Noctua NF-A12x25 Chromax - Absolute Best 120mm Fan

[@Ben-ld1qi]

this is the fan she told you not to worry about

[@S4WYERonPC]

I have 8 of these in my system - they are simply unbeatable! It's almost scary to hear nothing but monster air-flow rushing through your case. Most impressive.

[@ablueprofilepic9876]

i was also thinking of getting 8 for my build hence the specs, how did you go about connecting all 8 of them? (new at building pcs for context)

[@S4WYERonPC]

@@ablueprofilepic9876 I have the (6) case fans connected to a fan hub (with the hub controller connected to a normal fan channel on the motherboard) and the remaining (2) for the CPU cooler connected to a y-splitter and plugged into the CPU fan channel on the motherboard. You will most likely need PWM cable extensions for the case fans as the stock cable length is fairly shorty on these.

[@ablueprofilepic9876]

@@S4WYERonPC which fan hub did you use by chance?

[@S4WYERonPC]

@@ablueprofilepic9876 In one PC I'm using the built-in hub (Fractal Design cases) and in another I believe it's an NZXT hub

[@ablueprofilepic9876]

@SAWYER gotcha for the mobo I'm using it has around 6 I could plug in which is super nice just for the last 2 I can use the y splitter right?

[@elteacher0223]

I did a lot of testing and it produces a soft sound close to a mesh panel, also on a heatsink... it keeps the cpu from thermal throttling at only 25% speed. I love this fan!, its so sad they dont offer 3pack or other bundles!!

[@thunkjunk]

Noctua also recommends giving 10mm distance between fans when putting them next to each other. Perhaps you'd get even cooler if you did that.

[@sunwalker2438]

i actually like the cable length because so it's working perfectly with my arctic liquid freezer 3 without the need of additional cable management

[@michalwiktorow2188]

Yes, it IS because of LCP, the look the texture of it, and that is immediatelly good news, because you can notice if something is reinforced with such polymer.

[@wheelr1991]

Noctua A12 is 39° and F12 57°?? How? The offocial cfm and p stats similar. What the big different?

[@topscene4u654]

Can these fans be used as chassis fans?

[@IoNicStrike1]

For my new build I went with 4 140mm silent wing 4 pro fans in my 7000d airflow case. I wanted to fill out the extra fan slots on the side of the case so I order 4 of the NF-A12x25 Chromax Black fans. Should give me maximum airflow.

[@ThisChannelByPaul]

Why did you not get additional silent wings? How have you found they compare?

[@NeoGhk]

I have a zotac 2070 on an i5 10400 in a large Thermaltake case. when I put the glass cover on and close the case, the temperature of the GPU soars from 38 to 51 degrees. So, I'm sure I need a couple of these fans to cool down things. But which ones to choose: NF-F12 industrial ppc 3000 is super excellent at air pressuring, or probably a regular NF Chromax would do. Any advice on this.

[@luckyowl10]

It's good to think of buying Noctua A12x25 for your case as an investment? I heard that they will outlive a build and would be as good even 5-6 years down the road for a future one. Tho that price sure is scary, getting 5 Arctic P12 for 1 Noctua.

[@STSYT]

Generally I wouldn't call anything inside a PC a "long-term" investment. Sure, these fans will probably live pretty long. I'm pretty sure that they will even outlive a build, or even multiple ones. And looking at all of the available Fans ATM, Noctua A12x25 are probably the closest you'll get to an "investment". But don't forget that we don't know what will be in 4,5,6 years. Maybe the concept of a Fan will change all together by that time.

[@Heinz76Harald]

i still have noctua fans in use i bought 13years ago

[@raffaelenazzaro8798]

i've artic P14 PWM PST and i think they're bettere than noctua 😁

[@Electric_Bill]

@@raffaelenazzaro8798 objectively false, but they are a better value

[@CC-gt3ro]

@@Heinz76Haraldi never had any fan issues on all my pc. They last indefinitely for my usage. Like you ibuild high end pc every 8 years or more with at least 3 generations evolution between the components cpu and gpu. And the fans never failed in my case.

[@Tripokaridos22]

I bought Be Quiet 3x Light Wings and 2x Silent Wings... ALL of them have a noise from the motor at low RPM 600-800 the motor makes a tak tak noise something that Even my OLD Noctua doesnt have . So i am back to Noctua !!!

[@STSYT]

Fun fact, I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I'm still trying to figure out what is going on, but all my older Silent Wing 3's are now creating a horrible noise once they are below 90% pwm. To make things weirder, this only happens if they ramp up from the start. So if the bios was pre-configured for full-blast. No idea what is going on, but if i start them up at let's say 20, and then make them go faster via software, they are running fine. Weird, but I need to find out why.

[@labeffa]

I really like Your fan reviews. Can you please test the Fans on radiator instead of air cooler? Thank you

[@pariahgaming365]

I replaced all 4 fans in my new Alienware Aurora R14 with this fan today! This is including the rgb fan on the 120mm AI Both my CPU and GPU stayed at about 70c through about 3 hours of heavy Warzone Playing! It was so damn quiet the whole time!!! It’s just amazing!

[@thunkjunk]

3 in front and 1 out the back?

[@pariahgaming365]

@@thunkjunk The 2 intakes in the front, the top exhaust with noctuas and then I set up 2 Phantex t-30's on the stock AIO radiator in push/pull. I''ll make a video on the set-up soon.

[@panzer3279]

Why don't get a 240m AIO and then use these fans on them? Temps will decrease for sure.

[@John-mf6ky]

The og noctua colors have honestly really grown on me. It can be such a nice accent in the right build. I like more minimalist stuff tho

[@RoLexX57]

I use em on my kraken 360 and as case fans and they are damn perfect!

[@tomzgadnij2112]

Hi It pays off to install the NF-A12x25 PWM in a push-pull configuration in front of and behind the cooler in the housing?

[@RoLexX57]

Yes 100% i have a be quiet 500dx case with a push/pull config in front - kraken 360 with 3 of them fans on the radiator- as case fans 3 on top and one on the rear . The temps are outstanding !!!🔥

[@paul2609]

Phanteks T30 is the best 120mm fan. You really need to have a very niche setup to not fit an extra 5mm.

[@bvdschelde]

Is there any chance you can compare them to the new MSI MEG silent Gale P12? They look very good too, and since I will get the MSI MEG S360 AIO they would look the best with the cooler, but I wonder what performance compared to these noctua's are.

[@midtown3221]

So glad you made this video. BUYING THREE!! :D

[@STSYT]

Glad you liked it!

[@midtown3221]

@@STSYT You're welcome and just in time too. Case fans are giving out and I need replacements PDQ. Thankfully Amazon Prime gets me overnight shipping. New fans arriving tomorrow morning!! :D

[@Deviantsoundz]

I think you would like the t30 more in wiring configuration and performance.

[@Soggstermainia]

So the short cable on the fan... is ideal for me as the included fans on my gpu are wire in with almost identical length cables into the gpu harness. So these are some of the few fans I can swap without tons if excess cables. And hey the 4090 can take all the fans I can throw at it cos it was spendy as it was this is nothing to add some quiet and coolness to it.

[@STSYT]

Great that the length works for you! Maybe seperate editions with short and long cables would be an option

[@Soggstermainia]

@STSYT an edition with short gpu header style connectors would be ideal, as all the AIO's seem to be going to the 1cm tails with the gpu 4 pin header, which is smaller than the standard 4 pin PWM header. If they sold an AIO wired version people like me would replace the fans in a heartbeat with them.

[@RetroPlus]

One of the most (dare i say sexually) attractive fans ever made

[@STSYT]

Everybody's got his own preferences. No judgment here

[@HaasTheFirst]

Sick review! So these Fans (and the brown counter parts) are good for cases aswell? Not just coolers? Because I always that the more flow optimised ones like the Noctua NF-F12 are for cases and these ones for coolers...

[@HaasTheFirst]

Also there a P12 variants? I am so confused :D

[@STSYT]

Thanks! Nah, A12 are better for pretty much anything F12 are for static pressure, in theory they should be better on cooler, but they are not A12 is kinda the best of both worlds

[@cris_stn]

are these fans best suited to be case fans or best suitet to be used with a radiator ?

[@jarvifuentes7077]

Yes

[@joeldiramon8538]

this or the phanteks T30?

[@acuraonly]

got me sold

[@lorenzospiritoso8166]

search for the t30 phanteks

[@acuraonly]

@@lorenzospiritoso8166 i gotcho

[@SirMuteb]

damn it im going to buy it i hate the arctic fan noise

[@applemonkey7305]

This is a good fan but arctic p12 will do.

[@jugystyg2465]

I have 3of thease as intake 1 as exhoust 2on cpu cooler and 2 on gpu they are normal brown and the pc is notisibli quiter

[@ggesdsdsdsd]

They had to make them black before everyone starts buying the thermaltake fans lol

[@PowerOnYT]

Can they be daisychained?

[@NikTackett]

ML120?

[@Noah-Lach]

I wish Noctua would address their wiring system in the next overhaul. Their fans are the best on the market but the cheap, fragile, finicky plugs are just an embarrassment. I had to re-solder the connector in my NF-A14 because of a slight tug on the wire. Compared to companies offering modular rail systems and fans that clip together, Noctua is falling far behind in the quality of life department.

[@dancomando]

Just got two 14cm for my aio radiator

[@STSYT]

Cool, though not exactly the same fans. Noctua hasn't released these in a 140mm version yet

[@Blobby192]

so basically the A14 is the 1080ti of fans

[@STSYT]

If you want to put it that way, yes

[@samdeur]

I love the brown color haha 😂don’t like the generic black

[@Anti3D-0]

title aged like milk

[@Typhon888]

I’ve used Noctuwa personally since 2010. They are quality and worth the price. Customer service is one of the best. Getting spare parts is a breez. Such great fans and coolers excellent build quality.

[@sinon4]

w = doubleyou

[@Kaffeestrudel]

Never understand that some say uhh ugly brown, I dont care my case is closed and first its a damn fan he has only one purpose he must cooling, design and color are only the last thing what you should care of! So even your review about the Noctua NH-U12A chromax and you hype about it, ceep cool and thats exact the same tower only not black and in a closed case in the dark all things are black.

[@sunwalker2438]

but actually the majority of cases do have a glass side panel nowadays and it's really not an easy thing to include the original colored Noctuas without destroying the whole look of your build.

[@half101080]

Great review but..... Scythe Wondersnail 120 strongly disagrees!

[@Deviantsoundz]

Yeah thats a very strong recommendation of mine for "budget" high performance. For me it goes t30, wondersnail and p12.

[@Heinz76Harald]

i just wonder where all these phanteks fanboys come from. there got to be some kind of alert system XD

[@STSYT]

This comment got me really hard. We are wondering since the release of this video where all of these T30 fans are coming from. It's also astonishing that they never appear alone. Always as a Cohort. You don't look at you phone for an hour and Boom- 10x T30 requests

[@Heinz76Harald]

@@STSYT right, suspicious aint it? they already archived to let me look like an noctua shill, which im not... actually im a bequiet fanboy............

[@sojirou]

​@@STSYT I really wonder if any of them actually own a single T30 or are just being hyped up by all the reviews of it "defeating" Noctua. It's great to have competition in this space and I hope your review will cover noise profiles of the fans as well. I had bought 8x T30s based off the many glowing reviews even though I am lifelong Noctua fan (no pun intended) but after installing 2 of them in my secondary ITX system, I sold the rest of them off because they were buzzing/resonating/vibrating at 1400+RPM. This Japanese reviewer has good sound recordings of what I mean in these 2 videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5rKmZWvdsh_jNU & kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXbde5pvmtahh7s Most reviewers seem to completely ignore the sound profile of fans because I guess they are not running these systems daily and just base everything on decibels/noise normalised charts e.g. another culprit the Gentle Typhoon has horrible ball bearing noise above 1100RPM yet so many claim it's better or equal to Nocuta? While I admit the T30s perform extremely well, I had to limit them to 1300RPM because anything higher becomes unbearable (I have my system about 6ft away and the fans can be heard over my floor standing speakers at 2000RPM). Now I have gone back to all Noctua with 10x Chromax NF-A12s because it sounds so much better at 2000RPM than the T30s at 1500RPM.

[@mulch_tv]

Elden the

[@garrisonjasik5367]

Phanteks t30 is better than any noctua

[@deepsp_ce]

😆😆ur funny

[@STSYT]

Can't really say anything about that before testing a pair myself. Possible, or not

[@Ben-ld1qi]

It's true, although if Noctua would make a 30mm thick fan, I presume it would match or even beat the T30.

[@STSYT]

I'll try to get my hands on a set asap, especially now where I have a coupe of fans to compare them to

[@Ben-ld1qi]

@@STSYT youtuber 'optimum tech' did a comparison between the t30 and a25 (brown version,, but shouldn't be a difference), the phanteks edged out a bit. It would be awesome if you'd also do a comparison so we can see how it stacks in comparison.