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Noctua NF-R8 & NF-S12, 80mm & 120mm Case Fans Review

Written by: Maxwell Anderson
Date: November 22nd, 2006
Rating: 9.3 out of 10
Page: 2

After looking at the specs and checking out that sweet 6 year warranty, it would appear that these fans have been well-designed. The packaging they came in is even well-designed. Taking a look at their website would lead you again to the same conclusion: they know what they’re doing when it comes to design. My only question is, what’s up with the earth tones? I’m not trying to hate on their color scheme or anything, but it seems like they should provide us with different colors to choose from. Yes, it is a nice change from the norm, but computer cases come in colors that would clash with red clay and, uh, creamy beige. I can dig it, though. As for the structural design of the fans, these things are top-notch. They look like every other case fan, but they feature a special bearing system that sounds pretty neat-o, and a cool, curved fan blade design. The blades are also slightly reinforced at the base, so if you stick a pen in it while it’s spinning, I assume it would hold up better than an average case fan. And that’s not all! My personal favorite design element is the sleeving that is has all along the cords. This sleeve keeps together the three cords and helps keep your case uncluttered, if that’s what you’re into.

Installing these case fans isn’t unlike installing any other case fan, except for the fact you can install these ones with special “vibration compensators.” I honestly have no idea how you’re SUPPOSED to install them, but I’m pretty sure I at least got the idea right. It looks like you’re supposed to use these rubber things in place of your normal screws. I guess, in theory, they would just pop right through the holes, but I found it much easier to pull ‘em instead of push them. My case only has a spot for an 80mm fan at the moment, so I didn’t get to truly test out the 120mm ones, but I did plug them in and drop ‘em a few times to see if they’d still work – they did. Note, also, that you could use these case fans on your heatsink if it’ll accomodate. The one on my testing rig won’t.

My case, the way it was already set up, had a little tunnel installed in the side of the case so the CPU fan could always suck in fresh air from outside of the case. There is also a somewhat loud fan in the back of the computer, blowing outwards. I replaced the tunnel thing with the 80mm Noctua case fan.

Since I like to forget to do things regularly, I forgot to check which way the fan blows. The way I installed it was, of course, the opposite of the way I wanted it to be, so I had to uninstall it. This wasn’t nearly as easy as installing it. I learned how to properly take out the vibration compensators the hard way. Oh, and just so you know, the fan blows TOWARDS the labeled side of the fan.

If you don’t take them out that way, here is what may result:

Just be sure to take great care when uninstalling the rubber things, ’cause while they are surprisingly strong, they will break. I would suggest they include a couple extra just in case other people are as careless as me.

I ended up breaking two of them, so in their place, I used screws. It looks like I meant for it to be that way, right? After you get it in the case the way you want it, here’s how you use the adapter to plug it in:

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