be quiet! fan on a Nactua CPU cooler a safe idea?

[IberMagnus]

Hi everyone,

 

I have a Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler installed on a Ryzen 3700X CPU and although the included Noctua NF-F12 PWM fan claims a max 22.4 dB(A), I can hear a revving hum that seems to exceed it (30-40 dB(A)).  To avoid some hassle, I do not want to replace the CPU cooler so I am tempted to replace the NF-F12 fan with a be quiet! Silent Wings 3 fan for its claimed 16.4 dB(A).  Has anyone done this before and how were the results, please?  Good/Bad idea?

 

Thanks!

 

IberMagnus

[Eigenvektor]

A fan is a fan. Of course cooling might be worse, depending on how much airflow this particular fan provides. You're not going to kill your CPU, especially on light loads. Try it out and monitor temps.

[FRD]

Yes, no problem. As long as the cooler is the same size, a fan can be replaced on any cooler or the other way around if you'd want to say that.

The Noctua fan is just quieter and more cooler than the Be Quiet!, but both are good.

[Sorenson]

17 minutes ago, IberMagnus said:

Hi everyone,

 

I have a Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler installed on a Ryzen 3700X CPU and although the included Noctua NF-F12 PWM fan claims a max 22.4 dB(A), I can hear a revving hum that seems to exceed it (30-40 dB(A)).  To avoid some hassle, I do not want to replace the CPU cooler so I am tempted to replace the NF-F12 fan with a be quiet! Silent Wings 3 fan for its claimed 16.4 dB(A).  Has anyone done this before and how were the results, please?  Good/Bad idea?

 

Thanks!

 

IberMagnus

Are you sure it is your noctua fan? If you're running x570 or b550 with active chipset cooling (especially with asus) their chipset fans can be very noisy. 

 

Alternatively, it might be the fan curve you have set up in your bios for you CPU cooler. I would try looking at these before swapping out the fan. 

[IberMagnus]

42 minutes ago, Sorenson said:

Are you sure it is your noctua fan? If you're running x570 or b550 with active chipset cooling (especially with asus) their chipset fans can be very noisy. 

 

Alternatively, it might be the fan curve you have set up in your bios for you CPU cooler. I would try looking at these before swapping out the fan. 

Hi Sorenson,

 

I am absolutely sure the noise is from the Noctua fan, My motherboard is the MSI B550-A Pro and the chipset uses a heatsink but I will explore the option to modify the fan curve, if possible.  Thanks!

 

 

 

[Zando_]

21 minutes ago, IberMagnus said:

I am absolutely sure the noise is from the Noctua fan

Would make sense, my NF-F12 iPPC non-PWM fans have a bit of motor drone at certain RPMs. If you wanted to stick with Noctuas, the (expensive) NF-A12x25 is an amazing fan, the (cheaper) Redux P12 fans I've used don't seem to have the motor drone either. If you wanna go with a Silentwings they should be fine too, they aren't as good performance-wise as Nocs (or build quality IMO, though they are still solid) but it should be fine on a CPU cooler. I don't remember how quiet they actually are as the last build I did with them was 3 years ago, but I don't recall them being noisy at all. 

[LogicalDrm]

20 hours ago, IberMagnus said:

Hi Sorenson,

 

I am absolutely sure the noise is from the Noctua fan, My motherboard is the MSI B550-A Pro and the chipset uses a heatsink but I will explore the option to modify the fan curve, if possible.  Thanks!

There are other fans to make noise in case. Though I don't have F12s so I don't know what the normal would be for them. Maybe record short video too so we can hear how it sounds like? For me, GPU is and always has been the loudest component.

[IberMagnus]

On 3/25/2021 at 12:54 PM, IberMagnus said:

Hi everyone,

 

I have a Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler installed on a Ryzen 3700X CPU and although the included Noctua NF-F12 PWM fan claims a max 22.4 dB(A), I can hear a revving hum that seems to exceed it (30-40 dB(A)).  To avoid some hassle, I do not want to replace the CPU cooler so I am tempted to replace the NF-F12 fan with a be quiet! Silent Wings 3 fan for its claimed 16.4 dB(A).  Has anyone done this before and how were the results, please?  Good/Bad idea?

 

Thanks!

 

IberMagnus

Thank you for the feedback, everyone.  I ended up purchasing the Noctua NF-S12A PWM, replacing the original NF-F12 with the NF-S12A on the Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler, and the decibels dropped. I rarely hear the NF-S12A fan in my quiet rig. The NF-F12 was relocated to the top of the case as an exhaust fan so I will receive better cooling as a result. Cheers.

[RelmDrifter]

High static pressure fans are recommended for coolers.

F12 is such a fan: "Teaming up eleven stator guide vanes with a specially conceived seven blade impeller, the NF-F12’s Focused Flow system creates outstanding static pressure and focuses the airflow for superior performance on heatsinks and radiators. " 

The S12A is stated to be a case fan: "The NF-S12A marks the third generation of Noctua’s signature S12 series quiet case fans"

 

FWIW, if temps are good, that's bottom line

[57chevy]

10 hours ago, IberMagnus said:

I ended up purchasing the Noctua NF-S12A PWM, replacing the original NF-F12 with the NF-S12A

That's an airflow optimized fan, not a pressure optimized fan.  What are your temps on your CPU with the new fan? There's a chance that there could be higher temps on your CPU though moving the older Noctua up top might help a bit.