Jump to content

Are Noctuas REALLY Worth It???

I am a teapot
By I am a teapot
in Cooling
 Share
Posted

Want the opinions of people who are not obscenely wealthy with tons of free stuff connections cough cough Linus

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Only the NH-D15

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

If you have the money, don't mind the ugly colors, and want the best of the best (ignoring issues with Noctua's Chinese manufacturered fans), yes.

 

But as far as performance goes, Noctua being considered the best currently rests on brand reputation. EK Vardar fans are also damn good performers, and don't come in shit creek and biege puke browns.

Come Bloody Angel

Break off your chains

And look what I've found in the dirt.

 

Pale battered body

Seems she was struggling

Something is wrong with this world.

 

Fierce Bloody Angel

The blood is on your hands

Why did you come to this world?

 

Everybody turns to dust.

 

Everybody turns to dust.

 

The blood is on your hands.

 

The blood is on your hands!

 

Pyo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

As an owner of many fans I will tell you - right now - that noctua aren't the absolute best available for silence, air flow/pressure and definitely not aesthetics.  Noctua fans are beasts of engineering imo and are amazingly durable (they also have a boatload of great accessories and braided cables)

 

HOWEVER, my 1100rpm noctua is competitive with my 2150rpm gentle typhoon fans (slowed down to about 1500 maybe?) While being quieter and way more versatile.  

 

It kicks the crap out of the deepcool 120mm pressure optimized fans in every category but price.

 

My shitty biostar fans are actually surprisingly good for the $0 I Paid for em bUT again, noctua cools better, is quieter and is way better built.

Want to custom loop?  Ask me more if you are curious

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

You can always get the Noctua Industrials fans that aren't the odd beige/brown color.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I'm just a casual pleb but I put all Noctua fans in my pc and it's great.

They're silent enough for my tastes. I have around 5 Noctua fans in the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

Thanks for all the replies! What are everyone's thoughts on their redux line up?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Noctua good

CPU — AMD Ryzen 7800X3D

GPU — AMD RX 7900 XTX - XFX Speedster Merc 310 Black Edition - 24GB GDDR6

Monitor — Acer Predator XB271HU - 2560x1440 165Hz IPS 4ms

CPU Cooler — Noctua NH-D15

Motherboard — Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX V2

Memory — 32GB G.Skill Flare X5 - 6000mHz CL32

Storage — WD Black - 2TB HDD

        — Seagate SkyHawk - 2TB HDD

        — Samsung 850 EVO - 250GB SSD

        — WD Blue - 500GB M.2 SSD

        — Samsung 990 PRO w/HS - 4TB M.2 SSD

Case — Fractal Design Define R6 TG

PSU — EVGA SuperNOVA G3 - 850W 80+ Gold 

Case Fans — 2(120mm) Noctua NF-F12 PWM - exhaust

          — 3(140mm) Noctua NF-A14 PWM - intake

Keyboard — Max Keyboard TKL Blackbird - Cherry MX blue switches - Red Backlighting 

Mouse — Logitech G PRO X

Headphones — Sennheiser HD600

Extras — Glorious PC Gaming Race - Mouse Wrist Rest  

       — Glorious PC Gaming Race - XXL Extended Mouse Pad - 36" x 18"

       — Max Keyboard Flacon-20 keypad - Cherry MX blue switches

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

 The only reason to really use them as unrestricted case fans is if you want the long lifespan. Otherwise there are plenty of other fans that are cheaper and will do the job just as well like the Pure Wings 2. However for restrictive airflow applications they are among the top tier if not the best in airflow and dB at a given RPM. Moreover, their longevity is around twice as long as any of the competition.

 

Note that this will change and they will probably leap to the head of the pack in all categories when their LCP fans start to come out in Q3/4 of 2018. Course, those will probably be 30 bucks per fan minimum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I think I like most in Noctua coolers about mounting system. Though I have experience from only Noctua and 212 Evo. None of my cases have had window, and probably won't have anytime soon. So it doesn't matter what I put in there. But I do pick the best cooler for my price range when I buy new one. First it was U9B (original) followed by U14S (though it was pricie and I've thought about DR2/3 afterwards).

 

6 hours ago, PineyCreek said:

You can always get the Noctua Industrials fans that aren't the odd beige/brown color.

No one in their right mind would or should go for iPPC on desktop. You should always have this video when posting that one:

 

^^^^ That's my post ^^^^
<-- This is me --- That's your scrollbar -->
vvvv Who's there? vvvv

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

The fan attached to my prolimatech heatsink on my old rig is Noctua and still functioning.  Keeps it cool, keeps it silent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
6 hours ago, PineyCreek said:

You can always get the Noctua Industrials fans that aren't the odd beige/brown color.

 

 

 

Just the ugly ass default rubber corners... And they are not as quiet as their "normal" ugly ass fans.

I don't doubt they are good, but so are many other fans. It's fanboy-ism in my mind... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
17 minutes ago, Mattias Edeslatt said:

 

Just the ugly ass default rubber corners... And they are not as quiet as their "normal" ugly ass fans.

I don't doubt they are good, but so are many other fans. It's fanboy-ism in my mind... 

I suppose.  The beige coloring never bothered me with the old rig and they worked fine.  So did the Antec's I used before.  I've never used Noctua industrial fans personally.  I'm really liking the Phantek's case fans that came with my most recent case.  Corsair's got some nice maglev fans but 25 bucks a fan seems steep to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Amazing customer support as well. They sent me a replacement fan immediately after i contacted them with an issue. I'm willing to pay even the premium for great construction quality, performance, and the customer service. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
9 hours ago, Mattias Edeslatt said:

Just the ugly ass default rubber corners... And they are not as quiet as their "normal" ugly ass fans.

I don't doubt they are good, but so are many other fans. It's fanboy-ism in my mind... 

In many ways I agree with that.  The idea that the only fans worth anything are noctua is meh to me.  I've never tried em but the sound killers look good, same with cooler masters rgb fans (the pressure optimized ones use the same fan design as the ryzen coolers)

Want to custom loop?  Ask me more if you are curious

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

As long as you don't have windows on your case I have not seen a build yet where they "looked good" but I'm told they have solid performance

My daily driver: The Wrath of Red: OS Windows 10 home edition / CPU Ryzen TR4 1950x 3.85GHz / Cooler Master MasterAir MA621P Twin-Tower RGB CPU Air Cooler / PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750watt / ASRock x399 Taichi / Gskill Flare X 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz / HP 10GB Single Port Mellanox Connectx-2 PCI-E 10GBe NIC / Samsung 512GB 970 pro M.2 / ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 STRIX 8GB / Acer - H236HLbid 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor x3

 

My technology Rig: The wizard: OS Windows 10 home edition / CPU Ryzen R7 1800x 3.95MHz / Corsair H110i / PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750watt / ASUS CH 6 / Gskill Flare X 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz / HP 10GB Single Port Mellanox Connectx-2 PCI-E 10GBe NIC / 512GB 960 pro M.2 / ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 STRIX 8GB / Acer - H236HLbid 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor HP Monitor

 

My I don't use Rig: OS Windows 10 home edition / CPU Ryzen 1600x 3.85GHz / Cooler Master MasterAir MA620P Twin-Tower RGB CPU Air Cooler / PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750watt / MSI x370 Gaming Pro Carbon / Gskill Flare X 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz / Samsung PM961 256GB M.2 PCIe Internal SSD / EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SSC GAMING / Acer - H236HLbid 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor

 

My NAS: The storage miser: OS unRAID v. 6.9.0-beta25 / CPU Intel i7 6700 / Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 500 Watt 80 Plus / ASUS Maximus viii Hero / 32GB Gskill RipJaw DDR4 3200Mhz / HP Mellanox ConnectX-2 10 GbE PCI-e G2 Dual SFP+ Ported Ethernet HCA NIC / 9 Drives total 29TB - 1 4TB seagate parity - 7 4TB WD Red data - 1 1TB laptop drive data - and 2 240GB Sandisk SSD's cache / Headless

 

Why did I buy this server: OS unRAID v. 6.9.0-beta25 / Dell R710 enterprise server with dual xeon E5530 / 48GB ecc ddr3 / Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i P20 IT / 4 450GB sas drives / headless

 

Just another server: OS Proxmox VE / Dell poweredge R410

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Noctua Redux, dude. Beautiful gray-on-darker gray, great airflow and damn near silent.

Aerocool DS are the best fans you've never tried.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Noctua's fans aren't the best performers... just look at Thermalbench. They don't win on airflow, static pressure, or acoustic efficiency; Silentwings, Vardars, and proper industrial fans do.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
11 hours ago, Nimrodor said:

Noctua's fans aren't the best performers... just look at Thermalbench. They don't win on airflow, static pressure, or acoustic efficiency; Silentwings, Vardars, and proper industrial fans do.

Only a single anemometer 6 inches away. Unknown sound probe. All in a large room rather than any sort of wind tunnel. These are what's known as crap testing conditions.

https://us.hardware.info/reviews/6622/7/tested-71-case-fans-of-140-mm-round-up-big-fans-test-results-the-most-efficient-case-fans

https://us.hardware.info/reviews/7186/3/high-static-pressure-case-fans-test-the-best-120mm-and-140mm-fans-for-your-radiator-or-cpu-cooler-test-results-static-efficiency-120mm-fans

 

Interestingly it appears that Noctua 120*s are not the best on the market, but the 140s are.

 

 

*Of course, the existence of the 120x15s mean that you can put them in push/pull and only sacrifice 5mm which would be very useful in tight spaces and give superior performance with a 3 dB increase.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Cooling

×