new NOCTUA SILENT FAN ! ?

acuaviva · Post by **acuaviva** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 11:52 am

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=prod ... ducts_id=5

anybody test it?

what improvement with s-flex or nexus ?

( the best fans in market for me )

Bories36 · Post by **Bories36** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 4:51 pm

that looks sweet

At full speed the sound is a silent 17dBa

and then with "ULNA" (dunno what that is), it runs slower, and makes only 6dBa

And it pushes lots of air too

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 5:51 pm

Thats nothing, my 120mm fans push 350cfm at -15db!

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 8:02 pm

ahem.

A believe what GamingGod is subtly trying to tell you is not to believe every spec you read. Seeing a spec like 6 dBA (with no measurement distance given) makes me wonder just how the hell they managed to measure so low.

As far as I know, there are no SLMs that can read below ~10 dBA, and even anecholic chambers don't often have ambient noise lower than that. Rating a fan for 6 dBA may sound good, but it's too incredible to be true.

Fan sellers have a long history of misreporting / lying about fan specs, especially noise. As a general rule, fans measured by SPCR tend to have much higher numbers than the manufacturer's specs, although who knows what conditions most fans are measured or whether they are measured with any consistency.

I suggest we all just wait and see. There are samples coming...

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:06 pm

Devonavar wrote:Seeing a spec like 6 dBA (with no measurement distance given) makes me wonder just how the hell they managed to measure so low.

They didn't. If you look very carefully at the specs, then you can see a little asterisk behind the six. Then somewhere at the bottom of the page it says something like "extrapolated values". Ofcourse even then I don't believe it

To the OP. "Nobody" has heard this fan. There is just a press release (of only a few days old) which is copied by a lot of websites. It isn't for sale by any of their listed retailers yet AFAIK.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 1:08 am

If you look very carefully at the specs, then you can see a little asterisk behind the six. Then somewhere at the bottom of the page it says something like "extrapolated values".

When will fan manufacturers stop exploiting people's ignorance about acoustics and just be honest with their fan specs? We really need an industry-standard measuring methodology which everyone signs up to. This is probably a decently quiet fan, there's no need to make sh*t up.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 5:16 am

jaganath wrote:When will fan manufacturers stop exploiting people's ignorance about acoustics and just be honest with their fan specs?

About the same time that laundry soap manufacturers stop advertising their product as "New! Improved!".

cotdt · Post by **cotdt** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:36 am

those strange figures like 6dBa are obviously not measured, but actually they might be accurate after all. 6dB would be pure BS, but 6dBA could be correct since lowering the RPM would also lower the frequency and in the dBA scale, it attenuates very rapidly below 100Hz in comparison to the dB scale. See thie plot of the dBA filter:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/graphics/dBA&C.GIF

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:31 am

Subjective Review
but the reviewer had this to say,
"To be completely honest the Noctua fan running at full blast was nearly inaudible, and when using the U.L.N.A resistor I almost couldnâ€™t distinguish it from the HDDâ€™s spinning."
If a noise from a 600rpm fan is as loud as an idling hdd, it's definitely not quiet, as long as we're talking 3.5'' drives. he doesn't mention the distance he listens from either, it's not much of a review, more like a users experience.

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:30 pm

I ordered 2 of them. Should be here in a day or two. To bad I don't have access to a Nexus but my S-Flex (1200rpm) is concidered good and rather quiet

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:44 pm

They're quiet enough, but only because they're slow. Sound quality isn't bad, but it's also nothing to blow a decent Nexus out of the water. The oddly shaped blades don't push as much air for RPM as other fans though... We'll just have to hope that Noctua is being honest when they say the design makes up for it in pressure vs. pure airflow.

More info when we publish our 120mm fan roundup.

Poodle · Post by **Poodle** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:25 pm

ryboto wrote:Subjective Review
but the reviewer had this to say,
"To be completely honest the Noctua fan running at full blast was nearly inaudible, and when using the U.L.N.A resistor I almost couldnâ€™t distinguish it from the HDDâ€™s spinning."
If a noise from a 600rpm fan is as loud as an idling hdd, it's definitely not quiet, as long as we're talking 3.5'' drives. he doesn't mention the distance he listens from either, it's not much of a review, more like a users experience.

Well, hard drives are often louder then undervolted fans.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:00 am

Us Norte Americanos may get to judge for ourselves soon. NCIX is now accepting orders for the Noctua fans, although they do not yet have stock. Perhaps us south-of-the-border types may see them soon as well.

jan555 · Post by **jan555** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 4:24 am

I am using 2 pcs. of these fans and at ~800 rpm they are absolutely silent (from distance of just few inches there is simply no noise, they produce some slight aerodynamic noise at ~1000 rpm and over). These Noctuas are not the best in airflow and are pretty expensive, but yes, they are silent enough if slowed down a bit.