Noctua

[Hark]

Pardon the briefness of this post and question. From what I've seen all about, Noctua fans look great and for some reason I seem to love them. I may be quite wrong in thinking well of them. I've no expierence with Noctua fans, nor have I any expierence with computer fans in general. Before anybody tells me to just google them or what have you, I feel I must note that I'm looking for opinions as well as facts and it seems there's quite the knowledge base here that knows a fair bit more than the average component review site.
My question is:
Are Noctua really that great? Are they worth it?

 

[EarthDog]

Well, which fans in particular is the operative question...

As far as looks, some like em, some dont. I personally dont like the looks of them as they can only match some sort of military theme as is. We reviewed a couple on the front page, you should check that out. I see in those some solid build quality, quiet and move a fair amount of air depending on the model. Are there better out there? Sure. But plenty worse.

 

[Hark]

I suppose I was asking quiet the general question there.
Since I plan on putting together a case that isn't terribly large, I'm thinking 120mm fans. Currently the plan is to use water cooling for the CPU and GPU and I thought they may be alright for the radiator. Should I be going with a different option?

 

[EarthDog]

Naa, if you get the ones I linked to, plenty of pressure for high FPI rads. Though one of the 'best' are the Scythe Gentle Typhoons, but they are pricey.

 

[Hark]

As far as the looks going, I've been thinking of actually designing the case around the colours of the fans seeing as colours are generally the reason they ever get much of a bad review. I'll just have to figure some way to get the black and red to go with the brown and beige.

Since I'm on the topic of cooling. Would a 2 or 3 fan low profile radiator be good enough for an i5 and GTX 670?
It seems I'll be wanting to put a push/pull set up on it. Sounds like thats the best way to do things.

 

[EarthDog]

You will want a full 120x3 rad for that.