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Noctua NF-P12 120mm Fan


Date
: 01/17/08 – 06:19:34 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Noctua

Price
: 19.99 @ NCIX.com

Noctua is an Austrian group of companies who produce high-quality cooling products. In fact, their vision is to produce "sound-optimised premium components" which include fans, heatsinks, and thermal interface materials.

In this review, we will look at Noctua's latest addition to their family of fans, the
NF-P12
. If you recall, Anthony reviewed the NF-
S
12 over a year ago. According to Noctua, the NF-P12 should not be considered a successor to the NF-S12 as it is more of a complementary product. The NF-S12 is meant to be a case fan while the NF-P12 is meant to be used in high-impedance situations such as with CPU heatsinks.

Page 2 : Package

Noctua's NF-P12 120mm fan is packaged similarly to the NF-S12 in the characteristic brown, blue and black color scheme. A large clear panel allows the user to see the brown and beige fan's nine blades as well as a rubber mounting post.

Other sides of the package flaunt the Noctua "Designed in Austria" logo as well as other identifying information.

Turning the box over, we get all the features and specifications.

We will take a closer look at these in the next section. You can open the back of the box for even more technical explanations.

Several important engineering aspects of the NF-P12 are described along with their advantages over conventional fans.

Of note, as we can see on the right side, two adaptors are included which enable you to run the fan at two lower speeds.

That covers the package. Before opening it up, let's take a closer look at the features and specifications.

Page 3 : Features & Specifications

Noctua's webpage for the NF-P12 is full of valuable information including everything from specifications to engineering backgrounds.

Here is their description:

The vortex-control notches are unique to the NF-P12. These engineering feature is meant to reduce fan noise by interfering with the air vortices that form during fan operation, making the sound more pleasing to the ear.

Features:

Specifications:

The two adaptors we talked about in the previous section are aptly named the low noise and ultra low noise adaptors. The low noise adaptor reduces fan speed from 1300 RPM to 1100 RPM while the ultra low noise adaptor reduces it to 900 RPM. Fan noise is reduced from 19.8 dBA to 16.9 and 12.6 respectively. Also, for those of us used to airflow measurements in CFM, the values are 54.3, 46.2, and 37.3 respectively.

I am ready to see what this fan can do.

Page 4 : Package Contents

Open the box and slide out the clear plastic tray to access all the contents.

Apart from the fan itself, we have four screws, four vibration-compensating mounts, the low noise adaptor (LNA), the ultra low noise adaptor (ULNA) and finally a 3-pin to 4-pin Molex converter.

The fan has a light beige frame with nine brown blades; this is quite a significant change from the 120mm fans I've seen in the past. The connector is sleeved black, a nice touch.

Turning it over so we can see the other side of the blades offers us a closer look at the vortex-control notches. They are relatively large and staggered such that adjacent fan blades do not have the same exact pattern.

Noctua's logo and such adorn the central sticker. The fan is, of course, a 12 V fan. It draws 0.05 A, resulting in a power usage of 1.08 W. This is, of course, without the noise-reducing adaptors which basically undervolt the fan as Anthony pointed out in the NF-S12 review.

Now all we have to do is install the NF-P12 and see if Noctua delivers their promises.

Page 5 : Installation

If you are reading a review on a fan, you probably know how to install one using screws.

However, I just want to take a moment to point out how to install the Noctua NF-P12 using the vibration compensating rubber mounting posts.

This graphic, courtesy of Noctua, summarizes the process well:

First, insert the rubber posts through the mounting holes and pull from the other side.

Then, secure the fan by pulling the free end of the mounting posts through the mounting holes in the fan.

The fan may feel a bit wobbly but is actually quite secure as it required a lot of force to remove the posts. I guess this is intentional as it helps minimize vibrations being transferred to the case.

Connect the power, use one of the low noise adaptors if desired, and that's it!

Page 6 : Testing & Performance

First will be the CPU temperature measurements when the different fans are used on the Noctua NH-U12P heatsink (check back later for the review). This is to effectively see which fan performs best in a high-impedance situation. Note that the NF-P12 is advertised as a fan to be used in specialized situations such as on CPU heatsinks.

Temperature measurements were taken under different conditions using Lavalys Everest Home Edition 2.20. Idle measurements were taken with the computer idling at the desktop for 2 hours and no CPU or hard drive intensive programs, such as antivirus software, running. Load temperatures for the CPU were taken while running SP2004 Orthos for 2 hours three times and taking the average. In the case of the Antec TriCool and NF-P12, the fan speeds will be noted where appropriate; the low noise adaptors will be used on the NF-P12 for the medium and low speed tests.

The ambient temperature was 25ºC throughout all the tests.

With all the fans set to high, the generic fan takes the lead. This may be because this generic fan has an airflow of about 93 CFM. I'm not sure what the revolution speed of the generic fan is but it is probably in excess of 2500RPM. The Antec fan is next up but the NF-P12 is only behind by 1ºC.

The medium fan speed tests show the NF-P12 and Antec TriCool neck and neck once again.

Moving on to the low speed tests reiterates the previous results with the NF-P12 at a slight advantage.

In every test, the NF-P12 performed quite well and had a good performance to RPM ratio. The main advantage of the NF-P12 is evident at lower speeds where it cools well while being almost silent. In fact, the NF-P12 was the quietest in every test as measured by my trusty set of ears.

Page 7 : Conclusion

The Noctua NF-P12 is a great fan. Its combination of good performance with low noise seals the deal. Noctua has delivered on their company motto of producing "sound-optimised premium components" – this fan is almost silent when used with the included ultra low noise adaptor. In fact, it was near silent without even using any of the adaptors! This may be due to the unique "vortex-control notches" on the fan blades which apparently spread the noise spectrum of the fan out over a wide range to make it sound less noisy.

During the tests, a generic 93 CFM fan outperformed the NF-P12 but at the great cost of increased noise. The generic fan has a noise level rating of almost 42 dBA! The NF-P12, on the other hand, does the job almost as well at only 19.8 dBA. Since this fan has been specially engineered by Noctua to be used in high-impedance situations such as on CPU heatsinks, I guess this result is to be expected. In any case, I am certainly pleased.

Advantages:

• Engineered for quality and performance

• Very quiet, thanks in part to included accessories
• 6 year warranty

Disadvantages:

• More expensive than your generic case fan

• Color scheme may not be universally appealing, especially in windowed cases

Overclockers Online would like to thank Noctua for making this review possible.