Three PWM Fans from Noctua

Overclockers.com · 02-17-12, 12:23 PM

Talk about an embarrassment of riches! In short order, Noctua banged out a bunch of PWM fans at the end of 2011. I thought you'd like to look at three of them...

... Return to article to continue reading.

King107s · 02-17-12, 01:29 PM

Only 54cfm.... Its not exactly hard to get a quiet fan or even a high pressure fan when the RPM's and flow rate are this low.

ehume · 02-17-12, 07:51 PM

I suppose I'll have to post comparison data with other fans. They are quiet and compare well with other fans cooling heatsinks like the NH-d14.

muddocktor · 02-17-12, 10:12 PM

I have a couple of the NF-F12 PWM fans I received along with a heatsink from them I am presently testing, ehume. I haven't crunched the numbers yet (still collecting data points), but right off the cuff I'm not seeing any performance difference between them and the NF-P14 fans that come with the heatsink. They are very well built fans though and I might swap them out on a watercooled rig for the Swiftech fans on the rad on that system and see what temps do. The Swifty fans are much noisier than the NF-F12 PWM fans.

SupaMonkey · 02-18-12, 12:19 AM

But, these are focused flow fans. They are going to work best on heatsinks designed to take advantage of that.

synphul · 02-18-12, 02:58 AM

Nice review. Definitely see what you mean about the rubber mounts, way too short. Depending on the type of material (some are soft silicone, others feel like parts of a radial tire), looks like bleeding fingertips or broken fan corners are sure to follow. Would like to give them a try, but I just can't get past that distinct Noctua color scheme. That beige/brown is sure to match..nothing except maybe another Noctua? lol

ehume · 02-18-12, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by synphul

Nice review. Definitely see what you mean about the rubber mounts, way too short. Depending on the type of material (some are soft silicone, others feel like parts of a radial tire), looks like bleeding fingertips or broken fan corners are sure to follow. Would like to give them a try, but I just can't get past that distinct Noctua color scheme. That beige/brown is sure to match..nothing except maybe another Noctua? lol

The fans are too tough to break with mere rubber pegs, and those pegs won't cut your fingers. You just won't get a good grip.

Back when I still thought I needed an exhaust fan I tried to mount an NF-S12B in the back of my case. I couldn't do it with the Noctua pegs. I ended up using double-ended pegs for the fan corners away from the side panel (that was before I discovered the isolators linked in the article). The problem with the double-enders was that the rubber was very stiff; they had to be cut or broken off the fan. Where the NF-F12 differs from previous fans it that its screw holes seem a bit smaller -- smaller enough that I don't want to risk putting a Noctua peg in. The Nexus pegs are much softer.

muddocktor · 02-18-12, 10:39 AM

One feature I really like on the NF-F12 PWM fans is the soft rubber on the corners to help cut vibration noise down. The rubber corner inserts are removable too, in case you run into a situation where they would interfere with mounting somehow. But I had no problems mounting them on the heatsink I am presently testing with the rubber corners mounted on the fans.

And synphul, I have to agree with you about the Noctua fan colors. The beige/brown scheme is particularly ugly in my opinion too I wish they had chosen a more nuetral color scheme that doesn't clash so badly with most anything else you put inside your case.

Billys Gates · 02-20-12, 09:29 PM

Yeah I really don't get why they need to have these colors, even though fans are hidden inside and mostly out of view it would be nice to get them in other colors as well. The rubber mountings however are a nice touch.

txus.palacios · 02-21-12, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billys Gates

Yeah I really don't get why they need to have these colors, even though fans are hidden inside and mostly out of view it would be nice to get them in other colors as well. The rubber mountings however are a nice touch.

Well, I guess it's to go together with ASUS The Ultimate Force motherboard line.

Actually, they do look nice together.

Bobnova · 02-21-12, 01:31 PM

I reviewed a NF12-F for funkykit, it's my daily driver fan now.

The low rating speaks more of Noctua's honesty than it does it's poor airflow compared to other fans. Most fans are wildly over rated, I think I actually believe Noctua.

King107s · 02-22-12, 01:31 PM

PWM Delta FTW hehe

Its hard to find a better fan for flow rate, pressure and durability than a delta...for all that performance you get some noise but its not too bad IMHO

Bobnova · 02-22-12, 01:36 PM

Throw some intense blue LEDs in there and the colors look a lot better, too.

fwupow · 02-29-12, 05:53 AM

My opinion is that these fans are overpriced. All you really get for your money is higher snob-appeal based on the name. Long-life bearings, OK, but you'll be rebuilding & tossing fans out before they have a chance to wear out, so why bother?

1300 rpm is slow. Any fan turning that slow is gonna be quiet. Might as well go with some Blademasters and a properly tuned install of Speedfan and you'll have quiet idle and performance cooling when you need it.

02-17-12, 12:23 PM	Thread Starter #1
Overclockers.com Join Date: Nov 1998	Three PWM Fans from Noctua Talk about an embarrassment of riches! In short order, Noctua banged out a bunch of PWM fans at the end of 2011. I thought you'd like to look at three of them... ... Return to article to continue reading. Last edited by mdcomp; 02-17-12 at 01:00 PM.
	QUOTE Thanks

02-17-12, 01:29 PM	#2
King107s Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Florida	Only 54cfm.... Its not exactly hard to get a quiet fan or even a high pressure fan when the RPM's and flow rate are this low. __________________ CPU Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.9 GHz on H2O MB ASRock Z77 Extreme9 RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133 9-11-10-28 VC Sapphire Dual-X OC 7970 3GB 1050/1500 (3DMark11 P10551) SSD 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SATAIII HDD RAID0 2x1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 PSU Corsair AX1200 Case Corsair Obsidian 800D w/ Aerocool Shark Black ed. fans Cooling EK Supreme HF Rev 2 block, BIX GTX360 Rad, AFC1212D-PWM Fans, Primochill Myraid Res, Swiftech MCP655-B, Prolimatech PK-1 TIM, PrimoChill Liquid Utopia, PrimoFlex PRO LRT Tubing 1/2" ID 3/4" UV Blue
	QUOTE Thanks

02-17-12, 07:51 PM	#3
ehume Member Join Date: Oct 2009	I suppose I'll have to post comparison data with other fans. They are quiet and compare well with other fans cooling heatsinks like the NH-d14. __________________ Fan comparison: 65 Fans Tested on a Megahalems Good Cases for Air Cooling Hotrod: Core i7 875K 1.2-4GHz BCLK 133MHz w/ multiplier up to 30x \| As.s P7P55D-E Pro \| Scythe Mugen 2 w/ 2 San Ace 9S1212P4M011's \| 4x2GB G.Skill low profile DDR3-1600 \| NZXT Beta Evo \| Gigabyte/ATI Radeon HD 4670 w/ 1GB DDR3 \| Crucial C300 128GB \| Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200.12
	QUOTE Thanks

02-17-12, 10:12 PM	#4
muddocktor Retired Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: New Iberia, LA	I have a couple of the NF-F12 PWM fans I received along with a heatsink from them I am presently testing, ehume. I haven't crunched the numbers yet (still collecting data points), but right off the cuff I'm not seeing any performance difference between them and the NF-P14 fans that come with the heatsink. They are very well built fans though and I might swap them out on a watercooled rig for the Swiftech fans on the rad on that system and see what temps do. The Swifty fans are much noisier than the NF-F12 PWM fans.
	QUOTE Thanks

02-18-12, 12:19 AM	#5
SupaMonkey Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: China	But, these are focused flow fans. They are going to work best on heatsinks designed to take advantage of that. __________________ E8400 @ 4GHz w/ Noctua NH-D14 + Coolermaster R4 fans Kingston HyperX DDR2 1066 HD6950 @ 1000/1475 1.3V w/arctic extreme plus (modded bios) X-25M All on a cross flashed P5K-SE/EPU @ 445FSB HSPC Large Tech Station 3Dmark11 E6231P4909X1496 *Rosetta Multi-Millionaire* Last edited by SupaMonkey; 02-18-12 at 12:31 AM.
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Three PWM Fans from Noctua

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02-18-12, 02:58 AM	#6
synphul Join Date: Feb 2012	Nice review. Definitely see what you mean about the rubber mounts, way too short. Depending on the type of material (some are soft silicone, others feel like parts of a radial tire), looks like bleeding fingertips or broken fan corners are sure to follow. Would like to give them a try, but I just can't get past that distinct Noctua color scheme. That beige/brown is sure to match..nothing except maybe another Noctua? lol __________________ ...Wasn't me : Intel C2D E8400 @3.9ghz \| CM V8 \| GA-EP45-UD3P : ATI HD 4850 \| 2 x 2gb GEIL Evo1 \| 2 x 2gb Patriot 6400EL : Seagate 500gb \| Scythe 120mm x2 (SFF21E/SFF21F) : SeaSonic S12 650w \| Antec Sonata II \| ASUS DRW
	QUOTE Thanks

02-18-12, 10:39 AM	#8
muddocktor Retired Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: New Iberia, LA	One feature I really like on the NF-F12 PWM fans is the soft rubber on the corners to help cut vibration noise down. The rubber corner inserts are removable too, in case you run into a situation where they would interfere with mounting somehow. But I had no problems mounting them on the heatsink I am presently testing with the rubber corners mounted on the fans. And synphul, I have to agree with you about the Noctua fan colors. The beige/brown scheme is particularly ugly in my opinion too I wish they had chosen a more nuetral color scheme that doesn't clash so badly with most anything else you put inside your case.
	QUOTE Thanks

02-20-12, 09:29 PM	#9
Billys Gates Registered Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Linuxland	Yeah I really don't get why they need to have these colors, even though fans are hidden inside and mostly out of view it would be nice to get them in other colors as well. The rubber mountings however are a nice touch.
	QUOTE Thanks

02-21-12, 01:31 PM	#11
Bobnova Air Superiority Senior Member Benching Team Leader Join Date: May 2009 Location: Humboldt	I reviewed a NF12-F for funkykit, it's my daily driver fan now. The low rating speaks more of Noctua's honesty than it does it's poor airflow compared to other fans. Most fans are wildly over rated, I think I actually believe Noctua. __________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." -- Einstein (maybe) How to check your PSU with a multimeter. 17bXw5t51rEBXGavJFMJsC8g7HQgThUGc7 Heatware.
	QUOTE Thanks

02-22-12, 01:31 PM	#12
King107s Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Florida	PWM Delta FTW hehe Its hard to find a better fan for flow rate, pressure and durability than a delta...for all that performance you get some noise but its not too bad IMHO __________________ CPU Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.9 GHz on H2O MB ASRock Z77 Extreme9 RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133 9-11-10-28 VC Sapphire Dual-X OC 7970 3GB 1050/1500 (3DMark11 P10551) SSD 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SATAIII HDD RAID0 2x1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 PSU Corsair AX1200 Case Corsair Obsidian 800D w/ Aerocool Shark Black ed. fans Cooling EK Supreme HF Rev 2 block, BIX GTX360 Rad, AFC1212D-PWM Fans, Primochill Myraid Res, Swiftech MCP655-B, Prolimatech PK-1 TIM, PrimoChill Liquid Utopia, PrimoFlex PRO LRT Tubing 1/2" ID 3/4" UV Blue
	QUOTE Thanks

02-22-12, 01:36 PM	#13
Bobnova Air Superiority Senior Member Benching Team Leader Join Date: May 2009 Location: Humboldt	Throw some intense blue LEDs in there and the colors look a lot better, too. __________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." -- Einstein (maybe) How to check your PSU with a multimeter. 17bXw5t51rEBXGavJFMJsC8g7HQgThUGc7 Heatware.
	QUOTE Thanks

02-29-12, 05:53 AM	#14
fwupow New Member Join Date: Dec 2010	Money poorly spent My opinion is that these fans are overpriced. All you really get for your money is higher snob-appeal based on the name. Long-life bearings, OK, but you'll be rebuilding & tossing fans out before they have a chance to wear out, so why bother? 1300 rpm is slow. Any fan turning that slow is gonna be quiet. Might as well go with some Blademasters and a properly tuned install of Speedfan and you'll have quiet idle and performance cooling when you need it.
	QUOTE Thanks

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