noctua nf-s12b vs arctic p12

[Wrohi]

Hi! I really need help on making final decision and opinion from this community members. The main reason why I can't make decision between those two (noctua nf-s12b vs arctic p12) is price, here where I live one arctic p12 costs 6 euros and one noctua nf-s12b 14 euros. I'll need 5 fans which translates to 30 euros vs 70 euros. The price gap is pretty big - 40 euros. So my main question: is the difference between them worth the additional +40euros (speaking about noise and cooling and overall "quality") ?

 

One more thing: I don't mind to pay 40 euro more if it's really worth it, I don't want to cheap out, but if the difference is almost imperceptible there's no reason to overpay.

 

Thanks in advance, this is my first post in this forum too!

 

[TVwazhere]

7 minutes ago, Wrohi said:

(speaking about noise and cooling and overall "quality") ?

You can look at the Stats page to get a general idea of that

 

Noctua

 

Arctic

(.3 sone is close to 22.5dba, though they're not exactly the same measurement)

 

P12's are designed to be Static pressure fans; for radiators and constrictive front panels. S12b's are the "airflow" fan from noctua; delivering lots of airflow at quiet volumes. P12's need to spin a lot faster to match the S12B's airflow rating, hence the higher.... "noise measurement"(?) That being said, they're not 2x the performance of P12's for 2x the price, so the P12's would serve you just fine. 

[Wrohi]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

You can look at the Stats page to get a general idea of that

 

Noctua

 

Arctic

(.3 sone is close to 22.5dba, though they're not exactly the same measurement)

 

P12's are designed to be Static pressure fans; for radiators and constrictive front panels. S12b's are the "airflow" fan from noctua; delivering lots of airflow at quiet volumes. P12's need to spin a lot faster to match the S12B's airflow rating, hence the higher.... "noise measurement"(?) That being said, they're not 2x the performance of P12's for 2x the price, so the P12's would serve you just fine. 

Thanks! I'll wait for more opinions from other members. Besides those two, do you know or is there other fans that would be even better choice than those two in terms of price and performance? Looking at 120mm.

[TVwazhere]

1 minute ago, Wrohi said:

Thanks! I'll wait for more opinions from other members. Besides those two, do you know or is there other fans that would be even better choice than those two in terms of price and performance? Looking at 120mm.

Depends on what you have available to you; however the P12's are a very popular choice for their low cost, high performance stack up against most fans. 

[Wrohi]

Just now, TVwazhere said:

Depends on what you have available to you; however the P12's are a very popular choice for their low cost, high performance stack up against most fans. 

I would dare to say that there's many different fans that are available to me, so you can try to recommend and I'll check it out, well not going to far away from current topic - by your opinion P12 is winning right now, let's see what other people have to say. Thanks

[TVwazhere]

1 minute ago, Wrohi said:

I would dare to say that there's many different fans that are available to me, so you can try to recommend and I'll check it out, well not going to far away from current topic - by your opinion P12 is winning right now, let's see what other people have to say. Thanks

Off the top of my head be quiet! makes some.... obviously quiet fans but their price would likely be closer to the Noctua's rather than the P12's. Most new fans are made with RGB and as a result focus more on the lighting rather than the performance (or they try to brute force cooling with a high RPM but loud fan) as an example, Coolermasters Sickleflow 120 V2 has similar performance to the Redux but is almost 10dbA louder per fan at max RPM and is meant for CPU cooler towers. 

[Wrohi]

4 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Off the top of my head be quiet! makes some.... obviously quiet fans but their price would likely be closer to the Noctua's rather than the P12's. Most new fans are made with RGB and as a result focus more on the lighting rather than the performance (or they try to brute force cooling with a high RPM but loud fan) as an example, Coolermasters Sickleflow 120 V2 has similar performance to the Redux but is almost 10dbA louder per fan at max RPM and is meant for CPU cooler towers. 

I was looking to find something that has RGB and performance on noctua level, but couldn't, I wonder if there is, the price will be very high probably.

[TVwazhere]

Just now, Wrohi said:

I was looking to find something that has RGB and performance on noctua level, but couldn't, I wonder if there is, the price will be very high probably.

You'll either find an RGB fan that has either as good airflow, or low noise. I've never seen one that has both, and certainly not at noctua levels. Example, the Uphere fans I used in Rainbow Duck 2020 moved a decent amount of air but were again 27dbA per fan at max speeds. You can tune them to be a lower dBA (which we did) but you're not getting that wall of air like you would with S12B's for the same noise level.