Arctic P12s are significantly quieter than Noctuas 140s

Rev. Night

[H]ard|Gawd
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So I am trying to make my gaming PC as quiet as possible under full load without resorting to water. I was always told that Noctuas were the best and that at the same airflow rate, a 140mm will be quieter than a 120mm fan. That's actually not the case here. I have two Noctua 140mm fans (NF-A15 PWM taken from my NH-D15 due to ram clearance, and a NF-A14) that I was using as intake fans. They weren't bad by any means, but they only have a minimum rpm of around 550 or so. I can still hear them at idle, and decently under a load. I had 3 Arctic P12s leftover from another project so I decided to see if they would be better as intake fans. 3 Arctic P12s vs 2 Noctua 14s. Lo and behold, these Arctics kick the shit out of the Noctuas. Not only are they significantly cheaper, they have a lower min rpm (400s), and are dead silent even under full load (fan curve is 35-55% PWM). Better in every conceivable way (except if you want max airflow maybe, but that also means max noise).

Now I am selling these Noctuas. The next time I need to build a new case (probably years away), def going with all Arctics. Maybe because these P are pressure fans, and I have a case air filter right next to these fans? Fractal Design Define C.

Thermals:
  • Delid I7-6700K
    • OC to 4.5ghz
    • Noctua NH-D15 (one 140mm fan replaced by A12x25 due to ram clearance)
    • Max 65C
  • Sapphire 5700XT
    • 1900mhz, 1000mv
    • TG Conducto
    • Custom Arctic P12 fan bracket set to 35-55% PWM
    • Core 65C, Junction 75C
 

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rofls boy you should have seen my antec p180 case back in the day. Compared to that, this case is entirely wireless. Besides, I have black panels on the sides, aint no windows here
 
What do you recommend that I do, and what are the benefits besides fulfilling an OCD I don't have? I think this case looks pretty clean considering I don't have a 100% modular and modern PSU. This Antec I think is years, years old
 
Here is the problem with Noctua's 140 mm fans:

They are louder than they should have been, judging by the reviews of the NH-D15 CPU heatsink. In fact, the 140 mm Noctua fans are actually louder than some of the 120 mm fans (and yes, even some of Noctua's own 120 mm fans). Plus, the Noctua 140 mm fans' airflow isn't sufficiently better than its 120 mm fans to justify the relatively higher noise level. That's the very reason why I went with an NH-U12S instead of an NH-D15S or NH-D15 for the CPU cooler inside my current main rig.
 
I can see the truth in what you say. My NH-D15 is extremely silent, but I also have one 140mm in there and the other is a 120mm. Plus with the delid, not much fan effort is needed anyways. I'm putting them up for sale for $30 on FB unless anyone here wants them
 
What do you recommend that I do, and what are the benefits besides fulfilling an OCD I don't have? I think this case looks pretty clean considering I don't have a 100% modular and modern PSU. This Antec I think is years, years old
It’s perfectly fine if it’s hidden, just as long as there aren’t any cables obstructing anything.
 
It’s perfectly fine if it’s hidden, just as long as there aren’t any cables obstructing anything.
his cable management is better than any oem ive ever seen. its totally fine for a windowless case. not to mention that modern tiny cables have barely any effect on airflow. thats old thinking from the ide days. it all about aesthetics now.
 
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his cable management is better than any oem ive ever seen. its totally fine for a windowless case. not to mention that modern tiny cables have barely any effect on airflow. thats old thinking from the ide days. it all about ascetics now.
I'm just super OCD. His cables look fine. And yeah OEM cases bring me to tears.
 
I use the capacitance wire Noctua included on my U14s.
I have 4x 120mm Noctua in my Defjne C, I tried out some Silent Wings 3 fans for someone's build I thought were much quieter at higher rpm.

Take the faceplate off, I was seeing 4-6c higher temps on a 9700kf and more fan rpm.

Arctic fans are always mentioned as a $ conscious low noise performer.
I've never tried them, but I would say for low noise builds I'd look hard at Arctic next time just for cost reasons.
Be Quiet would be my known go to if I just had to crank a build out.
 
I have a case with 5 Arctic P12s, I hate them if I'm being completely honest. They are quiet and perform well in VERY strict circumstances. The whoosh of the fans is quiet, and totally acceptable. However, the fan motors on all 5 I have make terrible low frequency sound, almost a drone. They do it at 1000RPM, 1250RPM, and occasionally around 1370-1400. Under 900RPM they are fine, but I need more RPM for the airflow to cool my components. I don't recommend them, maybe I got a bad batch?
 
I have a case with 5 Arctic P12s, I hate them if I'm being completely honest. They are quiet and perform well in VERY strict circumstances. The whoosh of the fans is quiet, and totally acceptable. However, the fan motors on all 5 I have make terrible low frequency sound, almost a drone. They do it at 1000RPM, 1250RPM, and occasionally around 1370-1400. Under 900RPM they are fine, but I need more RPM for the airflow to cool my components. I don't recommend them, maybe I got a bad batch?
yeah there are certain point in the rpm range that they motors make odd noises. mine make a ticking noise as a low rpm. simple solution for me was to increase rpm by about 50-100.
 
yeah there are certain point in the rpm range that they motors make odd noises. mine make a ticking noise as a low rpm. simple solution for me was to increase rpm by about 50-100.

Yeah, I had a tough time finding a happy medium, and my hearing is sensitive to the tone the put out. Same with cooler master AIO pumps, the resonance drives me nuts, even with headphones.
 
I have a case with 5 Arctic P12s, I hate them if I'm being completely honest. They are quiet and perform well in VERY strict circumstances. The whoosh of the fans is quiet, and totally acceptable. However, the fan motors on all 5 I have make terrible low frequency sound, almost a drone. They do it at 1000RPM, 1250RPM, and occasionally around 1370-1400. Under 900RPM they are fine, but I need more RPM for the airflow to cool my components. I don't recommend them, maybe I got a bad batch?

Of the 5 Arctic P12s I have, 3 are Intakes an on a single mobo header, 2 are GPU fans on the card header. OpenHW says I have a max of 550rpm on the Intakes and 2000rpm on the GPU fans. 2000rpm is insanely high, so I think that is registering the combination of the 2 fans, so each fan is at 1000rpm max. Noise wise they are extremely silent, and do a great job cooling my components. What components do you have that you need to be at 1200-1400rpm? Look at my cpu fans, exhaust, and intake fans, they are never above 600rpm. Of course, my cpu is delided and it and gpu has liquid metal.

If you don't like your arctics, I am selling my Noctua 140mm fans here, I'll throw in the accessories for free if you want.

1599500440127.png
 
Of the 5 Arctic P12s I have, 3 are Intakes an on a single mobo header, 2 are GPU fans on the card header. OpenHW says I have a max of 550rpm on the Intakes and 2000rpm on the GPU fans. 2000rpm is insanely high, so I think that is registering the combination of the 2 fans, so each fan is at 1000rpm max. Noise wise they are extremely silent, and do a great job cooling my components. What components do you have that you need to be at 1200-1400rpm? Look at my cpu fans, exhaust, and intake fans, they are never above 600rpm. Of course, my cpu is delided and it and gpu has liquid metal.

If you don't like your arctics, I am selling my Noctua 140mm fans here, I'll throw in the accessories for free if you want.

View attachment 277081

It's not so much the components, as it is the case. They were in a dense ITX build, that really needed 1050-1200 RPM to keep my GPU under 78C. The build was a 1080TI FTW3, and a 9700K that was delidded @5.1GHZ. The droning issue is known with the P12 fans, if they are adequate for your application @500RPM, that's awesome because they are extremely affordable. I couldn't make them work, and I read so many rave reviews on Amazon, not many mentioned the drone. Search google, and it's all over the place. I ended up with some Sycthe fans, they meet all my needs well.
 
It's hard to conclude anything without temp measurements while keeping other fans at fixed speed.
 
So I am trying to make my gaming PC as quiet as possible under full load without resorting to water. I was always told that Noctuas were the best and that at the same airflow rate, a 140mm will be quieter than a 120mm fan. That's actually not the case here. I have two Noctua 140mm fans (NF-A15 PWM taken from my NH-D15 due to ram clearance, and a NF-A14) that I was using as intake fans. They weren't bad by any means, but they only have a minimum rpm of around 550 or so. I can still hear them at idle, and decently under a load. I had 3 Arctic P12s leftover from another project so I decided to see if they would be better as intake fans. 3 Arctic P12s vs 2 Noctua 14s. Lo and behold, these Arctics kick the shit out of the Noctuas. Not only are they significantly cheaper, they have a lower min rpm (400s), and are dead silent even under full load (fan curve is 35-55% PWM). Better in every conceivable way (except if you want max airflow maybe, but that also means max noise).

Now I am selling these Noctuas. The next time I need to build a new case (probably years away), def going with all Arctics. Maybe because these P are pressure fans, and I have a case air filter right next to these fans? Fractal Design Define C.

Thermals:
  • Delid I7-6700K
    • OC to 4.5ghz
    • Noctua NH-D15 (one 140mm fan replaced by A12x25 due to ram clearance)
    • Max 65C
  • Sapphire 5700XT
    • 1900mhz, 1000mv
    • TG Conducto
    • Custom Arctic P12 fan bracket set to 35-55% PWM
    • Core 65C, Junction 75C
Have you tested the fans with them sitting upright on your desk?

Its very possible the entire difference here, is the behavior as a pull fan, backed right up to a grill or heatsink. What I mean is that some fans are especially loud as pulls fans, with their back very near or right against an intake grill or heatsink.
 
Well they were right next to the airfilter supplied by my case. What else should they be as Intakes? Case exhaust? But that is pull too.
 
if a fan's front is to the grill/vent/heatsink, it is push.
back to the grill/vent/heatsink, it is pull.
 
Below is a stock sample of the front of my case. How can I have a push intake with that airfilter there? It would be pull, correct?

Define_C_front.jpg
 
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Have I tried temps without a front fan? Yes, when I tried simply turning off the 140mm fans, the cpu/gpu temps were skyhigh.
 
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