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63 About this deal
At first, we assumed that this was one of the reasons why these Fans could be so cheap, but upon investigation, it turned out to be a feature. This allowed us to run each of the Fans off one single PWM Header on the mainboard while connecting each of the fans together.
P12 PWM | Pressure-optimised 120 mm PWM Fan | ARCTIC
We would have hoped that the wire would be long enough to keep the rest of the Fan wires behind the mainboard.Starting out, it’s still worth noting that the Arctic P12 compares with the previously tested BioniX P120 A-RGB, although it has seemingly the same rotor – it doesn’t. And there are more than enough differences, including a shorter tunnel (P12) with less rotor clearance from an obstacle, but let’s start the analysis as usual from the top. I do not claim that NF-A12x25 PWM is at 787 rpm (i.e. the speed in our “31 dBA” mode) a noiseless or soundless fan, I am just trying to balance it a bit. At this speed you write about industrial noise or use in noisy technical rooms, which is misleading. I respect that in your idea of quiet operation the NF-A12x25 PWM has an even lower speed. Then it’s very strange. We use spectrograms instead of sound recordings for sound analysis precisely because we do not want a dispute to arise at the level of subjective perception of individual frequencies. Everyone sees their intensity in spectrograms in the same way and the results of NF-A12x25 PWM clearly show that there is practically no noise that can be perceived by a person when using PWM control. Or if you can hear some sound in the frequency band we are talking about, you should also hear it with Silent Wings 3. Even though the Arctic P12 Line-up does not offer any RGB-Like features or any "nice-looking" design aspects, they do perform excellently. To summarize our findings, as long as we ignore the fact that the Fans look a bit Outdated or Boring and the short PST Wire, we cannot say anything negative about the P12's in regards to their performance.
Arctic P12 PWM PST Review - STS Tutorial Arctic P12 PWM PST Review - STS Tutorial
Within all testing of all the fans, there was only ever 1°C difference between them. So, the fan is no better or worse at the specific tasks than any other fans we tested. Additionally, they did manage to keep the noise level pretty low, and even be "un-noticeable" in the lower 50%s of their PWM Speed.And one addendum for the discerning reader who will scroll through the comments here and there and might ask the same question as one of the readers of this article in another language. Namely, why the BioniX P120, being more expensive, often achieves a lower airflow than the P12. We discussed a bit in the opening chapter that these fans don’t have the same rotors, but I didn’t want to pay any extra attention to that in the conclusion (these aren’t fans that are in any way competing or that you’ll be deciding between). And in fact, our dB-meter and the Audio Recording of our Benchmarking both confirmed that there is absolutely no difference between having Anti-Vibration-Pads and not. (Or we unable to, no matter how loud we played the audio recordings) PDF 429.9KB ACFAN00171A - P12 PWM (White) - RoHS, REACH, PAHs declaration of Compliance - 2022-10-14 Overall the P12's performance is excellent. Not only did Arctic's fan outperform a much more expensive rival, but it also managed to beat our 140mm Fans. With 62°C on the CPU and 43.5 dbA, the P12 even managed to outrank the Noctua NF-F12 in both metrics, even though the Noctua's are almost double the price.
ARCTIC P12 Max - High-Performance 120 mm case fan, PWM
Now I know, 600 rpm, okay, and as a sign that I appreciate that we have such demanding readers, I promise you that sooner or later we will create another mode, which will be twice quieter than the quietest mode that we have now. In addition, we will select fans that will have the highest airflow in the 31 dBA mode and there will be room for further noise reduction. Some fans cannot be slowed down even to 31 dBA mode and of the remaining ones, half of them have a speed of 600 rpm or lower. The NF-A12x25 PWM here allows setting some of the highest speeds mainly because it is PWM controlled, and now I’m not afraid to use the word extremely quiet running of the motor and bearings. This is also visible in the spectrograph, where in the frequency band of these components the noise is extremely low. Noctua deserves all the respect in the world here for going into such details as smoother/quieter PWM waveforms with a slanted left-hand side of the pulses. The P12 PWM PST fan (hereafter referred to as the P12, but we’re still talking about the PWM PST variant) has a 5-blade axial rotor, which is typical of Arctic’s current “P” series models. Because of the small number of blades and the intention to achieve high static pressure, each blade must be large. If the blades were smaller, a lot of air would escape through them, which would reduce the airflow the more resistance the fan would have to overcome. Thus there is a considerable cross-sectional area covered by the blades, so that the airflow does not decrease excessively even if the fan is operating on restrictive obstacles. There are a lot of droning or downright rumbling fans out there, but none have been as popularized by this sound profile as the Arctic P12. Probably also because this acoustic deficiency is really pronounced here and has pushed the manufacturer to make design changes in newer models that are aimed at suppressing critical tonal peaks. But even so, the base model P12 PWM PST is a remarkable fan and is unbeatable in its price range. The signal quality of the motherboard/hub should not make a difference in noise, it is determined by the NE-FD1 IC inside the fan. Noctua often has complaints about the PWM signal quality of third party devices and states that it can be misinterpreted at lower speeds. But this is not the case with Noctua fans and it should not affect the noise level anyway, as long as the fan is running stable at the given speed. The misinterpretation of PWM that Noctua mentions is that the fan operation may not correspond to the set PWM duty cycle ( we have discussed this in more detail in this article, where we also discuss the key features of the new Noctua NA-FH1 hub).While the F12 Series is Airflow optimized, it spins way slower (1350 RPM) and produces way less air pressure, but can push a lot of air for such a slow-spinning fan. Unfortunately, I cannot agree with this statement even now. The extra details that Noctua has often stand out more with relatively higher speeds. Whether it’s Flow Acceleration Channels, Stepped Inlet Design, a significant narrowing of the gap between the blade tips and the frame or Inner Surface Microstructures. These elements counteract the shortcomings that become stronger with increasing pressure. The fact that the NF-A12x25 gives excellent results at low speeds is largely due to the fact that the operation of the motor and blades does not create any noise, so at this level there are no such pronounced limitations as with other fans, and the NF-A12x25 fits into the same noise level at higher speeds. After Unboxing the Fans, we immediately noticed that there were no "Anti-Vibration" Pads to be found. The cable is “ordinary” but solid – flat, with the wires holding together nicely. There are two connectors at the end. One to connect the fan to the motherboard or hub/controllers, and the other to daisy-chain another fan. The cable is 40–45 cm in length.
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