This is true, but RPM control provide limitations. If Fan X cant spin more than 1000 RPM - yes its quiet but not performing, and vise versa - if fan have bad PWM scaling - its can be to loud at low PWM values or voltages if its not a 4 pin fan.
Since this blade design is primarily designed for high air pressure scenarios I'd have also liked to see how the two perform as airflow intake fans on a mid tower case.
They will be really good for it, there are al ready videos out about this topic. Jay two cents has a video about this topic, most likely also gamersnexus.
This isn't the channel for that kind of content, but the Phanteks fan being 20% thicker is naturally going to allow it to move more air. I would have loved to see performance on a low-profile CPU cooler.
I run 2x A12 as intake and 1x as exhaust. Case CM Silencio 452 (very air restricted) cpu cooler Noctua NH-L12. Cpu Ryzen 5 5600x. Stress test 69c at 1600 rpm. I run them at 1250 rpm almost inaudible.
@@yanuehara8017 Not realy sure if you can call it a ripoff. gotta remember the RnD of noctua getting that liquid crystal polymer to work for narrowing down that gap from the blades to the frame from 2mm to 0.5 mm. that is a major design difference. also it is quite common in engineering to adapt other solutions and improve them to make them your own. In fact you get trained at the university to just do that. there is no reason the reinvent the wheel all over again everytime.
@@yanuehara8017 i never did judge thermaltake. You are the one calling them Thermal fake all over again. About Noctua and Nidec: there was no Lawsuit in any kind. that can mean two things. It was simply ok to do so because of the design differences or there was licensening involed. Also, just because noctua's fans did mostly performed the same in the end ( wich im not sure of, did not check) does have nothing to do if it is a ripoff or not. the design differences do. go and ask a lawyer. every company will defend thier patents and intellectual property if they can and if needed. If there was no such thing it probably means that it was just fine.
@@yanuehara8017 then have fun reinventing all for everything from ground up again. Thats not what engineering is ment for. Thats not how our world works and develops.
Yay! Happy to see you review these. I bought two as intakes for my NR200P and it dropped my GPU thermals by a few degrees and made the system overall more quiet. I'd love to use them as exhaust too, but the extra 5mm makes it not compatible with the brackets for the top of the NR200P unfortunately.
A factor to consider is the T30 is a 3-phase/6-pole motor design, rather than a 4-pole. In my experience with other 6-pole units (Noctua Industrial, BeQuiet SilentWings 3), they tend to make a strange resonating sound at all RPM ranges; it sounds like they're going "ooouuuggghhh". Some people don't notice it, some don't mind it, but it drives me bonkers
@Mario Kart who told you they are better than the xpg? Literally all 3(noctua,tt and xpg) are all based on the same design,which is the gentle typhoon,their performance will be in the same threshold Noctua did NOT engineer their fan groom scratch and all the fans will perform within margin of error Before calling it thermalfake remember they are not the only company to base their fan off the gentle typhoon,even noctua did the same thing.Nobody is copying noctua here lmao
@Mario Kart the phanteks ,noctua, thermal take,xpg and even ek vardar are all based in the same original fan and also perform very similarly and within Margin of error.Period Buy whichever one you think looks better Don't buy corsair or nzxt though, those are crap for their price, except the highest end corsair ones
@Mario Kart you also have be quiet and eloop noise blocker fans which are not based on the gentle typhoon,peform great,are silent and are cheaper than the noctua's
EXACTLY the fan comparison that I was looking for. Thank you! ❤ It's the same with room/window fans: The thicker ones have a deeper blade pitch, so they are quieter and move more air at a given RPM.
I have to disagree the part of "even if we were noise normalized that...." . Since dbA is a logarithmic unit the difference is way bigger than it looks. Using your graph data, Noctua is doing 71.1C = 344.25K at 41.1dbA = 0.002270022 Pa of sound pressure. T30 is doing 68.3C = 341.45K at 41.5dbA = 0.002377004 Pa of sound pressure. Doing a convertion to sound pressure so we are now free of logarithmic units for direct comparison, now, (344.25-341.45) / 341.45 = 0.8% , and (0.002377004 - 0.002270022)/ 0.002270022 = 4%. That means T30 is having a 0.8% temperature advantage while increasing 4% of sound pressure(noise). So if you really do noise normalized calculations, T30's temperature result have to be scaled 4% higher = 355.108K which is way higher than Noctua's results.
1. You can't compare RPM vs dBA. You need to compare cfm. 2. You can't compare raw dBA. You need to compare the apparent loudness across the spectrum (what you actually hear, which is a major reason larger fans are quieter -- the pitch). You'll notice the Phanteks are lower in pitch, which is significant.
Another benefit of the 30mm thick fan is certain deshrouding applications. In cases like the Ncase and NR200 there is still a gap on certain GPUs when deshrouding, the extra 5mm could work to your advantage.
I just did my case with T30 Phanteks. They are phenomenal at moving air. I have them at 2000rpm and they move a lot of air through my system. Internal temps dropped 25 degrees from what they were. They get a little loud if you start to climb the RPM ladder but I definitely recommend them highly. They are built very solid. They are slightly thicker though so be careful if you are doing compact form factor builds, you may run into fitting issues
4:16 and that’s why almost all tests out there are flawed, not comparing loudness under air-moved. For any temperature-control essentially would equalize the latter, lowering the Phantek’s RPM.
did you watch the whole video? the Phantek is thicker at 30mm vs Noctua 25mm (industry standard) so this is not surprising. but sure competitions are good.
@@katt2002 Phanteks are just superior though at a cheaper price for most people. Unless you go ITX, T30's are just a better, cheaper, nicer looking buy.
Finally ! Was waiting for your review of the T30 since the day they launched. Could you please give more details about bearing noise? When comparing the P12 to the NFA12x25, you demonstrated that the P12 whines when RPM is around 1000, while the NF-A12x25 is consistently quiet. Could you please do the same for this fan, and compare their noise output at lower RPMs (350, 500, 800) ? Thanks for the dedication, your in-depth noise analysis is best in class. Cheers !
I'm a Noctua loyalist. I've been purchasing Noctua fans for over several years now and they never disappoint. It's good to see other companies put out great products as well. Nothing wrong with lil industry competition. I'm not tech guru or anything but I'm guessing that 5mm difference in thickness helps in some areas.
Thicker = Better. Now we just need someone to make a worthy replacement for the 120x55mm Feser Triebwerk fans. Those things were nuts. Extremely rare now too.
@@yanuehara8017 Oh you're right! The "Nidec Servo Gentle Typhoon" was made in 2009, and the notches on the Nidec GT are found on Noctuas NF series too (could be more)! You've taught me something new today, thank you for showing me this.
I love my NF-A12x25's own three of them, but they definitely have a pitch issue above 1500 rpm which vastly negates the noise performance reviewers claim they have.
I would have liked to see a temperature-normalized comparison, basically if the Noctua is running at 1250 RPM, what RPM does the Phantek need to run at to match its cooling performance and what does that sound like? I think the Noctua sound way better at the same RPM, the Phantek has a fairly noticeable buzzing which I personally find annoying, but if it can be run at inaudible speeds to achieve the same performance then that is irrelevant.
I never cared for noise tests, because in general, the louder the fan the better it performs. that's just fact. i used to rock a set of SUNON fans back in the day which were 3000rpm and loud as balls. like jet engines taking off. but they moved over 180 CFM of air, which back then, was insane compared to most fans stuck around 30-50 CFM.... Eventually I had those sunon fans hooked up to my liquid coolers which did not perform very well because they were "open air" fans and had very low static pressure even though they could push insane air flow in CFM. Eventually I had upgraded to proper radiator fans and when the new noctua nf-a12x25 "sterrox" plastic fans came out, been using them ever since. I would love if Noctua made 140mm versions of their godly fans, and would love thicker fans in general. I would totally buy 50mm fans if they could move some serious air at low rpm....
I think we need a lifespan test. I have some Noctua fans that are still good after around 10 years in a PC chassis used daily. But I am tempted by the greater efficiency of the deeper blades. That extra 5mm depth could easily be adding between 5 and 10mm to the width of each blade.
Like you pointed out, at equal speed the Noctua is quieter, but the Phanteks is cooler. This is because at the same RPM the Phanteks moves more air. Another review I saw used Noctua's NH-U12S and the Phanteks had the same cooling capacity at 1100rpm that the Noctua had at 1400.
This means Phanteks could be run slower to achieve the same effect. And running them slower means more silent.
10 месяцев назад
@@bralis2 Not necessarily if people like me easily hear "harmonic" sounds. However, it drives me crazy to compare a fan that is 5mm longer than the others, it must largely play on that to gain performance.
Ironically, the Noctuas are the cheaper, better bang for the buck option. €60 for a single T30, €135 for the 3-pack. A12x25 : €30 for a single fan and €83 for a 3-pack. (Oct.2021, Amazon germany) Also, you can get the A12x25s in black ... like most other Noctua fans.
What also would be interesting is a temperature normalized noise test. Configure the fan controller to target a specific coolant temperature and then compare the noise level also with noise samples.
I'm not surprised. They're quite similar, but the T30 is 5mm thicker. If they were the same thickness, I imagine the Noctua would perform similarly. Still, nice to have options... especially since it's not taupe. I know Noctua has been working on Cromax versions of the NF-A12x25... but it looks like they took people off that to mount a couple to an Asus 3070 instead. Next time I do a build with some 120mm fans, I'll be grabbing some of these T30's to go in it.
I've tested both of these extensively and even at the same RPMs the T30 are definitely quieter than the Noctuas. After i've had tested the T30s i literally couldn't go back to the Noctuas. The only thing i can hear from the T30s are the air they're moving while on the Noctuas there's always that humming sound of their motor dominating. That could be something subjective though as people might find the humming sound of the noctuas more pleasant but honestly? I have a very hard time imagining that. So yeah, when i have the room : T30 all the way. The King is dead, long live the King.
it would be pretty interesting to see a video where you test the best 140mm fans on the market! Since you know, the larger fan the better. Also I don't think noctua has an NF-A12 equivalent yet on the market, they are releasing new 140mm fans soon that they have apparently devoted 8 years of engineering into. My bets on the best 140mm fans are arctic p14, thermaltake toughfan 14, maybe also throw in the be quiet! silent sings pro 4 as well, and the new upcoming noctua fan ofc. Please I'm dying for a video like this from a reputable tech youtuber like yourself for a long time, there's a real scarcity of 140mm fan reviews on youtube rn
Great vid! Don’t buy those Thermaltake clones. I’ve had 2 vibrate itself to death and make such a loud noise, so into the garbage they go. The Noctua fans are so worth the money. But I do want the Fractal Torrent with 180mm fans. I hope 180mm fans go mainstream in PC building.
I've had a Silverstone Fortress FT-02 for years. Those come with 3 of Silverstone's Air Penetrator 180mms at the bottom. Had it since 2013. If 180mms haven't become norm since then, they never will. Pretty tough to find manufacturers who make decent ones, anyway.
While somewhat subjective I put Lian Li SL-INF above the Noctua. This is just a quick comparison but these two are very close with the significant difference being Lian Li is far more innovative with a vast amount of customization, feel free to correct this if I have any of this is wrong. Noctua NF-A12x25. RPM - 2000 CFM - 60 dBA - 18.8 ____________________ Lian Li SL Infinity. RPM - 2100 CFM - 61.3 dBA - 19
Suggestion: adjust the scales on some of your graphs, particularly the temperature. 0 degrees C is already arbitrary, so you might as well zoom in/cut down the scale to make it easier to see. Unless you want to put everything in kelvin ;)
Great video, your knowledge is usable and help me to choose right. Please swap the fans on the radiator on the nr200p max water cooling with the t30 and show us the results!
Forget it, the T30 does not exist in 140mm. In any case, it will be interesting if you look at changes in the liquid cooling system in the nr200p max case because the air output in the case goes out through the radiator which causes the temperature in the processor to rise.
I'd like to see how well these hold up over time, I heard a lot of complaints about the arctic p12 fans because they end up developing a whining noise after a decent amount of usage. Also I was wondering what sort of warranty we could expect on these? For the NF-A12x25 according to Noctua: "NF-A12x25 features an MTTF of more than 150,000 hours rating and comes with a full 6-year manufacturer's warranty"
These new phanteks are great but what makes noctua different is they not only focus on cooling performance but also in noise and efficiency. In my opinion that is the reason why Noctua has been the best in their field and even though other companies might slightly outplay the Noctua on the cooling category, the difference is just too insignificant that I personally wont mind considering Noctuas peformance in efficiency and noise.
Cmon phanteks, get a 140mm equivalent out there! Imagine if they actually beat noctua's new 140mm to market... Actually that honestly wouldn't shock me at all.
I'm looking at these right now to deshroud a 3060 TI Ventus 2X OC. In the NR200 it won't fit with shroud + 25mm thick fans. Without the shroud there's an 8mm gap. These are the perfect solution!
@@v000000000000v I haven't seen any 30mm thick noctua fans. What is the model number? Alternatively I've seen a simple "mod" with longer screws and nuts to just bring the 25mm thick fans flush against the card without having to zip tie them.
@@MaxWarwick_ i think they are called phanteks t30-120, they even beat the noctua nfa12, i believe 30mm + a 3mm gasket (search like 120mm silicone fan gaskets) would give you the best performance
I liked the video. However, would have wanted to hear price comparison as well mas what kind of bearing they had i.e ball bearing, hydro, magnetic. I agree with the ables been shorter as well. The little switch however, in my opinion is in the worst place. You won't be able to reach it depending on how you mount the fans (people will need to keep that in mind). I think it would have been better if it was on the side of the fan. Good video overall thanks mate.
What is that wierd buzz when you transition from Noctua to the T30 on the radiator? One of the big selling points on the Noctua is the tonality of its noise is designed to be more pleasant to the ears. I have been fooled by so many "Noctua Killers" in the past I have my reservations... I have been building for 23 years and it used to be the panaflo and yate Loon WAY back in the day and since the noctua and original SSO bearing I have not heard many fans I find as pleasing to the ear.
Phanteks T30 120mm vs Noctua NF-A12x25, a fight reminiscent of the Ali - Frazier “Fight of the Century.” I’m mainly into SFF builds to have a small workstation for Blender and some video editing, so your channel has really provided a lot of great information. Sure, your statement that those T30s at full load were “deafening” was tongue-in-cheek, but those 30mm thick beasts spinning at 3000 rpm brought on an ear-to-ear grin. For the record, 60 decibels puts you in the “conversation/air conditioner” region of the db scale. Maybe not the best for daily driving or gaming, but good enough for rendering a 3D animation while you grab a cold one from the fridge. I wouldn’t mind seeing some performance numbers in the “Advanced Mode.” Maybe a build with six of those babies in a Jonsplus i100 Pro, a build that could prove useful for small scale wind tunnel testing.
Noise vs Temperature should be the only way to test a fan...
this guy knows what hes talking about
This is true, but RPM control provide limitations. If Fan X cant spin more than 1000 RPM - yes its quiet but not performing, and vise versa - if fan have bad PWM scaling - its can be to loud at low PWM values or voltages if its not a 4 pin fan.
only if you have acoustically and thermally tightly controlled space, as well as test at various loads, and many times to catch variance.
Here's what it sounds like:
*deafening silence*
I'm on mobile and this is true
I'm on Samsung Smart Fridge and can confirm
I'm on 2012 Toyota Corolla and can confirm
I'm on nokia 2100 and can confirm
We could use someone with airpods
Since this blade design is primarily designed for high air pressure scenarios I'd have also liked to see how the two perform as airflow intake fans on a mid tower case.
They will be really good for it, there are al ready videos out about this topic. Jay two cents has a video about this topic, most likely also gamersnexus.
This isn't the channel for that kind of content, but the Phanteks fan being 20% thicker is naturally going to allow it to move more air. I would have loved to see performance on a low-profile CPU cooler.
Bit wit (Kyle) also did a video on this they are awesome fans. Wish they had rgb
I run 2x A12 as intake and 1x as exhaust. Case CM Silencio 452 (very air restricted) cpu cooler Noctua NH-L12. Cpu Ryzen 5 5600x. Stress test 69c at 1600 rpm. I run them at 1250 rpm almost inaudible.
Gamer's Nexus will probably do a video on it.
Optimums videos makes everybody's day
Or night. Considering it's evening here in straya.
Once Phanteks starts making their fans in a brown color variant, I’ll start buying!
yeah this black is a real pain. we want brown fans! when will the manufacturers finally realize this?
@@petermeier2064 😂😂😂
everybody knows that brownish fans are the coolest
Do you want some woodgrain with that, boomer?
@@z3roo0, why yes, yes I would.
Ooh, finally a worthy first fight to be decided on GNs new fan testing equipment!
@@yanuehara8017 I thought it was other way around
@@yanuehara8017 Not realy sure if you can call it a ripoff. gotta remember the RnD of noctua getting that liquid crystal polymer to work for narrowing down that gap from the blades to the frame from 2mm to 0.5 mm. that is a major design difference. also it is quite common in engineering to adapt other solutions and improve them to make them your own.
In fact you get trained at the university to just do that. there is no reason the reinvent the wheel all over again everytime.
@@yanuehara8017 i never did judge thermaltake. You are the one calling them Thermal fake all over again.
About Noctua and Nidec: there was no Lawsuit in any kind. that can mean two things. It was simply ok to do so because of the design differences or there was licensening involed. Also, just because noctua's fans did mostly performed the same in the end ( wich im not sure of, did not check) does have nothing to do if it is a ripoff or not. the design differences do. go and ask a lawyer. every company will defend thier patents and intellectual property if they can and if needed.
If there was no such thing it probably means that it was just fine.
Igor over at igors lab has done a very thorough review of these including different density rads and such.
@@yanuehara8017 then have fun reinventing all for everything from ground up again. Thats not what engineering is ment for. Thats not how our world works and develops.
Every video you do it awesome. No 'shocked face' clickbait thumbnails and titles, just clean video, good data and no filler content. Awesome stuff
These look awesome! Always glad to see competition in this space. Now if Phanteks could make a 140mm variant of these, I'd be a very happy camper.
Yay! Happy to see you review these. I bought two as intakes for my NR200P and it dropped my GPU thermals by a few degrees and made the system overall more quiet. I'd love to use them as exhaust too, but the extra 5mm makes it not compatible with the brackets for the top of the NR200P unfortunately.
Side or bottom intakes?
@@FNorberto92 bottom, I run the TG panel.
How many slots is your GPU? I heard that for a 2.5 slot gpu, only slim fans work
@@kyleboonwaat 2 slot, it's the 3080FE. Barely clears the fans lol
@Carter Miller what do you mean by it won’t fit up top on the nr200
A factor to consider is the T30 is a 3-phase/6-pole motor design, rather than a 4-pole. In my experience with other 6-pole units (Noctua Industrial, BeQuiet SilentWings 3), they tend to make a strange resonating sound at all RPM ranges; it sounds like they're going "ooouuuggghhh". Some people don't notice it, some don't mind it, but it drives me bonkers
I noticed probably this in the vids about this fan too. Now I cannot unhear it. Damn.
So this means NF-A12X25 PWM wins for you ?
@@bralis2 Yes, @Hovant means that the T30 also carries the "ooouuuuggghhh" design effect ;-)
I literally just cancelled my order because of this.
@@dotms5195 WAIT so should I get the Noctua or does that also have the OOOOUUUUUGGGGHHHH - I am shopping for QUIET
As a mech engineer, tech enthusiast, and filmmaking lover, this video checks all my boxes! hahah 🤘⚡
finally some competition. always good for the customer
If you prefer quality, don't get Thermalfake.
@Mario Kart also dont forget that the price difference adds up the more fans you buy
Also the xpg vento pro exists,which go for 20$
@Mario Kart who told you they are better than the xpg?
Literally all 3(noctua,tt and xpg) are all based on the same design,which is the gentle typhoon,their performance will be in the same threshold
Noctua did NOT engineer their fan groom scratch and all the fans will perform within margin of error
Before calling it thermalfake remember they are not the only company to base their fan off the gentle typhoon,even noctua did the same thing.Nobody is copying noctua here lmao
@Mario Kart the phanteks ,noctua, thermal take,xpg and even ek vardar are all based in the same original fan and also perform very similarly and within Margin of error.Period
Buy whichever one you think looks better
Don't buy corsair or nzxt though, those are crap for their price, except the highest end corsair ones
@Mario Kart you also have be quiet and eloop noise blocker fans which are not based on the gentle typhoon,peform great,are silent and are cheaper than the noctua's
EXACTLY the fan comparison that I was looking for. Thank you! ❤ It's the same with room/window fans: The thicker ones have a deeper blade pitch, so they are quieter and move more air at a given RPM.
I have to disagree the part of "even if we were noise normalized that...." . Since dbA is a logarithmic unit the difference is way bigger than it looks. Using your graph data, Noctua is doing 71.1C = 344.25K at 41.1dbA = 0.002270022 Pa of sound pressure. T30 is doing 68.3C = 341.45K at 41.5dbA = 0.002377004 Pa of sound pressure. Doing a convertion to sound pressure so we are now free of logarithmic units for direct comparison, now, (344.25-341.45) / 341.45 = 0.8% , and (0.002377004 - 0.002270022)/ 0.002270022 = 4%. That means T30 is having a 0.8% temperature advantage while increasing 4% of sound pressure(noise). So if you really do noise normalized calculations, T30's temperature result have to be scaled 4% higher = 355.108K which is way higher than Noctua's results.
Lol
All that yap to say nothing at all.
Based
lul
@@Dubulcleyou didn’t even read it, and if you did, you didn’t comprehend it. He clearly says that the A12x25 is still better when noise normalized.
1. You can't compare RPM vs dBA. You need to compare cfm.
2. You can't compare raw dBA. You need to compare the apparent loudness across the spectrum (what you actually hear, which is a major reason larger fans are quieter -- the pitch). You'll notice the Phanteks are lower in pitch, which is significant.
Another benefit of the 30mm thick fan is certain deshrouding applications. In cases like the Ncase and NR200 there is still a gap on certain GPUs when deshrouding, the extra 5mm could work to your advantage.
Nice yeah.. looks about right.
u can also fill the gaps with the noctua gap inserts afterwards
I just did my case with T30 Phanteks. They are phenomenal at moving air. I have them at 2000rpm and they move a lot of air through my system. Internal temps dropped 25 degrees from what they were. They get a little loud if you start to climb the RPM ladder but I definitely recommend them highly. They are built very solid. They are slightly thicker though so be careful if you are doing compact form factor builds, you may run into fitting issues
still using them mate? any negatives or dislikes about them?
4:16 and that’s why almost all tests out there are flawed, not comparing loudness under air-moved. For any temperature-control essentially would equalize the latter, lowering the Phantek’s RPM.
Phanteks needs to make a 140mm version of this!!! Please? 😎
agreed
Great video! Wow 3 - 5º better thermals than a Noctua! Well done, Phanteks! Great to have this kind of competition in top fan options.
did you watch the whole video? the Phantek is thicker at 30mm vs Noctua 25mm (industry standard) so this is not surprising. but sure competitions are good.
@@katt2002 Phanteks are just superior though at a cheaper price for most people. Unless you go ITX, T30's are just a better, cheaper, nicer looking buy.
@@brianlam5847 Can't convince Noctua fanboys. For them the poop fans are the best.
@@Chopper153 but they look nice 🥺
Finally !
Was waiting for your review of the T30 since the day they launched.
Could you please give more details about bearing noise?
When comparing the P12 to the NFA12x25, you demonstrated that the P12 whines when RPM is around 1000, while the NF-A12x25 is consistently quiet.
Could you please do the same for this fan, and compare their noise output at lower RPMs (350, 500, 800) ?
Thanks for the dedication, your in-depth noise analysis is best in class.
Cheers !
100% bet if Notcua made a 30mm version the NF-A12 it would stomp right back
Here's to hoping for a 140mm version
noctua has a 'next gen' 140mm on their roadmap for q1 2022. Many believe this will be the 140mm version of the NF12x25
Nothing will ever beat Noctua's sexy brown color scheme. Ever!
I'm a Noctua loyalist. I've been purchasing Noctua fans for over several years now and they never disappoint. It's good to see other companies put out great products as well. Nothing wrong with lil industry competition. I'm not tech guru or anything but I'm guessing that 5mm difference in thickness helps in some areas.
Thicker = Better.
Now we just need someone to make a worthy replacement for the 120x55mm Feser Triebwerk fans.
Those things were nuts.
Extremely rare now too.
Haha like your M..
Forget it
Ordered 6 of these from PCCG a few weeks back. Can't wait to get them. My rig doesn't run hot but it could always be quieter.
can you subtitle the fan speeds in the "heres how they sound" demonstration parts of the video plz
And add countdown or progress bar to warn end
Agreed
The only channel i trust with fan reviews.
I spray painted 2 T30s white and replaced the fans that came w/ the NZXT Z53 and put it in my White Meshilicious. I love it.
Really like your high quality videos, keep up the good work!
Phanteks have done a decent job here, I'm impressed. Take note ThermalTake, you don't need to copy 1:1 to make a competitor to Noctua.
@@yanuehara8017 Oh you're right! The "Nidec Servo Gentle Typhoon" was made in 2009, and the notches on the Nidec GT are found on Noctuas NF series too (could be more)!
You've taught me something new today, thank you for showing me this.
Video idea: 30mm fans with Alphacool 25mm Rads vs 25mm fans with 30mm Rads?
hands down the best fans I've ever owned, well worth the price. massive airflow and quiet too!
$85 for 3 on backorder at Newegg, I wish good fans were slightly more affordable. That's why I usually run the Arctics on some fans
Yes! Been waiting for this review!
I like how during the sound comparison, all I can hear are my own OEM case fans
the camera and the lighting are insanely good. woow!
Legend thanks man. I have a T1 and will pick these up. Hi from a fellow Aussie
can't wait for Noctuas next gen 140mm in Q1 2022... hopefully
I love my NF-A12x25's own three of them, but they definitely have a pitch issue above 1500 rpm which vastly negates the noise performance reviewers claim they have.
Whistling?
Indeed. It is hard to like things that are different. But like you said time is the best conditioning cream.
woah it’s like you read my mind, was up late with thermal issues last night and looked up some fans too. clutch as always
I really like the brown-on-brown aesthetic of Noctua, and the material quality feels a better than competition.
You are a... unique individual
@@d15p4tch6 some people like having poo smeared all over their computer
@@d15p4tch6 sounds like some form of Stockholm syndrome to me.
I started to think i was the only one. I have the U12S, and two 140's as intake, and i love my brown Noctuas!
@@sebastienban6074 everyone's got their kinks I guess haha
I would have liked to see a temperature-normalized comparison, basically if the Noctua is running at 1250 RPM, what RPM does the Phantek need to run at to match its cooling performance and what does that sound like? I think the Noctua sound way better at the same RPM, the Phantek has a fairly noticeable buzzing which I personally find annoying, but if it can be run at inaudible speeds to achieve the same performance then that is irrelevant.
Nice! I've actually been looking to your thoughts on these fans.
As always, nice review. Thanks!
Keep up the good work ali
nice comparison, great graphs so clean explanation.
I never cared for noise tests, because in general, the louder the fan the better it performs. that's just fact. i used to rock a set of SUNON fans back in the day which were 3000rpm and loud as balls. like jet engines taking off. but they moved over 180 CFM of air, which back then, was insane compared to most fans stuck around 30-50 CFM.... Eventually I had those sunon fans hooked up to my liquid coolers which did not perform very well because they were "open air" fans and had very low static pressure even though they could push insane air flow in CFM. Eventually I had upgraded to proper radiator fans and when the new noctua nf-a12x25 "sterrox" plastic fans came out, been using them ever since.
I would love if Noctua made 140mm versions of their godly fans, and would love thicker fans in general. I would totally buy 50mm fans if they could move some serious air at low rpm....
Thank you very much for posting. Great information. I'll stick w/ great (Noctua), I don't need the next best thing. Great is fine w/ me.
I think we need a lifespan test. I have some Noctua fans that are still good after around 10 years in a PC chassis used daily. But I am tempted by the greater efficiency of the deeper blades. That extra 5mm depth could easily be adding between 5 and 10mm to the width of each blade.
Sounds good, I'll start the test now and have your results 10 years from now.
@@RemedyTalon And I will do a test after 20 years, so that he knows what it sounds in his 2043 computer case.
Like you pointed out, at equal speed the Noctua is quieter, but the Phanteks is cooler. This is because at the same RPM the Phanteks moves more air. Another review I saw used Noctua's NH-U12S and the Phanteks had the same cooling capacity at 1100rpm that the Noctua had at 1400.
This means Phanteks could be run slower to achieve the same effect. And running them slower means more silent.
@@bralis2 Not necessarily if people like me easily hear "harmonic" sounds. However, it drives me crazy to compare a fan that is 5mm longer than the others, it must largely play on that to gain performance.
Ironically, the Noctuas are the cheaper, better bang for the buck option.
€60 for a single T30, €135 for the 3-pack. A12x25 : €30 for a single fan and €83 for a 3-pack. (Oct.2021, Amazon germany)
Also, you can get the A12x25s in black ... like most other Noctua fans.
Really excited for your review on the ASUS ROG Strix 27" XG27AQM!
What also would be interesting is a temperature normalized noise test.
Configure the fan controller to target a specific coolant temperature and then compare the noise level also with noise samples.
Great informative video, thanks guy :) I have ordered these to help cool my mining rig in the summer uk
I'm not surprised. They're quite similar, but the T30 is 5mm thicker. If they were the same thickness, I imagine the Noctua would perform similarly. Still, nice to have options... especially since it's not taupe. I know Noctua has been working on Cromax versions of the NF-A12x25... but it looks like they took people off that to mount a couple to an Asus 3070 instead. Next time I do a build with some 120mm fans, I'll be grabbing some of these T30's to go in it.
I've tested both of these extensively and even at the same RPMs the T30 are definitely quieter than the Noctuas. After i've had tested the T30s i literally couldn't go back to the Noctuas. The only thing i can hear from the T30s are the air they're moving while on the Noctuas there's always that humming sound of their motor dominating. That could be something subjective though as people might find the humming sound of the noctuas more pleasant but honestly? I have a very hard time imagining that. So yeah, when i have the room : T30 all the way. The King is dead, long live the King.
it would be pretty interesting to see a video where you test the best 140mm fans on the market! Since you know, the larger fan the better. Also I don't think noctua has an NF-A12 equivalent yet on the market, they are releasing new 140mm fans soon that they have apparently devoted 8 years of engineering into. My bets on the best 140mm fans are arctic p14, thermaltake toughfan 14, maybe also throw in the be quiet! silent sings pro 4 as well, and the new upcoming noctua fan ofc.
Please I'm dying for a video like this from a reputable tech youtuber like yourself for a long time, there's a real scarcity of 140mm fan reviews on youtube rn
Great vid!
Don’t buy those Thermaltake clones. I’ve had 2 vibrate itself to death and make such a loud noise, so into the garbage they go. The Noctua fans are so worth the money. But I do want the Fractal Torrent with 180mm fans. I hope 180mm fans go mainstream in PC building.
I've had a Silverstone Fortress FT-02 for years. Those come with 3 of Silverstone's Air Penetrator 180mms at the bottom. Had it since 2013. If 180mms haven't become norm since then, they never will. Pretty tough to find manufacturers who make decent ones, anyway.
T30 fans are so worth the money too. And they are better !
Got 9 of these on a MO-RA3 360, they are awesome! Super quiet at 1200rpm, can't even hear them.
Hi Optimum Tech, big fan here. These look sso nice, I can't bear to not try one of these out! I really want to take them for a spin.
Interesting how noctua 35mm would perform
Hope they will make those
I purchased 3 of these and put them on my Arctic Freezer 2 aio, they are so good, my 5950x is running nice and cool
Cheers mate, just pre-ordered mine.
I've been waiting for this
Great vid ordering now
i was waiting for thissss
While somewhat subjective I put Lian Li SL-INF above the Noctua. This is just a quick comparison but these two are very close with the significant difference being Lian Li is far more innovative with a vast amount of customization, feel free to correct this if I have any of this is wrong.
Noctua NF-A12x25.
RPM - 2000
CFM - 60
dBA - 18.8
____________________
Lian Li SL Infinity.
RPM - 2100
CFM - 61.3
dBA - 19
Never waited so much for a review
Doesn't surprised me at all, looking back at all the old school fan, most of them were loud and thick. Delta, San Ace, the list goes on.
Suggestion: adjust the scales on some of your graphs, particularly the temperature. 0 degrees C is already arbitrary, so you might as well zoom in/cut down the scale to make it easier to see. Unless you want to put everything in kelvin ;)
He should use the change in temperature relative to ambient. Delta T.
One thing that I would be really interested in knowing is the sweep angle, turning angle, pitch to cord ratio.
Imagine Liquid Freezer II 240 with the T30 fans. What a performance.
Or the LF II 280 with those. They'd be incredibly strong.
im pretty sure phanteks has an aio with t30 fans i just dk if its better
imagine lf3 360 with phanteks t30s
Great video, your knowledge is usable and help me to choose right.
Please swap the fans on the radiator on the nr200p max water cooling with the t30 and show us the results!
Forget it, the T30 does not exist in 140mm.
In any case, it will be interesting if you look at changes in the liquid cooling system in the nr200p max case because the air output in the case goes out through the radiator which causes the temperature in the processor to rise.
@@dorshalom8977 you don’t need 140 for radiator ! You need 120 !
@@dorshalom8977 they would probably make that 40mm thicker lol
@@humilicious it will fit 😆
Yup, I really don't mind thicker fans if they perform better with less noise.
NIce review Ali, Wow Noctua got rival afterall
I am all Noctua but I like these grey ones a lot
Specs list 36mm or 39mm radiator screws. For 30mm radiators, its a no go.
I'd like to see how well these hold up over time, I heard a lot of complaints about the arctic p12 fans because they end up developing a whining noise after a decent amount of usage.
Also I was wondering what sort of warranty we could expect on these?
For the NF-A12x25 according to Noctua: "NF-A12x25 features an MTTF of more than 150,000 hours rating and comes with a full 6-year manufacturer's warranty"
These new phanteks are great but what makes noctua different is they not only focus on cooling performance but also in noise and efficiency.
In my opinion that is the reason why Noctua has been the best in their field and even though other companies might slightly outplay the Noctua on the cooling category, the difference is just too insignificant that I personally wont mind considering Noctuas peformance in efficiency and noise.
I think a more apt comparison would be with the 3000 RPM Noctua Industrial 120mm to compare them at max performance mode.
I think the Noctua brown & beige is a good colour scheme. And because it equates to quality, I wouldn’t bother using anything else.
Cool these are my next fans. Thanks.
If they ever make something to beat the A12x15 Chromax, then color me impressed. A godsend if you happen to put an aio in the FormD.
Impressive, motor noise is more noticeable and slightly higher pitch though
It would be awesome if you made a video showcasing argus monitor-- arguably the best free fan control software out there.
those veins looking good mate! 👍
Cmon phanteks, get a 140mm equivalent out there! Imagine if they actually beat noctua's new 140mm to market... Actually that honestly wouldn't shock me at all.
for deshrouded gpus sometimes a thicker fan lets you reduce the gap too, it might just be perfect for many deshrouded cards with ncase m1
I'm looking at these right now to deshroud a 3060 TI Ventus 2X OC. In the NR200 it won't fit with shroud + 25mm thick fans. Without the shroud there's an 8mm gap. These are the perfect solution!
you can also get 30mm fans from noctua and reduce that gap to 3mm, and have some rubber gasket to seal that whole gap
@@v000000000000v I haven't seen any 30mm thick noctua fans. What is the model number?
Alternatively I've seen a simple "mod" with longer screws and nuts to just bring the 25mm thick fans flush against the card without having to zip tie them.
@@MaxWarwick_ i think they are called phanteks t30-120, they even beat the noctua nfa12, i believe 30mm + a 3mm gasket (search like 120mm silicone fan gaskets) would give you the best performance
@@v000000000000v Phantek is not Noctua…
Temperature normalized test (noise and speeds) would be great in this case.
I liked the video. However, would have wanted to hear price comparison as well mas what kind of bearing they had i.e ball bearing, hydro, magnetic.
I agree with the ables been shorter as well.
The little switch however, in my opinion is in the worst place. You won't be able to reach it depending on how you mount the fans (people will need to keep that in mind). I think it would have been better if it was on the side of the fan.
Good video overall thanks mate.
An easy search lists Phankteks as a VAPO BEARING (Magnetic).
You could also get 24V Delta fan or some 120-230V fan if you want power.
Very interesting. Wonder if the new A12x25 Chromax will have any performance boost. If not... might have to go for these instead.
What is that wierd buzz when you transition from Noctua to the T30 on the radiator? One of the big selling points on the Noctua is the tonality of its noise is designed to be more pleasant to the ears. I have been fooled by so many "Noctua Killers" in the past I have my reservations... I have been building for 23 years and it used to be the panaflo and yate Loon WAY back in the day and since the noctua and original SSO bearing I have not heard many fans I find as pleasing to the ear.
Hey Ali, have you seen the upcoming Geeek M5? Looks to be a mainstream T1 alternative
Even if it's better, Noctua will always be the Nr. 1 because without them the fan market wouldn't be as good as of today.
wouldn't a better comparison be between the Phanteks T30 and the Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 3000rpm since they both are 3000rpm fans?
Phanteks T30 120mm vs Noctua NF-A12x25, a fight reminiscent of the Ali - Frazier “Fight of the Century.” I’m mainly into SFF builds to have a small workstation for Blender and some video editing, so your channel has really provided a lot of great information.
Sure, your statement that those T30s at full load were “deafening” was tongue-in-cheek, but those 30mm thick beasts spinning at 3000 rpm brought on an ear-to-ear grin. For the record, 60 decibels puts you in the “conversation/air conditioner” region of the db scale. Maybe not the best for daily driving or gaming, but good enough for rendering a 3D animation while you grab a cold one from the fridge.
I wouldn’t mind seeing some performance numbers in the “Advanced Mode.” Maybe a build with six of those babies in a Jonsplus i100 Pro, a build that could prove useful for small scale wind tunnel testing.