Fans Fans Fans, we got all kinds of fans now-a-days: neon fans, aluminum fans, led fans, ccfl fans, uv fans, and even more fans, did I mention we are reviewing fans here?
The Austrian company Noctua was kind enough to send us a few of there new fans, but what makes them (s)so special….? Well they are silent, and I mean VERY silent. These fans aren’t here for the nice lights, but for the more serious system builder who wants some quality kit. And if you want quality then you’re at the right place with Noctua.
So where’s that quality come from? Strangely enough, Noctua is an Austrian company unlike the majority of the fan builders. Being close to Germany its safe to say that Austrian engineering at its best here.
Don’t believe me? How’s about the 6 yes SIX years of warranty on these fans…
Still not enough? Then pay heed to the fact that Noctua uses SSO Bearings in their fans. So what’s a SSO bearing? Well SSO stands for Self Stabilizing Oil-pressure bearing. The general idea being that the centrifugal motion of the fan sweeps the oil to the sides thus centering the fan’s rotor that drives the fan blades.
Here’s a paragraph with a more technical explanation…
SSO principle of operation
This allows for a faster, more precise and more reliable centering of the rotor axis and thus increases the long-term stability and quietness of the bearing: When the fan starts, the dynamic pressure field of the liquid bearing needs to build up first, which results in an initial precession of the axis, the so called gyro effect. This amounts to an increased abrasion until the axis is stabilized through the build-up of the dynamic pressure field, which may by and by lead to increased noise emission and bearing defects. Because of this, the SSO bearing possesses a built in magnet, whose field ensures the immediate self-stabilization of the rotor and hence reduces the gyro effect. In addition to the stabilization during the start-up phase of the fan, the supporting magnet allows for a more exact centering of the axis within the bearing shell and thus further reduces bearing resistance, abrasion and noise emission.
The sleeve and ball bearings currently predominating the fan market exhibit major drawbacks. While conventional sleeve bearings initially have very low noise emissions, they mostly possess unsatisfying long-term stability, which leads to a short overall lifespan and increasing noise after longer operating times.
High grade ball bearings, on the other hand, while providing satisfying long-term stability, operate at slightly higher noise levels from the beginning. The SSO bearing not only surpasses the quietness of conventional sleeve bearings but also the long-term stability of current top-of-the-line ball bearings.
Noctua sent two of their fans a 120mm the NF-S12-1200 and a 80mm the NF-R8. Here are their specs:
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So fans do what they’re made for and move air. I haven’t encountered a lot of silent fans that can move some air but these babies can!. Even though I didn’t use the Ultra Low Noise Adaptor (which is nothing more than a little adapter with a resistor), the fan isn’t noticeable in a normal desktop case, I can’t hear them in my case: as the hard drives make more noise than this fan. The 80mm fan he has 2 of those adapters a L.N.A and U.L.N.A (basically the same stuff but with 2 different resistors in the main line).
Now as with all 80mm fans this one is audible without the use of any of the LNA’s provided but on the other side it does move a lot of air, but just adding one of the resistors is enough to make the fan fade away to the noise of the hard drives.
Also included in the package are a set of fan screws and a set of anti vibration studs/grommets (or Vibration Compensators as Noctua likes to call them). I’ve seen these studs around the market for a long time but never integrated into a kit to use out of the box. I wanted to achieve maximum silence so I used those compensators: the way these things work is that they suspend the drive into the rubber grommets instead of bolting them to the case. This way none of the fan’s vibrations can reach the case and produce sound, since vibration = sound.
I had to manipulate those compensators a little bit because my case has a few bigger holes. But if you have a standard case with 4 screw holes at the back, then you’re set (but the studs might need some persuasion). ;)
Only downside I could find (and it’s not even a bad thing in my opinion) is the color of the fans. I myself like the different color scheme but some people might not like the brow / red / crème kind of colors, then again this might just set off that casemod you where planning to build. All in all this is a great piece of kit and will be valuable to system builders (if not for the silence or the excellent build quality, then the 6-year warranty). For whichever reason you choose the Noctua fans, you have made a great decision.
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1 Comment
I would like to what is the metered resistance of the LNA & ULNA adapters in ohms. It's simple to do, your ohm meter to resistance and just meter the red wire on each adapter and please let me know.