Noctua u12p fan alternative

kishan666

kishan666

kishan666

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Hi guys im looking for a decent fan alternative to the Noctua fans as im not really liking the colour. Ideally i want something that will work just as good as the stock fans if not better.

Thanks
 
Akasa Viper are very good, but loud if ran at full whack. The Akasa Apache is quieter than the Viper but obviously doesnt cool as much.

To be honest, in terms of noise > performance, noctuas are very hard to match, let alone beat.

Yes the colour isnt to everyone's taste, but would you rather have something that cooled your components well, or something that looked better? Again, also depends on what you consider to be loud fans. I consider them to be relatively quiet at full speed, and almost perfect when ran via a fan controller to about 900rpm or so.
 
Can't you simply not look at them? Seriously, they are great fans and be a shame to avoid them because of the colour. I'll admit the colour scheme is ... odd, but they have fantastic performance at low noise levels. Have six of them running in my rig. However, as an alternative I'd recommend the Akasa Apache. Bit louder but slightly better airflow and PWM connectors.
 
Ziggy4 said:
Can't you simply not look at them? Seriously, they are great fans and be a shame to avoid them because of the colour. I'll admit the colour scheme is ... odd, but they have fantastic performance at low noise levels. Have six of them running in my rig. However, as an alternative I'd recommend the Akasa Apache. Bit louder but slightly better airflow and PWM connectors.
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They do seem to be good , but i noticed you said they were loader.. according to the specs its only 16.05dba at full speed were as the noctua's run at 19dba?
 
This is a subjective opinion of course but I've run both the Noctua and Apache fans in my system and the Noctua are definately quieter or perhaps more accurately, less noticible. The Apache fans certainly shift air but Noctua not too far behind and it was a case of choosing the right balance between airflow and noise. I'd still rate the Apache as one of the best CPU fans out there however, especially if you plan to put them under system control since they have the extra PWM wire that the Noctua lacks. Currently though I have two Noctuas as main intake and exhaust (full speed), two on the CPU (low noise adapter), and two ULN models on top as supplementary intake and exhaust (full speed). Any other fans I've used in the past became a pest in terms of noise when running at or close to full speed. Not so with these.

As for the difference in dBA, I'm not sure. Manufacturers are well known to fudge such numbers. Could be that the Noctua are technically louder but I found that at higher speeds the Apache fans started to whine whereas with the Noctuas the only thing I can hear is the swoosh of air.

Depends also on what role you're planning for the fans too. For case fans Noctua get my vote, for CPU you might want to consider something like the Apache or Silent Eagle mentioned above. All of this is assuming you are looking for high airflow. There are certainly quieter fans out there that don't provide as high an airflow. I've found Fractal Design and even bog standard Akasa fans to be good in situations where low noise is the priority and they are both inexpensive Hope that helps.
 
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Another option is running an Akasa Viper in PWM mode. It's a 1900rpm version of the Apache, so it'll be very quiet when you're not stressing your system. It'll be noisier under full load, but if you're gaming that's unlikely to be an issue.

If you're talking case fans, I highly recommend the Enermax magma. Slightly noisier than the Noctuas, but shifts a lot more air.
 
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