Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Fan Review

Noctua’s NF-F12 fans are something special, or Premium as Noctua themselves phrase it. You’ve got to have a burning to desire for silent enthusiast-grade performance in your system to want to invest in these fans which cost a hefty £16 each in the UK and $27 each in the USA. Considering most 120mm PWM fans cost around £7-10 the Noctua NF-F12s are far from cheap, in fact they are nearly twice the price of a standard 120mm fan, but at the end of the day Noctua aren’t trying to churn out of thousands of cheap and cheerful fans for the mass market – they’ve developed something niche and specialised.

The Noctua NF-F12 may only be a fan, but I have never seen a fan where so much attention to detail has been made to every aspect of its design – airflow, noise, power consumption, aesthetics, accessories, durability and quality. Even though I can’t speak to you with accurate airflow numbers it is clear to see the Noctua NF-F12s very good in terms of performance having been the fan of choice for a wide variety of CPU heatsinks and radiators all across the modding and enthusiast community. Renowned for their static pressure they make ideal fans for any CPU heatsink, radiator or all in one loop – NF-F12s and a Corsair H100 is a particularly favoured combination by many. In terms of noise our results spoke for themselves, they were absolutely outstanding and this is where the Noctua NF-F12 really shines the most.

If you want a fan that is going to bring revolutionary levels of airflow then you’re barking up the wrong tree, but if you are someone who wants a high performance fan with high static pressure, that is deadly silent, made to exceptionally high standards and contains as much R&D as some of the latest graphics cards on the market – then the NF-F12 fans are for you.

For those of you who aren’t a fan of the brown and beige colour scheme (excuse the pun) and aren’t willing to splash out £16 a piece on a 120mm fan then nothing we say will change your mind. But that’s not going to stop us from awarding these NF-F12 fans with the eTeknix Innovation Award. If every company innovated as much as Noctua, the world of computing would be a cooler and quieter place for all.