Which Noctura fan?

Coojeekitten

Coojeekitten

Coojeekitten

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Looking to sort out some fans for my Lian-Li 011 Air.

I decided in Noctura & mostly 120mm size for flexibility.

2x 120mm fans will feed the graphics card, 2x 120mm fans feeding the motherboard & CPU cooler with 2x 80mm fans exhausting to the back. 2x 120mm fans exhausting up top.

This gives a positive pressure inside the case which I think I'm fine with.

Noctura have 3 types of 120mm:
F12, for maximum static pressure
S12A, for maximum airflow
A12x25, for mid-section & all round performance

Even checking this page (https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a) & this (https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a), I still don't understand it. I think I need the S12a, but I'm really not sure at all.

Can anyone help?
 
Noctua's first ever fan NF-S12 is very quiet per RPM, because it's "top speed and fuel consumption measured in free fall car" and can't really push air.
Something you don't want to have in same room with those serious airflow restrictions of that case.

NF-F12 is one of the crappiest fans I've touched in 25 years of PC hobby.
Because of marketing hype design noise profile is restless&rough and Noctua could sell upscaled motors as industrial vibrating rollers...
Because that darn thing vibrates more than internal combustion engine with broken balancing. (just like previous NF-P12)
Not a good starting point for any use if you care about acoustics.

NF-A12's design is mostly taken from well known and very well performing Nidec-Servo/Scythe Gentle Typhoon.
Just not sure if they also copied motor and bearing to finally have smooth running fan...
And price is just absolute ludicrous, while not even giving top level warranty.

You can get smooth running, very smooth sound profile, 10 year warranty fan for £6
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-cooling-p12-pwm-pst-black-fan-120mm-fg-04h-ar.html
 
Thank for your reply, but I want to check serious airflow restrictions? I bought the case as it seems to have very good airflow & was tested as such. With the filters taken off, I think it was the best, with filter on, it was about the middle. That doesn't read to me as serious restrictions?
 
Coojeekitten said:
Looking to sort out some fans for my Lian-Li 011 Air.
Click to expand...
Would that case not give you three 120mm each at the front, backside, base and top, with two more at the back?

Are you looking more for performance or silence?
If the latter, Noctua's S12A fans should be the first choice, but only if you have a fairly clear airflow. If you're putting radiators, grilles, meshes, filters or anything restrictive over them, they won't be very quiet. That's when you'd want to consider the F12s.

However, a lot simply depends on the specifics of your case and what you've built inside it. Cooling and sound levels can be measured, but actual noise perception is highly subjective.
I've been using the same Noctua fans in my builds for years and had widely varying results, because it depends on the radiator depth and the fins per inch, the grille bar spacing, the mesh hole size, the filter density, the fan spread and dynamics, the fan speed, the case resonance, the airflow paths arund the components, the back pressure, and so many other things... To the point that, for me, the only way to figure it is really to just stick some fans in and see how they do. Get some second hand Noctua ones, maybe, as they hold their value if you end up disliking them.

Just remember that almost every fan out there will likely be loud once you start going over 1,000rpm.
 
Thank you

I've not started building the rig yet. I won't start until I can get the CPU.

The case will be air cooled - no radiators. I will remove all the dust meshes.

I was aiming to have 2 at the front, 2 at the bottom, 2 at the top, 2 at the back. I could maybe fit 3 at the bottom, front & top, but I wanted to avoid "confusion" in the airflow in the section between the front fans & the motherboard. Otherwise I feel that air could be blown in, then taken upwards. I may even consider a baffle as I want the front fans to go directly to the motherboard & PSU fan cooler.

The pc will be used for video editing, so not hours of 100% power gaming.

I'm hoping for silence most of the time apart from possibly rendering jobs.
 
Instead of spending over £100 on fans that will not give any performance gain, and at best, marginal thermal gains...it would be worth putting that money into components that actually matter...
 
EsaT said:
snip
Click to expand...
I have a few Noctua fans, 2 with my NH-D15. I can say they are very quiet up until just over 800-900RPM or about there, if i put my ear up closer to the centre of it i can hear a bit of a rough noise. Do most/all fans have this because i don't think I've ever found a quality fan that doesn't have some kind of extra noise to it other than air being pushed.
 
I'm building a pc for 4k H.265 Premier Pro video editing to replace my old i7-2600, 16gb, Quadro P2000.
Budget about £5k. Aiming for air cooling unless the cpu cooling becomes an issue.

Kit bought so far:
Lian-Li 011 Air
Team 8Pack 64gb RAM
Asus Prime X299 Edition 30
Asus RTX2080ti
Seasonic Prime TX1000

Not yet bought:
Intel i9-10980XE
CPU cooler
3x Samsung M.2 (OS, Project, Scratch)
Storage drive - maybe SSD
 
But seeing as you're spending that much on components...yeah an extra £100 or so on fans isn't that bad lol
(I thought you were looking to get an el-cheapo build and bling bling it out a la go-to faster stripes)
 
Thanks for your reply.

I'm going Intel as it works better for Premier Pro editing, although not for rendering so much. Editing 4k H.265 is painfully slow & I need all the help I can get. I don't care about rendering as that's when I leave my desk & go have a coffee.

What issues would I see with the power draw?

Also what do you think about data storage? I was originally going for platter, but it feels a bit out of date. I need at least 2tb, preferably 4tb for storage. Would you go SSD?
 
Coojeekitten said:
I'm going Intel as it works better for Premier Pro editing, although not for rendering so much. Editing 4k H.265 is painfully slow & I need all the help I can get. I don't care about rendering as that's when I leave my desk & go have a coffee.
Click to expand...
seems like AMD = intel for playback, and AMD thrashes intel for rendering: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...ore-X-10000-vs-AMD-Threadripper-3rd-Gen-1629/

Coojeekitten said:
What issues would I see with the power draw?
Click to expand...
cooling, rather than power draw may be the limiting factor
once overclocked, the intel chips suck more power than the threadrippers

Coojeekitten said:
Also what do you think about data storage? I was originally going for platter, but it feels a bit out of date. I need at least 2tb, preferably 4tb for storage. Would you go SSD?
Click to expand...
i normally see a 4-5 tier storage system
1st tier: nvme ssd for programs + scratch disk
2nd tier: large sata3 ssd (or cheaper than tier 1 nvme ssd) for encoding output
3rd tier: mass storage hdd, old exports to be stored on computer
4th tier: local backup
5th tier: cloud storage
 
Perfect_Chaos said:
I have a few Noctua fans, 2 with my NH-D15. I can say they are very quiet up until just over 800-900RPM or about there, if i put my ear up closer to the centre of it i can hear a bit of a rough noise. Do most/all fans have this because i don't think I've ever found a quality fan that doesn't have some kind of extra noise to it other than air being pushed.
Click to expand...
Good fans have long lacked meaningful in real world extra noises.
Including old Scythe SlipStream.
That's actually where Scythe's Gentle Typhoon surprised lacking typical level of ball bearing noise.
So Corsair's Maglev hype of not having bearing noise is hyping solution to non-existing problem.
 
tamzzy said:
seems like AMD = intel for playback, and AMD thrashes intel for rendering: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...ore-X-10000-vs-AMD-Threadripper-3rd-Gen-1629/


cooling, rather than power draw may be the limiting factor
once overclocked, the intel chips suck more power than the threadrippers


i normally see a 4-5 tier storage system
1st tier: nvme ssd for programs + scratch disk
2nd tier: large sata3 ssd (or cheaper than tier 1 nvme ssd) for encoding output
3rd tier: mass storage hdd, old exports to be stored on computer
4th tier: local backup
5th tier: cloud storage
Click to expand...

I'm not really intending to overclock too much as stability is essential. Maybe I'll tweak a little, just to try.

My intended disks:
1tb Samsung M.2 for OS/software
512gb Samsung M.2 for Project files (not sure on size)
512gb Samsung M.2 for Scratch (not sure on size)
4tb for storage. Maybe SSD, maybe platter

Backup as usual to off-site USB or Thunderbolt drives
I'm thinking of in future looking at a Synology NAS in an outbuilding.
I did use Crashplan for several years & stopped when they put up their prices. Although a good system, I found the client software to be very system intensive. If you have any other ideas for Cloud, I'd certainly be interested. I have tried Carbonite which would not install as I also use Dreamweaver & this appears to be incompatible with the Carbonite installer.
 
Coojeekitten said:
If you have any other ideas for Cloud, I'd certainly be interested.
Click to expand...
Google gsuite for business. Unlimited cloud storage.

Coojeekitten said:
1tb Samsung M.2 for OS/software
512gb Samsung M.2 for Project files (not sure on size)
512gb Samsung M.2 for Scratch (not sure on size)
4tb for storage. Maybe SSD, maybe platter
Click to expand...
1. Sammy 970 Evo plus 1tb (main)
2. Corsair mp510 1920tb or sabrent rocket 2tb (project and scratch)
3. Wd blue 4tb sata ssd or Sammy 860 Evo (not qvo - very important) 4tb ssd or sandisk ultra 3d ssd (output)
 
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