By: Jonathan Kwan
March 25, 2007
Unless you want to play Flight Simulator without a sound card and a set of speakers, chances are that you want to make your computer as silent as possible. In the past few years, this emphasis has already been quite strong -- and manufacturers are springing out of everywhere claiming to construct silent components for your system. Those who have lately developed a strong reputation in this industry is Austria-based company Noctua -- creating mainly fans and heatsinks for the silent computer. Today, we had the opportunity to review the Noctua NF-R8, NF-S12-800, and NF-S12-1200 case fans. Do they serve their primary goal of being a product for the quiet PC enthusiast? Let's have a good look over it today in this article.
Our review units came in a small box using a priority service from Austria Post. It's a rather small box, but we are quite excited to see what Noctua has in store for case fans. I constantly enjoy seeing the cool stuff designed from halfway across the world, as they are always so uniquely different.
Initially, we were expecting two 120mm fans -- the Noctua NF-S12-800 and NF-S12-1200. However, after opening the package, we were pleasantly surprised to see not only what we expected, but also a NF-R8 80mm fan as well as a set of Noctua stickers. Oh, and a cool badge as well!
You see, as a kid, I've always liked stickers. You wouldn't believe the joy in me when I got all those cool Noctua stickers, especially the huge 20cm by 20cm one! Well anyways, let's get back onto the review.
A similarity exists between all three retail packages we received today. A clear plastic tray with two main bays holds the fan itself as well as the accessories; and a clear plastic cover encloses the tray into a slide in cardboard enclosure. Four rubber vibration compensators sit on the side.
Accessories included consist of a four fan screws, a 3 pin to 4 pin Molex adapter, as well as a what Noctua calls the Ultra-Low-Noise Adapter (ULNA). It is basically a cable with a resisting wire to lower fan speed.
Before we move on, let's take a look at the specifications of these fans.
Noctua NF-R8
Size 80x80x25 mm
Bearing SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry Raised-Blade-Design
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) 1800 RPM
Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 1300 RPM
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 800 RPM
Airflow 53 m³/h
Airflow with L.N.A. 39 m³/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A. 26 m³/h
Acoustical Noise 17 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with L.N.A. 10 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A. 7* dB(A)
Input Power 1,32 W
Input Current 0,11 A
Voltage Range 4-13 V
MTBF > 150.000 h
Scope of Delivery
* Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
* Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
* 4 Vibration Compensators
* 3:4-Pin Adaptor
* 4 Fan Screws
Warranty 6 years
Noctua NF-S12-800
Size 120x120x25 mm
Bearing SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry Straight-Blade-Design
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) 800 RPM
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 500 RPM
Airflow 59 m³/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A. 34 m³/h
Acoustical Noise 8 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A. < 5* dB(A)
Input Power 0,60 W
Input Current 0,05 A
Voltage Range 6-13 V
MTBF > 150.000 h
Scope of Delivery
* Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
* 4 Vibration Compensators
* 3:4-Pin Adaptor
* 4 Fan Screws
Warranty 6 years
Noctua NF-S12-1200
Size 120x120x25 mm
Bearing SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry Straight-Blade-Design
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) 1200 RPM
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 600 RPM
Airflow 81 m³/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A. 41 m³/h
Acoustical Noise 17 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A. < 6* dB(A)
Input Power 1,44 W
Input Current 0,12 A
Voltage Range 4-13 V
MTBF > 150.000 h
Scope of Delivery
* Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
* 4 Vibration Compensators
* 3:4-Pin Adaptor
* 4 Fan Screws
Warranty 6 years
Basically, the difference between the Noctua NF-S12-800 and NF-S12-1200 is the fact that manufacturer's intent on fan speed. The last number indicates the designed rotational speed; where the NF-S12-800 is designed for 800rpm, and so forth. The NF-R8 is a 80mm fan designed to run at 1800rpm.
One very important thing to take note of is the bearing of these fans. While traditionally, quiet fans are sleeve bearing, it's interesting to see what SSO bearing means. A page on Noctua's site explains this engineering principle, located here.
And how's the 6 year warranty on these fans? Sounds like Noctua (Ok, ok, I know that's a lame joke) is very confident in their products.
Our test configuration.
A lot of times, when I look into fan reviews, there's not much regard about testing than simple comments like this fan is so quiet, wow -- there's nothing much beyond that. While this is a good reference, personally I think that this is a little too subjective for my likings. Unfortunately, like most users, I don't have any test equipment, so let's be creative and do things the APH way.
...which is to use odd methods to test things when no proper test equipment is available.
And of course I'll try to describe how the fans sound like to the best of my ability. After all, I am extremely sensitive about PC noise, so I might even exaggerate a bit when it comes to how loud it sounds. When it comes down to PCs, there are just the few components that generate noise: the power supply, the CPU fan, video card, hard drive, case fans, and motherboard chipset fan, if applicable. My computer is configured with a Seasonic M12, Scythe Infinity, an Asus EAX1950PRO (With that really cool heatsink), a Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drive, and an Asus P5W64-WS Professional which uses heatpipes and no fans. The fans are the ones being compared, so I won't take that into essence -- meaning that the loudest thing in my computer is probably the Seagate hard drive (It's not loud, really).
So basically, be confident in the rest of the review.
What I did on this beautiful Sunday afternoon was going around and seeing how I can write this review in the next few hours. I went down to the basement and dug out my old Cooler Master 350W, paper clip modded, and grabbed my triplet of Noctua fans along with a blue LED Thermaltake fan that came with my Thermaltake Aguila. I later found out that the box of tissue came in handy as well.
See, see? This is the pinnacle of fan reviewing! (Just kidding, haha)
It's hardly the most scientific method, but hey -- that's all I got. Whatever pushes the tissue the highest is the one pushing the most air out (haha). All I need to do is make sure all the tissues were taped to the exact same location in relative to each other.
Basically, the strongest fan is the Noctua NF-S12-1200 pushing some very consistent and straight airflow into the tissue, keeping it up very equally and quite high. The Thermaltake blue LED fan pushed a little less amount of air; however the airflow was less consistent -- causing the piece of tissue to flutter up and down a bit. The NF-S12-800 pushed less air; but the flow was very consistent as well.
The NF-R8 was fast and moved a lot of air, but it didn't like the tissue experiment much because it was physically too small. I put my hand over it and it did indeed move quite a bit of air, at least to what I felt.
From another angle, we can see how each fan is pushing air and how consistent they were. I personally used my hand to test which fan moved the most air, and it was verified by this tissue test, thus one can say that these tissue tests were quite accurate without personal bias.
I did the rest of my tests without using the ULNA resistor cable that was provided by Noctua. Anyway, I realized that my power supply itself generated its own share of noise, so I switched test locations and put the power supply outside my room, ran some Molexes inside, closed the door, and made my ear-to-fan noise tests (One by one). Again, not scientific, but what the heck.
I can confidently say that the quietest fan, by far, was the Noctua NF-S12-800. It was nearly inaudible; however it made light clicking noises during usage.
The Noctua NF-S12-1200 was significantly louder than the NF-S12-800, however. You'd be surprised the amount of extra noise that extra 400rpm (+50%) makes. A clear whooshing of a high speed fan can be heard; as well as a bit of noise as if there were air resistance bouncing back the air. A bit of constant clicking can be heard as well.
It was a bit louder than the Thermaltake LED fan that came with my Thermaltake Aguila; but it moves more air -- and the Noctua fans obviously had less vibrations than the Thermaltake I used.
The 80mm Noctua NF-R8 was by far the loudest (It was pretty loud in my opinion), with a higher pitched noise and a clear emission of a strong whoosh put forth by a typical fast rotating fan.
In general, these are very nice fans putting out very consistent air flow. However, for a hardcore quiet PC enthusiast, I think the NF-S12-1200 is way too loud. I understand that you can use the ULNA resistor cable and bring the RPM down to 600RPM, but at that rate, you can just get a NF-S12-800 and run it at full speed -- the NF-S12-800 is nice and quiet; while still moving an acceptable amount of air. The NF-R8 is pretty loud; but I don't see why a quiet PC enthusiast would use 80mm fans at this time -- so it's not that big of a deal. What I would like to see, however, is more the availability of more colors as well as LED fans from Noctua.
Special thanks to Jakob over at Noctua for making this review possible.
Noctua NF-S12-800
Pros: Very quiet, consistent air flow.
Cons: Slight clicking noises can be heard.
Rating: 7.7/10 | APH Recommended
- The rating 7/10 means "Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing".
- The rating 8/10 means "Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that isn't likely going to matter to the end user".
- More information in our Review Focus.
Noctua NF-S12-1200
Pros: Very consistent air flow, and draws a very decent amount of air.
Cons: It's not really that quiet. ULNA will quiet the fan down, but it will reduce the fan speed to 600rpm which makes the NF-S12-800 a much better choice in this regard.
Rating: 6.2/10
- The rating 6/10 means "A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing".
- The rating 7/10 means "Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing".
- More information in our Review Focus.
Noctua NF-R8
Pros: High air flow rate.
Cons: It's not really a quiet fan. You can use ULNA (The resistor wire) to slow the fan down and quiet it down, but it will reduce air flow.
Rating: 6.3/10
- The rating 6/10 means "A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing".
- The rating 7/10 means "Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing".
- More information in our Review Focus.
