It was twice the price and people said it's not as impressive as some of the older version. When shopping for coolers I was deciding between the EVO 212 and one of the Corsair hybrid systems (H60 I think). I put it on my rear exhaust because it's the strongest fan in the case. There appear to be fans that move more air with similar/less noise and good reviews. I'm not really concerned about the sound because if the computer is warm that usually means the r9 280x fans are spinning up and they'll be noiser than anything. I think they have ones for high resistance situations (head sink) or lower resistance (side panel) and I believe there was a 3rd option too.

Keep in mind Noctua has different models for different applications. Overall they were a good compromise on quality, price, airflow, and noise. Maybe one day I will have my computer somewhere that needs it quiet and I don't want to need to put $120 worth of fans in a box. I basically just wanted something that was of a good quality and could be decent for the long term. They also include a ton of stuff with the fan (screws, adapters, rubber mounts, etc). They got consistently good reviews and they have a lifetime warranty. The Noctua seemed like the best product for me. The bearing is usually shot after a year so I decided to spend more than $5 on fans. Before this I had been using 120mm Yate Loons (47cfm 28dba). I'm sure there are better fans out there for the money. I have 2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM and then I moved the stock CM fan to the rear exhaust.

Corsair hyper 212 evo review