Not happy with NF-P12's

[biff]

Originally Posted by cegras

I also find that noctuas produce a whining, resonance noise, especially on 12v and if they are close to each other.

So much for vortex control notches ..

Yeah mine are close to each other. I have 3 of them and all make the same noise. The rest on my system is so quiet now that these are the only noise offenders with the exception of occasionally hearing the HDD seeking if it's working hard.

I'll look into those other suggestions.

[MpG]

Originally Posted by miggs78

Hah!! suckers.. Vortex and Gang suggestions.. :P.. I actually have them on full speed, no rpm reduction.. and are still quiet, I've used Panaflo's, and I know noise, these are not ...

Seriously, those Zalman's are very good (sleeve bearing, possible shortened life if run horizontally), but there is no way they qualify as "quiet" while running full speed. "Moderate", perhaps.

[miggs78]

Well I might not be as picky as you, but seriously it wasn't as loud as you think... Hek I could hear my pump more than anything..

[Cptn Vortex]

Yeah they are not loud, but they are also not silent. I like my fans below 1200rpm. That is the sweet spot for me. When the computer goes back to the living room, I'll bump em back up to 1500rpm as it a larger room space, so the sound is drowned out.

[miggs78]

My PC sits on my desk, right infron of me. 1800rpm is barable to me, considering my old rig has 2 x 120mm 120cfm panaflo fans in the same room I used to sleep, especially when I download torrents at night, pc has to stay on, but I can't loose sleep.

....

[cegras]

You've probably grown accustomed to the noise.

If the room is quiet enough (e.g. fridge is off), I can hear the quiet whine coming from the power brick in my samsung monitor .. : )

As for good fans, I would recommend S-Flex, ZM-F3. Or Papst .. if you can them anywhere.

[biff]

Just thought I'd throw in an update here. I did a little nearly non-scientific comparison on different fan setups. I ran orthos - for many hours - and used coretemp to log the temps readings and then opened those in excel just to get the average temp for CPU. Going from a NF-P12 at full speed to a NF-P12+ULN adapter made a whole 0.7 degrees C difference. I couldn't care less about 0.7 degrees if it meant quieter operation. Next I replaced the Noctuas with the stock CM fans that came with my case. At full speed they sounded better than the noctuas at low speed, aybe not more quiet but the sound signature was much more bearable. I found they were the most quiet using the LN adapters borrowed from the noctuas. Using the ULN adapters made the fans spin too slowly and would now and would run with a ticking sound. AFAICT the temps are identical to the low speed noctuas but I'll have to do another orthos run to be a fair comparison. At the end of the day though it doesn't really matter since this combo keeps it 'cool enough' as I didn't have to back off my OC.

[Eagle Eye]

Hey biff contact Noctua and see what they have to say, not all fans carry a 6 year warranty best to take advantage of it.

mailto:support@noctua.at

[James_8970]

I'm not sure if I'm the only one to believe this, but after switching out my other fans and replacing them with NF-P12's, I was less then impressed with the temperature results. I really think the fans are over hyped.
James

[Dashock]

I am not having any issues with my fans but if its only a 0.7 difference in temps Biff i think ill put all 6 of mine on the lowest rpm. we have 6 years warranty definetely use it. One Coolermaster fan was louder then 6 of my Noctua's i could clearly hear the whine when i replaced it with a thermaltake fan i had it was back to quiet.