[mcoleg]

This is a mini-review of some of more popular fans that I see people concider using with their new shiny Tuniq Tower. Once again, it's to see how different fans perform when mounted inside a Tuniq. I am not making any conclusions here, just recording the data for your consideration. If you have questions about a specific fan listed, feel free to ask.

Noctua NF-S12-1200 (Higher RMP model)

Yate-Loon D12SM-12 (Medium)

Yate-Loon D12SL-12 (Slow)

Scythe S-Flex SFF21E (Medium RPM model)

Delta EFB1212L (Tri-Blade Slow)

SilenX Ixtrema Pro IXP-74-14

The temperatures were taken with Coretemp; the RPM with Asus Probe.; no fan controller was used except with Tuniq fan to have some reference points.
The motherboard used was P5W64 WS Pro, vcore in BIOS is set to 1.437v.

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Full load with Orthos. I've ran it a couple of hours in advance to get things nice and warm.

Each individual fan then was tested for at least 10 minutes.

1. Tuniq @ 2000 RPM 65C
2. Delta @ 1985 RPM 65C
3. Yate-Loon medium @ 1555 RPM 66C
4. Yate-Loon slow @ 1350 RPM 68C
5. S-Flex @ 1188 RPM 68C
6. Tuniq @ 1360 RPM 69C
7. SilenX @ 1454 RPM 70C
8. Noctua @ 1231 RPM 72C
9. Tuniq @ 1100 RPM 74C

Note: The m/b used is P5W64 WS Pro. It reads temps a bit higher than they are so no freaking out please :P

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Noise rating.

This is a subjective perception of the noise the fans make in a very specific environment - inside a Tuniq. If you want real dB ratings, surely you can find some reviews that will tell you just that. The problem with just measuring dB is that the quality of the sound is not reflected. What would you prefer - a stealthy screech of nails on a glass or a loud sound of punching a stack of pillows? As I said, it's subjective; I was looking for a "motory", higher pitched sounds that annoy me. So, this is how the fans are rated:

1. Noctua @ 1231 RPM
2. Yate-Loon slow @ 1350 RPM
3. Tuniq @ 1100 RPM
4. S-Flex @ 1188 RPM
5. Tuniq @ 1360 RPM
6. Yate-Loon medium @ 1555 RPM
7. SilenX @ 1454 RPM
8. Delta @ 1985 RPM
9. Tuniq @ 2000 RPM (not sure if this is correct RPM, I have a suspicion my m/b isn't showing it correctly above 2000)

[mcoleg]

here are the fans and a test bench:

[mcoleg]

test screenies

[mcoleg]

test screenies cont.

[meionm]

I have nexus, noctua, yate loons d12sl. I ran each on thermalright HR-01.

Noise wise
Nexus
Noctua
Yate loons
Scythe

Performance wise
Scythe/Yate loons
gap
Nexus/Noctua

Noctua and Yate loons have close noise level. Yate loons is slightly louder but pushes bit more air.

[mcoleg]

yah, i was expecting a bit more from Noctua but looks like it has some design flaws that impede it's performance.

[enz660]

may I ask what vcore you set in the bios? 1.46 might be vdrooped or something...

edit: btw...VERY nice review, I would eventually make some excel graphs from this data for easier comparison. Good work again.

[enz660]

oh also...is that tuniq lapped?

[greenmaji]

Did you take coretemp or TAT temp readings as well? or is this a PD CPU?

[Happyman88]

Nice, Noctua fans are good

[UglyChild]

Your PIC's show different temps from what you have written. On all of them. Im confused.

[enz660]

Heres my infinity, both yate loons @ roughly 1300rpms, so00 quiet My cpu cant go over 3.5ghz and be orthos stable @ that vcore, but the clock doesnt really make much difference for temps as the voltage does. Ambient temps are around 65-66f




edit: with clockgen, I increased to 3.6ghz, did 90% TAT load since its not orthos stable, temps hovered around 49c in TAT, 51c in Coretemp.

[mcoleg]

ok then

enz660: vcore in bios is set at 1.437v. no vdroop on P5W64 WS Pro :P . the tuniq is not lapped; the cpu is though but not for any performance reasons - the heatspreader was concave, so i lapped it as soon as i got it.

greenmaji: the temps were taken with coretemp; the rpm with asus probe. what's a PD CPU?

UglyChild: for the temps, look at coretemp; asus probe readings are not too accurate.

Accumet8000: good point about Noctua fans - they don't put out enough pressure. good fans to mount on a case but i wish ppl would stop spending money on those hoping to get a silent cpu cooling - not going to happen with this revision of those fans, that's for sure.



i suppose i should have put this info in the review itself; my first write-up gents, i'll learn yet :P

edit: i made some changes to the first post according to your questions. thanks guys, that will make things a bit more understandable.

[mcoleg]

enz660, what's going on with the exhaust hole on you pix? is that a filter? any fans on it?

[Happyman88]

NP

[enz660]

Originally Posted by mcoleg

enz660, what's going on with the exhaust hole on you pix? is that a filter? any fans on it?

nope, its just a hole. I cut out the resreictive stock mesh. The rear cpu fan acts as an exhaust, as well as the psu fan. It works quite well actually. I figure theres no point in having an exhaust fan right behind the cpu exhaust fan...