Noctua NF-F12's Bit Disappointed

[Ibanez81]

Hello.

So i received 5 NF-F12's yesterday which i was quite excited about. But after using them for a little while now i cant see why they are praised and thought of so highly.

I was originally running Spectre Pro's on my Rads and wanted to see if i could get any better cooling and the NF-F12's seemed to be a good choice from all the great things ive read about them and Toms review.

But having installed them onto my rads in place of the Spectre Pro's i cant say there is any difference at all in temps to my eyes, and at full 12v they are rather loud, to my hearing anyway. (so were the Spectre's though)

I would have presumed for £16 each i would have seen at least some form of performance increase from them.

I ran the Spectre's all at 50% and im now running the NF-F12's at 50% too, Both are pretty much the same quietness at this level.

Is there some sort of optimum speed or something i should use these fans at to get the best out of them?

Was just expecting more from them really.

 

[seumasbeathan]

Rather than it being a problem with the f12's I think its just that the spectres were very good fans

 

[Jadarite]

you should be able to run them at 100% and they should be quiet and even more so if there in a case, also they only use 0.05amps which is a lot less than spectre pro's, the only other thing i can suggest is play with the speeds of them till your happy with the sound levels,

 

[Ibanez81]

Yea, it proves the Spectre pro's were pretty good fans i guess.

I have the fans set to my liking allready which is 50%, i like utter silence from my PC to the point where all i can hear is electrical noise and the pump ever so slightly, any higher than 50% and i can hear the fans which drives me nuts lol I was just hoping for better temps at the same sort of sound levels from the Noctua's that was all really but i guess i didnt achieve that.

 

[Goldskis45]

Just a thought, when was the last time you reseated the water block and reapplied paste? Whenever I swap equipment like that I redo the paste so I can see what its real maximum performance is.

If you did it recently then yeah, the fans are fairly equal, but if not, give it a try and see what your temps are like.

(also if your in the warranty voiding mood take a look at lapping... You would be amazed what it can do when you do the water block and cpu.)

 

[Ibanez81]

CPU block was fitted just a few weeks ago as it was a new Motherboard. I suppose i could lap them, im not all that bothered losing the cost of the CPU block.

 

[BKCXb]

I think your a victim of having a good fan and replacing it with another good fan, for your application. When you were reading about the fan in other peoples applications , you were expecting the difference that you got from going from an average fan to your good fan.

In your set-up going from an average fan to a really good fan might just got you to 95% of what you can get out of it, the other 5% will be alot of work and cost alot , if it's even noticeable at all.

You may have hyped it up in your own mind too much.

 

[S_I_N]

I have 4 pro's running on my 280mm rad cooling 2 overclocked 6950's (1.295 volts vs 1.100 stock volts) and they stay at a nice cool 33-35c idle and never seen oner 50c load. while my cpu is on a 420m rad with 5 NZXT fans and its idle about 37c and load again never seen over 50c I'm considering getting 5-6 pro's for the 420mm but I think I may not as at 17$ per fan and these are on low setting (all fans) and quiet I dont think I'll see much chnage in temps just lighter wallet and insdie case looks lol.

 

[Ibanez81]

Not too much of a loss, Ive got both running in Push-Pull now for the hell of it lol

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I think Noctua fans offer little performance per dollar. I am not saying they are bad just that there are fans that cost less that perform just as well. You being an example.

Also they are ugly as sin.

 

[yassarikhan786]

I think Noctua fans offer little performance per dollar. I am not saying they are bad just that there are fans that cost less that perform just as well. You being an example.

Also they are ugly as sin.

What has S_I_N got to do with how they look? Leave him alone