The specs of this fan are insane, they have improved on everything they could think off and to top it off they include a 6 year warranty on this fan.
Rated Performance
So let’s talk about what Noctua are stated the performance of this fan is set to achieve.
Without Noise adaptor
Maximum speed : 1500rpm
Minimum speed : 300rpm(Via PWM control)
Acoustical Noise(Max) : 22.4dB(A)
Airflow(Max) : 93.4m3/h
Static Pressure(Max) : 2.61H20
With Noise Adaptor
Maximum speed : 1300rpm
Minimum speed : 300rpm(Via PWM control)
Acoustical Noise(Max) : 18.6dB(A)
Airflow(Max) : 74.3m3/h
Static Pressure(Max) : 1.83H20
These are pretty good specs, they aren’t that far beyond the current ability of the p12 fan from Noctua. That being said, this fan is of course going to be more stable and uses much less power at the same time thanks to the SS02 bearing system. This f12 is also focus flow fan, Which means it’s designed to push air trough heatsinks and radiators much more efficiently then other fans.
Test System
Asus Rampage IV Extreme
Intel i7 3960X
Corsair H100
CoolerMaster Haf X
Test
This test is pretty straight foward, I took two NF-F12 fans and put them onto a Corsair H100, Simply replacing the Corsair fans supplied with the H100. The idea of this test is to compare the results against the original fans and see if they have better temps and to also test how noisy they get.
I will be posting the Corsair fans first and the test will be using the High fan settings on the Corsair H100.
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”200″ title=”3.6Ghz @ 1.2v(100 x 36) High fan settings ” groupnames=”Actual Temperature, Ambient Temperature, Delta Temperature ” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Core 1, Core 2, Core 3, Core 4, Core 5, Core 6″ group1values=”55,54,52,54,54,59″ group2values=”18,18,18,18,18,18″ group3values=”37,36,34,36,36,41″]
At this settings, The corsair fans got extremely loud, The temps were extremely impressive, But to be honest, I don’t think I could tolerate how loud they got.
Now it’s time to swap out the Corsair fans for the Noctua fans, This was done without reseating the heatsink/pump.
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”200″ title=”3.6Ghz @ 1.2v(100 x 36) High fan settings(Noctua Fans) ” groupnames=”Actual Temperature, Ambient Temperature, Delta Temperature ” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Core 1, Core 2, Core 3, Core 4, Core 5, Core 6″ group1values=”56,56,52,55,56,60″ group2values=”18,18,18,18,18,18″ group3values=”38,38,34,37,38,42″]
Now the results are nearly identical, While there is a certain degree increase nearly across all 6 cores, The fantastic thing is that the fans were extremely quiet, Infact, They were less noisy on high compared to Corsair fans on low.
Conclusion
Okay, it’s now time to wrap this review up, there isn’t that many ways to properly test a fan, And to be honest, I generally didn’t expect much over Noctuas famous P12 fans, which i still believe are amazing fans. The NF-F12 fans however do seem to work extremely well and have great efficiency cooling down the H100 radiator. The best part is that they do it while staying extremely quiet, and i must that that is where Noctua always seem to shine. They made a fan that can not only keep up with Corsairs 2500rpm fans airflow wise, but they do it while staying at around 22dBA, that is just something to marvel at and I don’t think any other fan manufacturer has been able to accomplish.
Noctua keep the fan at a maximum rpm of 1500RPM, which entails a low CFM for the Noctua fans, because of it’s high static pressure and focused flow design. The Noctua fan keeps up with high CFM fans like the Corsair
There really isn’t much more to say, the simple fact is that these fans are incredible and move alot of air, they do it without making much noise, this is exactly what everyone looks for in a fan. The idea behind these fans is that they are specifally designed to work better with heatsink and radiators and they have done just that.
Congrats to Noctua for killing it again with another amazing product, the Notcua Nf-F12 gets the Geek Tech Gold Award.
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Thanks to Jakob at Noctua for sending this over for review
