It could have been a very good, affordable fan with lighting. Moreover, the SickleFlow 120 ARB rotor design is efficient, at an excellent level, but all the good features are killed by one thing – an extremely noisy motor. It’s so noisy that a return trip from the factory output control would be appropriate. And it’s not just your everyday whir that you hear only from centimeters away. No one will ever miss this sound.
Results: Frequency response of sound with a dust filter
Measurements are performed in the TrueRTA application, which records sound in a range of 240 frequencies in the recorded range of 20–20,000 Hz. For the possibility of comparison across articles, we export the dominant frequency from the low (20–200 Hz), medium (201–2,000 Hz) and high (2,001–20,000 Hz) range to standard bar graphs.
However, for an even more detailed analysis of the sound expression, it is important to perceive the overall shape of the graph and the intensity of all frequencies/tones. If you don’t understand something in the graphs or tables below, you’ll find the answers to all your questions in this article. It explains how to read the measured data below correctly.
Noise levels in the tables below -87 dBu (but watch out for the negative sign, -70 dBu is louder than -80 dBu) can be ignored. They are in fact extremely weak and always far below the limit of human perception, and are often defined by the “noise” of the measurement string. Therefore, do not take even the dominant frequencies within the treble band that exceed 12 kHz too much into account.
| Fan | Dominant sound freq. and noise level, dust filter@33 dBA | NF-F12 PWM | NF-A15 PWM | ||||
| Low range | Mid range | High range | |||||
| Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | ||
| Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 ARGB | 59,9 | -86,1 | 1045,7 | -81,6 | 19330,5 | -91,0 | |
| Alphacool SL-15 PWM | 190,3 | -79,4 | 380,5 | -79,1 | 19330,5 | -90,9 | |
| Arctic BioniX F120 | 119,9 | -76,7 | 369,7 | -83,0 | 19897,0 | -90,9 | |
| SilverStone SST-AP123 | SilverStone SST-AP123 | 100,8 | -81,0 | 415,0 | -78,6 | 19330,5 | -90,8 |
| Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM | 50,4 | -74,5 | 329,4 | -73,7 | 19897,0 | -91,0 | |
| SilentiumPC Fluctus 120 PWM | 119,9 | -79,6 | 380,5 | -80,9 | 19330,5 | -90,7 | |
| MSI MEG Silent Gale P12 | 134,5 | -78,9 | 369,7 | -82,8 | 19330,5 | -90,8 | |
| Asus ROG Strix XF120 | 95,1 | -74,3 | 380,5 | -85,8 | 19330,5 | -91,0 | |
| Akasa Vegas X7 | 116,5 | -77,5 | 369,7 | -85,6 | 19330,5 | -90,7 | |
| Reeven Coldwing 12 | 123,4 | -76,8 | 1566,8 | -92,1 | 19330,5 | -90,7 | |
| Reeven Kiran | 130,7 | -72,9 | 239,7 | -86,9 | 19330,5 | -90,8 | |
| SilentiumPC Sigma Pro 120 PWM | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| SilentiumPC Sigma Pro Corona RGB 120 | 103,7 | -79,2 | 369,7 | -83,6 | 19330,5 | -90,9 | |
| SilverStone SST-AP121 | 50,4 | -81,8 | 155,4 | -78,6 | 18780,2 | -91,0 | |
| SilverStone SST-FQ121 | 41,8 | -75,8 | 329,4 | -82,7 | 19330,5 | -91,0 | |
| Xigmatek XLF-F1256 | 47,6 | -74,2 | 232,9 | -78,7 | 19897,0 | -91,2 |
| Fan | Dominant sound freq. and noise level, dust filter@39 dBA | NF-F12 PWM | NF-A15 PWM | ||||
| Low range | Mid range | High range | |||||
| Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | ||
| Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 ARGB | 123,4 | -73,9 | 1045,7 | -74,0 | 19330,5 | -90,9 | |
| Alphacool SL-15 PWM | 127,0 | -72,9 | 380,5 | -75,1 | 19330,5 | -90,9 | |
| Arctic BioniX F120 | 151,0 | -70,8 | 310,9 | -71,0 | 19330,5 | -90,9 | |
| SilverStone SST-AP123 | SilverStone SST-AP123 | 160,0 | -78,3 | 349,0 | -75,2 | 19897,0 | -91,0 |
| Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM | 142,5 | -73,2 | 320,0 | -69,0 | 19897,0 | -91,0 | |
| SilentiumPC Fluctus 120 PWM | 130,7 | -79,1 | 359,2 | -75,9 | 2957,7 | -89,3 | |
| MSI MEG Silent Gale P12 | 179,6 | -74,1 | 369,7 | -76,6 | 2957,7 | -89,1 | |
| Asus ROG Strix XF120 | Asus ROG Strix XF120 | 130,7 | -63,8 | 329,4 | -76,4 | 4832,6 | -90,4 |
| Akasa Vegas X7 | 151,0 | -69,1 | 369,7 | -77,7 | 19330,5 | -90,8 | |
| Reeven Coldwing 12 | 155,4 | -66,4 | 369,7 | -77,8 | 18780,2 | -90,9 | |
| Reeven Kiran | 169,5 | -67,8 | 369,7 | -78,0 | 17726,2 | -90,2 | |
| SilentiumPC Sigma Pro 120 PWM | 123,4 | -68,6 | 369,7 | -75,2 | 2873,5 | -86,7 | |
| SilentiumPC Sigma Pro Corona RGB 120 | 138,5 | -68,1 | 391,7 | -78,0 | 2487,1 | -88,9 | |
| SilverStone SST-AP121 | 151,0 | -78,6 | 339,0 | -74,3 | 19897,0 | -90,9 | |
| SilverStone SST-FQ121 | 142,5 | -69,8 | 1173,8 | -74,9 | 2031,9 | -90,2 | |
| Xigmatek XLF-F1256 | 113,1 | -71,2 | 369,7 | -74,8 | 18780,2 | -91,0 |
| Fan | Dominant sound freq. and noise level, dust filter@45 dBA | NF-F12 PWM | NF-A15 PWM | ||||
| Low range | Mid range | High range | |||||
| Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [-dBu] | Frequency [Hz] | Noise level [dBu] | ||
| Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 ARGB | 127,0 | -68,4 | 1015,9 | -66,2 | 4974,2 | -88,7 | |
| Alphacool SL-15 PWM | 77,7 | -77,3 | 403,2 | -69,9 | 4974,2 | -81,9 | |
| Arctic BioniX F120 | 190,3 | -67,4 | 380,5 | -66,5 | 5583,4 | -82,2 | |
| SilverStone SST-AP123 | SilverStone SST-AP123 | 134,5 | -71,2 | 369,7 | -69,2 | 5583,4 | -82,9 |
| Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM | 184,9 | -69,1 | 320,0 | -65,5 | 5270,0 | -85,1 | |
| SilentiumPC Fluctus 120 PWM | 195,8 | -66,5 | 380,5 | -69,1 | 2957,7 | -83,7 | |
| MSI MEG Silent Gale P12 | 127,0 | -73,0 | 219,8 | -68,8 | 5747,0 | -83,3 | |
| Asus ROG Strix XF120 | Asus ROG Strix XF120 | 23,1 | -62,9 | 369,7 | -71,7 | 5583,4 | -81,4 |
| Akasa Vegas X7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Reeven Coldwing 12 | 190,3 | -62,7 | 369,7 | -71,9 | 2347,5 | -86,1 | |
| Reeven Kiran | 169,5 | -67,8 | 369,7 | -78,0 | 17726,2 | -90,2 | |
| SilentiumPC Sigma Pro 120 PWM | 20,3 | -64,4 | 246,8 | -70,1 | 2635,0 | -81,8 | |
| SilentiumPC Sigma Pro Corona RGB 120 | 23,1 | -61,2 | 174,5 | -63,9 | 2487,1 | -84,4 | |
| SilverStone SST-AP121 | 20,3 | -67,9 | 439,7 | -67,9 | 4561,4 | -83,3 | |
| SilverStone SST-FQ121 | 179,6 | -64,9 | 369,7 | -71,2 | 5915,4 | -90,3 | |
| Xigmatek XLF-F1256 | 142,5 | -62,7 | 246,8 | -57,8 | 4974,2 | -83,7 |
Thank you so much for this! I thought that I might have just gotten a bad batch with my CM AIO cooler. Although, in my case, it’s not rattling but an uneven hum that keeps going up and down.
And thanks to your other reviews, I ordered some Noctua NF-A12x25 today. That’ll hopefully solve that. All of my other fans are Noctua too and while not all the new and best, they at least produce steady noise.
Using Noctua NF-A12x25 fans will definitely solve the issue you’re describing. The sound of the tested Cooler Master fans can be perceived differently by everyone. It’s certainly not clean in terms of aerodynamics. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with your ears. 🙂
Yeah, I’m very happy with the A12x25s! Skimming the Noctua website also reminded me that based on their description, what I heard may have been that “beat frequency”. They of course took care of that with the RPM offset in their 2x package.
Using different motors to achieve different RPMs under the same PWM signal is indeed a clever trick to reduce noise while maintaining strong airflow and cooling performance. 🙂