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Noctua NF-R8 & NF-S12 Fans |
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Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
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Tuesday, 24 July 2007 |
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Page 1 of 3
Thanks to Noctua for the product samples.
Oh no, another fan review! Well, not quite. As we all know, all fans are not created equal. For those who have been around computers for several years, you'll remember the never-ending craze for Panaflo L1A's. As a matter of fact, they still sell like hotcakes today. Why? Because they were extremely quiet while pumping more air than the competition. The focus on quiet computing is stronger than ever, with ear-bleeding extreme overclocking more or less a thing of the past. And what's the number one cause of PC noise? Fans. Lots and lots of fans. A near "silent" 20dBA model suddenly becomes quite loud when 3-4 are installed. And for most performance systems, a single fan just won't cut it. Today we'll be looking at a couple premium quiet fans from Noctua.
Noctua is a relative newcomer to the market out of Austria and they hope to take the quiet computing crown. The NF-R8 (80mm) and NF-S12 (120mm) come in the respective packages shown above. It's rather impressive for something as seemingly trivial as a case fan, but there's more than meets the eye. Also, being the premium fans they are, each comes with a 6 year warranty. Who else offers that? Consequently, they're more expensive - the 80mm kit runs about $15 while the 120mm kit retails for $20. That's a pretty penny each.
Removing the box reveals another box with a whole lot of accessories. If you look closely, you'll notice these aren't your regular fans - the blade designs are quite different, but we'll get to that later.
The package for the NF-R8 (80mm) contains the fan, a 3-4pin molex adapter, a couple power reduction adapters with inline resistors, case screws, and shock absorbers. The NF-S12-1200 (120mm) kit is identical with the exception of one of the power reduction adapters.
Both the 80mm and 120mm versions ship with ULNA (Ultra Low Noise Adapter), pictured above. It's basically an A-B 3-pin extension cable with a resistor.
The 80mm fan also ships with LNA (Low Noise Adapter) which is the same as ULNA except the resistor doesn't reduce the rotation speed as much.
Here we have the "Low Noise Compensators", essentially rubber plugs for installing the fans into the case. The concept is that you push it in through the back of your case, align the fan and push it onto the plugs. This works - in theory. Realistically the expanded part of the plug is too wide to fit through either fan's mounting holes completely, meaning you have to slightly shave down at least one side of the plug (or widen the fan hole) if you want to install the it all the way using these. Of course there is a partial install option (just push it as far as it'll go), but that can get wobbly after some time. You can still use the provided case screws, but they won't dampen vibrations as much.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 July 2007 )
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