Noctua are easily one of the biggest names in PC cooling. Their heatsinks are some of the best performers available and their fans are popular for those wanting great temps and low noise. Noctua decided it was time for a new series of fans, two actually. The IndustrualPPC fans offer increased RPM and more importantly for some a new all black design. The higher RPM these fans provide will no doubt increase noise levels, but also drop those max temperatures.
Let’s take a quick look at the NF-F12 IndustrialPPC fan. Both the 3-pin and 4-pin PWM are available, but specs between the two after that are identical.
[accordion title=”IndustrialPPC NF-F12 Specifications” id=”specspwm”]
| Size | 120x120x25 mm | |
| Connector | 3-pin | |
| Bearing | SSO2 | |
| Blade Geometry | Heptaperf™ | |
| Frame Technology | FocusedFlow™ | |
| Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) | 2000 RPM | |
| Airflow | 121,8 m³/h | |
| Acoustical Noise | 29,7 dB(A) | |
| Static Pressure | 3,94 mm H2O | |
| Max. Input Power | 1,2 W | |
| Max. Input Current | 0,1 A | |
| Voltage | 12 V | |
| MTBF | > 150.000 h | |
| Scope of Delivery |
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| Warranty | 6 years | |
| Ingress Protection | IP52 | |
| Material | Fibre-glass reinforced polyamide | |
| Motor type | Three-phase | |
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Most of the specs we’re seeing are the same as the standard NF-F12. Considering how insanely popular that fan is, we can expect great performance with the same system.. We’re basically looking at a beefed up NF-F12. We’re also looking at a three-phase six point motor system, which Noctua advertise provides smoother movement to the fan and allows for less vibrations and more efficient energy usage.
Testing
Typically it’s not the easiest thing to convey how good a fan performs, but we can easily do a quick comparison against a stock set of fans on the Corsair H100i. The stock fans included with a Corsair H100i provide RPM’s up to 2,700. This can become very loud. The Noctua NF-F12 we’re testing are rated at 2,000RPM. So let’s check out the temps when running these fans at full speed and look at what kind of noise they outing.
| Corsair H100i | Max Temperature |
| Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC | 78 |
| Stock Corsair Fans | 81 |
While not the most glorious comparison, it’s nice to see that the Noctua Fans are beating out higher RPM fans when both are running at their max speeds. Again, that’s 2,000rpm vs 2,700rpm.
| Corsair H100i | Noise Levels |
| Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC | 29.1 |
| Stock Corsair Fans | 36.5 |
The increased RPM on the Corsair fans was of course going to give us a much higher noise level. Noctua was on the ball with their advertised dBA. Throughout are entire test, the loudest dBA we got on the 2 NF-F12 fans was 29.1. The Corsair fans came in a little lower than their rated dBA at 36.5. The difference between these fans was definitely noticeable. Also considering the Noctua fans were doing a better job, we are impressed.
Conclusion
A review of a fan was never really going to provide any jaw dropping conclusions, but we still come away impressed with the IndustrialPPC version of the incredible NF-F12 fan. Noctua have always been high in our books, and of course continue to do so. These fans do entail a premium price tag, but ultimately your getting what you paid for. We suspect the all black design to be the more appealing aspect of the new series, and while the high RPM keeps these fans reserved for real temperature needs. We can easily see people using these over the standard fans, if it goes better with their rigs overall color scheme.
