Thunderdolt
Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2018
- Messages
- 1,011
TL;DR
The ML120s were very good, but the Noctuas are way way better, prob due to higher static pressure.
I thought the non-RGB ML120 PRO was a great fan which offered very good radiator performance at a very quiet sound level. Then I tried these Noctuas. Woah.
I'm running a 5000D with a 360x45 rad up top with fans as exhaust in pull, a 360x45 rad on the side with fans as intake in pull, a 120mm rear exhaust, and a trio of QL120s () as front intakes. With the machine running at full load and all 10 fans maxed (2400rpm for the MLs, 1500rpm for the QLs), coolant temp was a pretty steady 39C. I don't like the coolant to be above 40C, so 39C with everything maxed out was not a great place to be for long term reliability.
When I replaced all 7 of the MLs with the Noctuas and set them at 2400rpm, the coolant is now a pretty steady 37C with the machine at full load. At this speed, the noise level is essentially the same as the MLs. If I set the controller to 39C, the rpms drop to about 2000rpm, the pump slows down, and it actually becomes quieter than the MLs were at the same temp. I think I can live with the temp being 39C now that the cooling system is operating at a much lower duty cycle than before.
With the fans at full bore (2900-3000rpm), the machine is MUCH louder than the MLs, and the coolant comes down to 36C. I think the QLs are a limiter here. They're only listed at 1.55mm-H2O compared to the 7.63 of the Noctuas. I think the side intake fans on the rad are generating enough pressure that the QLs are having trouble acting as intakes. I have a few more of the Noctuas in a box, as well as 6 of the low-profile NF-A12x15. I'm going to try both of those as front intakes and see how it goes, plus I'm going to try using the thin ones as push fans on the top rad (to give it push-pull).
I have a bigger build which is using the even worse performing ML120 PRO RGB on 2x480x60 rads in push-pull. I'm going to be swapping those out for the 3000rpm Noctuas along with all of the other fans. That should really make a huge difference on that build.