Valkyrie X12 ARGB 120mm Performance Fans Review

Performance

Rather than full RGB, Valkrie has gone for four corner lights that cut through at 45 degrees. I’m a big fan of RGB products, but I like them to be subtle rather than a disco lighting system, so this is very much getting a big thumbs up from me.

The colours are vibrant and really pop even in a bright room. Of course, being fully addressable, pretty much any modern motherboard or external controller of your choice is compatible, and you can set brightness, effects, and colours, as you see fit.

They handle really bold candy colours well, and overall, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding something that suits your taste.

Recorded Fan Speed

• 50% PWM – 1310 RPM
• 100% PWM – 2241 RPM

Airflow Performance

• 50% Fans Speed – 72.21 CFM
• 100 % Fan Speed – 126.98 CFM

Acoustic Output

• 50% – 49 dBA
• 100% – 39.6 dBA

These fans are rated to operate from 800 RPM minimum, which is quite high with many rivals starting at 500 or below. They have a max RPM of 2150, with a 10% margin of error, which again is quite broad, and I did record them at 2241 RPM, which was only 4.2% over. Dropping to 50% RPM, I actually got 1310 RPM, which is not half of what I had at 100%, but actually 16.9% above what I expected. This isn’t really a bad thing, but they are running a little fast overall.

So while they do move some serious airflow, this is directly related to the fact they’re running faster than any other fan we’ve put on the test bench, with the expectation of the 5000 RPM Arctic P8 server fans. They also generate more noise as a result, more RPM often means more noise and that does hold true here. Are they noisy? Not really, not at a more day-to-day RPM of around 800-1500 at least, but they do get noticeable when maxed out.

Is more noise a bad thing though? Absolutely not, at least, not in all cases. As I said, they move a lot more air, actually matching the airflow of the Noctua NH-H14 PWM, which is larger and more expensive, and in a brown colour that won’t be what everyone wants and doesn’t have ARGB.