Noctua NF-F12 PWM Review

Overview

 

The Noctua NF-F12 PWM fan has been designed to replace the stock fans provided with radiator / water cooling systems. In this instance a fan has been provided for testing with the Antec KÜHLER range of CPU water coolers. As I have previously reviewed the Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (and it’s also currently in my test rig) it falls to me to review the Noctua NF-F12 and see how it compares to the stock fan provided by Antec.

 

 

Each fan comes packaged in its own box which provides a wealth of details about the fan and its construction.

 

 

The fan comes packaged in a plastic tray and is provided with a user manual, mounting kit and various connectors, see specifications below for more details.

 

 

The user manual provides details of how to install the fan, cleaning, maintenance, warranty and support. It’s worth noting that this fan comes with a 6 year warranty!

The fan itself is made from a cream plastic outer frame with brown fan blades and acoustic dampening corner inserts.

 

 

At the time of the review the Noctua NF-F12 PWM is retailing for approximately £17.99.

 

Specifications / Features

courtesy of Noctua

 

Additional details available here…

 

First Impressions

 

Overall the fan looks well built and sturdy and the quality of the packaging is outstanding. Details about the fan are provided on pages at the back of the box. These pages are held together by Velcro to prevent them from opening unintentionally. If the fan is constructed with the same attention to detail that the packaging has received then it should perform exceptionally well!

I’m wondering at this point if the manufacturers have deliberately decided to chose these colours to ensure that you can see the fan against the colour of the average black case, even if you can’t hear it, assuming of course that it lives up to its reputation of being quiet…

 

Hardware Installation

 

The 4 screws holding the Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 fan/radiator assembly in my rig’s HAF 912 case were removed and the existing Antec fan was replaced with the NF-F12 unit. The fan / radiator assembly was then refitted into the case and the 4 screws tightened. For a more in depth explanation please see the Review of the Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620.

The original Antec fan is powered by a 2 wire clip which is connected to the Antec CPU cooler pump itself and the Antec pump is then connected to the motherboards CPU fan controller.

The NF-F12 fan is powered by a 4 wire clip which isn’t compatible with the Antec fan’s power clip. After some research (courtesy of Google) the best solution appeared to be the following:

• The Antec CPU cooler pump power cable is removed from the motherboards CPU fan connection and moved to a motherboard PWR Fan connection. This means the pump will be running continuously rather than being controlled by the motherboard.
• The NF-F12 fan is then connected to the motherboard’s CPU fan controller, allowing the motherboard to control the fan as required.

After checking all connections and ensuring all screws were tightened, the machine was powered on.

 

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

Noise reduction will be tested by me listening to changes in sound produced by my gaming rig.

Performance testing will be carried out using Prime 95 to stress the CPU. Each run will be timed at 30 minutes and a reading will be taken at the start and end. Tests will be performed at 3.3 GHz (CPU stock speed), 4.0 GHz and 4.4 Ghz (current over clocked speed). The maximum core temperature for each of the 4 cores is recorded and then the average calculated.

The RPM of the fan will be recorded using SpeedFan to ensure the fan is increasing in speed with the increase in overclock (temperature). Unfortunately it isn’t possible to record the speed of the stock fan provided with KÜHLER H₂O 620 as it is only a 2 wire fan which is controlled internally by the KÜHLER’s pump.

My rig will then be used for gaming purposes (Hooah) for the next few weeks in order to obtain a good overall evaluation of the the Noctua NF-F12 PWM Fan.

Due to the initial temperature results being higher than expected changes were made to my Rig’s BIOS in an attempt to obtain the best results from the Noctua fans. The following changes were made under the PC Health Status page of the Gigabyte P67A-UD4 BIOS.

Setting	Value
CPU Smart FAN Control	Manual
Slope PWM	2.50 (maximum for my BIOS)
CPU Smart FAN Mode	PWM

 

Hardware Performance

 

After letting the machine boot up into windows it was immediately noticeable how quiet the Noctua NF-F12 fan is compared to all of the other fans within the case (1 x 120mm Cooler Master fan, 1 x 200mm Cooler Master fan and the Cooler Master (again!) power supply internal fan).

I don’t have any scientific data to back this up (I couldn’t justify spending £40 on a sound meter!) but in my opinion I would happily say that the noise of the rig has been reduced by at least 30%. It’s also interesting that I no longer hear the gurgling noise from the Antec’s pump. I suspect the noise was generated by the pump increasing/decreasing in speed when it was controlled by the motherboard.

At present the NF-F12 fan has proved very successful at reducing the noise generated by my gaming rig, but is this reduction in noise being made by sacrificing airflow and thus increasing temperatures? Anything less than maintaining the same temperature is a pointless exercise for a gaming rig IMHO.

 

The following tables show the results of the Prime 95 stress testing.

 

KÜHLER H₂O 620 Cooling Results (@ 3.3GHz, 4.0GHz & 4.4GHz)

CPU Frequency	CPU Voltage	Fan RPM	CPU Temp (avg cores)	Ambient Temperature	Delta Temperature
3.3GHz	1.256	1077	51.75	24.00	27.75
4.0GHz	1.3361	1230	57.75	23.00	34.75
4.4GHz	1.3771	1342	61.00	23.00	38.00

Standard (3.3GHz)

Mid Load (4.0GHz)

High Load (4.4GHz)

 

The following tables show the Prime 95 test results comparing the stock Antec fan against the NF-F12 fan.

 

Cooling Results @ 3.3GHz

CPU Cooler	CPU Temp (avg cores)	Ambient Temperature	Delta Temperature
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (Antec Fan)	49.00	26.00	23.00
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (Noctua Fan)	51.75	24.00	27.75

 

Cooling Results @ 4.0GHz

CPU Cooler	CPU Temp (avg cores)	Ambient Temperature	Delta Temperature
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (Antec Fan)	57.25	26.00	31.25
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (Noctua Fan)	57.75	23.00	34.75

 

Cooling Results @ 4.4GHz

CPU Cooler	CPU Temp (avg cores)	Ambient Temperature	Delta Temperature
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (Antec Fan)	61.00	26.00	35.00
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 (Noctua Fan)	61.00	23.00	38.00

 

From the initial comparison it’s obvious that on the cooling front the NF-F12 fan can’t compete on the same level as the stock Antec fan provided with the Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620.

As the wiring of the fan is different is this a fair comparison? In my mind, this is a valid question, but as it’s not possible to connect the NF-F12 fan to the Antec’s pump in the same way that the stock Antec’s fan is, it becomes somewhat irrelevant and the user will have to judge the fans capability based upon noise and cooling capacity alone.

 

Final Thoughts

 

I must admit to being slightly disappointed by the Noctua NF-F12 PWM Fan. From opening the box and reading about the fan, the engineering that had gone into its production; it promised so much.

It then went on to prove how quiet you can make a fan run. I was seriously thinking about researching silent power supplies, but unfortunately to fall at the last hurdle and not match the Antec’s stock fan temperatures means that I would find it very hard to justify spending money on replacing the Antec’s stock fan with this one.

If on the other hand peace and quiet is more important than cooling performance i.e. perhaps for a media PC rather than a gaming rig, then this fan maybe just for you.

 

Verdict