Phanteks T30 vs Noctua NF-A12x25, what are the noise profiles like?

Audioboxer · 15 May 2022 at 18:05

Hi everyone.

Now that all of my most recent build is complete, it's time to dump some money into fans to replace Arctic P12s which have served me well over the past year but have a pretty iffy noise profile.

I'm looking at a total of 10 fans being replaced, but 3 will have to be Noctua due to clearance issues in the back chamber of a Lian Li O11 XL and 25mm being max I can go with. Top, bottom and rear rads I can work with 30mm.

So I'm wondering if I should just go all Noctua, or grab 7 Phanteks T30s along with 3 Noctua.

4 radiators being handled here, so it's really just down to noise profile. I do not need to brute force performance running fans super loud, but of course it's nice to drop another degree or two if even possible.

I know the T30s have some performance gain with their size, but I'm concerned about motor noise, hum or anything like that where the Noctua's just seem to be best in class. Quite a few reviews of the T30s talk great about noise, but many reviewers never cover things like motor noise, resonance, humming and the likes. Something that plagues P12s at certain RPMs.

everyone is calling this the noctua killer but from your tests i honestly can't agree. this fan has a loud drone kick in around 800-900RPM whilst the Noctua is pleasant until 1000-1100RPM it's a huge difference in tone too it ramps up much quicker with the phanteks

Seeing a random comment online like that has me a bit concerned about T30 motor noise.

Cheers

Glanza · 15 May 2022 at 19:05

I swapped all my Arctic P12 out for the T30 due to the pitch of the fan noise they made, The Phanteks are silent for the most part as I have most of them on hybrid mode so they'll only run upto 1200 or turn themselves off, the rad fans are on the default profile and apart from when they really ramp up to close to 2000rpm I'm still not bothered by it as the pitch isn't a issue.

Audioboxer · 18 May 2022 at 10:20

Glanza said:
I swapped all my Arctic P12 out for the T30 due to the pitch of the fan noise they made, The Phanteks are silent for the most part as I have most of them on hybrid mode so they'll only run upto 1200 or turn themselves off, the rad fans are on the default profile and apart from when they really ramp up to close to 2000rpm I'm still not bothered by it as the pitch isn't a issue.

Thanks mate, appreciate the input. I like you feel great about ditching the P12s even though they did a good job for me. The noise profile in regards to the resonance is just horrible on the ears. Mine do it around the usual 1000~1100 RPM, but they also kick off around 700~800RPM too. With 10 in my build it can be a bit unpleasant.

I opted to go with the Noctua so I wasn't fan mixing. Hard decision, I really wanted to try out the T30s, but for now keeping it simple and ditching all my current fans (mix of Arctic/QL120) and going with 14 of the one brand. Hurts the wallet but I expect a nice sound improvement and a bit more performance with 4 rads.

TT158 · 22 May 2022 at 21:26

Audioboxer said:
Thanks mate, appreciate the input. I like you feel great about ditching the P12s even though they did a good job for me. The noise profile in regards to the resonance is just horrible on the ears. Mine do it around the usual 1000~1100 RPM, but they also kick off around 700~800RPM too. With 10 in my build it can be a bit unpleasant.

I opted to go with the Noctua so I wasn't fan mixing. Hard decision, I really wanted to try out the T30s, but for now keeping it simple and ditching all my current fans (mix of Arctic/QL120) and going with 14 of the one brand. Hurts the wallet but I expect a nice sound improvement and a bit more performance with 4 rads.

I've got 8 P12s in my O11 XL (fat rads mean that the side mounted one has 3 A12s on the back and 2 P12s showing inside the case). I also suffer that 1,000 rpm ish resonance. I've bought P30s to replace all P12s but haven't gotten around to fitting them yet.

In the past I've found no guarantee of good noise from mixing the same fans in push pull. I had 3 A12s mixed with 3 fans that came with an Asus AIO (rebranded Noctuas of an older design, I think), and when I switched to 6 A12s on that rad, the noise sounded worse to me. Just gotta experiment sometimes!

Audioboxer · 23 May 2022 at 19:21

Under load (game running) I get a delta t of like 5 degrees between ambient and water temp, this is pretty good, right? GPU temp down bottom, 37 degrees.

Fans at around 1000RPM are pleasant. Not silent, but great for a 500W+ load.

TT158 · 25 May 2022 at 16:16

Audioboxer said:
Under load (game running) I get a delta t of like 5 degrees between ambient and water temp, this is pretty good, right? GPU temp down bottom, 37 degrees.

Fans at around 1000RPM are pleasant. Not silent, but great for a 500W+ load.

That does seem very good!

What's your setup regarding in / out, push /pull for each radiator?

Audioboxer · 26 May 2022 at 10:36

TT158 said:
That does seem very good!

What's your setup regarding in / out, push /pull for each radiator?

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

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There are some pics there of a teardown and loop work I had to do the other day.

All radiators are on intake, I exhaust out the front. 4 radiators in total, 2 XR7, 1 XR5 and 1 Bykski 60mm thick 120mm at the rear.

TT158 · 28 May 2022 at 16:46

Audioboxer said:
imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

imgur.com

There are some pics there of a teardown and loop work I had to do the other day.

All radiators are on intake, I exhaust out the front. 4 radiators in total, 2 XR7, 1 XR5 and 1 Bykski 60mm thick 120mm at the rear.

Nice! Thank you for sharing! One last question, what is the front mesh conversion and where did you get it? Really makes a lot of sense!

Audioboxer · 28 May 2022 at 17:05

TT158 said:
Nice! Thank you for sharing! One last question, what is the front mesh conversion and where did you get it? Really makes a lot of sense!

Google ColdZero, one of the few places I know ships to the UK. There are a few more options if you also Google "Lian Li front panel mod".

I would link directly but I think it breaks forum rules about competition, even if ColdZero is a custom mod store for cases and what not lol (it doesn't stock the same things OCUK stocks).

TT158 · 29 May 2022 at 16:02

Audioboxer said:
Google ColdZero, one of the few places I know ships to the UK. There are a few more options if you also Google "Lian Li front panel mod".

I would link directly but I think it breaks forum rules about competition, even if ColdZero is a custom mod store for cases and what not lol (it doesn't stock the same things OCUK stocks).

Thanks! I'll look into it!

I agree that the blanket rule on links is a bit silly, but I guess it saves them the time of checking all links to see if it's a true competitor or not.

ballj · 6 Jun 2022 at 09:41

When I tested my Noctua vs T30, the Noctua were the quieter fan at low speed. I'd say upto about 1200 RPM on each fan, after that they were similar.

Josu · 18 Nov 2022 at 14:16

So how story ended up?

Drumroll · 20 Nov 2022 at 10:00

Tried other Noctua, the cheaper F12 and was disappointed. Used Silent Wings 3, Pure Wings 2, P12, LL120, ML120 and now T30. Running 10 in my O11 Evo. Up to 1000rpm I’m unable to tell the system is on. Only noise I get is the GPU fan under load.