NoctuaNF-R8 redux-1800 PWM, High Performance Cooling Fan, 4-Pin, 1800 RPM (80mm, Grey)

I recently upgraded my PC in the hope that one day there will be graphics cards again. I miss graphics cards. As part of this upgrade, I decided to ditch my manual fan controller and let the motherboard do the work automatically. To do this properly I needed 4-pin PWM fans.I've used Noctua fans for years and been completely happy with the performance and low sound levels. I use my PC for my little home recording studio, so it's needs to be quiet.Installation was a doddle, but I do think that Noctua should include rubber isolating mounts at this price.This 80mm fan is whisper quiet even at full speed, and with the motherboard controlling it, it's utterly silent. As a bonus, it's cheaper then the original version.I've used this as a 'push' fan at the front of the case. I initially installed just a 120mm 'pull' fan at the rear, and found the case temperatures to be strangely high. The air coming out of the back was also worryingly warm. I eventually discovered that the fan on my new power supply stops completely when it's at idle. My rear case fan was pulling air in backwards through the stationary power supply fan, through the power supply, into the case and out through the back of the case! Basically, I was using the power supply to warm the inside of the case.This 80mm fan now blows air into the front of the case, and the internal temperatures are much lower.Noctua have been the leaders in silent fans for years. This 'Redux' range brings the price down while keeping the key features. I had to pay a little extra to buy it from a third-party as it was out of stock at Noctua's own Amazon Shop. It was worth it.

I had a couple of old RGB LED fans in my sons computer which had defintely seen better days, and the bearings on them were well and truly shot to the extent that they squealed horribly on start-up - a bit like the noise of a slipping fan belt on a car - before settling down after a while to doing the job of moving some air.My son requested replacements and so I bought one of to experiment with as a replacement. Installation was simple into his case as it had all the holes and grilles already provided as part of the case. Just a case of unscrewing and unplugging the old fan, which promptly fell apart, and chucking it in the bin. Then mating the new fan with the correct holes and popping four screws to hold it in place. Connected the four way connector to one of the unused dedicated fan header connectors on the motherboard, which was simple to do as the connector is polarised so you can't put it in the wrong way. Reassuring quiet when the PC was then turned on, and has remained so ever since we fitted it.

Wow what a difference these fans made. Replaced the two 80mm fans in my 4U server chassis which were giving me a headache. Now I have to regularly check the server to make sure it's even on because it's so quiet. Quieter than my PoE switch.Seems to push plenty of air even at low speeds, but I've done no formal testing.

Going from some slightly cheaper but known brand to these noctua's is like a generation leap, I have a small mATX build 7900 work computer and so my fan space is limited to cooler and exhaust, while temps were always fine I had to replace the other brand fans after two months each time due to their failure rate (would start making awful noise once slightly too warm from daily use) and decided to finally jump into the noctua side of things.Despite this fan and the 92mm version having 1800 and 1600 rpm as their max i'm already seeing a 10c drop in temps it's quite an eye opener in how good these things can move air around, also at max speeds they are no louder than most fans at around 75%, very easy on the ears.If these fans can hold out for the rest of the year running full speed daily I think it'll be very hard to move away from using noctua fans in the future!

I love Noctua redux fans. Super Quiet

The media could not be loaded. Perfect little quality fan just to help the rtx5090 keep cool

This is very quiet. At full (default) speed it moves a reasonable amount of air very quietly - not silent, but well beneath what most people could sleep through.I have a motherboard that can adjust the fan speed. I dropped the speed down to 30%/900RPM and it became effectively totally silent; quieter than me breathing and I had to put my hand against it to feel the airflow, to check it was actually turned on. I also bought some anti-vibration fan mounts (instead of screws) to further reduce the possibility of noise - not entirely sure they make a difference, but they're so cheap it seemed silly not to give them a try.The 3-pin connector works with both 3-pin and 4-pin motherboard fan headers, and supports adjustable fan speed with either 3 or 4 pin headers.Downside is that it doesn't move as much air as most nosier fans, even at full speed.

I've been building PCs for about 30 years and over that time I've learned many important lessons, but the simplest one to spell out is, 'Just buy Noctua fans'.Yes there are lots cheaper and possibly even some that are as good and a bit cheaper as well - that kind of rigorous testing of performance, noise, reliability, longevity etc. is beyond me. So while in the vast majority of other regards I am always very hesitant to recommend a specific brand (specific model maybe), the exception is Noctua because they've not let me down in decades.Does that mean they last forever? Of course not! But the same fans have gone from build to build over a ten to twenty year period and I can only remember one actual failure of a Noctua fan about 12 years from new.So faced with all the myriad choices for computer hardware it's simple to just pick Noctua and cross off at least one headache from a build. Of course if you want bling and RGB and actually care about what the components inside a computer case look like - beyond being clean, cool and dust free - then this is not the review for you!