At the beginning of the year Noctua released a new case fan. We put this new fan to the test and see if it's any improvement over the S12 which has dominated in the case fan category.
Noctua are a company based in Austria that specialise in cooling solutions. They have an extremely good reputation within this category, giving hardware enthusiasts quality products to cool their systems. The S12 case fan that has been on the market for some years now and is amongst the best case fan to invest in – renowned for extremely low noise levels with great air pressure. It has had a makeover just recently and Noctua have kindly given us this new case fan - the Noctua NF-P12.
Packaging
On first impression, the P12 sits in a well presented box, with extremely useful information on the back, this opens out to give an in-depth analysis and technical specification/explanation of how the fan operates detailing how advantageous the design of the fan is over other case fans.
Inside the package you will find the fan itself, accompanied by four self tapping screws, four anti-vibration mounts, two adaptors – low noise and ultra low noise and a converter for 3pin-to-4pin molex. As you can see from the images, were this fan differs from the S12 is the blade design which have teeth on each fin.
Technical Specification
The following information has come direct from Noctua for this review:
The NF-P12 has been specifically developed for applications such as CPU coolers that demand superior pressure and airflow performance. Thanks to psychoacoustic optimizations like the Vortex-Control Notches, the new SCD drive system and Noctua's premium-grade SSO-Bearing, the NF-P12 achieves exceptional quietness and long-term stability.
Testing
Our 1st test was to mount the P12 as a case fan – having it as a rear exhaust. For comparison we used some popular case fans currently on the market. Full load temperatures are taken using Orthos Beta by Johnny Lee. Temperatures were taken using Everest diagnostic software.
The 2nd test was to seat the P12 on a NF-P12 CPU heatsink and compare it against the S12 at idle and full load.
Our test system comprised of the following:
E2160 @ 2.7GHz
2GB OCZ PC2-6400 DDR2
NVidia 7900GT
Coolermaster eXtreme Power 650W
Coolermaster Centurion 532
The results were as follows:
Case Fan
CPU Fan
Conclusion
As you can see from the results, the P12 is an improvement on the S12. In the exhaust test the P12 matched the performance of the Yate Loon which although hard to get hold of, has an extremely good reputation for pushing air out of your case and being reasonably quiet. In the CPU test the P12 had a significant improvement over the other fans in the test, and a very significant improvement over the S12 making the P12 an ideal fan to mount on a CPU heatsink. This improvement is accomplished by the superior static pressure design, so a well done to Noctua for improving their stance in the case fan category. We would highly recommend this fan especially if you are looking at reducing those temperatures off your CPU.
Pros
- Excellent build quality
- Superior cooling and air pressure over other fans on market
- Extremely quiet with/without adaptors
- Long warranty – 6 years
Cons
- The price may put some off- Colour scheme may not suit those with windowed cases
We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with the NF-P12.
