall fan is slightly thicker, the fan itself through, it still just as big as any other fan.

Benchmark

We benchmarked the Griffins on top of our usual Case-Heatsink benchmark. 

Whilst letting the Fans spin at 100% of their max 1800RPM speed, the Griffin managed to keep the CPU at 44.3°C above ambient. This positions it on the top 50% of all case fans we have tested, right next to the Cooler Master Mobius 120P ARGB and Phanteks T30 in 2000RPM mode- a quite good result.

Lowering the fan speed in 10% increments showed that the Griffin has a Noise-to-Performance ratio slightly better than Arctic's P12. However, in contrast to Arctic's P12, the Griffin has a lot more performance headroom, although they are spinning at the same speeds.

Compared to the very best, however, the Griffin is not quite capable of keeping up with the very big names like Phanteks T30 or be quiet Silent Wings 4.

Conclusion

Overall, the Bitspower Griffin is a solid fan.

Its max performance is quite surprising for its 1800RPM and the Noise-to-Performance ratio is not that bad either. It might not be amongst the very best, but it's respectable, to say the least.

However, the best argument that Bitspower makes with their fan, is quality.

From the usage of LCP to the Fans' Frame structural integrity, everything is tailor-made to feel sturdy and indestructible.

But the biggest plus we have seen is the enormous rubberized corners, something that manufacturers tend to miss, or implement with the minimum in mind.

Overall we can definitely recommend the Griffin fans as your next case fans, just keep in mind that they are not the very best out there and that for the price tag that Bitspower glues to them, you are actually able to get the very best.