[kenhwang]

I used to really like Noctua fans, for a while they were obviously the best fans by a significant margin.

But for all their tight tolerances and exotic materials and a high price to match, they generally don't outperform BeQuiet's more regular materials but use-focused fans that are half the price. Nor are they significantly better than Arctic's general purpose fans at a quarter the price.

It'd make more sense to just buy the fan optimized for the specific common purpose (airflow or radiator) than pay double for the Noctua for a more generalized fan, but is not the best at either common use case.

Seems like these days their target audience is those who believe their marketing materials about them being the best, instead of believing the benchmark performance data.

[adrian_b]

The benchmarks do not tell everything.

I have used Noctua fans in computers where they worked for a decade or so, even 24x7, until an upgrade or replacement of the computer was required by other reasons than because of the fans.

I have also had many problems caused by cheaper fans.

So now I always prefer to use rather expensive fans and power supplies, from brands with which I have accumulated many years of experience, for peace of mind.

Perhaps other brands of fans that nowadays give similar results in benchmarks also have similar reliability, but I am not willing to bet on it.

[kenhwang]

If we're going by anecdotes, my last Noctuas showing signs of failure (I had 6 of them, one was ~200rpm slower than it should be, one took a several seconds longer to start spinning from a stop) about a year after the end of warranty was partially why I retired them. Same with the set of Noctuas before them (apparently my first set was from 2010). I suppose they all technically still spun so they were still usable, just not to original performance; still, hard to be too upset about the product making it through the long warranty period without issue.

But my Arctics that was installed in the same case that ran for the same amount of time are still chugging along strong, and those are about as cheap as fans get. Different load/use case though so it's probably not a fair comparison.

These days, I really think the competition has caught up or passed Noctua.

[LiamPowell]

2×? Try 5× for the Noctua NF-A12x25 compared the the Arctic P12 Pro that matches or beats it in most metrics. Which isn't to say the Noctua fan is bad, it's just a luxury product for reasons other than performance.

[kenhwang]

2x more than other premium offerings that often perform noticeably better, which I'd say are usually from BeQuiet, LianLi, and Phanteks.

But yes, sometimes up to 5x more than the comparative Arctic in common size categories where it basically trades blows for most metrics that matter. Arctic is seriously unbeatable in value:performance if you just need a basic fan without other QoL or aesthetic features.

120mm is the most competitive category, and it's the most obvious category how Noctua can't keep up with the faster iterating/innovating competition.

[BoingBoomTschak]

Disclaimer: I read HWCooling like everyone serious about the subject. These reviews aren't everything, the appalling QC that results in resonances or coil whine lottery isn't mentioned.

In general, yes, Noctua is overpriced and Arctic is an incredible value, but when you want to optimize your silence/performance ratio, it's still Noctua, BeQuiet or (sometimes) Thermalright.

[initatus]

> coil whine lottery

This was a fun revelation when I got into watercooling. You might not hear coil whine over a gpus fans. But remove the fans and put it under load and whoo boy.

So this confuses social media discussions on the topic by mixing together everyone's reports, regardless of their level of acoustic masking. "My card has no whine!" says the guy with three 2000 rpm fans going etc.

Gpu waterblocks seem to be shifting towards fully enclosed "tomb" style and I can't help but wonder if coil whine contributed to that decision.

But on topic, I had seven a12x25 in my last build, two a12 and four a20 in my current build. They are exceptional. A computer is as quiet as it's loudest part. If your care about noise, why would you ever skimp on the moving parts.

[kenhwang]

I think GPU waterblocks are becoming fully enclosed because there are so many hot components on the back of the GPU now. They were designed to rely on random case air turbulence to passively cool, but there typically isn't much airflow over the back of the card when the stock cooler is replaced with a waterblock.

Problem becomes worse when the cards are driven harder because there's more cooling capacity from the watercooling in the front, but the passive cooling capacity on the back is still the same.

I used to stick a giant fin block on the back of the card to keep temps there reasonable. I'd love it if actively cooled backplates become the norm for watercooling.

[drnick1]

The Arctic fans are known to hum at certain speeds. This may, or may not matter to you, and certainly depends on how low the "noise floor" in workspace is.

[retired]

I got a cheap CPU cooler and swapped the fan out for a Noctua. For half the cost of a complete Noctua CPU cooler I got good temperatures and no noise.