Noctua is a company known for producing high quality fans and heatsinks for pc’s. I will forgive you if I haven’t heard of them. Frankly they are only known in the states by enthusiasts who are interested in quiet but good flowing fans mostly. They are proud to be from Austria. They have shipped one of their 120mm fans for testing. We are going to see if it will help cool down the beastly quad core and see how it compares to a few other fans with sound. Click to read more
Review Sample provided by: Noctua
Review By: Garfi3ld
Pictures By: Garfi3ld
Specs
Size: 120x120x25 mm
Bearing: SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry: Nine Blade Design with VCN
Rotational Speed: 1300 RPM ±10%
Rotational Speed with L.N.A.: 1100 RPM ±10%
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A.: 900 RPM ±10%
Airflow: 54.3CFM 92.3 m^3/h
Airflow with L.N.A.: 46.2CFM 78.5 m^3/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A.: 37.3CFM 63.4 m^3/h
Acoustical Noise: 19.8 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with L.N.A.: 16.9 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A.: 12.6 dB(A)
Static Pressure: 1.68 mm H2O Static Pressure with L.N.A.: 1.43 mm H2O
Static Pressure with U.L.N.A.: 1.21 mm H2O
Input Power: 1.08 W
Input Current: 0.09 A
Voltage Range: 12 V
MTBF: > 150.000 h
Packaging
Noctua shipped me a box with a few cool goodies. Not only did they include the NF-P12 fan, but they also included there promo kit. The promo kit will be provided free to anyone who shows proof of purchase of any of their products. Included in the promo pack is a product flyer, a sheet full of Noctua stickers, and a Noctua METAL case badge. This case badge is amazing! Moving on to the fan package there is a sense of quality with the packaging. The front is simple with a few details of the fan itself including ”Nice blade Design”, “Vortex control”, “SC-Drive”, and “SSO-Bearing”. They have also included a half window so you can see the fan. The back of the package explains the features listed on the front in more detail. The back also has a door that opens that shows even more details about the fan. This includes graphs showing how the Self Stabilization Bearing maintains lower noise over time.
Sound
Although during testing we had trouble finding a perfect place to get decibel readings. We were able to get good readings if you take out the ambient sound. In fact what we saw after subtracting the ambient sound was amazing. We tested the NF-P12 against a generic 80mm fan and an standard Antec 120mm fan. We also tried out the included voltage drop cables. The fact that they include these is amazing! A lot of fans you have to use a fan controller to slow them down, or mod the fan leads losing any warranty and rising damaging the fan. The fan is nearly silent when it is turned down to 900rpm. They have also included rubber vibration dampeners with the fan to keep the noise down when installed in a case.
Cooling
Because we have no way to test the overall output of the fan we had to figure out a way to test it out. I decided to try it out in my case as the rear fan and to compare temp readings from my gpu and cpu while I ran prime95 on all four cores. I didn’t expect there to be a big difference. Even if it does flow more how could one fan change those temps? I ended up seeing bigger results that I thought I would. As you can see in the graph below, the GPU benefited greatly from the better air flow out of the case.
Overall
During comparison testing the fan proved that it was quiet, but it really wasn’t noticeable until you put it in the case. There was also a major improvement in temps with the GPU in the system. Overall the NF-P12 proved itself to be a good performer and a quite one. The best part was finding that company’s other than the mainstream can make amazing products. Noctua will be on my list of recommended products anytime I see them. You also get that cool case badge ;). The one downside to the fan would be the colors used; a clear or black fan would go better in most cases. At $24.99 it isn’t a cheap fan, but in the end you get what you pay for. You can feel the quality just by picking it up and looking at it, the NF-P12 defiantly stands out from the crowd. After seeing and hearing the NF-P12 I might have to get another to bring down my case temps even more!
