Recently, the Austrian-based Noctua released their latest generation of computer fans the NF-P12 claiming it to be one of the quietest fans in the market. Those of us who have to spend our days next to a computer know that having a quite fan can lead to higher productivity and peace of mind. There are several fans in the market today that can provide low noise operation but there is still room for improvement. Consider for example, that most state-of-the-art workstations today sport 2-3 fans on the PC case plus one over the CPU, one over the GPU and the power supply. In other words, noise from all these fans adds up pretty quickly warrantying a look at Noctua’s product.

Noctua’s NF-P12 is a 120mm fan with a nine blade design. It rotates at a maximum of 1300 RPM or 1100 RPM when the Low Noise Adaptor (LNA) is used; in fact, when the Ultra Low Noise Adaptor (ULNA) is installed then the fan operates at only 900 RPM. The NF-P12 requires a bit over 1W of power to operate and its expected life is estimated at more than 150,000 hours of continuous operation. Noctua offers a 6-year manufacturer’s warranty for the NF-P12 fan.

I have already mentioned that the fan comes with 2 adaptors (the LNA and ULNA) that are specifically designed for use when one requires minimizing the generated noise. When using the ULNA, the NF-P12 produces noise at 12.6dBA which is very low and you are not likely to hear it unless you place your computer just a few centimeters from your ear. That said, Noctua has used many different technologies in order to create a high performance and low acoustic noise fan. One technology that stands out is the design of the fan blades which have two small notches for vortex control. It would be hard to test whether these notches make a significant difference in noise reduction and air flow production but I would trust the engineers to know what they are doing.

In general, the Noctua NF-P12 is a high performance (as in, it will keep your computer cooled) and low acoustic noise fan that is worth a look even at the steep price of nearly $25. At the end of the day, paying $25 for a fan that can quietly operate non-stop for 17 years is worth paying for, in my humble opinion.

 Supplied by: Noctua

Tags: Noctua NF-P12 fan