Which fan for Macho 120

[saitrix]

Hi,

I have a Thermalright Macho 120 cooler but I am not that happy with the fan. Is something like the Noctua NF-P12 PWM still the best PWM fan for a cooler or is there something else I should consider?

[edh]

The NF-P12 is intended for high pressure cooling with very restrictive airflow. A more normal fan like the NF-S12A may be quieter for this application but then it depends upon the rest of your system design too. Is it that the current fan is too loud?

[lodestar]

The earlier versions of the Macho 120 were fitted with a 600 to 1300 rpm PWM fan so I guess the issue for you is idle speeds. The NF-F12 PWM is a fan that Noctua use on CPU coolers such as the NH-U12S. So that would maybe make it a more obvious choice than either the NF-P12 PWM or the NF-S12A PWM. I own and use all three of these fans but only use the NF-F12 for CPU coolers so I can't say how the other two would perform in that role. Obviously there are lots of variables in terms of trying to compare the results I get with these fans with what you might expect to see. However the lowest speed I see from the NF-F12 under idle conditions using the Asus BIOS Silent Profile is around 300 rpm. Under the same conditions the NF-P12 PWM runs at 250 rpm as an intake fan, and the NF-S12A at 350 rpm as an exhaust fan.

[saitrix]

So to expand on that, yes you're correct there I have the one which only goes down to 600rpm. So my case is a Fractal Design R5 with stock fans plus an identical additional intake fan all running at 350rpm. I didn't think of just looking at the fans which Noctua uses on their heatsinks, that would make sense! Think I will get myself one of NF-F12's then.