You are in the US? Kingwin power supplies are all Super Flower rebrands, which one were you looking at?

Golden Silent = Stryker
Golden King = Lazer Platinum
Golden Green = Lazer Gold

Capstones are also Lazer Golds and generally very good value for money. There are a few others who rebrand Super Flower, such as Sentey and NZXT

Thank you - that's very good to know for future reference. I no longer need a PSU for a while as I just got one from Seasonic, but I'll keep it in mind for my next system.

That's right, I forgot about that :X

I'm a long time reader but first time writer here. I was suddenly faced with a dilemma and I figured you guys would probably be the best persons to ask.

I stumbled upon a special price on the Noctua NF-F12 (11€) and started thinking that maybe it's time I replaced my fans in my Antec P182. Those are currently 2 Antec Tri-Cools at the back (one back, one top) and in front one Nexus Basic and some nameless silent fan that I bought years and years ago. The Nexus and the nameless fan have started to show some signs of getting worn out. Also been thinking if it would be worth it to switch out my stock fan in my Tuniq Tower 120 for the NF-F12.

So after reading reviews and more reviews, I still haven't been able to decide what fans to get. Comparing the local prices I've narrowed the candidates down to these 5 and I would like some input on which ones you would get.

Nexus Real Silent Basic (9€)
Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition (9€)
Antec TrueQuiet Pro 120 (9€)
Noctua NF-F12 (11€)
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1150RPM (14€)

As you can see they're priced almost the same except for the Gently Typhoon which is a little more expensive. So I guess the question is, at those prices, is the Noctua worth going for or would you still choose some of the other candidates?

Personally, I would choose the NF-F12 (PWM) over the 3 cheaper alternatives - and only 2€ cheaper anyway. I enjoyed my NF-F12. It wasn't completely silent, but it was very quiet installed on a heatsink, doing a low quiet-ish hum at high rpm.

Been doing some more reading and I've come to the conclusion that the fans I listed should all perform about the same, at least in my situation when using them as case fans. So I think I'm going to go with the Noctuas even though they may not be the best performing or the most quietest of the bunch, the 50% discounted price on them does make them quite attractive considering that you get a PWM fan with 6 year warranty and quite a few accessories. And as long they are quieter and perform better than my Tri-Cools, I'm happy.

The idea is simple
Noctua= Fairly expensive, high quality, last a long time

In reality I have found the NF-S12B ULN models good fans (if you want a long lasting out of the box slow fan) So far I have no problems to report in relation to any issues. On the other hand I can't say I care for some of their other models.

I did some real world testing and found Gelid outpeformed some other Noctua fans in relation to noise and air shifted (ie they cooled better the Gelid fans)
I'm not about to rip out the NF-S12B ULN fans I have fitted been happy overall. But I'm not sure I'll use Noctua again there is feeling that you spend top dollar and you get the "best" in some cases that is not always true.

I'm using mostly Gelid now for builds I find them pretty good bang per buck. I will add if the Noctua fans last as long as they say I suppose there is some value to be had from them. I just can't justify the cost for new pc builds it all adds up and 3/4 fans if needed can work out a bit pricey with Noctua.
I'd take things on a case by case basis model for model.
Maybe they are over rated, some Noctua models are I think..price wise you decide on that one!

I've used both the real silent and the GT, i can tell you that the GT is definitely quieter at the same speeds and cooling. Not sure on the corsair, but the nexus > the antec. i cant remember exactly, but the nexus beat all of the noctua 120mm that silentpc have reviewed (not sure if it includes the f12.)

that's barring stuff like warranty and longevity etc, but if you're after performance the GT is the way to go

I went with the Noctuas as they were -50% off during that weekend. Seemed to have been their most sold fan as they had 100+ of them when the sale started on Friday and they were all sold on Sunday morning.

I got them installed today (and at the same time removed that stupid metal piece blocking the top fan in my P183) and I must say that I'm slightly dissappointed at the performance. I currently run them at around 850 RPM which gives me around the same temperatures that I had with my previous fans but definetily quieter. Why I run them at such a slow speed is that if I go higher than that, around 900-1000 RPM the fans start to give away a low whirring sound, instead of the low woosh sound that you get when the air is moving. It's still pretty quiet at those speeds, but the sound is more annoying. At 1400-1500 RPM they are definetily not quiet. The end result is that I have a mixed feeling about them. On one hand they give me about the same performance and quieter system compared to my old fans, but on the other hand I won't be getting better performance at around the same noise level because of the more annoying sound. Which makes me want to try replacing all the fans with Nexus Real Silents instead but I've already wasted enough money on fans.

i have a noctua nf f12 and am completely stunnex at how heavy and sturdy it feels


its static pressure is good enough that at 750rpm on my hyper212 evo, i sit at 67c with prime 95 at 4.2ghz