Which is quieter on H100i, Corsair SP120 Quiet or Noctua NF F12

[Wam7]

I'm looking to replace the stock fans on the Corsair H100i with either Corsair SP120 Quiet or Noctua NF F12. Silence is the main criteria. I've been searching to find out which is the quieter. Does anybody know or has seen any reviews as to which one of these is quieter at their full speed of ~1500rpm?

[brutallink]

I have an H80i and have been googling alot recently to find the best fans which has lead me to many similar threads to this one, for both the h80i and h100i.

I'd love to link you some of them but my lack of posts right now means I cannot, but have a look on tomshardware and overclockers forums for the bulk of these threads.

Looking at the overall answers would tell you the noctua's are quieter but they are not necessarily the best option.

In these threads people recommend many alternative fans but the other conclusion that can be drawn is that none of the alternative fans can push as much air through the radiator as the stock fans. Statistically the stock fans have a static pressure of 4mm/H2O where the two fans you are asking about are lucky to get more than 3mm/H2O. This means the alternative fans need to work harder to push the air through the radiator.
Generally (but not always) the faster the fan is going, the louder it will be. So changing the fans may not produce the results you are looking for depending on how hard you currently push the fans.

Currently I use the stock fans on my H80i but the research I did suggested these:-
- SP120 Performance
- Noctua NF F-12
- Sythe Gentle Typhoon 1850
- Cougar Vortex CF-V12HP
- Akasa Vipers

I've tried the cougars and I do not recommend them. I am currently waiting on some akasa vipers arriving.

I know this isn't the answer to your question but it is what I've found and maybe it helps

[Kovoet]

Tried both on my h100i and landed up with the sp120's. Mind you there is not much difference.

[Noxvayl]

I have some Akasa Vipers and Noctua NF-F12s. The Noctua fans are very quiet if kept below 1200RPM and produce a low hum at 1500RPM. The Akasa Viper's are a lot louder at their 1900RPM but also blow about twice as much air and can be made to be more silent through PWM control. I haven't used any other fans that are as silent with similar performance, according to specs the bequiet! Silent Wings 2 are almost the same as the Noctua's but the mounting design is not great for use on radiators or heatsinks.

If you are buying new the Noctua fans come with a Low Noise Adapter that restricts the fans to 1200RPM which keeps them very quiet and from my use of them on an Alphacool NexXxos 240mm radiator they perform well at that speed. The Akasa Vipers do perform better but they are louder so I've decided to sell mine because I'm using the Noctua's instead. I would recommend getting the Noctua NF-F12 fans myself, good quality fans with everything you need and more included.

This is a good read if you want to find out more about fans used on radiators, specs aren't always indicative of performance.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6391/1...t-2-fan-harder

[Wam7]

After much reading, I decided on the SP120 Performance and using PWM I will just keep the RPM to my tolerable noise level This was the best review I could find including both the NF-12's and SP120's. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo..._25.html#sect0