Noctua fans, still the best

[potato_hamster]

JEMC said:

potato_hamster said:
I'm going to be swapping out my Cooler Master 212 Evo for an AIO, and probably upgrading my EVGA 1070 FTW to have its own AIO with the upgrade kit in the next year or so. To be fair, this is mostly for aesthetic reasons, since the 212 is fucking ugly. But then again, since I'm not exactly rocking a cutting edge PC, and my graphics card only has to support a couple of 1080p monitors, so I'm not really concerned about the performance either. I

I picked up some NZXT fans to go with my case (4 total) to keep the build consistent, and don't really see a reason to "upgrade" to Noctua. You're only talking about 1-2 degrees of performance when you're going above bargain level fans, and unless you're at risk of thermal throttling, you're not going to see any meaningful gains of performance.

It's not only about temp, but also noise and longevity. Noctua fans are known for its excellent performance while being a lot quieter than the competing options.

First and foremost, I really haven't gotten into the nitty gritty of fans. I got a good deal on an NZXT S340 ellite + hue+ AER fan package. Like I said, I'm not exactly pushing the limits of gaming, so my fans aren't anywhere near running at 100% ever from what I've seen. They're good enough for me.

Now, I can't speak for longevity, but based on quick browse on newegg, it appears to me that noctua fans come at a premium compared to the competition, and according to the specs of fans from the likes of bequiet, corsair, thermaltake etc, are cheaper, quieter, and not beige.

Also,  it might be worth noting that the black "industrial" ones are much louder and $5 more expensive than the beige "consumer" ones, (http://noctua.at/en/products/fan) so you actually have to pay an even bigger premium to not have the beige.