In order to provide an accurate set of comparative results, the following methodology was used.
Test system:
Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Z270
Intel Core i7-7700K Delidded w/ NT-H1 under IHS
Radeon R7 Passive GPU with 2GB VRAM
8GB Crucial DDR4 2400 MHz
512GB OCZ SSD
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 800W
Lian Li T80 Test Bench
All testing conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste
Noctua NH U12S used as a base cooler (fans clearly be swapped).
We’d like to say a big thank you to Gigabyte,Noctua, Crucial, Intel, OCZ, be quiet!, and Lian Li for providing us with the above testing equipment and their on-going support.
Testing Methodology
We always use Noctua Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers not the efficiency of the bundled thermal paste
Each fan is separately connected to the ‘base’ Noctua NH U12S cooler using the standard connectors provided with the cooler.
The fan is temperature tested at normal operation and at full speed.
The speed is set under the bios using the ‘normal’ and ‘full’ profile.
Fan speeds are measured based on the reports taken from the bios and confirmed again via CPUZ.
Fan noise output is measured under full speed ‘stress’ conditions.
With the fan at ‘normal’ load, the system is tested for 5 minutes to determine an average temperature.
With the fan at full load, the system is ‘stress’ tested for 10 minutes to determine an average temperature.
The processor was set to its normal operational speed – No overclocking occurred during testing.
Although every Noctua fan was provided with a ‘low-noise’ adaptor, these were not used in our testing.
Noise levels were tested using a DBA volume tester at a range of around 6″. We usually do not test in such close proximity, we did, however, wish to get more varied results and emphasise louder fans to quieter ones.
Tests Conducted
Four separate tests were conducted for comparison
Fan RPM speed – Reported compared to true.
Temperatures – Normal/Full Fan at idle and Stress Test
Speed/Temperature – Actual fan speeds at stress test levels in comparison to temperatures.
Acoustics – Noise levels produced under stress testing at full fan speed.
In regards to fan speed, please note that Noctua advises that a 10% variance (above or below) is within the operating parameter. For example, a 1000RPM fan would be allowed to have an actual maximum speed of 900-1100RPM and fall within this remit. This margin of error is not unique to Noctua, it is, however, worth noting in terms of the test results.