Noctua NF-B9 Review

Testing:

There is a lot of discrepancy between the measured noise levels that each manufacturer specifies for their fans. So, in this section, instead of measuring a raw noise level with a microphone, I chose to observe the relative noise levels of each fan by ear in a room with near silent ambience. In this way, I could gauge the perceived intensity of the noise (volume), as well as how annoying the sound was for each fan.

Some fans spread the noise over a range of frequencies so that the resulting sound is smooth, whereas other fans have a characteristic whine or whirring sound.

In this test I have devised a noise level scaled from 1 to 10:

1. Silent, inaudible
2. Near silent, only just audible
3. Near silent, very quiet
4. Audible, soft noise
5. Audible, moderate noise
6. Fairly loud, moderate noise
7. Fairly loud, starting to be annoying
8. Fairly loud, annoying
9. Loud, annoying
10. Very loud, ridiculously annoying

All the fans were run at 12V, connected to the PSU rather than motherboard headers. Surprisingly, the Noctua NF-B9 was actually slightly louder than the Thermaltake TT-9025A. Both of these fans were only just audible however, and much quieter than the other fans in the test.