Premium Fans vs Stock Fans

[Menta]

Orded this fan a few days ago, just thought it would look cool as a windmill on a future build for my kid

[helping]

So because there are fans comparably as good they can't use noctua's as a benchmark?

Some are not comparably as good. Some are flat out better.

 

And don't put words in my mouth.

[Trik'Stari]

I'm honestly starting to enjoy slick's intro's and video's alot more than Linus'

[shananigans89]

best. intro. evar!!!

 

i lol'd so hard.

 

I need a gif of that intro with the words in text at the end LOL! that would be funny

[ManWithBeard1990]

You guys should review some Artic fans, they are pretty cheap (you can buy 4 120mm fans for the same prime of a 120mm Noctua) and still very good looking. I'd like to know more before buying them.

I've been considering those as well. As the StealthRay has 10 120mm fans, having them be all Noctuas would be prohibitively expensive. I mean, come on, it was meant to be a budget build. Also, the F12 is available with a thermal probe so that could be really useful.

[Trik'Stari]

as far as I am concerned, if you don't have to bolt your case down to prevent it from taking off, your not doing it right

 

When I can afford to, I will definitely be filling out my air 540 with noctua 3000rpm industrials. My hope is to have such airflow that the computer sort of, dusts itself lol

[felixthemaster1]

Slick, your hair is as lovely as ever

[Hans Power]

have a few noctuas my self but some f12,14 artic can do the job just fine and queite great fans

 

Yes, I'm using Arctic F12s, too - they're suprisingly good, only drawback are the this cables. Also their PWM sharing tech is really useful if you don't want to invest in an expensive fan splitter.

[GatorBait]

FYI: This video is listed as "PRIVATE" in Google Plus. You might want to look into this to make sure you maximize your views. Excellent video!

NCIX: http://bit.ly/Yj7yBn

Amazon: http://geni.us/2YkH

 

Noctua and other premium fan brands charge a significant premium for their products. Are they that much better than stock case or AIO cooler fans?

 

NCIX: http://bit.ly/Yj7yBn

Amazon: http://geni.us/2YkH

 

Noctua and other premium fan brands charge a significant premium for their products. Are they that much better than stock case or AIO cooler fans?

 

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

Whoa.... Slick's face at the intro (and thumbnail).... I cannot unsee that!

[Victorious Secret]

Meh. 

 

I can afford spending money on better fans that are quieter, I will. I don't need keyboard warriors telling me that X brand would save me 5 dollars per fan and give Y percentage in performance. 

On a build thats now creeping 2 grand, saving 5 dollars on fans is nothing. Thats a morning coffee and bagel, and I don't value my morning coffee and bagel enough to give a damn. 

 

I like Noctuas. They even fit aesthetically into my build, I like the PPC but I already have a couple hundred in fans, if I hadn't bought them already I would've gone PPC. So sue me.

 

Nothing wrong with buying Noctuas and nothing wrong with people telling you to buy Noctuas. Maybe its just cool to hate on them or something. Iunno. 

 

I think The GTs are hella ugly and wouldn't use them, I like the Spectre Pros but theres no point buying even more just to have them. I like having PWM, so I'll pay more for that. I like having absurdly long warranties, that matters. 

 

Some people here seriously need to chill and stop making everything a "U USE THIS U MUST SUCK AND HAVE MOAR MONEY THAN BRAINS HURR DURR DURR" crapfest. 

[TheProfosist]

Some are not comparably as good. Some are flat out better.

 

And don't put words in my mouth.

*them is fighting words*

Also most enthusiast fans are comparable above a certain point.

So which fans are just flat out better in all situation and categories?

[threadysparrow]

I think when deciding if something's worth it, I think it's incorrect to simply look at performance. If fans are working like they are supposed to, then your computer isn't going to overheat from a cheap fan vs an expensive fan, and that brings up my point. You need to take into account reliability and ease of use as well. When it comes to fans, you get what you pay for in my experience (unless you get crazy expensive fans). If you buy a $10 fan you will get a $10 fan. That's my experience and I've been building for about 6 years. If you have to replace them every few months because they break or they become loud, are you really getting that good of a deal even though it's cheap? Isn't it just easier to buy a more expensive fan just to save yourself the hassle of having to install fans all the time? 

 

When it comes to radiator fans, I am not as knowledgeable because I don't do water cooling anymore so my advice isn't for that. But for case fans, it definitely pays off both in performance and frustration to just get the more expensive fan... for your budget... from a reputable brand. You don't need 4 $30 fans in your case unless you have air flow issues or a highly overclocked PC. But skimping on fans is not going to do you any good either. I have 5 fans in my PC. 2 $15 Antec Tricools because they have a low speed setting, a front 140mm CM fan that was about $20, a top 200mm CM fan that was about $20 I believe IIRC, and the rear 120mm CM fan that was between $10 and $20 IIRC. They have lasted me 3 years with no problems. I had to take them into consideration in my budget and I actually decided to get a cheaper Hyper 212 heatsink just so I could fit case fans into my budget

[Lays]

o i c

 

I mean I've seen a ton of fan benchmarks, not just from LTT and Noctua almost always comes out on top. I've seen some where BeQuiet and Corsair are the best for certain applications.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1389355/fan-testing-round-12-begins-thanks-to-cpachris-and-prymus-nb-e-loop-sp120-nf-f12-cougar-vortex-pwm-vortex-red-led-pirahna-ap-45

 

Here's one, I find his findings to be accurate, as I've used GT's, NF-F12, SP120 Quiet edition among other things.  NF-F12 are nowhere near as good as most claim they are.

[helping]

*them is fighting words*

Also most enthusiast fans are comparable above a certain point.

So which fans are just flat out better in all situation and categories?

Eloops are GT's are better in pretty much every category, except perhaps pricing and availability in some regions.

 

Of course, Noctua has some more exotic offerings, but they're not really the be all end all of fans which many people are led to think, especially the NFF12.

 

Some variety would be happily welcomed.

[TheProfosist]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1389355/fan-testing-round-12-begins-thanks-to-cpachris-and-prymus-nb-e-loop-sp120-nf-f12-cougar-vortex-pwm-vortex-red-led-pirahna-ap-45

 

Here's one, I find his findings to be accurate, as I've used GT's, NF-F12, SP120 Quiet edition among other things.  NF-F12 are nowhere near as good as most claim they are.

GT's are good but no longer made so you like really cant count them. Corsair fan in my opinion are just poor very poor. Maybe the PWM ones are better but I had a bunch of motor noise and odd stuff when undervolting them. I actually liked the older square PWM ones you still get on stuff like the H110 and in some cases.

"nowhere near as good as most claim they are" <-- explain the "nowhere near as good" and the "most claim they are"

oh and with those tests I have already voiced my concerns about them quite a while back when someone else posed them initially on the forum.

[Lays]

GT's are good but no longer made so you like really cant count them. Corsair fan in my opinion are just poor very poor. Maybe the PWM ones are better but I had a bunch of motor noise and odd stuff when undervolting them. I actually liked the older square PWM ones you still get on stuff like the H110 and in some cases.

"nowhere near as good as most claim they are" <-- explain the "nowhere near as good" and the "most claim they are"

oh and with those tests I have already voiced my concerns about them quite a while back when someone else posed them initially on the forum.

 

He has a setup video of how he uses it all, it's 500 times better than the crap that linus uses to test fans. "put them all at the same speed" "oh hey look they cool better than this other fan!!"

 

My SP120 QE's I bought off ebay are quieter than the 4 NF-F12's I owned, while being half the price.

 

 

By Nowhere near as good as most claim, I mean EVERY post in air cooling is "buy noctua buy noctua" despite other fans being better performers + better aeshetically

[TheProfosist]

Eloops are GT's are better in pretty much every category, except perhaps pricing and availability in some regions.

 

Of course, Noctua has some more exotic offerings, but they're not really the be all end all of fans which many people are led to think, especially the NFF12.

 

Some variety would be happily welcomed.

I agree eloops are good but they can only go on one side of a rad if I recall. Also they have only 2 PWM models and I believe only come in 120mm. Ive owned a number of GT's and still use the GT high speeds modded to PWM. But they are no longer made and for some time now. Only the 800, 500, 1150, and 4250 are left on FrozenCPU http://goo.gl/kaA2iQ . The only one there that might be viable would be the 1150. They were also only available in 120mm and never in PWM, except for the high speeds which could be modded. Thing is even when modded I can only get the 3000rpm ones down to ~1200rpm.

NF-F12 is not just a pressure optimized fan but a rad optimized fan. I think that is partially to blame.

Linus mention's spectre pro's quite often as well which for the price are a decent fan and are like the only fans that you can get in LED that I would consider. Also you only offered two more different fans not even full lines which really isnt all that much variety.

[TheProfosist]

He has a setup video of how he uses it all, it's 500 times better than the crap that linus uses to test fans. "put them all at the same speed" "oh hey look they cool better than this other fan!!"

 

My SP120 QE's I bought off ebay are quieter than the 4 NF-F12's I owned, while being half the price.

Yes but there are a few flaws and a bunch of stuff that he could have easily done better that would have gotten more data.

Not that im defending linus since I dont use him as a reference when buying fans but he does do more than what you just mentioned. Your exaggerating a bit.

If quite is the only thing that your looking for you have plenty of options. Much of what makes the quiet edition fans quieter is the fact that they are considerably lower speed than the standard ones.

[helping]

GT's are good but no longer made so you like really cant count them. Corsair fan in my opinion are just poor very poor. Maybe the PWM ones are better but I had a bunch of motor noise and odd stuff when undervolting them. I actually liked the older square PWM ones you still get on stuff like the H110 and in some cases.

"nowhere near as good as most claim they are" <-- explain the "nowhere near as good" and the "most claim they are"

oh and with those tests I have already voiced my concerns about them quite a while back when someone else posed them initially on the forum.

You use this forum, do I really need to explain this?

So many threads about fans were Noctua circlejerks, among the lesser informed that's very likely still the case. Too many people seem to think that Noctua anything is the best, period. Videos like these (unintentionally) reinforce and perpetuate that.

 

The QE line only of Corsair fans are also what I consider good. The way most people think of them, they're quite undervalued especially when placed next to Noctua.

[TheProfosist]

You use this forum, do I really need to explain this?

So many threads about fans were Noctua circlejerks, among the lesser informed that's very likely still the case. Too many people seem to think that Noctua anything is the best, period. Videos like these (unintentionally) reinforce and perpetuate that.

Well they could have used say spectre pro's then they would be reinforcing that and people on the forum would have circlejerks about that? They likely used noctua for the comparison because that is what they had on hand and they are indeed a premium fan. Also it wasnt about noctua but more about upgrading your fans a premium fans in general. Also is any fan the best period?

[KamiKatze]

You could do a more elaborate video about fans by doing several reviews of fans, not just saying, premium fans are worth it (?), buy all the noctua!

 

Your testing methodology is also a bit odd. You should use a standardized test bench and measure Sone and not dezibel. And most importantly describe the noise! This is subjective but it says so much more than a number! For instance a Gigabyte windforce cooler is percieved as loud in comparison to a MSI Twin Frozr, allthough their Sone numbers might be similar.

[helping]

Well they could have used say spectre pro's then they would be reinforcing that and people on the forum would have circlejerks about that? They likely used noctua for the comparison because that is what they had on hand and they are indeed a premium fan. Also it wasnt about noctua but more about upgrading your fans a premium fans in general. Also is any fan the best period?

You're completely missing the point and making it a fruitless effort to try and refute, your latter two points are also irrelevant.

[TheProfosist]

You could do a more elaborate video about fans by doing several reviews of fans, not just saying, premium fans are worth it (?), buy all the noctua!

 

Your testing methodology is also a bit odd. You should use a standardized test bench and measure Sone and not dezibel. And most importantly describe the noise! This is subjective but it says so much more than a number! For instance a Gigabyte windforce cooler is percieved as loud in comparison to a MSI Twin Frozr, allthough their Sone numbers might be similar.

Didnt they used to have a case with temp probes and stuff? That was quite a while ago though...

 

You're completely missing the point and making it a fruitless effort to try and refute, your latter two points are also irrelevant.

Well I could say that many things are like that one the forum and even across the internet. Another thing I can think of is Cherry MX Reds being the best gaming switch when in reality it doesnt matter at all and personal preference. So part of what your arguing kinda has more to deal with how the internet works more than anything.

Did they ever make the QE's in PWM because I know they did come out with some PWM models.

Also I do think that as a fan brand Noctua is the best right now because they have all bases covered and even if their fan isnt the best in that category its right up there.

I use plenty of different brands in all the builds I do for myself and others. I besides the spectre pros i have been liking the Arctic Cooling PWM Ball Bearing 24/7 120mm and 80mm fans since their cheap and decent. I also almost exclusively use scythe fans for premium ones until they lost their US distro. One of my all time favorites was their S-Flex.

[KamiKatze]

Didnt they used to have a case with temp probes and stuff? That was quite a while ago though...

 

 

Yes, there were one or two videos. I think it was the same C70 that they use for all their AIO liquid cooler tests.

 

I can't find the video series anymore but there was a guy who straped all the fans to a broken liquid cooler and with a PSU like you find it an physics labs he increased the voltage while 3 different measruement devices for noise voltage and airflow were running next to it.

 

Aside from that i find that a subnjective description from someone who you can trust is worth more than a dozen dry reviews.