Phanteks T30 - The 120mm Fan to Beat in 2021!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- All right folks, the Phanteks T30 has landed, and it really packs a heavyweight punch... at least 5mm more😉. I'll share my thoughts and testing results with this new 120mm fan. Is it the ultimate fan?
Links - as an Amazon Associate I earn commission from qualifying purchases, thank you for your support of the channel.
Phanteks T30:
Single/Triple Pack options - amzn.to/3yS4GNu
Also available on the new Glacier One 240-T30 AIO: amzn.to/3jNS0RI
Also tested:
Noctua NF-A12x25- amzn.to/3lDSrAE
Other Build Components -
Cooler Master MF700 - amzn.to/3xts6r2
CPU Block EK Velocity with Frosted Plexi - amzn.to/3xr3oaL
Rad - EK PE360 - amzn.to/3yuTQgs
Pump - EK Kinetic DDC - amzn.to/3ywl8CW
Pump Bracket - EK UNI - amzn.to/3ywPNjD
Tubing - amzn.to/3rY2Fg9
Compression fittings- EK Torque - amzn.to/3xsVQo7
Rotary Adapters - Alphacool G-1/4
amzn.to/3lEOpYv
amzn.to/37oHWc1
Ram- Corsair Dominator - amzn.to/2X4aTIn
PSU - amzn.to/3yvEloz
0:00 Introduction
2:41 Noise and Acoustic Performance
4:22 Thermal Performance
7:44 Material Quality, Features, and Included Accessories
11:50 Summary - The Ultimate Fan?
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![NOCTUA Давай ДО СВИДАНИЯ [ PHANTEKS PH-F120T30 ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JjYtJi9YJ7s/mqdefault.jpg)
the presentation of the packageing and the over all quality of these fans sold me 100%
What a well executed product. Love that they include the rad screws.
It's worth mentioning that the included screws will not work with all radiators. I tried strapping these to a set of Corsair XR7 radiators (OEM Hardware Labs) and the screws are too small. These radiators require an M4 0.7 35MM screw.
Great review man! You've got me sold, gonna buy these now.
Thank you for testing these at 850 RPM. I build cases with overkill radiators so I can run fans from 300-900 RPM and these low RPM tests are useful.
Typical PC normie always care about noise lol
@@redclaw72666 What's wrong with that? Don't knock other peoples groove and just worry about you.
Thanks for the review, fits and performs well in an air-cooled NCASE M1
I just ordered a bunch of both of these fans for my latest build. The 1580rpm vs 1600 rpm goes to the Noctua for sound profile overall noise. They sound pretty similar below 1000-1200 and above 2000
This is some amazing fan tech! A fan to rival Noctua. Real competition based on performance alone. What a time to be alive!
And a non ridiculous color theme too ;)
@@mauree1618 Heyy. Tan and brown are the only colors the human eyeball can perceive.
Noctua is IP67 rated this one isn’t
Relax dude it's just a fan
@@astraldrifter Ikr? "what a time to be alive!" lmao
The T30 is definitely a "monumental" product. I saw a video clip where they self-propeled themselves across a desk while in the "Advanced" mode. That's some serious CFM. To be fair to the "copy-cats," the Nidec Gentle Typhoon design preceded the Noctua's. Though, materials and the Bacon and Pancake Mix color scheme appears to be original. Thanks for another great video.
Love to see it boss. Keep up the good work!
hope your channels blows up in the upcoming months, u deserve it:)
Really, REALLY appreciate the audio samples. Not many reviewers remember to record some and it can help a person filter out fans that whine, resonate, or do that gross 6-pole motor howling thing
can you explain what you mean by "that gross 6-pole motor howling thing"?
@@inverse_of_zero 6-pole/3-phase motors make this weird "waaauuuhhh" sound at all RPMs, even when barely turning. Some don't notice it, some do
@@hovant6666 oh i see, thanks!
This fan would be brilliant as push config for tower coolers in the NR200/P case. I'm going to try this with my Phanteks PH-TC12DX cooler when I do my next build after the release of AMD's Zen4. BTW, love all the videos you do.. such excellent air cooling content in the mITX realm.
I could see the hybrid mode being useful in a dusty environment where the fan doesn't need to be spinning until the system is under a decent load. Great content as always!
Yeah, but wouldn't you just manage that in software/BIOS?
We really do need a 140mm version of these. Thumbs up!
Top review, thanks
Excellent video thanks
Noctua - 3 years to release a Chromax NF-A12, it's definitely too much.
A few months ago we got the ThermalTAKE copy..shame, but it should have been a wake up call for Noctua.
Now, great effort from Phanteks with these T30s, I'm done waiting Chromax.
Sleepiness is basically in their brand name.
ironically chromax just released lol
The 5mm increase in size makes it hard to fit in some SFF. However, for a cooler solution, seems interesting.
by making it thicker - they can put wider blades. If the blades are wider and each blade can push more air - it's not surprising that it is a little bit better. The fact that noctua shows similar performance with less width is a clear win for them
@@liubomyrkushnir6532 Noctua is truly the greatest but I believe Artic with their P12 PWM undoubtedly crushed their value with similar performance at nearly 1/2, 1/3 the price. Though I cannot speak for longevity, they do come with 10 years of warranty
@@coolmemesbudd Motorssound is crap on both Arctic and Phanteks compared to Noctua. Noctua cost alot but at the same time you get like 10$ in accesories.
@@ImDembe 10$? Also Noctua is performed quite badly here on low rpm:s. And I only count low rpm:s because if I liked a vacuum cleaner noise level, I would buy the worst cheap fans out there.
@I love you but it is a matter of taste after all. They do not look bad in a light case, but I understand you completely. It's always good to have different choices on the market, just sad that Noctua does not provide these choices, and we have to look for other brands just have a different style
@Machines - Given the comments about space requirements, can we look forward to a Meshlicious or NR200 video comparing the performance of a thicker rad with 25mm fans vs. a thinner rad with 30mm fans? ;-)
I second this!!
The larger rad is almost assuredly the way to go, because having more fluid means having a bigger effective heat-sink. It would be interesting to see exactly how much of a difference it makes, but M&M probably has better video ideas than this in the near-term. ;-)
M-ITX is dead. Even gaming consoles are big now.
@@noelwade I would probably take you up on that bet, because I think that the better airflow over the same surface area will make the bigger difference. Radiator thickness has very diminishing returns.
Hey Noel, it would be a good follow up to the rad test done not too long ago! One question- what rad would you suggest? They’d have to be 5mm different (at the core preferably) and be more or less the same design. I will say… with a 5mm difference I think you would see the T30 win- not necessarily because it just has 5mm more thickness but because it’s an absurdly good fan. For example, the Bionic P120 (30mm) would likely lose to an NF-A12x25 with thicker rad just because the Noctua is already a better fan.
Phanteks is so underrated. I have the P360a with 4 120mm phanteks fans and the airflow is amazing for how cheap it was.
That's a great case bro.
I wonder how it would perform with a Big Shuriken 3 against the Noctua. Nice video!
NICE !! something good to put in my phanteks p600s. love the case. i mean i love my noctuas currently running front intake but the brown/tan on the white case. ehh thanks for the review!
Haha, well, your eyes will thank you later!
How exciting!
Phantastic review!
Touché!
Great review! Would be really interested in whether two Noctua A12x15 fans in push/pull do better/worse than the single Phanteks T30, since both configs are 30mm thick.
Purchased the t30 120mm 3 pack from Amazon. I've only installed the rear fan for exhaust in my case since I didn't have one. I set the fan to the performance mode just that fan alone brought my Temps down drastically for my gpu. I'm running a 3080ti ftw3 ultra and was going up to 56° idle before fans kicked in and that number would jump up to the 70° range. After throwing this fan in the case at idle the gpu sits around the top 40°. This weekend I'm going to install the other 2 t30's in front of my case to replace the lian li fans that came pre installed. These fans are beefy, thank God I didn't have clearance issues with my motherboard, I barely cleared it. If it all works well like I hope it does, I will be buying another 3 pack to swap in onto my aio. BTW thank you for this video I appreciate it. Helped me avoid buying low quality fans.
I love to hear real user feedback like this, thank you for sharing. Helps me ensure my testing methods are sound and will help me to refine. Enjoy the fans!
Great review as always. I'm looking for a black fan to go with a C14S and 5900X and NR200 mesh.
Awesome review!
I'm just trying to decide between those two (actually the recently release black version of the NF-A12x20). This is so damn hard. I really want to minimize the noise of my watercooled PC, so the performance advantage on low RPM of the T30 really is a plus point. But on the noise samples the Noctua always seem more quiet, even though same measured noise level.
that's because the phanteks fans emit higher frequency noises which sound louder to the human brain (psychoacoustics)
@@inverse_of_zero joke's on you, I've got a monkey brain
Nice review and nice channel! Got a new sub :)
It's very nice to see some actual competition to Noctua. I've been using their fans for nearly a decade and they're unbeatable on everything except price and colour palette. Even though 5mm sounds small, that is a massive difference in the ITX community for sure in terms of how it fits. I do love the simple look to them though.
I already have a phantecs enthoo lux tg case, with an obscene amount of room so these will be a no brainer upgrade
Given the soundbites you provided, the Noctua still manages a more even distribution of the noise across the freq. spectrum.
It has less "fan" noise and more "wind" noise, per say.
Good to see competition tho. Perhaps it will jog Noctua to shorten their 160 year development-to-release cycle
Hah, yeah, wake me up from my cryo-nap when they’re here 🤙
@@MachinesMore time to wake up bro 🤙
Just ordered 10 of them 😊
Excellent review! Is the fan blade and hub assembly on the Noctua made from the same material as the T30? I see the same dark and light colour mix on both. I mean they are not solid grey or solid brown.
Seeing this a bit late but looking for fans for a new case. I enjoyed the older phanteks that came with the enthoo pro case, they moved a decent amount of air fairly quiet. However mounted horizontal as a top exhaust the bearings in the phanteks were shit. Hopefully the maglev fixes that but since these weren't tested in horizontal orientation. Even before hitting the 3k rpm the phanteks was starting to get an annoying pitch and one area where noctua shines. Even if they don't have the best dba it's tuned incredibly well. Around 1600rpm the phanteks started getting a sharper tone. Noctua doesn't have to be the traditional brown/cream colors, their redux looks like the phantek t30 but with frame/blade colors inverted and the redux have been around for quite some time. Longer than this t-30.
excellent video. This fan is on my radar now!
Please do test & compare against the A12x25 on an air cooler. Thank you. You should check & see if it will fit under the Noctua C14S cooler.
You need to grab the Barrow DARIDP 240mm integrated pump/res into rad for a future NR200 custom loop vid!
They are both good a fairly close and similar. Noctua knows which one I will buy If I see both hanging on the rack.
nice these would go great in my corsair 1000D case that never moves because its so big so big fans is not an issue
sunon is a good fan brand so that they support them got my attention now
Put 3 T30s at front of CoolerMaster Pro 5 case as intake (because I replaced their “filter” w 120 mesh Stainless). Top o case has 240 mm radiator w stock fans exhausting for Gigabyte xtreme waterforce 3080. Back fan exhaust is Nochua nf-A14. eVGA ftw3 ultra gaming 3080 Ti also in case in lower slot. Ran NiceHash overnite to stress GPUs. Temp range for air cooled eVGA card on auto mode was 65 to 69 C w GPU fans maxed at 70% speed. Conversely, in a Lian Li o11 dynamic w lesser fans, a Gigabyte 3080 Ti card (paired w that aio gpu) ran at 82 to 86 C w GPU fans at 100%. Those T30s rock! If I was a content creator, I’d put the T30s in the Lian Li case to see how far temps drop from mid 80s.
Great review. I would love to see the be quiet! Light Wings 140mm PWM high-Speed, Premium ARGB Cooling Fan go up against the Phanteks T30-120 Fan. Pound for pound, which can move more air at lower decibels? Which of these super quiet fans is the best?
Would be nice to have noise level test in pull configuration too
If like to see how this fans performs on some low profile coolers. The Scythe Big Shuriken 3 and ID Cooling IS-60.
I have a SFF build in the works (sitting sane GPU pricing) and going this might allows me to run a 5900x with a Big Shuriken 3 and this 30mm fan.
My case had about 90mm clearance for the cooler.
Thanks for the review. Seems like Noctua's acoustic profile is more of a white-noise airflow type sound while the Phanteks is a bit more of a mechanical hum at the same volume levels. Do you think this is an accurate assessment? It's hard to tell from a recording. Trying to figure out which fan blends in ambient noise more easily.
Awesome channel just found it. Just subscribed
Glad to have you!
you have to test the noctua 120mm 3000 rpms, I've used the noctua ones you have in this video, but from my experience the noctua 3000 rpm performs better that the noctua in this video.
Really great review! Would theese fans fit on a Corsair H100X in a Meshlicious?
Hey. Great funs, and test ;) But, the problem is, that it has much more power draw - over 5 W, so may be the problem to connect more then one to the single fan header :P
top video. i love fans
Great testing, and great channel.
I'll probably still with my EK-Vardar RGB fans for now. I noticed theres not a HUGE difference (But there is, but not enough for me to swap aesthetics for performance) on my custom loop. Granted, I am running a 10850k and a 3090 in a loop with 2x 360mm one being a slim rad and the other being a 45mm rad.
Have you tried to fit these into an NR200 as top case fans? Curious what the increased airflow would do in an SFF case.
ooooh now i'm interested in getting 3
Noctua does have the Y cable included, so you can daisy chain the fans.
@Machines: I like this channel a lot! and thanks for the video as always. I got a very basic question here (as I am new to this; other readers please comment as well). If I were to put a top mounted AIO, which configuration that will gave me the best combination of temperatures for both CPU and GPU? (top intake, front intake, rear exhaust?), (top intake, front exhaust, rear exhaust?) (top exhauset, front intake , rear exhaust?) or other combination. The case that will be used is 4000D airflow.
Since your gpu can be placed far away, top intake gives your rad the coolest air while the case is big enough to dilute and give the warmed up ambient air a chance to escape before the card fans intake it. Make sure the rear fan is exhausting and should be fine.
Interesting that the volume seems similar at 1200/2000rpm ish but at 1200, the Phanteks is a little more high pitched, at 2000, the noctua seems more high pitched. Which I think is more important than volume. I can handle a hum, I can't handle an annoying hum.
I guess it depends if you expect to do workloads where you case fans are going to be spinning hard or not
I just picked up a three pack of these...putting them in an NZXT H510 flow...2 in the front and 1 in the back
The front fan compartment has more then enough room for T30's so it just made sense...eventually I might pick up a arctic liquid freezer 240/280
I would like to see performance of pull VS push if you have the time.
curious with this.. planning to get this as my intake fan, would you recommend this as my exhaust as well or any other fan would do?
Would like to see a comparison with the Thermalright B12, seems to be largely ignored but is likely competitive in this segment. It also isn't $30. TR uses them on their Frozen Magic AIOs (not available in North America right now), which are extremely competitive with the best AIOs out currently.
Phantek isn't worried about that fan, it is Noctua that was king of fans that they had to beat, yet they didn't do it pound for pound.
Does the T30S fit in the rear exhaust spot above the C14s? Looks like you fit a 25mm fan in there, but you didn't mention anything about if there was enough additional clearance for a T30.
@machines and more ; dilemma 27mm rad +t30 or 30mm + a12x25?
Can you get hold of the OG, a Scythe Gentle Typhoon for a comparison?
If i want to mount this on a custom loop radiator which size of the screw should i get?
I want these in 140mm and 200mm for my Enthoo.
I want to know, are the fans actually capable of being silent? currently i run my EK-vardar's at 400 rpm, and even at this low speed they make a lot of grinding and vibrating noises, it really sucks. I like the T30, but can i actually trust it to really be SILENT, like i can with the noctua? that is my biggest concern
25 to 30 is 20% more. So it's hard for the Phanteks not to be better. Maybe Nocuta will release the 30mm version someday. ;-)
nice review. i mean tho, it looks like a black noctua other than a slightly cheaper look. I mean compare it to the 15mm fan and it will beat that too.
I want to see these fans in the NR200 especially with your de-shroud mod.
Will be doing a test on a heatsink soon, will look into a deshroud mod.
What case fans would you recommend in a phanteks p600s with a Noctua NH-U12a air cooler among these? Or others?
I'd be interested to see you take a look at Scythe Kaze Flex fans. For price to performance, I've never used a better fan.
he has a video on the recent black version
Scythe Kaze Flex is a great case fan. Maybe even the best case fan. But nowhere near top tier radiator/heatsink fan. Look at scythes new wondersnail fan, for heatsinks/radiators.
How about for a CPU cooler, what would you recommend?
so which is better as a case fan, not for radiator? tbh the T30 has a buzz i dont like when compared to noctua
Curious: have you considered comparing the recent BeQuiet Dark Rock TF 2 against a push pull NH C14S in your NR200? Seems like a natural competitor but I haven’t seen anyone compare the two.
Yeah that would be nice to see
can this fit in the meshlicious with air cooling?
i have a black ridge
Compare the t30 to the ippc 120mm noctua fan that also runs at 3k rpm. Why are people not doing this????
On Amazon, it looks like these are about $3 cheaper than the NF-A12x25 (even more with a 3 pack). That extra 5mm worries me, though. Any idea if these would work in your NR200 build (NH-C14S and 3 of these fans (2 at the bottom, 1 at the top)?
EDIT: Looking at your videos, I'd guess there'd be no problem with the top fan. The bottom two look like they might be an issue depending on the size of the graphics card. I wonder if it might force me to deshroud my EVGA 1080 FTW2 card.
Mounting on the NR200 bottom would really be pushing the space it for a lot of cards (you’d need to have a sub 45mm card and even then it’s very, very close and you might see turbulent airflow when placed so close to the card. Increased airflow is a given, but not necessarily useful since your GPUs fans would still need to work in tandem with them, so unless the build is very noise specific, I’d stick to 25mm fans for the bottom. There isn’t a lot of space between an SFX PSU and a 25mm fan in the NR200, maybe 6mm more room, plus the question of how to mount it (the fan studs aren’t long enough). Now on a cooler, different story, getting one of these to put over the top of the C14S would be a good idea. You can mount the fan on the rad panel, and coupled with another 25mm fan underneath, should be a great combo.
Seems like a good fan for deshrouded GPUs in sff cases
Thought the same thing, when i replace my existing mid tower atx build with an NR200 most likely i will deshroud my 3080ftw3 and use these fans.
....and Noctua still refuses to release the Chromax A12X25 🤣🤣
They’re gonna have to now with this fan
Seems like they are too busy with the fanless cooler they released last month.
Just check the website...they have said it's coming later this year for like a year. and it wont be black since it's hard to make it 100% black.
@@ImDembe man, the are saying the same over and over again, just imagine the release date of the Chromax 140mm version of that fan...maybe in 2040 😂👌
They finally released it yesterday
What is the different to the mp version?!
With a deshroud, that might actually be almost perfect for the NR200
Yes… the extra height would fill in a gap nicely!
Doesnt it seem fairer to compare this fan to Noctuas ippc 3000 120mm fans rather than against any other?
What are your feelings about putting a couple of these at the bottom of the NR200? Should have the clearance with a 3080 FE
There should be space, but IMHO this is a little excessive to be using as a case fan unless one is super super noise sensitive. Even if you could blast a bunch of fans at your card, the cooler still has to ingest it, so the GPU fan speeds would limit the efficacy anyway. I’ve found that around 1200 RPM on the Noctuas are evenly matched for the 3080 FE at 50%, (a good amount of noise) so airflow wise I would guess about 1000 RPM on the Phanteks- the point being that at load your GPU fans will be audible, the savings from the reduced noise will be less important.
I would love to see 30mm fan thickness become an industry norm
32mm and 38mm already are.
Maybe for less demanding people(in terms of noise), but people that also want the quitest its a nope(aka it isn't the ultimate fan that has no compromises).
T30 even at just 1200rpm was blatantly more noisy/noticable, so to get similar quietness would need to lower it - if can even get rid of the more noticeable sound signature. Which then with adjusted rpm for similar noise, could be possible its either a wash/insignificant or Noctua beats it even if just a possible little. (like say if it actually did lose that noise at 850rpm and Noctua still being around 1200rpm for similar at least perceptible noise)
These fans for a deshroud mod in the nrf200 would be awesome I think. In your video where you used the noctuas there is a bit space between fans and GPU. With these fans, things could be a little better, a little more efficient, maybe near optimal.
Will these fit as exhaust/intake fans on a NR200? I’m looking to do a horizontal 3080ti FE and wonder if they fit underneath or up top?
Bottom intake depends on your GPU thickness (just take ~70mm and subtract your GPU thickness) so you still have a small margin to avoid turbulence. Top exhaust wouldn’t work well for sure. There’s already little space between the board and PSU, to top it off the toolless mounts will be too short.
I just replaced my stock NF-A12x25 fans on my NH-U12A with these T30 fans. I can run them at 1150rpm and seeing similar results as running the Noctua fans at 1500rpm. 1200 rpm I feel is the most I’d run the T30’s as they are silent but above that rpm the Noctuas are quieter.
Yeah, there’s an inflection point where the Noctuas run faster at the same noise level. But even when slower they move more air, the physics of the blade geometry basically. Glad you are having a good experience with them!
How do you find the overall sound quality comparing the T30 at 1150rpm vs Noctua at 1500? I prefer the sound of the Noctua when the two fans are at thf same rpm, but wondering about when the T30 is that much slower. If you remember from a year ago :)
@@JeremyPass Since my post I moved the T30's to my son's PC. I like the Noctua's better. They spin faster, are quieter and I'm seeing excellent temps.
@@caymandiver75 Awesome thanks so much for the quick reply!
What is the base speed of these fans?
kinda confused with the daisy chain aspect, so if I connect all 3 to eachother ill only need 1 fan header to power all 3? also what voltage do these fans require from the fan header?
That’s correct- they do have to be next to each other though since the daisy chain cable isn’t very long in that respect. These are 12V PWM fans. One thing is I would not run three of these together on a 1 Amp header IF you plan on using the advanced 3000 RPM mode since that mode draws a lot more current and could potentially exceed 1A. The other two modes are fine.
would you mind testing these T30’s with deshrouded GPU? would appreciate it
Yeah, I have one in mind that I will try.
I would buy this to run in performance 2000 rpm mode just to not have to see tan and brown.
Between them, I would choose T30 since 0.5mm thickier is not my concern. My concern is that there is nowhere to buy in my country, so I bit my tongue and bought the ugly A12x25
101 cfm for overclocking is gonna be crazy nice. i always have to open case and aim a fan right at vrm and ram. this is gonna help a ton
Come on, overclocking in 2021? Buy a Ryzen and undervolt it, it'll boost itself, so no point. Gaining few FPS more and drawing lots of more power doesn't make sense.
@@Njazmo I'mma tell ya right now my 10900kf shits on Ryzen. For 330 dollars it walks all over a 5900x in game. You wanna know how it got there. Overclocking. Stfu if you don't know what your talking about
@@natenate33 a 10900k does NOT walk all over a 5900x, overclock vs overclock, or stock vs stock. Thats simply NOT true.
@@jeffkuzzen my $330 10900kf+ $330 bdie kit blows anything Ryzen has out of the water. Sure you can oc your 5900x to get close to mine in game but I spent less than 5900x owners even when including the price of my op ram. And you'd need to get lucky with a top bin cause my ram is amazing and my 10900kf easy does 5.4 1.4v all day
@@natenate33 id you OC the 5900x and give it the same ram, it's faster.
Thanks for the informative review. Judging by the video acoustics, Noctua seems a lot more pleasant to the ear at same dBA levels, with neutral acoustic signature. Phanteks on the other side seems to produce some repeatable humming noises at all noise levels. Is it the same in real life?
i've heard many audio clips and i come to the same conclusion as you. i think the phanteks might emit higher frequencies at the same dBA levels, but to human ears the higher frequencies are made to sound louder (see 'psychoacoustics')
@@inverse_of_zero I have two of these T30 fans at home now and I have to say I barely notice this in real life. If there is such noise, it is greatly exaggerated by the microphone in this video. They are quality fans at first sight with lot of common with Noctua Sterrox fans. Saying that if there is any performacne difference it is just a small one, not really worthy of a thickness increase. And with the same price and now the black version of A12x25 on the market, T30 will be a tough sell IMO. Good fan, but it is not an easy job to try and outsell Noctuas finest model. It is not just the performance, but also brand reputation, construction /bearings/ and costumer service, that matters. Maybe if T30 drops a price by 20% it would do the job. Can not see it being successful over Noctua at same price point.
@@minobg79 hey mate, thank you for your appraisal. tbh it depends upon the hearing and the environment. i have quite sensitive hearing, and often work late/early morning when i can hear every little noise in my apartment. if you asked me two years ago "are the noctua iPPC fans noisy at 400RPM" i would have said no of course not. today though i can hear their motor noise (it's intentional by design, i even asked a noctua rep) and they now annoy the hell out of me. what changed? my case. i went from a nzxt h440 to a lian li o11 dynamic mini. the difference? the former is plastic with sound dampening panels, the latter is all alloy and glass. now i hear every little noise in that case and it sits about 3m away from my ears
i imagine it could be the same for the t30s. i'm sure that they are, very "quiet" and even "silent" most of the time. but when listening to the sound signature, i had to choose the noctua over the phanteks, just in case i could hear it with my hearing
having said that, the phanteks are far more powerful and efficient at higher RPMs than the noctua. for example, at around 1500RPM for the phanteks, the noctua need to run at around 2000RPM to achieve similar performance when we are talking airflow-to-noise ratio. however, at lower noise/RPM levels, the noctua beat the phanteks (in terms of airflow vs noise efficiency so cfm per dba), and considering that i will be running my fans under 800RPM for 99.99% of the PC's runtime, which is why i chose the noctua. if i had a quieter case, or a noisy environment, or poorer hearing, then i would have chosen the t30s for their much stronger airflow efficiency at higher RPMs
regarding price: well that depends on your territory. for us in australia, the phanteks are more than 33% cheaper than the noctuas! so you can't always use the price argument in all countries
@@inverse_of_zero I totally understand you, believe me. I've been fine tuning my systems for years, but you keep finding new limits and goals. I am on the same boat. Right now the problem is not the airflow noise, you can always overkill the cooling and lower rpms, but all the little "parasite" noises, either from fan motors, bearings, clicky PWM signals or so... not mentioning the coil whine, jeez. Anyway I find A12x25 absolutely quiet in this regard, so I can not be happier now.
I am using Jonsbo U5 case - steel frame with full alloy body and glass panels. Not a single strange noise so far. So not sure what exactly is problem in your case, maybe some vibrations? Worth to mention I am free of HDDs, only using SSD storage and fanless PSU.
Oh OK, I can see the price difference in AUS, here in europe they cost virtually the same, both models about 30 € a piece.
In my opinion the fan to beat is thermaltake’s toughtfan 12. At $16 a fan, it’s in competition with some of the best fans out there, even though it’s a direct rip off of noctua’s nf-a12x25. You should test the fan and compare it to these other fans.
I have 2 of Thernaltake though fan 12 turbo, on my cpu cooler inside nr200p, they are just amazing performers, can say they are on par with noctua from my view.
This feels like a Arctic's take on EK-Vardar fans. The large curvatured/tilted fan blade reminds me of the P12 and the 7 blade design is very like that of the EK fan. Glad it works great!
How much does the antivibration-pads add to the thickness of the fan?
The noctua 120mm fans adds about 1.4mm(compressed) to 1.8mm(uncompressed), and the nf-a9x14 adds 0.7 to 1.1 mm to the overall thickness of the fan.
Altogether it's about 2~2.5mm total extra thickness. You could remove them if an issue, and in most circumstances you really only need them on the side that contacts the rad or case.
@@MachinesMore Really? from photos, the thickness of the antivibration-pads looks very similar to the antivibration-pads on the slim 120/92mm noctua fans. I don't even think that noctua discloses the added thickness of the antivibration-pads.
Thanks for super-speedy response!
On a separate note, if you review a "top-flow" cooler in the future, please measure where the center of the cold-plate is relatively to the edges of the heatsink, since manufacturers doesn't disclose that either. that would be Gold!!
Cheers Tom. Thanks for the suggestion on the TF coolers and will keep that in mind. Vital statistic! So on the pads, yeah, it’s closer to 2mm, honestly since my tape only has mm gradations I’m just eyeballing the fractions. Visually the Noctua ones are thicker because of how they wrap around but the added thickness is on par.
bought 3 x T30 fans, one was DOA the other has an awful motor noise, didn't even get to properly test them, plus they're louder than NF-A12x25... I decided to try the based on the good reviews but guess what. Noctua is just superior yet again.
That’s good to know, thanks for sharing. Quality variance is something that only the community can help with and that data is helpful.