Noctua NF-P12 Cooling Fan Review

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Product: NF-P12
Manufacturer: Noctua
Supplied by: Noctua
Price: 24.9USD/RM88
Launch Date: NA

Noctua is an Austrian company where it focuses on computer cooling like CPU coolers, case fans and thermal compounds. Today we will have a look on their 120mm case fan; NF-P12 which is using pressure-optimized nine blades design and comes with six years warranty. Let us see how this fan will perform with a 120mm CPU cooler.

Company Profile

Noctua arises from a cooperation between the Austrian Rascom Computerdistribution Ges.m.b.H and the Taiwanese Kolink International Corporation and entertains a development partnership with the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology (Österreichisches Institut für Wärmeübertragung und Ventilatorentechnik, ÖIWV). These connections form the key to the achievement of our goal: The partnership with the ÖIWV permits the application of scientific measurement instrumentation, methods of calculation and simulation technology in the R&D process. Rascom's long, customer-oriented experience in developing and distributing sound-optimised high-end products ensures a clear focus on the users' needs. The use of Kolink's advanced manufacturing technology and ultra-modern production plants allows us to efficiently implement our technical edge and provide solutions of the highest standard in quality and performance.

Features

- Pressure-optimized Nine-Blade Design
- Vortex-Control Notches
- Smooth Commutation Drive
- Self-stabilizing oil-pressure bearing

Specifications


Size	120x120x25 mm
Bearing	SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry	Nine Blade Design with VCN
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%)	1300 RPM
Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%)	1100 RPM
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%)	900 RPM
Airflow	92,3 m³/h
Airflow with L.N.A.	78,5 m³/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A.	63,4 m³/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
Scope of Delivery	Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
	Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
	4 Vibration Compensators
	3:4-Pin Adaptor
	4 Fan Screws
Warranty	6 years

	Pressure-optimized Nine-Blade Design Specifically developed for high-impedance applications such as CPU coolers, water-cooling radiators or cases with tight fan grills, the NF-P12 provides superior pressure and airflow performance. à
	Vortex-Control Notches Psychoacoustic optimizations like the staggered Vortex-Control Notches make the NF-P12 surprisingly quiet. à
	Smooth Commutation Drive The NF-P12's new drive system reduces torque variations and thereby ensures improved running smoothness. à
	Self-stabilizing oil-pressure bearing Noctua's well proven SSO-Bearing technology guarantees supremely quiet operation and exceptional long-term stability. à

Packaging

Noctua NF-P12 comes with a very solid and unique packaging where at the back there is another slide of page to display the features of this NF-P12 with some graphs to describe further on pressure optimized nine blades and vortex control notches designs. Besides that some specifications and packaging contents are stated as well.

After opened up the outer cardboard box, the NF-P12 is kept in another inner plastic box which gives additional protection on this product. Noctua NF-P12 comes with an ultra low noise adapter, low noise adapter, four vibration compensators. 3:4 pin adapter and four fan screws.

What are these low noise and ultra low noise adapters? Basically these are not new technology as few years back, some cooling manufacturers already started to ship these kind of adapters for their coolers where it is consists of a resistor to reduce the current flow to the fan and at the end the fan will running at slower RPM. Noctua provides two adapters for NF-P12; one is ultra low noise adapter (900 RPM with 12.6dB (A)) and low noise adapter (1100 RPM with 16.9 dB (A)) for customer selection. The vibration compensators are come along as well which is a popular device to replace the screws nowadays.

Noctua NF-P12

Currently, Noctua is having three 120mm fans for their 120mm product line and NF-P12 is designed and more suitable for tight fin spacing for CPU cooler or water cooling radiators with its pressure optimized nine blade design while NF-S12 is more suitable for wide fin spacing coolers. Some comparisons between Noctua NF-P12 and NF-S12 can be found here; both of these fans are high quality fans from Noctua for different applications.

What is nine blade design? Most of the fans are having only seven fan blades and Noctua nine fan blades has been developed for high impedance application especially for CPU cooler, water cooling radiator and etc. with such design, it achieves outstanding static pressure and high airflow.

Noctua NF-P12 comes with light brown or orange for the fan holder and brown color for the fan blades. These colors combination of NF-P12 is very unique and look cool as it isn't like ordinary fan where it is either black or transparent. The quality of this Noctua NF-P12 is really solid and excellent; overall the weight of this fan is much heavier than other fans due to its high quality material and components that are used.

Noctua NF-P12 is using SSO bearing; self-stabilizing oil pressure bearing which surpasses the conventional bearing likes ball, sleeve, and liquid in term of long term stability and quietness. The rest of the information can be found here. Noctua NF-P12 is a 12V DC fan with 0.09A.

As we mentioned previously two noise reduction cables are included where it is used to reduce the current passing through the fan. This is good for certain users that don't want to control them by using fan speed controller but for those really need the fan to run high and low depend on the workload of the system then it will be a bit troublesome for them to control the air flow of this fan by these cables unless users don't mind to keep on changing the cable.

If you wonder what do these notches do, then let us explain for you. Basically a nice blades fan will generate higher noise emissions due to higher static pressure but in order to overcome this, Noctua has included these Vortex control notches on the blades' trailing edges to allow the flow along the suction and pressure side mix more smoothly.

Some graphs for this Vortex control notches and further detail of this technology can be found here.

Noctua NF-P12 comes with sleeved cable as well which is in black. The cable sleeving isn't UV reactive and is a bit loose. We would prefer a well fit sleeving for better air flow/cable management and nicer looking as well. However a sleeved cable is still much better than a non sleeved cable, hope Noctua will consider to improve on this for future products.

Installation, Testing & Performance

Test Bed
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E8300
CPU Cooler : Tuniq Tower 120
Memory : 4GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive : 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate HDD
Graphic Card : Nvidia GeForce GTX280
Optical Drive : 16x DVD RW
Power Supply : GlacialPower GP-AL650A
System BIOS : F7
Operating System : Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software : Gigabyte EasyTune 6
Ambient Temperature : 26 Degree Celsius

For the testing, we used Tuniq Tower 120 CPU cooler for comparison. Base on the result finding, Noctua NF-P12 isn't really able to beat the stock fan of Tuniq 120 CPU which is a powerful fan with running over 2000 RPM and of course generate loud noise as well. However with Noctua NF-P12 1300RPM, the full load temperature performance is quite close with its Tuniq stock fan and the noise is really low and this is excellent and thanks to Noctua team for the vortex control notches where it is really able to reduce the noise by keep on high static pressure. To see the differentia between Noctua NF-P12 with Tuniq stock fan, we have included the performance of Tuniq stock fan running at 1300RPM which is same RPM with Noctua NF-P12 and with this we can see the stock fan is lagging behind of Noctua NF-P12; contributed by the Noctua pressure optimized nine blade design.

Conclusion

Noctua NF-P12 is a fan which is suitable for tight fin spacing cooler like CPU cooler with it high static pressure which is generated by nine blade design and vortex control notches are able to keep the noise low. If you are seeking for good performance with silent operation, no doubt Noctua NF-P12 is really one of your good choices. However if you don't care about the noise and just want to keep your system as cool as possible then Noctua NF-P12 isn't a good choice. We hope Noctua will produce another version of Noctua NF-P12 with much more powerful RPM to conquer the high performance market as well.

Pros:
* Solid & excellent quality
* Pressure-optimized nine blades design with Vortex control notches
* Dual noise reduction cables & 3-4 pin adapter
* Vibration compensators
* Six years warranty

Cons:
* Not cheap

Thanks to Noctua for providing this sample for us to review.