Fan efficiency is a very complex topic.
Quick Shot review 11: Thermaltake Extreme Volcano 12
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Cooling fan aerodynamics can get complicated. Swept area, blade profile, static pressure, free-air flow, RPM limits for acceptable noise levels; a lot can go into the design of a modern pentametric fan. The way the equations shake out for most 80 and 92mm computer cooling fans, though, means they have seven blades. Generally speaking, fewer blades mean higher efficiency; the same goes for propellers, which is what gave rise to the counter-weighted single bladed props used by some very strange aircraft. But it's my no doubt criminally over-simplified understanding that dropping a normal cooling fan design to, say, three blades, would mean you'd have to run the blades so fast to get the same air flow as a less efficient 7-blade fan that the resultant device, while efficient, would make too much noise and/or wear out too fast.
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I actually have a small inverter drive fan with 3 blades, probably originally designed for computer cooling. I use it as a desk fan during the summer since it is very efficient.
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