Advertised Vs. Real Performance
This is probably the most crucial page, showing how accurate the data provided by the manufacturers/brands on their products is. Since nobody could verify these numbers so far, it was an open field for every brand to declare whatever it wanted, but this stops now. I should also note that I strictly follow the specific guidelines (ISO7779: 2018) for taking noise measurements in information technology and telecommunications equipment.
A note here about the power consumption numbers: so far, I noticed that most brands provide power consumption information without static the precise fan operation, whether it is operating at max airflow, max static pressure, or a state in between. The fact is that when the fan is under load, meaning that it delivers its full static pressure, its power consumption increases. This is why, if there is no information on the fan’s operating conditions, I will compare the advertised power consumption with the readings I have at 100% fan speed with an obstacle (max static pressure) and without (max airflow). In case there is power consumption information stating the fan’s operating condition, I will provide the corresponding results I got.
In the table below, anything in Red means bad news, while the Blue fonts are good!
Since there are no official values for the Noctua NF-A12x25 High-Speed Edition, I had to use the specs of the plain model.
| Performance Metric | Advertised Performance (Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM Plain Edition) | Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM High-Speed Real Performance | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Speed (RPM) | 2000 | 2469 | +23.45% |
| Max Input Current (A) | 0.14 | 0.18 | +28.57% |
| Max Power (W) | 1.68 | 2.16 | +28.57% |
| Qmax (CFM) | 60.1 | 64.64 | +7.55% |
| Pmax (mmAq) | 2.34 | 2.91 | +24.36% |
| Max Noise Level (dBA) | 22.6 | 35.4 | +12.8 dBA |
The high-speed edition offers higher airflow and notably higher static pressure but is noisier and consumes more.
even the LS variant spins nearly 2x too fast for most uses if you care about noise so existence of this variant is bizarre to say the least
and if you want performance at all costs T30 or some monster from Delta will be your friend
The T30 is a monster, for 30mm thickness.
it’s a weird one, extra thickness and top speed make it less fit for the consumer grade, but it isn’t going as far as industrial/server fans relying on the brute force and thickness alone as it uses better materials and tight tip clearance like Noctua does
probably makes most sense when you don’t want to build a rack but have a technical room to put the machine in and just run these at full speed to not worry about anything
at low speeds it’s fine for regular use if your PWM controller doesn’t make it stop despite using it in performance or advanced mode (hybrid stopping at 50% makes no sense imo as that 50% is still loud) but requires some extra space and you won’t be using that extra speed at all