Noctua 80mm and 120mm Case Fans Review

[One4yu2c]

When you think of case fans, a lot of names come to mind, but unless you're a cooling connoisseur that's traversed all corners of the web, Noctua probably isn't one of them. That's where we at HardwareLogic come in, bravely venturing the web where few geeks have gone before, and in our latest wanderings, we've stumbled upon an Austrian company dedicated to a small array of cooling products.
Richard "onebxr" Womble

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[Yellowhello]

Looks like some nice quiet fans! Great review Rich!

[gvblake22]

Those are awesome fans, too bad there are ridiculously expensive!

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Those are awesome fans, too bad there are ridiculously expensive!

Yeah, $20 a pop! I like the Yate Loon fans... Really cheap, moves a decent amount of air, and are pretty quiet!

[Jokerswild]

Good review Boxer. Nice fans and a nice fat price but that 6 year warranty is sweet.

[Reloadron]

Looking at the specifications I was a bit taken back by the noise specification:

Noise 7dBA (80mm) / <6dBA (120mm)

A noise level of <6dbA is advertised, however, that only holds true when the fan is used with their U.L.N.A. (Ultra Low Noise Adapter). The use of the adapter reduces the RPM to about 600 from 1200 and chokes the airflow down to about 41 m^3/h or about 24 CFM. Running less the U.L.N.A. at 1200 RPM the fan noise is about 17 dbA and the fan is moving about 81 m^3/h or 47 CFM.

Overall a great review of what looks to be a very good ball bearing fan offering a long life. The MTBF being 150,000 hours or in simple terms one hell of a long time.

Ron

[onebxr]

A noise level of <6dbA is advertised, however, that only holds true when the fan is used with their U.L.N.A. (Ultra Low Noise Adapter). The use of the adapter reduces the RPM to about 600 from 1200 and chokes the airflow down to about 41 m^3/h or about 24 CFM. Running less the U.L.N.A. at 1200 RPM the fan noise is about 17 dbA and the fan is moving about 81 m^3/h or 47 CFM.

Holy crap Ron, I just plugged em in and listened. :)
They get pretty loud at 1200rpm, but around 800-900 rpm they are almost inaudible.
Thanks for the help of editing from Paul, the original review looked nothing near as good as it looks now.
-Rich

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by onebxr

A noise level of <6dbA is advertised, however, that only holds true when the fan is used with their U.L.N.A. (Ultra Low Noise Adapter). The use of the adapter reduces the RPM to about 600 from 1200 and chokes the airflow down to about 41 m^3/h or about 24 CFM. Running less the U.L.N.A. at 1200 RPM the fan noise is about 17 dbA and the fan is moving about 81 m^3/h or 47 CFM.

Holy crap Ron, I just plugged em in and listened. :)
They get pretty loud at 1200rpm, but around 800-900 rpm they are almost inaudible.
Thanks for the help of editing from Paul, the original review looked nothing near as good as it looks now.
-Rich

The review was great. The way they list everything for those fans is a trip in itself. Additionally I (as well as many here) are accustomed to seeing CFM so here I am converting cubic meters per hour to cubic feet per min.

Bottom line, plugged it in, it ran great and quiet!

Ron