Noctua Fans Super Test – Which Ones Are Right for You?

Performance

Fan RPM Speeds

As you will have noted in our fan descriptions. Each fan has a ‘box rated’ maximum RPM speed. We first decided to check how these compared with true maximum fan speeds to see if any major discrepancies occurred. Please remember that Noctua fans do have a 10% allowable variance.

Overall, while every fan did operate slightly lower than the reported speed, all results were comfortable within the required remit. The NF-P12 Redux 900, 1700 and NF-A12x25 PWM, however, gave the closest results with a maximum discrepancy of just 66 RPM.

As a whole, every fan performed perfectly well in this regard.

Temperature

Under the temperature test, we set the fan to ‘normal’ within the bios and then to full to see what the average idle temperatures were. We then placed the fan speed to full and ran a stress test of the processor to see how each one would handle the increased pressure to keep the CPU cool.

Of all the fans tested, the Noctua NF-P12 Redux-1700 gave the best temperatures. While the margins were slim across the entire range, this fan gave the best results in terms of the temperatures under normal fan speed and in addition, also gave the best results under the max-speed stress test.

A fair point to note, however, is that while this gave the best results, the 2000RPM NF-A12x25 PWM was very close to it in overall performance.

Taking these as a whole though, with such highly consistent results, it’s clear that all of these fans provide an excellent level of performance.

With the exception of the low-speed Redux-900 and the ‘Ultra-low-noise’, every other fan gave improved figures compared to the NF-F12 which is the ‘stock’ fan for the NH U12S cooler.

RPM Vs Temperature

While we know how each fan performs in terms of temperatures, it’s also important to understand which gave the best results relative to the fan speed. In this regard, there are certainly, again, some good and interesting results.

A particular stand-out is the NF-P12 Redux-900. Given that this fan only has a maximum speed of 900RPM it does, as expected, report the highest temperatures. When you compare the 58C temperature to the other results though, for only 900RPM this fan is remarkably close to many other models which run at a much faster speed.

In addition, the Redux 1300, at least in this test, provided results that were very consistent with the faster 1700RPM variant.

Acoustics

Noctua fans, despite never strictly being advertised as low-noise, are low-noise. In terms of these levels, these are almost entirely consistent with the maximum RPM speeds of the fan. Put simply, the faster it spins the louder it gets. Incidentally, I should point out that I didn’t expect to blow your mind with that fact.

What is highly impressive from these results is that the NF-A12x25 UCL and NF-P12 Redux-900 are amazingly quiet. Even more so is the fact that while the ULN variant ran at around 300RPM faster, it still only recorded the same noise level as the Redux-900. The ULN model is clearly an exceptional performer in terms of noise levels.

While at full load, the high-speed fans clearly do get a bit noisy. As can be seen in the prior results though, that noise isn’t for nothing with some impressive temperature results. That being said though, in a real-world situation, it’s doubtful you would ever run a high-performance Noctua fan at full speed.