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Noctua NF-F12 Temperature Question

H

Hulk

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
6,279
I have a Zalman USA LQ-320 LQ320 CPU Liquid Cooler that came with a stock fan and I installed a Cooler Master fan in a push-pull configuration. I took both fans out today and installed two Noctua NF-F12 fans in a push-pull configuration with the Low-Noise Adaptors (L.N.A.). The fans are much quieter now but according to Core Temp the idle and max temps seem to be a bit higher, not by a huge difference but maybe by 3-4 degrees Celsius.

Does that seem about normal? Since the two fans are rotating less they are pushing less air, hence why they are quieter? During Battlefield 4 the max temp is 53. I think before the two Noctua NF-F12s it was 50 or 51.
 
do not use Low noise adapters.. even at full 1500RPM blast they are extremely quiet fans.. with a cooler like that be sure that you are using both as push/pull intake..
 
when you say push pull do you mean one fan blowing air on the cooler from inside the case and the other fan blowing the air out the back of the case

or

do you mean both fans facing the cooler and blowing air on it?
 
Hulk said:
when you say push pull do you mean one fan blowing air on the cooler from inside the case and the other fan blowing the air out the back of the case

or

do you mean both fans facing the cooler and blowing air on it?
Click to expand...

push pull mean this:

2cdg9j5.jpg


Both fans in the same direction.. it can be Exhaust (as posted in the image) or intake.. which are reversing the fans to take cold air from outside the case..
 
ok thanks, I have the two fans setup exactly like in the photo.
 
Took out the Low-Noise Adaptors, applied them to two 120mm fans I had lying around, put them as intake fans on the floor of my case and bam the max temp is now at 48 while playing BF4.
 
Hulk said:
Took out the Low-Noise Adaptors, applied them to two 120mm fans I had lying around, put them as intake fans on the floor of my case and bam the max temp is now at 48 while playing BF4.
Click to expand...

and noise?. the should be way quieter than your fan setup even at max speed.. I found always useless to use LNA..
 
The NF-F12 are a bit louder but it's not annoying at all and you really have to listen closely to tell a difference. According to Speed Fan my fan speeds while playing BF4 at 4.1Ghz on i5 4670k are as follow:

System Fan 836 RPM
CPU Fan 979 RPM (this must be the two NF-F12 fans)
Aux Fan 1453 RPM (I think this is the 3 pin fan that was the stock exhaust fan, running at
full speed due to the 3 pins)
Aux 1 Fan 748 RPM
Aux 2 Fan 864 RPM

My only question is I have 7 total fans but only 5 show up. I am using a Y cable on a pair so I wonder if one of those fan speeds above is actually for two fans.

The LNA on the two cooler master fans makes them totally silent so I figured I would install them as well.
 
I think the noise in your machine its caused by the 1400+RPM fan. i don't know any fan at -1000RPM being anything above silent....

and yes.. with Splitted fans you will only see one fan per Y cable 2. only one fan will report speed.. they will share RPM.. (if they are the same fan) if not then will only share the Pulse from PWM.
 
You probably saw higher temps because Noctua's LNA caps the maximum fan speed at 300rpm less than the base 1500rpm... which due to the pwm function was probably being reduced further because your CPU was obviously nowhere near TJMax.

Split fans normally only report the main fan and Noctua's info on the included y cable splitter is quite clear on this point.

Do you find that the F fans have a deep base humming sound? For me that gets noticeable around 900rpm, but I am using a cluster of 8 of them to push air through two 80mm thick 4x120 radiators.
 
Araxie said:
do not use Low noise adapters.. even at full 1500RPM blast they are extremely quiet fans.. with a cooler like that be sure that you are using both as push/pull intake..
Click to expand...
Just as an aside, I'm not sure I'd agree with them being extremely quiet.

Running all on their own (not accounting for filters, fan grills, heatsinks, or cases with sound insulation), they're certainly less annoying than any other fan... but not necessarily quieter.

On the flip-side, if you start considering pairing Noctua fans with noise-canceling material, it becomes a nightmare. Noise canceling foam works only over a very small range of frequencies, and Noctua intentionally spreads out the frequency profile of their fans. This makes Noctua fans a no-go for me in my ultra-silent builds.

Araxie said:
I think the noise in your machine its caused by the 1400+RPM fan. i don't know any fan at -1000RPM being anything above silent..
Click to expand...
Depends on how good your ears are, I guess. Most fans become audible to me after 600 RPM, and clearly audible after 800 RPM.
 
Unknown-One said:
Depends on how good your ears are, I guess. Most fans become audible to me after 600 RPM, and clearly audible after 800 RPM.
Click to expand...

of course if you approach your ear to 1CM of a grilled/dust filtered fan then yes you may hear it in a completely isolated noise canceled room environment.... would you hear it in a real world usage?.. i can not hear my case with all the fans at 1000RPM (I have 13 Fans detailed here)..

the design of my case (vengance C70) its far of being aimed to silent.. I have my case in the floor at less than 15cm of my knees and I can not hear it in the night above my AC Split unit at 5m from me (how much noise can an Split AC unit make? none for me at this distance).. even under heavy load.. the louder thing are the motherboard 35x35 fans when go above 4000RPM under heavy stress.. and gaming its even better as it can be only noticeable when the GPUs fans are above 70% and that kind of low noise its barely just barely noticeable in the room in the night with the rest of the things OFF and who care about that little sound when you are gaming? will you be gaming with SOUND OFF just to hear sound of your PC?.

Also for me the benefit of have a ton of fans in a case at less than 800RPM its none as they barely can pull some air through a good fan filter (I use DemciFlex in all of my machines)..
 
Araxie said:
of course if you approach your ear to 1CM of a grilled/dust filtered fan then yes you may hear it in a completely isolated noise canceled room environment.... would you hear it in a real world usage?
Click to expand...
I hear the difference in real-world usage every day. Fans are in a Fractal Design R3, under my desk.

For my environment, 600 RPM and 800 RPM is still a noticeable difference, noise-wise. Not an intolerable difference, but it's definitely there.

Araxie said:
and gaming its even better as it can be only noticeable when the GPUs fans are above 70% and that kind of low noise its barely just barely noticeable in the room in the night with the rest of the things OFF and who care about that little sound when you are gaming? will you be gaming with SOUND OFF just to hear sound of your PC?.
Click to expand...
I use my graphics card for more than just gaming. It's rather noticeable when the fan spins-up while video editing, or while ripping a BluRay (both tasks place heavy load on the GPU in an otherwise-silent working environment).

There are also quiet moments in some games. Having a GPU fan blaring away can kinda ruin the atmosphere...
 
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