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Singapore
1 Level
731 Review
51 Karma

Review on Noctua NF F12 Chromax Black Swap Premium Grade Quiet by Adam Alvarez

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Low RPM but nice and quiet

I bought a Thermaltake AIO- Triple heatsink when I start you hear some noise from the fans. I knew Noctua fans should be great fans, but I can't handle Braun. I was happy to find these black ones. I noticed that the RPM is listed at 1500 and my Thermaltake fans appear to be at 2000. These fans are definitely quieter, most likely due to the lower speeds. I did a test and set the CPU fans to 80% and I could barely hear them. I cranked them up to 100% and they were noticeably louder but still quieter than the 50% thermal takes. You hit 1500 rpm at 100%, so the rating is accurate. I ended up setting it to a minimum of 50% and maxing it out to 100% at high temperatures, but it never gets that hot. I didn't notice any real difference with the CPU temperature while playing the game for a few minutes. If you put your hand in front of it, not much air comes out of these fans. I was worried they might not be moving enough air, but everything I've read suggests they're better at air movement at lower RPMs. Who knows? It's annoying that they only give you 4 of each color for anti-vibration pads. I applied black on top and red on bottom. I don't see the top fans serving any purpose as the top fans don't touch anything mounted in a pull configuration on my cooler. I can't think of too many settings where your fan makes contact with a different surface on either side. Maybe that's why they only give you 4? They appear to be of high quality and the packaging was good. I wasn't happy with the position of the 4 pin connector coming out of the fan to connect the extension cord. It's very short and I wanted to route it through the hole around my heatsink. I ended up having to leave the plug over the hole. Not a big deal, but some people might find it less than ideal for their setup. The extension cords were long enough with plenty of reserve and I'm in a full sized case.

Pros
  • 4-pin PWM version for auto speed control via 4-pin PWM fan headers, max RPM 1500 RPM
Cons
  • I can't remember but there was something