Noctua NF-P12 Fan Review

Page 4 - Benchmark

For the benchmarks we used the following fans:

• Noctua NF-P12 – 1300 rpm
• Foxconn PV122512L – 1750 rpm
• CoolerMaster A12025-7BB-3AN-D1 – 700 rpm
• CoolerMaster R4-P2B-12AK-GP – 1200 rpm
• Evercool – 1200 rpm

The benchmark itself was conducted with the help of the following irreplaceable wide purpose material:

First of all, some words about noise. The only quieter fan than NF-P12 was CoolerMaster A12025-7BB-3AN-D1, but with its 700 RPM it was, as expected, the weakest in terms of airflow. As a matter of fact, concerning airflow, the only better option than the Noctua fan was an old Delta, which we had laying around, but as you may already know, these are one of the noisiest fans ever and they sound like a thunderstorm.

Here are some visual airflow tests:

As you can see by the photos, the things said by Noctua are completely liable. In the immediate space after the fan the airflow is strong, with high static pressure and is rather constant. There the pressure is high and clearly after a while is rapidly drops. This provides the high-pressure, strong airflow just where it is needed – between the fins of a radiator. It cannot be told from the pictures, but on the whole the airflow was much more stable than the competition and the paper stayed rather stable.

Here is what the competition achieved: Foxconn PV122512L and CoolerMaster R4-P2B-12AK-GP:

Foxconn PV122512L was similar in airflow, but it blew the air far away, and on top of it the airflow was not stable (the paper waggled a lot). On the other hand, CoolerMaster R4-P2B-12AK-GP also provided unstable airflow, but also visibly weaker.