Noctua NF-S12A FLX, ULN and PWM Case Fan Reviews

Noctua’s NF-S12A series of fans will all cost approximately £14.50 in the UK and $20 in the USA. At this price we can see that Noctua are again occupying the highest price point for fans in the market segment. Premium products come at a premium price as you’d expect.

Now we could review each fan individually but since they are all the same core design of fan we think viewing them as a series is most fruitful. What is clear from testing the Noctua NF-S12A fans is that there is a great deal of flexibility  They offer a delicate balance between excellent performance and solid acoustics, the NF-S12A FLX, and solid performance and excellent acoustics, the NF-S12 ULN. While the NF-S12A PWM model combines both and allows you to choose which speed you want between 300 to 1200RPM via PWM controls. We weren’t able to compare these fans against many others, however we can see that the extra price over the competition is justified when comparing against the £13/$16 SilverStone AP123 fans.

So we have a great deal of performance flexibility across the whole NF-S12A series, we have the extensive Noctua accessory bundle with each fan giving you even more flexibility to use your fans whichever way you want, we have the usual top notch build quality and reliability backed by Noctua’s 6 year warranty, we have mind boggling levels of research and development that have gone into these products and most importantly a price which is still competitive despite this best-in-class excellence that you just don’t expect to find on most fans.

As I always seem to say with Noctua fan reviews the price is justified by the premium nature and excellent all-round capabilities of the product. If you want some excellent case fans then you cannot go wrong with the NF-S12A series. My only concerns are that relatively speaking the price is high, but like I have said I still feel this is justified, and again the aesthetics will not be to everyone’s tastes but the brown and beige colour scheme is what makes Noctua products unique. Without it they would just blend into to a market full of average fans when their fans are certainly far from average, though I do feel they could have made an effort to braid the cables all the way into the motor so the multi-coloured cabling on the rear isn’t visible.

Pros

• Innovative Design
• Excellent Acoustic Performance
• Excellent Cooling Performance
• Superb Build Quality
• Extensive Accessory Bundle
• Long Warranty

Cons

• Relatively High Price
• Questionable Aesthetics
• Not Braided / Multi-Coloured Cable Running Into The Motor

Noctua products never cease to amaze me with their innovation and performance and if I was going to put some 120mm fans into my case then these would be my first choice, without a doubt. That said, these fans are in my opinion deserving of the eTeknix Editor’s Choice award.

We would like to thank Noctua for providing these samples for the review.