Noctua NF-S12B FLX Fan

Packaging 

If you have ever purchased a Noctua product the colour scheme and design of the packaging will be familiar. Noctua have a very strong brand which results in the striking creme and dark crimson colour scheme that the actual fan itself sports. The box has a viewing window allowing you to see the distinctive colour scheme before purchasing or at least before opening if purchased online. The front of the cardboard packaging is pretty standard, featuring the Noctua logo, website address and such PR phrases like “Designed in Austria” and “sound-optimised premium components” which show clearly the market this product is aimed at. In the top right is the model number NF-S12B along with the FLX moniker and the three fan speeds quoted in RPM it allows. Below this are the four key features: Bevelled Blade Tips, 3 Speed Settings, SC-Drive 2 and SSO-Bearings.

The rear of the packaging provides a small blurb about the item in 7 different languages along with explaining in more detail the four key features that were mentioned on the front. The bottom gives a table showing the very generous stats and to the right of this is the “Scope of Delivery:” which is the list of provided accessories.

The accessories provided is very complete, but you would expect nothing less from Noctua and a high end expensive fan like the NF-S12B. Included with the fan are a set of eight self-tapping screws, a set of four silicone grommets which are becoming more and more common included accessory, likely because they are extremely cheap to produce and are quite effective. Also included is a 3 to 4 Pin Molex converter which allows you to power the fan using a standard molex power cable if you don’t have any 3 Pin fan headers spare on your motherboard. Lastly there are the two in-line 3 Pin to 3 Pin adapters which make up the FLX part of the model number and allow the fan to run at 1200, 900, 600 RPM. While these are a nice extra the performance provided at anything lower than the 12V 1200RPM is likely to be very minimal.

A Closer Look

So let’s take a look at the fan itself. The first thing that immediately strikes you are is the 7 bladed dark crimson propeller, not only because of the colour but also its unusual straight blade design. These blades sacrifice the larger surface area of the more common curved blades for a more extreme pitch, reminding me of the props used on classic WW2 fighter aircraft. On closer inspection you then notice the bevelled blade tips which completes the very unusual look and design of the fan. Now obviously not being an expert in fluid dynamics I’m not certain how exactly these tweaks will improve performance, hopefully we will see in testing.

The plastics used in both the frame and the blades are of a very high quality, you can really see that some of the price tag has gone into the quality of the materials used. This gives the frame a weighty solid feel with zero flex, it also doesn’t feel like a brittle plastic either which should mean that this product should stand up to some serious abuse and use. The frame itself is a nice creme colour and thankfully features an open cornered design which means that compatibility with the various heatsinks that require these, such as the fan clips used on Thermalright and Cogage products is brilliant.

The power cable is the standard three wire affair with a 3 pin motherboard fan connector on the end as you would expect for a non-PWM fan. The cable itself is nicely sheathed in a fine black braid, this is of good quality and has a grippy textured feel. The heat shrink that holds the braid in place is very nicely done, butting right up to the cream motherboard connector which nearly matches the colour of the fans frame, although not closely enough for my liking.