Fans

Noctua also have a 120mm version of this fan, read the review here.

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Packed in a typically Noctua style box, the fan screams quality from the word go.

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Taking a look at the back of box, you’ll find several translations of the same information in English, German, French and Spanish. Unlike the NF-S12, you get not only the U.L.N.A (Ultra Low Noise Adaptor) but a L.N.A which when combined creates the M.U.L.N.A.Z (Mega Ultra Low Noise Adaptor Zord). These adaptors are actually 3 pin, male to female wires which have a resistor on the 12v rail meaning that less power is supplied to the fan and hence it rotates slower and makes less noise. To make sure that you know which one is which, there is a tiny scrape of photocopier quality paper which tells you that the U.L.N.A is the one with black sleeving while the L.N.A is wrapped in red.

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The L.N.A reduces the fan speed from 1800RPM to 1500, and takes the volume down from 17dBA to 10dBA. The U.L.N.A goes further and the RPM drops to 800 with the noise following suit at 7dBA. Without any adaptors, you get 31CFM, the L.N.A blows 22.9CFM, while the U.L.N.A pushes 15.3CFM.

The construction of the fan is nice and sturdy, but the colours the Noctua chose aren’t the most appealing with the outer body a peach colour, and the blades themselves a light shade of brown. Its eye catching but maybe for the wrong reasons.

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There are two main advantages with this fan over others:

Noctua Raise Blade Design – more here
The blades on this fan are slightly raised above the central hub. This reduces lots of things, but mainly noise. The fan is designed to run at speeds below 1800RPM which is the NF-R8 maximum. Little things like the rounded blade edges and their precise pitch have all been thoroughly thought out.

SSO Bearing – more here
The bearings used on most fans need time to stabilise which means that they cause themselves harm when they are first turned on (due to the gyro effect). The Noctua fans use the same principle, but employ a magnet that immediately stabilises the fan from the word go, reducing noise, wear and increasing lifespan.

What Noctua do is design the fan for its size and purpose. Rather than getting the generic shape of a fan and sizing it to the usual dimensions (80, 92 and 120mm), they modify the design to be the best for its size. It’s awesome to see that at least someone has put this much effort into something so simple.