Cooling a computer isn’t terribly complicated in and of itself. But if you want to do it right, selecting the best cooling fan can be a daunting task. It’s easy to throw money at Noctua, and we wouldn’t fault you for doing so, but that strategy gets very expensive very quickly. And not everyone digs the beige-and-brown theme – and the company flat-out refuses to do RGB.

Of course, you can opt to go the other easy route and just use what’s included with the case and cooler you bought. But that’s also rarely the optimal solution, and many premium cases come with no fans or just one for exhaust. Ideally, you want a fan that’s quiet, effective at moving air, attractive, and affordable. And since you’ve landed on this page, chances are you bought one of the cases that doesn’t come with enough fans, or you’re not happy with the included fans' performance or audio profile, and are looking for something better.

Recently, we’ve picked up fan testing again, and we’re working hard to test a bunch of different models to figure out the best options in this very crowded field. Over the past several months, we’ve worked in cooperation with industry experts to flesh out a benchmarking methodology, and we expect to update this page regularly with new models we’ve tested.

Our Testing methodology is built on real-world applications, and there are a handful of scenarios a fan needs to perform well in. Naturally, we’re testing airflow in an unrestricted environment as a ‘vanilla’ test, but this is often not indicative of performance inside a PC case.

What’s also not indicative of real-world performance is static pressure testing. Yes, it’s an industry standard, but it really only measures how much pressure a fan can generate when blowing into a closed tube, or up against a wall in a more real-world scenario. It does not account for the changes in acoustics when a fan is mounted on a radiator, heatsink, or behind a mesh intake.

Instead, we’ve decided to measure a fan’s acoustic performance not only when unrestricted and suspended mid-air, but also when strapped to a radiator and again when behind a mesh intake. The results from this paint a much more nuanced, real-world picture, often with interesting outcomes.

For more information about how we test PC fans, scroll to the bottom of this page.

Quick List

Best PC fans you can buy today

Best silence optimized fans

Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2 is game-changing, offering the quietest, most refined fan we’ve ever seen. In our testing, it delivered whisper-quiet performance and managed an impressively huge amount of airflow despite running at very low RPMs.

Managing such big airflow despite not needing to spin fast to accomplish it means it’s also not a very turbulent fan, which translates to chart-topping performance when installed on a radiator or behind an intake mesh. In fact, it’s the only fan we’ve tested thus far that ran quieter on a radiator than when suspended mid-air without any load.

In addition to pulling off airflow miracles, the NF-A12x25 also offers a seriously advanced internal hub, featuring Noctua’s refined, tried-and-tested SSO2 bearing, a new 3-phase etaPERF motor, and a new PWM controller with SupraTorque functionality. This sounds like a bunch of marketing talk, but after testing the fan, we can tell you with confidence that it has zero audible mechanical noise.

Best budget silence optimized fans

The Arctic P12 Pro is an interesting fan, because it offers performance that is, as far as the charts go, nearly neck-and-neck with Noctua’s NF-A12x25. Except, the Arctic does something Noctua doesn’t: It only costs $8.50 for one fan.

The price you pay for the Arctic fan is, in part at least, in its level of refinement. It uses a plastic ring to strengthen the impeller. And, in order to achieve its airflow, it relies on spinning up to higher speeds. Consequently, it’s a more turbulent fan than the Noctua, so it takes a bit more of a hit when mounted close to a mesh intake. It also produces a few mechanical noises, but even so, it’s a highly capable fan.

If, however, you just want a fan to move lots of air quietly, and you don’t want it to cost much, the Arctic P12 Pro is in a league of its own.

Best RGB fans

It feels a bit weird to place essentially the same Arctic fan on the Best list twice, but it truly is that good. The P12 Pro RGB is, for all intents and purposes, the exact same fan as the non-RGB variant, except with a white translucent impeller so that the RGB lighting from the hub shines through.

It performs on par with the non-RGB variant in our testing, offering wicked performance at up to 3000 RPM and a fantastic noise-to-airflow ratio. The best part: it barely costs more than the non-RGB variant.

Best High-Performance fans

The Phanteks T30 (review here) is one of the fans that somewhat copied the NF-A12x25 – it featured a similar blade shape, and also used a LCP (liquid crystal polymer) plastic for the impeller. Except, it wasn’t quite a copy, and now, even half a decade later, it’s still king of the hill in the ultra-high-performance fan space.

Why is it so good? Phanteks cheated. I wish I could say they didn’t, but they did. The industry standard for a 120mm fan is 25mm thickness. So what did Phanteks do? They made a 30mm fan. In fact, Phanteks was so proud of this fan that when they sent it out for review, they put together a wind tunnel kit for us because they wanted everybody to know Phanteks meant business and had defeated Noctua at their own game. And they did – it performed notably better than Noctua’s finest when tested for noise-to-airflow.

Moreover, the good stuff doesn’t stop at just 5mm of extra thickness. The company also built in a mode selector at the back of the hub that lets you select quiet, regular, and advanced modes. If you ask me, though, advanced should be called Final Destination mode it lets spin all the way up to 3,000 RPM. With its added thickness, high speed, and LCP material, it’ll gobble air and your fingers if you’re not careful.

Choosing the best fan for you

Fans. They spin. They move air. They make noise. Sometimes they have lights, and more recently, some have LCD screens. It may seem like a silly thing to obsess over, but picking the right, or wrong, fan can make a major difference in a PC build.

Not everybody looks for the same thing in a fan, and whereas picking the Best CPU or Best GPU is often a matter of what’s best-performing for the dollar in your allocated budget, fans don’t evolve at nearly the same pace, so picking one is much more of a subjective exercise. With that said, depending on your situation, there can be a few key considerations that can make the choice easier.

• If you’re someone who comes home from work, whips on a headset, and plays games for an hour, noise levels or MTBF (durability) figures may not matter much to you.
• Alternatively, if you’re someone who works on your PC in silence all day long, it may be worth investing in more refined fans that offer less wind and mechanical noise, with a more durable motor.
• Personal sensitivity to certain noise types and frequencies also plays a role.
• Whether the PC is placed on the desk or on the floor is another factor to consider. Fan noise can be less noticeable from the floor.
• Some fans are designed to perform better on radiators and heatsinks, whereas others perform better as case intake or exhaust. Pick accordingly.
• Fans with daisy-chaining connectors can ease installation and provide tidier cable management.
• Cases with tinted windows require fans with brighter RGB for a visual spectacle.
• Mini-ITX PCs, though fantastically small, can benefit more from a fan upgrade to quiet them down than big full-tower E-ATX machines.

More about how we test PC fans

Our PC fan testing consists of multiple phases. First, we test a fan’s vanilla acoustics by suspending it mid-air with four pieces of string so that no frames or holders interfere with the airflow. We start with a basic measurement, noting whether the fan breaks through the noise floor at its minimum speed, then we record the RPM for every whole dB between 34 and 44 dB(A). Finally, we record the maximum RPM and its associated noise level.

We then repeat these tests with a radiator mounted behind the fan, and again with a mesh intake in front of the fan. We do this because radiators and intake mesh fundamentally change a fan’s acoustics and the RPM they must spin at to achieve the desired noise targets.

After the acoustic data, we mount the fan in our wind tunnel to collect airflow data.

The windspeed is measured with an anemometer. However, although the fan’s impellers may push air, no air comes from the space behind the motor hub, and fans don’t generally push air in only one direction. In fact, the space immediately behind a motor hub usually becomes a low-pressure pocket, which is why we need a wind tunnel – to form the airstream into one cohesive, non-turbulent column of moving air.

Inside the wind tunnel (at the halfway point and near the end) are two air-straighteners, which together with the length of the tunnel at 77cm (just over 30 inches) neatly combs the airstream into something we can measure, without creating tons of backpressure that would affect the readings.

Using the RPM datapoints from the acoustic testing phase, we now set the fan to each RPM point and record the associated wind speed. We repeat this with a radiator behind the fan, and again without the radiator but with the mesh intake in front of the fan. Of course, the wind speed isn’t actually a useful measure (yet) of how much air a fan can displace, until we convert it to meters cubed per hour (m³/h).This testing yields up to 84 datapoints per fan (assuming the fan can achieve each point), which tells us enough about a fan's capabilities, quirks, and acoustics to judge whether it's one of the best PC fans you can buy.

Not long ago, we tested two popular case fans, pitting Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2, an industry legend, against the also well-liked Arctic P12 Pro. We had some surprising results, as the Arctic fan almost kept up with the much pricier Noctua. However, Arctic also sent us some P12 Pro’s of the RGB variety, so we thought it would be fitting to put Artic’s colorful spinner up against some competitors in its own price category.

In this round of testing we’ve rounded up five 120mm RGB fans that don’t cost a whole lot, so here, you won’t be seeing Lian Li’s fancy LCD-infused, wireless, infinity-mirror fans. Instead, we’re pinning the P12 Pro up against Be Quiet’s Light Wings LX, Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB, Phanteks’ M25 G2 RGB, and finally, Levelplay’s Combat Fan 120 A-RGB. This last one was sent to us as a surprise, and I thought it was fitting to include in the roundup.

Let’s dive straight into the testing.

Testing Methodology

For evaluating PC fans, there are two main terms you should be aware of: Airflow and Static Pressure.

Airflow is easy – how much air does a fan move (through a wind tunnel in our tests) when not burdened by a radiator, mesh, or any other restriction.

Static pressure can be measured by placing the fan on a wind tunnel, closing the end, and measuring the pressure generated with a sensor, which spits out a value in millimeters of water. The higher the number, the better a fan is likely to be at overcoming restrictions.

However, I find that a fan’s measure of static pressure isn’t actually all that useful – all it tells you, really, is how well a fan can push air up against a wall, which is obviously not how you want to position the back of your PC. Instead, I prefer to test for noise and airflow through a radiator and intake mesh, as well as the standard suite of unrestricted tests for a more nuanced, real-world picture.

Testing Results of 5 Budget RGB Fans

(Not) Breaking the Noise Floor

On the day of this testing, the noise floor in my office sat between 32.4 and 32.7 dBA, and I am happy to be able to write that all five fans, when run at their minimum speed, were completely inaudible and did not break the noise floor, even with the dB meter placed at just 20 cm from their hubs.

This used to be something I only saw in premium fans, where manufacturers have designed quiet hubs, so I was delighted to see this kind of performance from budget-friendly RGB fans.

Airflow is not recorded for these tests, as none offer enough air speed for the anemometer to register.

dBA VS. Airflow: Unrestricted

The first series of tests I subject the fans to is measuring their acoustics in an unrestricted environment. I target every whole dB between 34 and 44 dB(A), and record the associated RPM. Then, I put that same fan on our wind tunnel, and record the windspeed at said RPM figures. This is then calculated over to cubic meters per hour for airflow.

In this test, Arctic’s P12 Pro leads the pack by a significant margin, followed by Be Quiet’s Light Wings LX. Phanteks’ M25 G2 RGB only performs a smidge worse than Be quiet’s fan.

Note the dip in the curve of Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB at 37 dB(A). This fan creates quite an annoying resonance at certain speeds, where it gets louder at a certain RPM, and then quiets down again once past this RPM. I suspect that if I were to test at even smaller increments, the graph would become quite wobbly.

Most fans exhibit this kind of behavior to some extent, where they create unwanted noises at certain RPMs – even Arctic’s fan does this, but the level to which the Aspect 12 RGB made this noise was really quite bothersome.

Similarly, for the Phanteks’ fan (while its curve looks alright), I was unable to test at 35 dBA, which is why its line starts at 36. No matter how much I fidgeted with its speed, I simply could not get the dB meter to hit 35 – it was either over, or under, but not on.

The Levelplay Combat fan had the same issue, but at 41 dB(A), where I just couldn’t hit the mark.

All of this is not to say that Arctic’s fan is without imperfections either, though. This sample exhibited a light high pitch at certain RPMs which didn’t affect the readings, but I did notice, and at speed it started wobbling – a sign that it is unbalanced.

The predicament: Whether to test with more fans

I’ve wondered throughout testing these fans whether I should test with more fans and take the average results, but I have two problems with this: firstly, testing this thoroughly already takes quite some time, and more importantly, averaging out the results would mask defects.

In a premium fan from Noctua, we expect near-perfection. However, these are RGB fans that cost no more than $15 each. There will be some variance in issues between samples, but not averaging out the results means you get to see the fan’s performance for what it really is with one specific fan. Some of these behaviors will be down to their design and consistent across samples, while other issues may differ between units.

I do request three samples for each fan to review, however. If I do run into any issue like those mentioned above, I grab the other samples and quickly run them from lowest to max RPM and judge the results. If they exhibit similar behavior, I roll with the data, but if they to suddenly sound much cleaner, then I know there’s a manufacturing defect at play.

dBA VS. Airflow: Radiator Restricted

Pin these fans on a radiator, and something very interesting happens. Four of the fans perform nearly the same as each other, with the Arctic P12 Pro standing out by a huge margin.

Note that for this test, the acoustics are measured separately from the acoustics without the radiator, and the fans follow similar noise-to-RPM patterns.

dBA VS. Airflow: Mesh + Filter Intake Restricted

When placing the fans behind a mesh intake, things again get interesting. This is the most challenging test of the three, as placing intake mesh in front of a fan fundamentally changes the way they sound – intakes punish airflow more than radiators, not because they’re more restrictive, but because placing something in front of a fan has a much more profound effect on the noise than something behind it, and this is where a fan’s blade design really starts to shine.

The Arctic P12 Pro continues to lead the race here, with Be Qquiet’s Light Wings LX following behind. The Combat fan, despite being from a lesser-known brand, does OK for itself.

However, Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB and Phanteks’ M25 G2 put down appalling performances on this test, offering only 60% of the P12 Pro’s airflow at the same noise levels.

Maximum performance

Finally, the fans get a test at full blast.

This isn’t a useful test to compare noise-to-performance efficiency of the fans, but if you’re looking for a fan with low maximum speed to keep noise levels down without having to make a custom fan curve, Levelplay’s Combat Fan is your best pick. On the other hand, if you’re looking for maximum peak performance, Arctic’s P12 Pro RGB is a beast in a league of its own that can spin at well above 3000 RPM.

The dBA figure doesn’t say everything

Just because a fan performs well on the charts doesn’t necessarily mean it may be pleasant to listen to. One example of this is the Combat Fan from Levelplay. It’s not a terrible performer, but at certain speeds, something starts humming at an annoying mid-frequency. It was one of those frequencies that echoes through the room, and if I weren’t testing it but had it in my PC, it would drive me mad, wondering what the source of the noise in the room is.

The Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB also suffers from a painfully dirty noise profile that did show up on the charts, as it limited the fan’s ability to reach the speeds it otherwise would have had it not made these noises. It sounds a bit raspy, almost like there’s grit in the motor, and it had similar resonant noises as the Combat Fan.

The M25 G2 didn’t have weird noises – it was just inefficient in its noise-to-airflow ratio.

Judging the RGB, feature set and pricing

Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB

Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB fans have the worst RGB of the lot. The blades are almost opaque, which makes the RGB on anything but the hub rather dim compared to the competition. It also does not have a zero-RPM mode – when fed a 0% PWM duty, it will still spin, and with a minimum speed of about 500 RPM; I consider this a problem. Yes, it’s quiet at its minimum speed, so that’s not an issue, but high minimum speeds combined with no Zero-RPM implementation can lead to excessive dust buildup, as the constantly whirring blades accomplish nothing but to pull small particles towards your filter and / or fan.

This fan is available for $51.47 as a 3-pack, which brings the per-unit cost to $17.16.

Combat Fan 120 A-RGB

Levelplay’s Combat Fan 120 A-RGB comes with a ring around its blades, which makes for a cool look. Despite the RGB coming from the hub, it still lights up the ring moderately. It also responds correctly to a Zero-RPM signal.

Pricing for the Levelplay Combat fan sits at $12.23 per unit.

Be Quiet! Light Wings LX

Be Quiet’s Light Wings LX fans feature good RGB and a slick blade design, but no Zero-RPM feature. That being said, the minimum RPM is extremely low, tested at just 213 RPM, so I can forgive the lack of a zero-RPM mode.

Pricing sits at $47.90 for a 3-pack, bringing the per-unit price to $15.97.

Phanteks M25 G2 RGB

Phanteks M25 G2 RGB, although not being the quietest fan, offers a properly complete feature set that makes a compelling case for forgiving its performance shortcomings. The RGB is gorgeous and it comes with an infinity-mirror hub. The fans can also clip on to each other, daisy-chaining in a not-quite-wireless fashion but certainly better than the competition. The fan even comes with plastic covers for the screw holes for a tidy appearance. It also responds correctly to a 0% PWM duty signal.

Pricing sits at $36.99 for a 3-pack, which is a surprisingly good price if you consider the amount of effort that went into their design. It may not be the quietest fan, but it sure is the prettiest and comes with most bits and pieces to complete the set.

Arctic P12 Pro RGB

Arctic’s P12 Pro lights up bright and uniform, offering a fantastic visual spectacle. It also comes with a proper Zero-RPM implementation, but that’s where its feature set ends.

This fan costs just $28.49 in a 3-pack, which is a mighty good deal that’s hard to pass up at $9.50 per fan.

Picking a winner

It would come as no surprise if I said that Arctic’s P12 Pro was the winner of this test, but I’m not sure about that. The P12 Pro RGB is clearly the best performer, but it was a tad unbalanced and had some light high-pithed whining. It also clicked a few times upon startup, but most of the fans did that. Mechanical noises.

If you’re looking for the best value offering, the Arctic P12 Pro RGB is hard to pass up with the 3-pack costing just $9.50 per fan.

The Light Wings LX, although being the second-place fan in testing for noise levels, is my favorite of the bunch. Why? It’s clean! It makes a crisp, clean sound ---just a whoosh, with no extraneous noises on top. It’s a slightly louder whoosh, but a clean whoosh. Of course, that’s not to say it may be your favorite. Personally, I’m sensitive to these kinds of noises, and I’m willing to pay a little extra for a clean-sounding PC, but that little bit extra is quite a bit if you tally it up over multiple spinners.

Costing $15.97, this puts the be quiet! Light Wings LX right on the edge between budget and mid-range RGB fans.

If, on the other hand, you’re someone who doesn’t mind noise too much, and wants to build something that you’re truly proud to show off, Phanteks’ M25 G2 fans do away with the focus on silence, and prioritize looks with bright RGB, an infinity mirror, seamless daisy-chaining, and even a mechanism that clips the spinners into one unit and covers for the screw holes.

I’m someone that works many hours a day in silence, with my open air PC on my desk near me, so I’ll prioritize silence any day of the week. But if you’re a gamer, keep the PC on the ground, or wear a headset all the time anyway, the quality of the RGB may be far more important.

If picking a winner is so difficult, should we pick a loser?

If there’s one clear conclusion I can draw from this batch of testing, it’s that Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB is on my do-not-buy list. It offers no real redeeming features to make up for its shortcomings – it produces a dirty, inconsistent noise, performs disappointingly compared to the competition, has no Zero-RPM mode, and even the RGB doesn’t look all that great. It doesn’t even come with vibration-damping rubber pieces on the corners.

I honestly don’t understand what it’s doing in Fractal Design’s product portfolio at all, other than making the company’s other fans look good. And the wildest thing is, it’s also the most expensive fan tested here, at $17.16 a piece.

In this respect, fans are much like tires for cars: they come in all shapes and sizes, each with different purposes, from different manufacturers, and they all seem to do the same thing. And much like tires, in the world of fans there are a few great ones, many good ones, and some to avoid entirely.

Picking out new fans for a build is a process you either love or hate. You’ve come to terms with the fact that your PC needs fans – after all, air has to be moved to cool it. For today’s comparison, let’s take RGB out of the equation – assuming all you care about is that your PC gets cooling, nothing more.

We quickly run into the triangle of cooling:

Now, you have a choice to make: do you prioritize cooling performance, cost, or noise? You only get to pick two.

Say you want the best cooling fan: It has to have the absolute best cooling performance, run absolutely quiet, and cost is no object. There is one clear winner there: the Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 — at least by reputation. We’ll only know for sure whether that’s true when we’ve tested a lot more fans. But let’s take it as a given for now.

In comes an option on the other end of the spectrum: You just need some fans to move air, and please do so without adding much more cost to the already-expensive build. Since I’m deciding which fans to spend time on based on their reputation, I’m picking the Arctic P12 Pro as the competitor in today’s head-to-head, in what may be the most unfair fan comparison in history – or at least in PC fan history.

However, there is a reason behind this madness: The Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 is a brilliant fan, but it costs a mighty $35 on Amazon for a single spinner. If you need five fans for your PC, that’s $175, spent on just fans.

On the other side of the spectrum sits Arctic, with the recently released P12 Pro. A single P12 Pro costs $8.50. Want a 5-pack? Sure thing, that’ll be $27.50, please. Do you see where I’m going with this?

For what effectively comes down to a cost difference of 6:1, how much noise and cooling performance are you really sacrificing by using one of the cheapest fans that still has a good reputation, as opposed to the most expensive? The difference might be less than you think. Because if being an enthusiast for decades has taught me one thing, it’s never to underestimate the underdog.

Deeper Dive: Noctua NF-A12x25 G2

The Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 (what a handful, that name) is Noctua’s second-generation A12x25 fan. The A is for all-rounder, at 120mm in size and 25mm thick, and it is the second-generation model.

The all-round aspect of the fan is key here: The point of the NF-A series fans is to offer great performance, both for airflow and static pressure. This means that the NF-A12x25 G2 will function brilliantly as a case fan where its sole purpose is to move heaps of air. But it should also function great as a fan on a radiator, where it encounters much more resistance.

Obviously, building a fan that can move a lot of air through an unrestricted opening but also effectively cool a restrictive radiator comes with its own complexities — especially if you then also want this one-model-fits-all fan to achieve top-end acoustic performance.

So, hats off to Noctua for trying. In the past, the company was only satisfied with these two categories by offering two different pedigrees of fans. But as of 7 years ago, the company firmly stands behind the NF-A12x25, and more recently, the G2 variant.

To achieve its capabilities, the NF-A12x25 G2 features a self-lubricating, self-stabilizing fluid-dynamic bearing, which the company calls the SSO2 bearing, with SSO denoting self-stabilizing oil pressure. I suppose SSOP2 didn’t have the same ring to it. In essence, this is a hydrodynamic bearing with an added magnet that self-stabilizes the rotor axis for a very long and very quiet running lifetime.

From there on out, the NF-A12x25 G2 has a beige frame with vibration dampers on every corner. But at the heart of it all is where the magic happens: the 9-blade, Sterrox LCP fan blade assembly, shaped with a strong forward sweep, steep angles, impeller winglets, a centrifugal turbulator, and flow acceleration channels. It all sounds like marketing talk, but the sum of it all seems to produce a winner.

What I find most noteworthy is the 0.5mm tip clearance from the frame – it’s honestly unreal to see the fan blades so close to the frame – and that, paired with the high blade density, is bound to do good things for the static pressure.

To top it all off, Noctua includes a low-noise adapter, and the hub’s PWM microcontroller is even equipped with programming to ensure that even when pushing through high-impedance cooling devices, the fan retains the RPMs it is meant to achieve and a particular input voltage and PWM duty cycle.

By default, the Austrian goldilocks spinner will rotate at up to a bit above its rated RPM, but the company also includes a low-noise adapter that lowers this figure to give or take 1500 RPM. As an enthusiast feature, the fan will stop when fed a 0% PWM duty – something not all fans do, in order to protect the system.

To add complexity to the matter, Noctua also introduced the NF-A12x25 G2 Sx2-PP, which is a kit with two of the spinners, one of which is programmed to run 25 RPM lower than the standard model, and one 25 RPM higher.

Why? Because the NF-A12x25 is said to be so painfully consistent with its rotational speeds per PWM figure between samples, that if you group multiple fans together on one motherboard header, running off the same input voltage and PWM signal, they become harmonic. That may be beautiful in an orchestra, but not so much so when your fans play sing-along with each other in your rig.

Come to think of it, I should have asked Noctua for two additional NF-A12x25 G2 fans for review. Today I only have a single unit, along with a two-fan NF-A12x25 G2 Sx2-PP kit with the speed offset. I’d like to experience the harmonics they speak of, but that’ll have to wait for another day.

Deeper Dive: Arctic P12 Pro

Diving deeper into the Arctic P12 Pro may not be as exciting as the Noctua, but I still find it intriguing. Why? Because for a $7 fan, it’s surprisingly well-built.

Instead of a 0.5mm tip gap, the Arctic fan has a ring around the fan blades. The reason for this is not aesthetic, but rather, for added strength. Whereas Noctua uses Sterrox LCP with high tensile strength, we can’t expect such exotic materials from a $7 fan. The Arctic fan is made from plain ‘ol plastic.

That’s where this ring design element comes in. It gives the fan blade piece added strength – a strength that the plastic itself does not naturally have. As the P12 Pro’s fan blades connect to the hub on the smaller side of the blade, sweeping forward, and can then spin at a mighty 3000 RPM, you can imagine the destruction they would cause if the blade assembly were not reinforced somehow.

I wonder if Noctua’s fan would survive 3000 RPM. Should I sacrifice one to find out? Would its PWM controller survive the 24 volts needed to achieve this?

I’m trailing off target, but the moral of this story is that there really isn’t anything all that interesting about the Arctic P12 Pro fan when you look at it. It doesn’t use exotic materials. It’s not brown and beige. It doesn’t have a fancy 0.5mm tip clearance, and it uses a ring around the blade assembly to hold itself together. What kind of cheap trick is that?

However, by reputation, it’s a blimey good fan, and from the synthetic testing I’ve seen elsewhere, it trades blows with Noctua’s finest for generating airflow and static pressure. I found this all a little difficult to believe, so I had to see for myself.

Testing Methodology

For testing PC fans, there are two main terms you should be aware of: Airflow and Static Pressure.

Airflow is easy: How much air does a fan move in an unrestricted wind tunnel? Static Pressure is a little more complicated – but essentially it boils down to how well a fan can overcome restrictions such as a radiator or heatsink.

Static pressure can be measured by placing the fan in a wind tunnel, closing the end, and measuring the pressure generated with a sensor, which spits out a value in mm of water. The higher the number, the better a fan should be at overcoming restrictions.

However, I find that testing a fan’s static pressure doesn’t actually tell the whole story, and the reason has to do with acoustics.

Radiators and Intakes Fundamentally Change Acoustics

In lots of fan testing, you’ll see acoustic measurements, followed by airflow and static pressure tests. The problem I have with these tests is that they use the acoustic tests of a fan in an unrestricted environment and use the RPM figures from this test to determine static pressure at certain noise levels.

However, have you ever held your hand closely in front of a PC fan? It gets louder. The same goes for a fan installed on a radiator.

Therefore, I will not be testing static pressure. Instead, I prefer a more real-world test – figuring out the fan’s acoustics not only by itself, but when strapped to a radiator and also behind a mesh intake with an air filter.

Once I have datapoints for the RPM’s at noise levels in all three scenarios, I pop the fan onto the wind tunnel, by itself, on the radiator, and behind the mesh intake, set it to the rotational speeds found in the acoustic testing phase, and measure the resulting windspeed with an anemometer.

This takes quite a bit more time to test for, as I end up with a bit over 80 datapoints per fan. But I feel it paints a more nuanced picture on top of the standard airflow test.

A bit about our test environment

For testing acoustics, we do not have access to a certified anechoic chamber. For that matter, nor do we have access to an uncertified chamber. Personally, I live in an apartment near a never-ending construction site. Not ideal circumstances for testing fans, however, this is not a huge problem – it just means I run the acoustic tests late at night.

My home office is padded with thin acoustic paneling on all walls, a part of the ceiling has thicker absorption foam, and there is a bookshelf that helps with diffusion. Thin paneling doesn’t do much for low or mid frequencies, but in the range where fans operate, it does quite a decent job of absorbing the sound. At night, I have a noise floor of 33.2 dBA, and if you’re familiar with acoustics, you’ll know that this is really quite silent.

Although this means we won’t be able to measure a fan’s acoustic profile low down in its RPM range, chances are slim that you have your PC somewhere quieter. As fascinating as it would be to analyze in the very quiet range from a scientific point of view out of pure interest, given how quiet my office is, we can confidently give buying advice without the use of an anechoic chamber.

The Suspense

For testing, I suspend the fan mid-air. I do this because I found that using a clamp or bracket of some sort to hold the fan up can interfere with the readings. For example, in this round of testing, I initially found that Noctua’s fan produced the exact same figures as Arctic’s. Now, I knew Arctic’s fan was supposed to be good, but this seemed to be too good.

Something clearly wasn’t adding up, and it seemed to be down to a tiny lip of plastic that didn’t get in the way of Arctic’s blades, but because Noctua doesn’t use the ring and has the blades pass much closer to the outside of the frame, it caused a bit of turbulence and made the Noctua run louder. I don’t think the vibration carried into the tripod holding the fan up was helping either, so I decided the best way to eradicate external influences as best as possible was to suspend the fans mid-air by means of a string on each of the four corners.

Arctic P12 Pro Vs Noctua NF-A12x25 Testing Results

Simply pinning the Arctic P12 Pro against the Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 isn’t going to give us a whole lot of sensible data by itself, without anything else to compare to. Therefore, I decided to add two more fans to the mix: Noctua’s previous-gen NF-A12x25, along with Phanteks’ M25 G2 as a midrange option, which usually sells for anything between $7.99 and 11.99.

For the testing results, we are starting with the noise floor findings, followed by the dBA vs. RPM data, and concluding with airflow analysis.

Breaking the Noise Floor

In my testing office, the noise floor is at 33.2 dBA. This is pretty quiet, and representative of most home offices when nobody else is home, with all appliances and computers switched off and no nearby traffic.

Arctic’s P12 Pro, at its minimum speed of 510 RPM, breaks the noise floor at 33.7 dBA, and at this speed, it produces a very slight but audible hum, along with a higher pitch from the motor. This is only audible with sensitive ears in a very quiet environment.

Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2 has a minimum speed of 370 RPM, and at this speed, it is completely inaudible in this office. It does not break the noise floor until it reaches 600 RPM, when it only produces gentle wind noise. To my ears, there is no mechanical or motor noise to speak of.

dBA vs RPM: Unrestricted

A-weighted decibels (dBA) vs RPM isn’t usually all that useful – the metric that really matters is dBA vs. Airflow, which will come in a bit. However, both the Arctic P12 Pro and the Noctua NF-A12x25 showcased some very interesting phenomena, and since this is an analysis of two flagships, I would like to share this with you.

In the first test, the Arctic P12 Pro comes out looking very strong, managing the highest number of rotations per minute at each given noise level. It is followed closely by Noctua’s previous-generation NF-A12x25, and Noctua’s G2 spinner isn’t looking so great at this point.

Across the test, Arctic’s P12 ran 14.8% faster than Noctua’s fan, and at 41 dBA, where Noctua’s G2 spinner ran at 1756 RPM, nearing its full speed, the P12 Pro spun at a dizzying 2048 RPM – almost 300 RPM faster, while maintaining the same noise level.

dBA vs RPM: Radiator Restricted

Put these fans on a radiator, and something very interesting happens. The P12 Pro remains in the lead for RPMs at each noise level, but I want to look more closely at the NF-A12x25 G2. It suddenly jumped way up, running at almost identical RPMs as the NF-A12x25.

I ran the numbers and found that the P12 Pro suffered a 5% RPM penalty for being mounted on a radiator. The NF-A12x25 also handed in lower RPMs on a radiator, suffering a total 7% RPM loss to maintain equal noise levels.

The NF-A12x25 G2 is quieter when installed on a radiator

However, the new NF-A12x25 G2 achieved something quite miraculous: On a radiator, it was able to spin on average 2% faster across the test range, while maintaining noise parity with the non-radiator test.

dBA vs RPM: Mesh + Filter Intake Simulation

This is the most brutal of all the tests. The mesh intake sits in front of the fans, and all the fans' RPMs need to drop significantly in order to maintain dBA parity. The NF-A12x25 needs to run 12% slower to maintain noise levels, and the P12 Pro gets a 16% hit.

dBA VS. Airflow: Unrestricted

This chart represents the most holistic of the three tests. The fan is mounted onto the wind tunnel, the fan is set to the RPM figures from the acoustic tests. The resulting windflow is measured and calculated to cubic meters per hour.

Leading the race is Noctua’s finest, followed closely by Arctic’s P12 Pro. This means that although Arctic’s fan may be able to run at much higher RPMs for each given noise level, that doesn’t actually mean it moves more air. In fact, it has to spin much faster than Noctua’s G2 fan to move the same amount of air.

dBA VS. Airflow: Radiator Restricted

Pin the three spinners to a radiator, and you’ll find that the gap between the NF-A12x25 G2 and Arctic P12 Pro starts to grow. However, the Arctic fan still pushes more air through the radiator than Noctua’s last-generation NF-A12x25, which is quite a feat, especially for a $7 fan.

dBA VS. Airflow: Mesh + Filter Intake Restricted

Burdening the spinners with a mesh intake, here we start to see Noctua’s superiority. The Arctic P12 Pro is at last defeated by both Noctua fans.

That being said, it still performs admirably, staying very close to Noctua’s performance, and well above Phanteks’ M25 G2 fan.

The dBA figure doesn’t say everything

Throughout my testing of these fans, I spent countless hours listening to them, and although Arctic’s fan delivers highly impressive figures on the SPL (Sound Pressure Level) meter and anemometer (wind speed meter), there was something about the sound that wasn’t quite as comforting as Noctua’s fan. The NF-A12x25 fans, especially the G2 version, produce a very smooth sound – all you could hear was a gentle airstream.

The P12 Pro, on the other hand, although not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, wasn’t as refined in its acoustic profile. There was a rhythm to the airflow. Upon startup, you’d hear the motor click a couple of times, and even when running at its minimum duty, there was a quiet, but just-audible high-pitched noise coming from its motor.

While handling the fan, I noticed that if it was still spinning and I grabbed it from the front to swap it for another, the Arctic P12 Pro sounded choppy. It was the same choppy sound it normally had, but as soon as something got close in front of the fan, it got much louder. This was not an issue with anything behind the fan, but it did lead to adding the intake tests to the suite, which also clearly shows that not all fans respond equally when presented with the same circumstances.

Notes about intake fan noise

Adding intake restrictions harmed the resulting airflow more than radiators. Of course, it must be noted that the acoustic penalty for strapping a fan to a radiator is much smaller than putting it behind a mesh intake. As a result, the airflow penalty is higher on intake fans, not because the intake is more restrictive than a radiator – it isn’t – but mainly because the fan simply needs to run much slower to maintain noise parity, and the intake penalty gets worse the closer the fan gets to the intake grille.

This is where the choppy sound of the P12 becomes problematic, and I recommend buyers ensure there is more than 30mm (1.18 inches) clearance between the fan and front mesh if using a P12 Pro as an intake fan. It’s worth noting that in some cases, this can be problematic: without a radiator, you could opt to mount the fans behind the mounting shroud instead of between it and the front mesh, which would give you plenty of space – but if combined as intake and radiator at the same time, the assembly may become too thick and get in the way of long GPUs on small cases if built this way – but we’re getting into minute details here – just keep it in mind when deciding which setup you’re pairing it with.

In Conclusion

When these two fans arrived in the mail, I held them next to each other, and I had a right laugh – there was no way this cheapo-plastic fan with a ring around its blades was going to beat the beige-and-brown beast. The NF-A12x25 G2 was going to run circles around the P12 Pro. I had invited the circus to my house, and I was the audience.

But it turns out, I was the clown – even with the Noctua as my show partner, the P12 Pro laughed in our faces.

To say that the performance testing surprised me would be putting it lightly. Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2 is a brilliant fan. Overengineered beyond all measure. And yet, in performance testing, Arctic’s P12 Pro stayed at its heels, desperately clawing for first place, and occasionally coming very close.

The Arctic P12 Pro costs $27.50 when purchased in a 5-pack, whereas the Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 has a street price of $35 each. This means you can buy six P12s for the price of one Noctua G2 fan.

The P12 Pro gets you most of Noctua’s performance for a fraction of the cost. The sacrifices in performance you make are a slightly higher minimum speed, slightly more turbulent wind noise, a bit of mechanical noise from the motor when it’s otherwise very quiet in the room, and you have to be careful about not placing it too close to a front intake mesh.

But I have to emphasize again, we’re comparing to the crème de la crème here, and that’s saying something and picking the nittiest of nits. In exchange for pledging loyalty to Arctic, the P12 pro gives you almost Noctua-level performance at medium speeds, obscene power at its full duty with over 3000 RPM to play with, and it comes in an RGB flavor, which we’ll be testing soon, too. All for a fraction of the price.

The P12 Pro is ideal for gamers who, as soon as their PC boots up, fire up a game and get cracking. If, however, you use your PC for productivity and it spends a lot of time idling, and you know you’re sensitive to these kinds of noises, it’s hard to argue with Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2. It offers a level of refinement that makes you want to address it formally – the way it deals with ultra-low RPM ranges is so beautiful that I’d almost pay money to see what it’s capable of in an anechoic chamber.

Both of these fans will likely be earning a highly-deserved spot on our upcoming Best PC Fans page, along with our Editor’s Choice award.

Noctua is well known amongst PC enthusiasts. While its products generally carry a premium price tag, the quality of the manufacturing and customer service support is generally considered to be the gold standard of the industry. Noctua does have plans to enter the liquid cooling market, but they’re best known for manufacturing and production of traditional air coolers, thermal pastes, and fans.

This review covers a product that is anything but traditional, and is quite niche: a fanless CPU cooler.This won't win any overclocking competitions, but if you want silent performance

Users interested in fanless cooling solutions aren’t usually looking for the strongest possible performance – they want the quietest running PC possible. There aren’t many easily obtainable solutions for lovers of fanless cooling, and at the moment Noctua’s NH-P1 offers the strongest performance in this niche market - at least that I am aware of.

(It's possible that Cooler Master’s Cooling X provides better thermal performance – but that’s a solution only available with the purchase of an expensive pre-built PC costing thousands of dollars!)

Noctua’s NH-P1 is one of the of the best CPU coolers on the market, if only for lack of competition. While most of our cooling reviews feature results from only two CPUs, today’s review features results from four: AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 7700X, and Intel’s Core i9-13900K and Core i7-14700K. As this is a rather unique product, we’ll be looking at the NH-P1 a little differently than our typical process.

To start, let’s take a quick look at the manufacturing specifications, compatibility, and features of Noctua’s fanless air cooler and then we’ll take a look at how surprisingly well it performs.

Cooler specifications

Packing and included contents

The packaging for the cooler features a close-up of the product in a brown-tinted photo, and advertises its features. Opening the box reveals a smaller box containing the mounting accessories and thermal paste, with the cooler packaged underneath.

Included in the box are the following:

• Massive fanless heatsink
• Mounting for AMD and Intel platforms
• Torx T20 Screwdriver
• Thermal Paste and cleaning wipes
• Noctua Badge
• Fan clips

Features of Noctua’s NH-P1

▶️ Heatsink design

The NH-P1 is essentially just a big chunk of metal. Like traditional air coolers, it utilizes six copper heatpipes to transfer heat from the CPU block to the fins of the cooler.

While typical air coolers use a large number of thin fins, the NH-P1 is a little different. It incorporates large, thick metal plates instead of traditional fins.

There are holes cut into each plate to help facilitate airflow.

You might also notice the smaller holes in the photo above with a label etched next to them of “1”, “2”, or “3”. This is where the fan clips can be attached. You can mount a fan on all but one side of the product, should you choose to add a fan for additional cooling power.

▶️ NT-H2 thermal paste and cleaning wipes

The NH-P1 comes with both a small tube of Noctua’s NT-H2 thermal paste, as well as cleaning wipes for users who might have thermal paste on their CPU.

▶️ Fan clips

Some people interested in the NH-P1 may want to augment the cooler’s capacity with a fan. It includes a set of fan clips for those who want to do this.

▶️ Noctua badge

Many of Noctua’s customers are enthusiasts, and for them a metal Noctua badge has been included with the product.

▶️ RAM Compatibility

"Noctua advertises “100% RAM Compatibility,” and that's technically true. As you can see in the picture below, most DDR5 should fit well. However the tallest DDR4 modules might not fit underneath if installed in the orientation shown. In those situations, Noctua recommends rotating the cooler 180 degrees to ensure full compatibility. So make sure you check clearances before installing the cooler."

▶️ Torx T20 Screwdriver

For reasons that don’t make sense to me, Noctua did not include traditional Phillips screws for the mounting of this hardware. However, it did include a Torx T20 screwdriver necessary to install the product properly.

AM5 and 1851 installation

The installation of this cooler is simple for both Intel and AMD CPUs.

1. You’ll first need to apply the included backplate if you’re using an Intel CPU. AMD users will remove the default mounting mechanism.

2. Next you’ll need to install the standoffs against the mounting holes, and then place and secure the mounting bars. AMD users will only be able to install the mounting bars in a horizontal orientation, Intel users have the option of installing them in either horizontal or vertical orientation.

3. Apply thermal paste to the CPU, and then place the heatsink on top of the mounting bars – securing the heatsink using the included screwdriver.

4. Because on AMD systems the cooler can only be installed in one direction, you won’t be able to utilize the first PCI-e slot for a graphics card due to the size of the heatsink. You’ll need to use one of the lower PCI-e slots, if you have one available. This isn’t an issue on Intel systems, where the cooler can be oriented in vertical or horizontal orientation.

Because this cooler isn’t quite comparable to traditional models on the market, we’re going to look at its performance differently than previous reviews. We’ll start by looking at performance with AMD Ryzen 7700X and 9950X3D, then switch over to looking at Intel’s Core i7-14700K and i9-13900K.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X

Over the course of ten minutes, the NH-P1 was able to sustain an average of 102W cooled. The workload run was Cinebench R23 multi-core benchmark test, the idea being to push the CPU to its thermal limits.

I feel like people should keep in mind when reading this review — these benchmark tests are worst case scenarios. Common usage scenarios — especially workloads like gaming, watching videos, office work, or web browsing — will be far less stressful — and as such, the NH-P1 will provide full performance in these less-intensive situations.

By extending our testing to thirty minutes long to satisfy the most picky of our readers, the average power cooled drops to an average of 85W – plateauing at 75W cooled at the end of testing. That number on its own might seem unimpressive, until you consider that Ryzen 7700X’s eco mode only consumes a maximum of 65W.

What this means is that unless you need the absolute fastest performance, Noctua’s NH-P1 will provide plenty of cooling power for common needs. The way I test coolers is much more intensive than normal usage. Other authors here at Tom’s Hardware have previously examined AMD’s Ryzen 3900 to show how much (or little) is lost with ECO mode on Ryzen systems - and we’ll cover benchmark performance in the next section covering AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

We’re going to look at performance with AMD’s flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D in two different graphs. First we’ll look at the performance of the cooler by looking at how many watts it can handle.

In the default configuration, Noctua’s NH-P1 is able to handle about 80% of the maximum stock heat output of AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D in intense workloads. Installing a fan on the NH-P1 increases that figure to 93%. This is pretty impressive, especially when these benchmark tests are worst case scenarios.

But how does that loss of power consumption translate into benchmark results? Less than one would think! You might be surprised by the benchmark scores of Cinebench R23’s multi-core test.

The default performance of AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D will result in a 10 minute run of Cinebench R23 multi-core score of about 42,000 points. In its stock configuration of the NH-P1, that score drops to 37K due to thermal throttling. Adding a single fan to the cooler bridges that gap, bringing the score up to 40K – a mere 2,000 away from stock performance.

Intel Core i9-13900K

Intel’s i9-13900K is amongst the most difficult to cool CPUs still relevant in today’s market. Even if you set a 200W power limit, the CPU will reach TJMax with Noctua’s NH-P1 after 2.5 minutes of an intensive workload.

With power limits removed in BIOS settings, Noctua’s heatsink can handle about 213W with Intel’s Core i9-13900K over the course of ten minutes when a fan is added to the cooler.

But how about long term performance, without a fan? You might be surprised, but the NH-P1 was able to handle more than the PL1 of 125W! At the end of 45 minutes, the cooler was still dissipating 150W. That’s the longest test I’ve ever done for testing a cooler, and I highly doubt testing longer would produce different results. After 45 minutes, the cooler has been fully saturated and performance will plateau.

Intel Core i7-14700K

Lastly, we’ve tested Noctua’s fanless solution with Intel’s “Raptor Lake” Core i7-14700K – another CPU which is fairly difficult to cool.

In its default configuration, horizontally mounted, the CPU’s power consumption dropped to an average of 160W in a basic ten-minute test. Changing the orientation of the cooler’s installation improved performance significantly, increasing to 184W.

Finally, adding a fan increased total cooling capacity to 206W – plenty powerful enough for most users, especially in common scenarios.

Conclusion

Noctua’s NH-P1 is a unique fanless cooler that offers completely silent performance, at the cost of slightly reduced cooling power. You won’t look at this if you need every last bit of performance for overclocking, but rather if you’re a user who prefers quiet and has more common workloads.

Even if you do run intense multi-core workloads, there won’t be much of a performance loss – as shown with our Cinebench R23 tests using AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

At this time, not only is Noctua’s NH-P1 the strongest fanless solution available for common users – it is also the only one that is easily available for purchase. The $119 USD price tag might be difficult to swallow, but that’s the price of a niche product with strong performance.

Noctua’s next-generation NF-A12x25 G2 120mm fans are finally available for purchase. The latest high-performance fans are available on Amazon for $34.90 each or $64.90 for a twin pack. A follow-up to the original NF-A12x25 fans, which launched back in 2018, the second-generation model made its first appearance at this year’s Computex trade expo as part of a collaboration with Asus. The two companies jointly launched the RTX 5080 Noctua Edition GPU, which featured three NF-A12x25 G2 fans.

The new NF-A12x25 G2 is essentially a smaller version of the NF-A14x25 G2 140mm fans, which debuted last year. Noctua continues to use its patented Sterrox liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) for the fan construction, which is said to offer high tensile strength and low thermal expansion characteristics compared to traditional thermoplastics. Apart from the redesigned fan blades, the fan hub has also been optimized with a special pattern allowing the G2 to offer better airflow performance compared to the original NF-A12x25.

The fan is available in three versions: a standard PWM model with speeds of up to 1800 RPM, an ultra-quiet LS-PWM model that tops out at 1100 RPM, and an Sx2-PP set that includes two fans. The two fans in the set are intentionally offset by 50 RPM, a design choice that is said to improve push-pull performance and help reduce acoustic interference when multiple fans operate side by side.

According to the company, the new NF-A12x25 G2 fans can be used in a range of scenarios, including general case ventilation and more demanding tasks, such as cooling heatsinks or water cooling radiators. In internal testing, Noctua reports that the G2 model performed 3.5°C better than the original NF-A12x25 at a 200W heat load on a 120x49 mm radiator, with both fans operating at similar noise levels. When tested with the NH-U12A heatsink under the same thermal load, the G2 offered a modest improvement of about 1°C under identical acoustic conditions.

Lian Li made a splash at this year’s Computex trade show in Taiwan, unveiling a range of new cases, AIO liquid coolers, and even a lineup of power supplies. But what may have flown under the radar is the company’s next step toward truly wireless PC case fans. Their latest Uni Fan SL-Infinity Wireless fans, in true sense, do not require any cables and can be controlled wirelessly. However, there’s a major catch - the fans run on power supplied by a small power bank, limiting their runtime to just 20–30 minutes.

While powering the fans and onboard LEDs via a power bank is one option (limited to certain early units), the Uni Fan SL-INF Wireless fans also come with a module that attaches to a single fan or a group of interlocked, daisy-chained fans. This module includes an internal wireless transmitter and a cable with a PWM power connector, which must be plugged into the motherboard. As such, the fans reduce cable clutter somewhat, but their true wireless capacities are extremely limited.

There’s also a USB dongle which acts as a wireless receiver and is required to be plugged into a USB port at the back of your motherboard, or a USB internal header on the motherboard. The receiver can be used to control other wireless products from Lian Li, including its range of Strimmer Wireless ARGB extension cables, which were first showcased at last year’s Computex. Using the company’s L-connect 3 software, users can then control the lighting effects, fan speeds, fan curves, monitor system stats, and more.

While the intention to eliminate controller hubs and ARGB cables from your fan setup is appreciated, without the paltry battery pack, these fans don’t technically qualify as ‘wireless.’ Having said that, they do look premium and include 58 LEDs to offer tasteful RGB lighting across dedicated zones, including the blade hub, diffused side strip, and inner edges. Both the hub and sides offer infinity mirror effects while each side comes in a different RGB lighting pattern, allowing you to change the look by simply flipping them to the other side.

Cooler Master's latest MasterFan XT lineup is getting thicker, bulking up to 30 mm versus the typical 25 mm. This is a trend we've seen with new fans from from Hyte, Lian Li, and others, as the extra thickness increases the blade area, improving airflow and static pressure, or reducing the fan speed while maintaining the same performance as a standard 25 mm-thick fan.

But while the standard XT fans will be made using the typical plastic blades and frame, and will come in standard 120 mm and 140 mm sizes to fit your case and cooling needs, the company also showed off an XT Pro model, with an all-aluminum frame and fan blades. A company representative says this reduces vibration and noise, also allowing for slower fan rotation and quieter operation.

There's a good chance that, if you're paying extra for a premium metal fan, you care more about absolute air-moving performance than silent operation. And to that end, Cooler Master says its aluminum MF XT Pro fans will be able to operate at 4,000 RPM, 33% faster than the lesser XT models. That's a speed more typical of server rooms than reasonably quiet-running PCs, so it will be interesting to hear what these spinners sound (as well as perform) like inside a case. But of course, in typical gaming or mainstream productivity workloads, these fans should never need to reach their max speed.

Arctic has released a new cooling fan archetype for server use, the S12038-4K and -8K. The fan is instantly visually unique thanks to its seven bonus fan blades in its direct center, creating a fan-within-a-fan effect. The fan offers class-leading static pressure, though Arctic seems reticent to advertise its new standout.

The S12038's spec sheet is rather impressive on several fronts. Its advertised power consumption at max load, 3.96W, is 12% lower than the next closest server-grade competitor. It generates an insane 11.45 mmH₂O of static pressure, around 3X-6X greater than Arctic's stable of standard case fans. This high static pressure and airflow level is near the best in class for server hardware. As the name implies, the S12038 can be had in flavors of 4,000 or 8,000 maximum RPM.

The fan achieves this power using a dual ball bearing design, with two ball bearings turning the fan, rather than the standard fluid dynamic bearing style. The extra fan blades in the center of the impeller serve to cool the shaft, providing a motor temperature of 5-10 degrees Celsius lower than that of Arctic's press materials (Arctic's press materials disagree on this number). Arctic claims this additional shaft cooling helps double the fan's effective lifespan. It also includes a dust cover sticker for the central fans to protect the fan in highly dusty environments, though why anyone would choose to cover up the majesty of the bonus fan blades is beyond me.

Those interested in using the fan for extra style points in a non-server PC setting should take special consideration before picking the S12038-4K. The fan is 38mm tall, 11mm taller than standard PC cooling fans. It also lacks rubber pads for quieter mounting, as the fan will generate higher noise and vibrations no matter what. As a server fan, this is not optimized for silent operation like most consumer PC fans today.

Arctic seems surprisingly disinterested in advertising its new fan, even though it represents a step up in performance in its class. The company deletes or ignores Arctic subreddit posts, press releases are difficult to find, and very few outlets have reported on the fan's real-world performance. Those interested in using the extreme high-pressure fan in 3U+ servers or workstations can find it for $14.99 from Amazon.

Noctua developed a custom 120mm fan grill for the Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition built for silence, and now anyone can get it for free. The company posted on its X (formerly Twitter) account that it’s sharing the high-efficiency fan grill on Printables, allowing anyone with a 3D printer or laser cutter to make one of their own.

According to Noctua, the fan grill “ensures smooth pressure gradients as the fan blades pass the radial struts,” which results in higher airflow and a noise reduction of about 2dB(A) versus the stock power supply grill found on the Seasonic power supply.

The high-efficiency Noctua 120mm fan grill, as the company calls it on the 3D model database, is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). That means you can remix it and share it anywhere you like if you attribute its original creator, do it for non-commercial purposes, and your creation should have the same license as the original (i.e., CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

This isn’t the first thing that Noctua and Seasonic have for free in recent weeks. The two collaborated on a keychain merch giveaway that’s up for grabs for users who commented on the Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition post on the Chinese video-sharing site BiliBili. These events seem to celebrate the successful launch of the PSU, an improvement of Seasonic’s flagship power supply. This ultra-quiet version retains the exact excellent specifications and performance but reduces the noise generated by replacing its cooling fan with Noctua’s 120mm NF-A12x25 fan and this unique fan grill.

Seasonic and Noctua might also have no problems releasing this fan grill for free, especially with the price that this high-performance PSU demands. The vanilla Seasonic Prime TX-1600 has a retail price of $539.99 on Amazon, while you have to pay a $30 premium to get the Noctua Edition. Nevertheless, you’re getting a good power supply for the price, with the TX-1600 being one of our recommended options in our best PSUs of 2024 list. So, if you need that much power and have grown tired of the cacophony of multiple noisy fans, this ultra-quiet PSU might just be exactly what you need for a quieter workspace.

Noctua has also shared several other 3D designs you can download, like the NV-AA1-12 Airflow Amplifier, which will turn your 120mm Noctua fan into the $100 NV-FS1 desk fa (without the stand), the NA-FD1 Fan Duct, designed to improve the performance of Noctua fans with SFF cases that has a significant gap, and the NA-FMA1 120mm/140mm Adaptor for Noctua 120mm fans. Aside from its excellent fan designs (and controversial color choices), this tendency to share some of its designs for free is one of the reasons why Noctua is loved by its fans love Noctua.

This morning, Adata XPG announced in a press release that it would introduce its new XPG Hurricane Mag series of 120mm case fans alongside a new BTF form factor case, the XPG Starter Air BTF.

The XPG Hurricane Mag fans primarily caught our interest because they're comparably more innovative. They're reversible, meaning they can be configured to spin and push air in either direction. They're also magnetic and snap together for easier installation and power, allowing up to six magnetically attached fans to be powered off a single cable.

That's all pretty nifty, but we should take a moment to discuss case airflow and how the direction of your case fans can influence it. To simplify, your PC case is considered to have a "positive pressure" airflow configuration if you have more intake fans sucking air in than exhaust fans blowing air out, creating more air pressure inside your case. More exhaust creates "negative pressure" and can be comparably powerful, but will result in a dustier PC.

With the ability to switch fan direction with a single button, it becomes a lot easier for users to switch between these setups at will or experiment more broadly with their case cooling without needing non-matching fans to fill in the gaps. For example, you could choose to have your intake fans and their RGB facing inward but still sucking in air through your front panel, unlike traditional RGB fans.

Adata's XPG Hurricane Mag case fans are 120mm RGB fans rated for up to 2000 RPM. Airflow is estimated at 54.82 ± 10% CFM in a standard configuration and 49.27 ± 10% CFM in a reversed configuration. The fan is rated to last for 160,000 hours (roughly 6666 days) and has a two-year warranty period.

Adata will sell the XPG Hurricane Mag fans in individual quantities or bundles of 4. Unfortunately, we can't yet speak to the value proposition of singular Hurricane Mag fans, bundles, or even the Starter Air BTF case because Adata opted not to reveal this information in the press release.

Today, Noctua debuted its next-generation 140mm case and cooler fans, the NF-A14x25 G2, in an official blog post, with the CEO writing that  "after almost a decade of development work, we're proud of the substantial performance uplift we've managed to achieve with this fan." This fan directly succeeds the original 2013 Noctua NF-A14 and its PWM variant and is touted as "a true-all rounder that yields superb results in all types of usage, regardless of whether it's in low-impedance, airflow-oriented applications such as case cooling, or high-impedance, static pressure demanding scenarios such as on heatsinks and water cooling radiators". 

The NF-A14x25 G2 is of course debuting in Noctua's signature brown color scheme — no word on when the now-common chromax.black variant will be made available or if it will be made available. But considering how long Noctua fan designs seem to last on the market, we'd be surprised not to see a black variant of these sooner or later.

Performance-wise, the NF-A14x25 G2 has also greatly progressed past its predecessor, according to Noctua's testing. The original NF-A14 at 1500 RPM when used for case cooling could only achieve about 68 CFM (cubic feet per minute) while the new NF-A14x25 G2 can reach up to 78.5 CFM. When compared for water cooling with a radiator in noise-normalized cooling performance, the original NF-A14 managed 29 degrees Celsius, while the NF-A14x25 G2 managed to squeeze it even farther, down to just 26.8 degrees Celsius.

Besides the base version of the NF-A14x25 G2, which runs at up to 1500 RPM, there's also an "ultra-quiet" LS-PWM version that runs up to 800 RPM, and even an Sx2-PP set with dual fans that maintain a ~25 RPM offset. The Sx2-PP set is aimed toward fans in push-pull configurations or other side-by-side configurations. Standard and ultra-quiet, of course, fit into the usual niches of case or CPU cooler, and both have an MSRP of $39.90. The Sx2-PP set, meanwhile, will retail for $76.90, giving a slight net discount on the second fan.

All versions of the NF-A14x25 G2 are also enjoying a set of new, premium hardware features that Noctua has been refining. But the most important is probably the use of "SupraTorque", which helps improve fan performance in high static pressure workloads like air cooling and liquid cooling.

If you’ve built a PC in the last few decades, you’ve almost certainly come across a 3-pin (or even 2-pin) DC fan or a 4-pin PWM fan (if not both) when setting up the cooling inside your case. And since you can connect a 3-pin fan to a 4-pin header or a 4-pin fan to a 3-pin header and the fans will spin, that may lead you to wonder what the difference is between the two and which is better.

The short answer is that DC fans typically spin at a static speed, unless they're connected to something like a fan controller with hardware knobs. With some motherboards, you can also control DC fan speeds via the BIOS, but PWM fans can be adjusted in much finer detail. This can either be done manually, or dynamically based on things like temperature or CPU load, so that the fans can be quieter when less cooling is needed, and spin faster when things get toasty inside your chassis.

These days, three-pin DC case fans are far less common than PWM, for reasons that will become clear as we dig deeper into the differences between the two below.

DC (direct current) fans

Direct current, or DC case fans (also often called three-pin fans for their three-pin fan connectors) are as simple as case fans get these days. DC fans are controlled by their current, which means, by default, they run at a fixed speed, unless you have them connected to something that can adjust the voltage, like an old-school front-panel fan controller. 

Many motherboards do technically allow you to control DC fans via the header if you switch to DC fan control mode. But this depends on your specific board, the control won’t be as granular as PWM control and, crucially, DC fans won’t be able to spin as slowly as PWM fans.

The most basic DC fans have just two wires, for power and ground. But DC fans meant for PC use these days also usually have a third “sense” pin that lets the PC know the fan’s current speed.

PWM (pulse width modulation) fans

PWM fans, also known as 4-pin fans, use pulse width modulation to vary fan speed, accomplished via an extra “control” pin. In short, PWM fans can be ramped up and down via the motherboard or other connected device, by switching the power off and on quickly (modulating) at frequencies far too high for you to notice.

When it comes to fans (as opposed to AIO cooler pumps or RGB strips, which also often use PWM), the speed is typically tied to temperature sensors inside the case or components, or CPU or GPU load, so your system only needs to be noisy when things get very warm. In other words, with PWM fans, you don’t need to dial the speed up or down manually, and you get much more granular speed control (and generally fans that can spin more slowly) than with DC fans.

Which fans will you Find in Modern PC Cases?

Overwhelmingly, the best PC cases to come out in recent years, even budget cases like the Phanteks XT Pro Ultra, will ship with PWM case fans – if any case fans are included at all. These days, you’re only likely to encounter DC fans in sub-$50 ultra-budget cases, and even then you’ll likely only find a DC fan used as exhaust. Even Cooler Master’s Masterbox Q300L has a singular PWM fan, and it sells for around $40.

DC Fans can cost less, but that’s increasingly not true

As you might have guessed at this point (or if you’ve shopped for case fans previously), the primary benefit of opting for DC fans over PWM models is cost – or at least it used to be. DC fans, especially if you’re willing to take a chance on no-name brands, can often be found only for very little money. 

When we wrote this, you could find a three-pack of Darkrock 120mm DC fans on Amazon for $9. But if you care at all about the benefits of PWM models, a three-pack of Thermalright TL-C12C PWM fans is less than $12, or about a dollar extra per spinner. Clearly the price overhead for PWM has come down, and perhaps DC fan pricing has crept up due to diminished demand, at least in the PC cooling space. If you order individual fans, you can find PWM or DC fans starting at around the same price, with our search results starting at between $6 and $7.

So why wouldn’t you opt for PWM fans?

With finer-grained control, typically quieter low-speed operation (because they can spin more slowly), and far more models available, almost anyone building or upgrading a modern PC should opt for PWM fans at this point. You might be able to save a couple of bucks (literally) by opting for DC spinners, but you’ll likely also be getting fans that are worse in other ways as well, since name brand companies primarily sell PWM fans, and have for a long time.

But DC fans do still have their place in the market – it’s just not the mainstream PC market. DC fans these days are mostly relegated to legacy PC hardware and specific repairs to old electronics. But if all our news coverage of legacy PCs and electronics is any indication, those old gizmos still mean something to many of you (and some of us). Just be sure that if you’re buying DC fans, you’ve at least evaluated competing PWM fans and are opting for DC for a very good reason.

German PC component manufacturer be quiet! brought a new glass case series and updated its Light Wings illuminated case fans to Computex 2024. The latest cases are highly configurable “fish tank” designs that are usable in three orientations for showcasing your PC just the way you want.

Be quiet! introduced the Light Base 600 and Light Base 900 cases. These include fully windowed front and side panels allowing a gorgeous panoramic view of your gaming rig’s components, with the power supply, storage drive, and cables neatly hidden away in a separate chamber.

These cases aren’t run-of-the-mill PC enclosures since they can be used in three different orientations. You can set them up like a traditional tower or invert them, switching the feet from the bottom to the top of the case. You can also position the case horizontally, placing the glass on the top and front. The back of the case offers support for your motherboard’s back I/O plate.

Be quiet! told Tom’s Hardware that the company would even provide 3D print files for mounts for the case’s feet so that owners could make custom designs for their cases.

The Light Base 900 DX is the standard version of the case, shipping without fans. It has ample space for up to two 420mm radiators and includes a 1.5-meter addressable RGB (ARGB) light strip for customizing lighting effects. The Light Base 900 FX adds four Light Wings LX 140mm PWM fans to maximize your lighting and cooling. 

The slightly smaller cousin, the Light Base 600 DX, offers the same benefits as the larger variant. Again, the case supports rear I/O plates on the motherboard and includes an ARGB light strip. The smaller footprint still allows for radiators up to 360mm. The Light Base 600 DX does not include preinstalled fans, but the 600 LX variant comes with four preinstalled Light Wings LX 140mm PWM fans.

The updated Light Wings LX fans offer high airflow while operating quietly and feature reverse fan blades for the side fans. Because of this, the fan's more aesthetically pleasing front side is facing out for all to see.

Be quiet!’s Light Wings LX fans have an illuminated hub and frosted fan blades. They have 16 LEDs in a variety of colors and illumination modes. The ARGB connection supports daisy-chaining for improved ease of use. The Light Wings LX is available in 120mm PWM, 120 PWM high-speed, 140mm PWM, and 140mm PWM high-speed.

All models are black or white, and the high-speed models have a closed-loop motor that ensures the RPM remains constant. 

Be quiet! will start shipping the Light Base cases in September or October 2024. The Light Wings LX fans will also ship in September.

Thermaltake has announced two new RGBless high-static-pressure chassis fans that feature some unique capabilities you wouldn't normally find in a non-RGB fan. The new fans, the Toughfan EX12 Pro and EX14 Pro and can be magnetically attached to each other, reducing cable clutter. The fan blades can also be removed from their housings and flipped to change the airflow orientation of the fan.

Magnetically attached fans are nothing new, but it's rare for a non-RGB fan to have this feature, which is great for builders who dislike RGB fans but love the cleanliness magnetically attached fans bring to the table. Each fan comes with protruding prongs on the left and right side that attach to other identical fans magnetically in a daisy chain configuration. This allows two or three fan configurations to be connected with just a single cable, greatly improving cable management.

What is new though is Thermaltake's removable fan hubs which greatly improve the fan's capabilities. Traditionally, if you wanted to mount intake fans on the bottom or side of your case, you would have to mount them in such a way that the back of the fan shroud is pointed forward in the case, making the back part of the fan completely visible through a tempered glass side panel, along with any cabling that is running along the back shroud.

Fan manufacturers have fixed this by making specialized chassis fans that feature reversed fan blades, allowing the back of the fan shroud to be hidden. Thermaltake's approach is substantially more flexible, enabling users to choose which fan blade orientation they wish to use for their particular setup. Thermaltake has accomplished this by implementing pop-out fan hubs that can be flipped over to change the airflow direction. This is a fantastic feature for builders that offers a lot more flexibility compared to outgoing reversed fan blade designs which are static and cannot be changed.

Besides these two incredibly cool features, the fans themselves come in 120 mm and 140 mm form factors. The 120 mm version can reach fan speeds of up to 2,000 RPM and features a maximum airflow rating of 70.8CFM at 22.6 dBA. The 140 mm variant can also reach 2,000 RPM but features a much more potent 119.6 CFM airflow rating but at the cost of higher noise levels — 31.6 dBA. Both fans can be tuned down significantly to reduce their noise profile, but if you need to run these fans at their maximum output, these are the rated noise levels they will generate.

Each fan has nine blades in total that have been created from a liquid crystal polymer. Thermaltake says this material minimizes vibrations when operating at max speed. Speaking of vibration, Thermaltake has also integrated in-mold injection anti-vibration rubber pads to dampen noise vibration even more. Pricing was not announced, but it's possible these fans will be cheaper than some existing ones since they don't come with RGB LED lighting.

Over the past few years, as high-end CPUs have become more thermally demanding, cooling manufacturers have released upgraded liquid coolers to effectively dissipate more heat. This summer in particular has seen the release of many impressive liquid coolers from the likes of Cooler Master, DeepCool, and others.

Today we’re looking at the latest 280mm AIO from Lian Li, the Galahad II LCD. It features Asetek’s latest 8th generation liquid pump, plus fans optimized by Asetek for low noise levels. But will it be enough to tame Intel’s i7-13700K and earn a spot on our Best AIO Coolers list? We’ll have to put it through testing to say for sure. But first, here are the cooler’s specifications, direct from Lian Li.

Cooler Specifications

Packing and Included Contents

Lian Li’s Galahad II LCD 280 arrives in a very wide box. The shape reminds me of an ultrawide 32:9 computer monitor.

Included with the package are the following:

• Two 140mm fans, pre-installed
• 280mm radiator
• 2.9-inch IPS 480 x 480-resolution display
• PWM & ARGB cords
• Cable management Velcro strap
• Mounts for all modern CPUs
• Pre-installed thermal paste
• Tube of thermal paste

LGA 1700 Cooler Installation

As with other AIOs, I recommend securing the radiator to your computer case before any other steps are taken. 

1. Intel users will begin by pressing the backplate against the motherboard and secure it sliding on the standoffs to secure it.

2. Next, take the CPU block and press it against the CPU. Use the included thumbscrews to secure the unit against the motherboard.  

3. Now you’ll need to decide how you want to control the device. You can connect the fans directly to the AIO for control via Lian Li’s L-Connect 3 software suite, or you can connect them to your motherboard’s PWM and ARGB headers for a more traditional configuration.

4. Don’t forget to take off the plastic peel on the screen before turning on your computer. 

Features of the Lian Li Galahad II LCD

▶ LCD Display CPU block

The most eye-catching feature of this AIO is, as its name implies, the vibrant LCD display panel on the top of the CPU block. It’s a square 2.88-inch (480 x 480-pixel) IPS screen.

▶ L-Connect 3 Software Suite

To utilize the IPS display, you’ll need to download the latest version of Lian Li’s L-Connect software, which also offers (optional) integration to control fan and pump speeds as well as ARGB lighting settings.

You’ll find a wide variety of customization options for the LCD display offered within the software. You can choose from a variety of effects, and even upload a video up to 3 minutes long. I’ve demoed some of these effects below.

▶ 8th-generation Asetek water pump

The Galahad II LCD features the latest (8th generation) Asetek water pump, which Asetek claims delivers up to a 2°C/100W improvement compared to its previous generation design.

• Upgraded pump utilizes a three-phase motor for higher liquid flow and quieter operation
• Optimized design increases overall surface area and decreases flow impedance
• Under-the-hood enhancements for quieter operation versus previous generations

▶ Copper Contact Plate

This AIO arrives has a pure copper CPU contact plate, its design has been optimized by for the latest Intel and AMD CPUs.

▶ Extra thermal paste

Most coolers come with either a small tube of thermal paste or pre-installed paste, but Lian Li goes the extra mile and includes a small tube of thermal paste, along with what’s pre-applied, to facilitate multiple installations of the cooler.

▶ Velcro straps for cable management

Lian Li includes velcro straps with the AIO, which can be used to manage cables or the liquid tubing.

▶ Rotatable tubing

The tubing of the liquid cooler can be rotated, making installation easier.

▶ 30mm thick radiator

The AIO includes a radiator 30mm thick. With fans installed, the thickness is a total of 55mm.

▶ Full RAM compatibility

As the AIO’s CPU block doesn’t overhang or interfere with a motherboard’s DIMM slots in any manner, you are free to use any size of RAM, no matter how tall, without any worries of incompatibility.

▶ Two 140mm performance-focused fans

There’s more to a cooler than just the heatsink or radiator. The bundled fans have a significant impact on cooling, noise levels, and the unit’s looks. The fans included are listed as “performance” models, which aren’t sold separately at this time. These fans are 9-bladed and optimized for lower noise levels. They come pre-installed, making installation easier and faster. 

Additionally, the fans utilize Lian Li’s daisy-chaining system which makes cable management much simpler. The fans can be controlled by the motherboard using the standard PWM and ARGB cable included, or connected directly to the AIO pump for control via the L-Connect 3 software suite.

LGA1700 Socket Bending

Note there are many factors other than the CPU cooler that can influence your cooling performance, including the case you use and the fans installed in it. A system's motherboard can also influence this, especially if it suffers from bending, which results in poor cooler contact with the CPU.

In order to prevent bending from impacting our cooling results, we’ve installed Thermalright’s LGA 1700 contact frame into our testing rig. If your motherboard is affected by bending, your thermal results will be worse than those shown below. Not all motherboards are affected equally by this issue. I tested Raptor Lake CPUs in two motherboards. And while one of them showed significant thermal improvements after installing Thermalright’s LGA1700 contact frame, the other motherboard showed no difference in temperatures whatsoever! Check out our review of the contact frame for more information.

Testing Methodology

Modern high-end CPUs, whether Intel or AMD, are difficult to cool in intensive workloads. In the past reaching 95 degrees Celsius or more on a desktop CPU might have been a cause for concern – but with today’s flagship processors, it is considered normal operation. Similar behavior has been present in laptops for years due to cooling limitations in tight spaces.

All testing is performed with a 23C ambient room temperature. Multiple thermal tests are run on each CPU to test the cooler in a variety of conditions, and acoustic measurements are taken with each result. These tests include:

1. Noise-normalized testing at low noise levels

2. “Out of the box”/default configuration thermal and acoustics testing

     a. No power limits enforced

     b. Because CPUs hit TJ Max in this scenario, the best way to compare cooling strength is by recording the total CPU package power consumption.

3. Thermal and acoustic testing in power-limited scenarios

     a. Power limited to 175W to emulate a medium-intensity workload

     b. Power limited to 125W to emulate a low-intensity workload

The thermal results included are for 10-minute testing runs. To be sure that was sufficiently long to tax the cooler, we tested both Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE and DeepCool’s LT720 with a 30-minute Cinebench test with Intel’s i9-13900K for both 10 minutes and 30 minutes. The results didn’t change much at all with the longer test: The average clock speeds maintained dropped by 29 MHz on DeepCool’s LT720 and 31 MHz on Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE. That’s an incredibly small 0.6% difference in clock speeds maintained, a margin of error difference that tells us that the 10-minute tests are indeed long enough to properly test the coolers.

Testing Configuration – Intel LGA1700 Platform

No Power Limits Thermal Results

Without power limits enforced on Intel’s i7-13700K, the CPU will hit its peak temperature and thermally throttle with even the strongest of air coolers. For most coolers, we’ll measure the CPU package power to determine the maximum wattage cooled.

Well, that is what I would do for most coolers, but Lian Li’s GA II LCD 280 achieves a level of cooling performance that many competing liquid coolers are unable to achieve – it kept Intel’s i7-13700K under its peak temperature in this workload. As such, I’ve compared the actual temperature of the CPU in this benchmark against the only eleven liquid coolers I’ve tested capable of this level of cooling capacity.

With a result of 67C over ambient, the 280mm version of the GA II LCD performs on par with the 360mm DeepCool LT720 and MSI S360 AIOs. This is an extremely strong result. Only Lian Li’s 360mm GA II Performance and Cooler Master’s 360 Atmos perform significantly better in this scenario.

Thermal performance is important here, but noise levels are also a key part of the user experience. Lian Li’s GA II LCD 280 delivered especially quiet results in this test, running quieter than any of the previously tested coolers. These noise levels are incredibly impressive when you consider the cooler is keeping Intel’s i7-13700K under TJ Max!

Thermal Results with noise normalized to 38.2 dBA

Finding the right balance between fan noise levels and cooling performance is important. While running fans at full speed can improve cooling capacity to some extent, the benefits are limited and many users prefer a quiet system. With this noise normalized test, I’ve set noise levels to 38.2 dba. This noise level is a low volume level (but slightly audible to most people).

Folks who prefer silent performance will love Lian Li’s 280mm GA II. it rose to the top of the charts in this test, tying the 360mm version of the non-LCD GA II for the best performance I’ve ever seen from an AIO when set to run quietly.

175W Cinebench Results

Most coolers on the market are able to keep Intel’s i7-13700K under its peak temperature if the power consumption is limited. So for this test we’ll be looking at the CPU’s actual temperature. Here Lian Li’s 280mm GA II LCD does well, tied with its 240mm sibling for the second-best results we’ve recorded on this test bench, measuring just 49 degrees Celsius over a 23 degrees C ambient temperature.

But as you should know, temperatures aren’t the only part of the story with a reduced wattage workload, noise is equally important. With a measurement of only 41.4 dBA recorded, Lian Li’s 280mm GA II LCD doesn’t get noisy. A result like this means that you don’t really need to tune your fans with this cooler if moderate noise doesn’t bother you.

125W Cinebench Results

The lowest power limit I test with Raptor Lake CPUs is 125W. This is a high enough limit to allow the CPU to maintain its base clock speeds, even in the most intensive tests, and most coolers should be able to keep the CPU below TJ Max – even low-end coolers.

Looking at thermal performance, the result of 37 degrees C over ambient is really good – better than most of the other 360mm AIOs tested here. But really, thermals do not matter much in this scenario. Even Intel’s basic stock cooler can handle a load like this with ease.

Noise levels, rather than CPU temperature, are the most important factor here – and Lian Li’s 280mm GA II ties for the second-quietest results from an AIO in this test.

Conclusion

Lian Li’s Galahad II LCD 280 shows that with the right design, you don’t need a 360mm AIO or a loud cooler to keep Intel’s i7-13700K under TJ Max. Its performance is amongst the best we’ve seen from any AIO, and its limited 280mm size means that it will fit in many cases where a 360mm model won’t. The included LCD display is vibrant and adds eye-catching functionality to the cooler’s aesthetics.

If this sounds like a cooler you’d enjoy, the Galahad II LCD 280 is available for $229.99 USD. That’s on the expensive end of the AIO spectrum. But if the LCD display isn’t your thing or you’re on a budget, the non-LCD versions of the Galahad II are available for $159.99 for the 360mm version and $119.99 for the 240mm model.

Lian Li has filed a patent suit in California requesting action against Phanteks (h/t OC3D). The Taiwanese aluminum case stalwart alleges that its Dutch rival has willfully infringed upon its patented fan design innovations. Specifically, Lian Li indicates that Phanteks D30 series fans infringe upon US patent 10,690,336 B1, which was awarded to Lian Li in June 2020. The patent describes a method of daisy chaining RGB fans using a simple, compact connector.

The UNI range of fans from Lian Li has been quite successful. Part of this product line’s appeal may be due to its “revolutionary” interlocking modular connectors, making them “cableless” and great for daisy chaining in systems while minimizing cable clutter.

Perhaps Phanteks was ‘inspired’ by the Lian Li fans, or at least the idea behind them. However, it is hard to believe the idea of minimizing cabling while maximizing RGB and airflow in a system is unique to Lian Li. Also, perhaps the Phanteks D30 series is too similar to Lian Li’s designs to have been truly independently originated. These and similar questions will probably be central to the upcoming deliberations in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The court case was filed on September 8, 2023, and reportedly comes about three months after Lian Li sent a letter to Phanteks about what it thought were patent-infringing products. Phanteks has continued to market and sell its D30 fans since May, and it seems like a lack of acknowledgment of Lian Li’s claims has precipitated this lawsuit.

What Lian Li hopes to achieve with its legal action is a judgment confirming that Phanteks has infringed its US patent. If successful, Lian Li will seek damages to date, plus a sales injunction on infringing products sold without a license.

We aren’t patent experts, so it is hard to know whether Lian Li’s court action has a great chance of success. The overall idea shared by the rival fan daisy chain designs seems to be similar, but the execution might be different enough to save Phanteks. If Lian Li is successful here, it might also trigger further litigation involving products like the Thermaltake SWAFAN EX and Corsair iCUE Link systems.

Update 5/10/23 - Noctua contacted us with the following statement: We're currently focusing all our energy on getting key products like the next-gen 140 mm fans and the next-gen NH-D15 ready. This means that we are devoting less resources to comparably low priority projects like the white fans. This doesn't mean that they have been scrapped entirely, and we'd say there's still a chance that we may have them before 2025, but we're currently not pushing hard on this and therefore don't feel confident giving an ETA.

Cooling specialist Noctua has updated its roadmap with an edition marked 'Version 5/2023'. The previous update was back in January, and we note there have some interesting changes, both additions and subtractions, from the list. Our headlining observation is that the highly anticipated white fans from Noctua have been completely removed from the roadmap. They were previously penciled in for 2024.

Other changes of concern are Noctua notifying us of delays with respect to a host of other products. Looking at the positives, we observe that the next-gen Threadripper coolers are due in Q3, and a trio of existing desktop CPU coolers are getting the chromax.black treatment scheduled for Q4 this year.

PC builders like to have options, and Noctua's products are no stranger to our list of the best CPU coolers. Those that are repelled by the signature Noctua colors of coffee and cream will often favor neutral shades like black or white. The bad news is it looks like modders and DIYers waiting for white Noctua fans have entered a new indeterminable period of want. We have dropped a line to Noctua in the hope that the omission of white fans on the latest roadmap is an oversight, rather than a product planning decision. While we wait, we must assume the following: in its official roadmap small print Noctua says that anything not on the roadmap "will usually take at least another year to be released."

In our handy  Jan / May roadmap comparison, above, you can also see that the following products have slipped by (another) quarter, or more: 8-way fan hub, slim 60mm fans, 24V 40mm fans, next-gen 140mm fans, and the next-gen NH-D15 CPU cooler. The latter product might be delayed by more than a quarter as the final column of the roadmap simply reads "2024," with no mention of any quarter.

Noctua's next-gen NH-D15 has been the most problematic when ti comes to schedule slippage. This is far from the first time it has been pushed back, as it was originally expected to debut in 2021. In our Noctua roadmap update story from last October we noted that the NH-D15 was "on schedule for launch in Q1 2023," and now it is listed as being ready sometime in 2024. The original NH-D15, an update to the legendary NH-D14, was released a decade ago, but buyers of new retail units get SecuFirm2 mounts for the latest AMD and Intel desktop CPUs. What will change in the next-gen version remains to be seen.

New on the Noctua roadmap in its May 2023 edition are the next-gen AMD Threadripper coolers, which are scheduled for the next quarter (Q3 2023). These look timed to coincide with the launch of the new (TR7 platform) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 chips, coming to HEDT and workstation platforms.

Lastly, those thinking about building an air-cooled PC system where the Noctua NH-D12L, NH-D9L, or NH-L9x65 are on the short list might be interested to know chromax.black versions of those should become available in Q4 this year.

Computers rely on a steady stream of cool air to perform their best. There are many ways to arrange your case fans, and relying on the case or system manufacturer to choose that for you isn’t always the best choice. Opening up your PC case and rearranging components can be a daunting task. We’re here to help.

The good news is that fans are one of the simplest components inside your PC. They’re usually connected to clear mounting points and use only four screws to attach. Each fan uses a single connector for power, plus another if it has customizable RGB. There are a few things you need to know to get started organizing and arranging your fans. But once you do, arranging them for peak performance isn’t difficult or exceptionally time consuming.

Case Fan Basics

Before deciding how to arrange your case fans, there are a handful of things to know, including some key terms and specs. It’s important to choose the right fan for the job, and that they’re oriented and connected correctly. Here are the most important things to know. 

Most Cases Come with Pre-Installed Fans: Most cases come with one or more fans already installed. Nearly all will include a rear fan to exhaust hot air out the back of your PC. The quality of case fans varies, but usually aligns with the quality of the case. The best PC cases often include very good fans, while lower-end options tend to use lower performance (and often louder) fans.

Fan Size: Fans come in a wide range of sizes, but the most common are 120mm and 140mm, with big 200mm spinners seeing a bit of a resurgence lately as well. The benefit to a larger fan is that it’s able to move the same volume of air at a lower RPM, thereby reducing fan noise. Be sure to check your case to see which sizes it supports and where they can be installed.  

CFM, RPM and Noise: The volume of air a fan can move is measured in Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM). This number can range widely depending on fan size, RPM, and how it balances noise levels, but a “good” case fan will typically output upwards of 50 CFM.

RPM, or Rotations Per Minute, is how fast a fan spins. The higher the RPM, the more air it is likely to move; however, these high speeds often come at the cost of noise, measured in decibels (dB). A fan that spins exceptionally fast is likely to have a more powerful motor and to generate more vibrations that you’ll hear when using your PC. If fan noise bothers you, try to aim for a fan below 30dB.

When shopping for case fans, look for the best balance of CFM and dB that fits your budget. RPM is less important so long as the fan is able to move plenty of air without making your PC sound like a jet engine. If you’re technical and have a computer that supports it (prebuilt systems oftend don't), you can even go into your system’s BIOS and create a custom fan curve to balance cooling performance with noise levels.

Another option is to add more or larger fans to your system. Since multiple fans and those with larger blades can move more air, making these changes allows you to run them more slowly, lowering the total noise of your system. Depending on the case fans you select, this can cost more than using fewer smaller fans but gives you some extra control over your PCs acoustics.

Fan Orientation: Like any fan, the blowers in your PC have intake and exhaust sides. If you’re not sure which is which, check the edges of the fan for a small arrow. Manufacturers will often place this symbol along one edge of the fan to indicate the direction of airflow. If this isn’t present, you can simply use your hand to feel the direction the air is moving. Usually, the pretty brand sticker is also on the intake side, since it’s more likely to be visible through glass or mesh side panels.

Installation: Installing case fans is very easy. Your case should have set mounting points on the front, rear, top, bottom, and sometimes even the sides. Every case supports certain fan diameters (usually 120mm and 140mm), so be sure to consult its documentation. 

Installation is as simple as inserting the fan into the case, lining it up with the mounting holes, and screwing in four fasteners to lock it in place. Then, connect the power cable to the matching fan header on your motherboard (and RGB header if your fan has customizable RGB lighting). Removing the fan is just as easy: disconnect the fan from its power and RGB connectors, unscrew the fasteners, and you’re done. Of course, any time you are taking off your side panel to do something inside your system, be sure the system is powered down and unplugged. 

The Fundamentals of Airflow and Case Pressure

Generally, the goal of positioning fans in a PC case is to create an airflow channel from the right side/front of your case to the upper left/rear. This channel should bring cool air across the CPU, GPU and other heat sensitive components and then exhaust out of the back and/or top. This path causes the air to heat up as it travels, creating a cycle of cool air in, hot air out. 

Another important concept is case pressure. The amount of fans you have blowing cool air in versus exhausting hot air out will create positive or negative pressure. When they are perfectly balanced, this is considered neutral pressure.

Positive case pressure is when the fans are oriented to push more air into the case than out. Negative pressure is created when there are more fans blowing air out than sucking in. Neutral pressure is when there is an equal amount of intake and exhaust. Because computer cases are not sealed, and the number and power of fans can be mixed, you’ll usually lean slightly one way or the other. 

While there are proponents of both positive and negative pressure arrangements, there are also benefits to both. A positive configuration makes sure your components are always fed with fresh, cool air (which has the side benefit of pushing dust away from your computer). A negative configuration quickly exhausts heated air so it doesn’t stagnate.

Both pressure systems can succeed at creating an airflow channel, so your components stay cool. Because of this, many users find it beneficial to balance their intake and outake fans, focusing more on the direction they would like the airflow to travel. Regardless which you choose, it’s wise to make sure your intake fans are blowing cool air toward your GPU and CPU as directly as possible. This means they should generally be on the front of the case, although if you have a case with a vented bottom and feet that lift it significantly off the ground, intake fans on the bottom can be a good option, too – just make sure your case isn't sitting on thick carpeting, blocking fresh air from getting to the fans.

Common and Ideal Fan Arrangements

There are a number of different ways to configure your fans. The ideal fan arrangement is one that draws in lots of cool air with a direct path up and out of the PC. Beginning with the best configuration, but requiring the most fans, and proceeding to less effective arrangements, the most common fan configurations can incorporate both positive or negative pressure, depending on the number of fans used in each location.

Front, Rear, Top, and Bottom: In this configuration, the front and bottom fans draw air into the case, while the top and rear fans exhaust hot air out. This creates a clear channel across the core components of your computer while also feeding additional cool air directly upwards. It is similar to the traditional Front and Rear configuration (described below) but with added air volume to increase the rate of flow. This scenario provides cool air directly to the GPU and pushes that air upward, toward the CPU and exhaust fans.

Front, Rear, and Bottom Configuration: This fan arrangement is similar to the above, but relies on a single rear exhaust fan. It is still a very solid configuration, but is generally less effective due to the reduced exhaust out of the top of the case. If you’re considering this configuration and have more than one case fan at the bottom of the PC, consider moving it to the top of the case for the best cooling. That's provided, of course, that your case has vents and fan mounting areas at the top.

Front and Rear Configuration: This is the most common cooling configuration and is how most PC cases with more than one included fan come pre-configured; this can work very well. In this arrangement, one or more fans draw air through the front panel of the case and blow it directly toward the motherboard. There, the air is consumed by the GPU and CPU and blown into the channel of the rear exhaust fan, creating a flow from front to back. Keep in mind, though, that this option won't work nearly as well as it should if your case front doesn't provide lots of airflow to your intake fans.

Front, Rear, and Top Configuration: This fan organization is all about drawing the air through the case. It can be less effective than the Front, Rear, Bottom configuration as it lacks the upward push the bottom case fan provides. Given strong enough front fans, this can still be an effective arrangement – again, provided your case front is well ventilated.

Top and Bottom (Chimney) Configuration: This configuration isn’t especially common these days, but is an option that can work well when mounting front and rear fans isn’t an option. In this arrangement, fans draw in air from below the case and blow it upward, across the motherboard, and exhaust it out of the top of the case. It is best suited for vertical mounted GPUs, as graphics cards plugged directly into the PCIe slot (when the motherboard is mounted in a standard orientation) can block the flow of cool air from reaching the CPU.

Rear Fan Only: Some PC cases, especially very cheap ones, come with a single fan. And when they have a single fan, it’s usually mounted in the rear exhaust. This is a poor solution and will only work well for low-end components. Without a source of cool air, components quickly become too hot. Air movement is minimal with this setup, so if you can, get another fan or two to mount at the front of the case for intake.

Front Fan Only: This configuration is perhaps the least effective, and is not a good cooling solution. With a single front fan, cool air is drawn in and then stagnates without an exhaust fan to draw it back out. Air temperature increases and that hot air hovers until it naturally rises out of the case. 

If you only have two fans, we recommend positioning them in a front, rear configuration. If you have three fans and a dedicated GPU, we recommend placing them in the front, rear, and bottom of your case. With additional fans, consider the arrangement of your components, any wires or structures that might impede airflow, and position your fans accordingly to draw air in from the bottom right (front), flowing to the upper left (rear) of your case.

What About AIOs?

If you’re using an all-in-one CPU cooler, it will come with fans that should be mounted at the position recommended by the manufacturer. These components use special, high static pressure fans to force air through the tight fins of the radiator. There are particular fan arrangements that go along with these coolers, however.

Push: In this arrangement, the fans push air through the radiator. This is the most common configuration and the one manufacturers most often recommend. Depending on whether your case is mounted in the top (as pictured below) or the front of the case, this will either be pushing warm air out through the radiator and out of the case or cool air in through the radiator into the case. Ideally, any air that passes through the hot fins of the radiator will be immediately expelled from the case; however, mounting options and aesthetic needs can sometimes limit this choice.

Pull: A pull configuration reverses the fan position to suck air through the fin-stack. It is not as common and generally not as effective as push-oriented fans. The same principles about positioning and expelling warm air apply here.

Push-Pull: This is a popular choice that can increase the effectiveness of an all-in-one CPU cooler, but requires additional fans and space within your case. A push-pull configuration uses the AIO’s included fans to push air through the radiator and then one to three additional fans mounted on the other side, also oriented to blow in, pulling the air through. It makes for a bulky radiator but increases its performance overall.

Also note that, when possible, it's best to mount your AIO at the top of your case (or the rear if it's a 120mm AIO) rather than the front. This way, the heat that the AIO moves from your CPU to the radiator gets immediately exhausted out of the case. When a radiator is placed in the front in a pull or push-pull orientation, the cool air from the outside gets warmed by your CPU heat as it travels through the radiator, then into the case and across your other heat-generating components before being exhausted out of the rear and/or top. Obviously, having cooler outside air that hasn't been pre-heated by your CPU is better for keeping your components cool.

Conclusion

Cooling is one of the most important considerations for anyone looking to optimize their PC. With this information, you’re armed to make the best decision for your particular setup. Ensure that your components have cool air and active airflow, choos one of the best CPU coolers that we've tested, and you’ll ensure the best PC performance possible this side of custom water cooling.

Cooler Master has launched a new lineup of performance optimized fans called Mobius featuring both non-RGB and ARGB flavors in a 120 mm form factor. Cooler Master has employed a new architecture it is calling Ring Blade Design, that connects all the fan blades together. This reportedly improves airflow, while eliminating unwanted vibrations at the same time.

The company says the fans are available today, but didn't make pricing immediately available. 

Cooler Master is releasing two 120 mm variants right now, in both a standard and an ARGB version, called the Mobius 120 and the 120P ARGB. The Mobius 120 will feature a fully blacked out look with a black shroud and even dark fan. The RGB variant will feature ARGB lighting with frosted fan blades to increase the lighting dispersion. 

Despite the lighting differences, the ARGB model is a higher performing on paper compared to the Mobius 120, as well. The ARGB model features a maximum speed of 2400 RPM and a maximum noise level of 30 dBA, with a CFM rating of 75.2. The non-ARGB model on the other hand features a lower fan speed of 2050RPM and a maximum air flow rating of 63.1 CFM. But thanks to the lower fan speed, the noise level is significantly reduced to 22.6 dBA.

Both fans are rated for up to 200,000 hours of use, and require 4-pin PWM output to function. The ARGB variant will require an additional 3-pin ARGB header to be present as well for lighting functionality.

The Mobius series of fans are reportedly very stable under load in a number of different orientations. The fans use a new Ring Blade Design that connects all the fan blades together at the tips with a ring, which can reduce unwanted air turbulence that can vibrate the spinning blades.

For even more stability, Cooler Master has employed the use of dynamic loop bearings as well, which keeps the bearings better lubricated compared to more traditional methods. This in turn, improves the reliability of the bearings and improves fan stability. Cooler Master has also added a magnetic ring to the bearing shaft to prevent the fan from tilting in unorthodox orientations (such as 45 degree angles).

All these factors combined have allowed Cooler Master to tune the Mobius fans to a 6dBA noise level or lower, without compromising performance. These fans are designed to function both as chassis fans and static pressure fans for CPU coolers, hard drive cooling and radiators.

Nagao Industries has created an innovative new cooling system for motherboard VRMs, that works in almost every single chassis. Dubbed the N-VRM-FSTY60, the cooling system relies on twin 60mm fans mounted to a 120mm/140mm chassis fan bracket, which in turn gets installed onto the rear 120mm or 140mm chassis fan mount in your case next to the rear I/O panel.

These two fans blow at the rear portion of the VRMs. Thankfully, the mount works with the rear fan installed, so there's no need to remove the chassis fan. The idea is to keep the VRMs cool, even if you're using an AIO or tower cooler that otherwise wouldn't move much air across the VRM heatsinks.

A device like this might seem like overkill, as most power delivery systems on mid-range to high-end boards are overbuilt on purpose. They need to provide adequate power to Intel or AMD's most power hungry CPUs without causing the VRMs to overheat. But power requirements are going up for CPUs — Intel was already there with Alder Lake and Raptor Lake maintains the status quo, but AMD's Ryzen 7000 will be goosing power delivery to more or less equal Intel's socket power.

With power creep becoming a legitimate concern on both Intel and AMD CPUs, a VRM cooling solution like this could become very useful. Alder Lake chips are already capable of running upwards of 240W or higher under specific workloads, which is extremely high for a central processing unit. Just a few years ago, you were lucky to hit 200W on a mainstream Intel chip (not HEDT) even with overclocking.

Thankfully, modern day motherboards won't explode or crash when the power delivery systems get hot, but once the system hits a certain temperature, the motherboard will throttle down the CPU to keep temperatures in check. This can be especially problematic on entry-level and some mid-range motherboards, where VRM power and cooling capabilities are sacrificed to keep manufacturing costs down.

Adding this funky fan setup to such a PC could seriously improve VRM performance, unlocking more performance at the same time. Since VRMs are traditionally passively cooled, direct VRM cooling can make a night and day difference to motherboard component temperatures.

Each fan measures 60 x 60 x 20mm, featuring hollow bearings (an improved variant of fluid dynamic bearings) and a maximum fan speed of 3000RPM. Despite that very high RPM speed, the fans are rated for just over 21 dBA, which seems impossible to believe. We don't know what RPM level the noise level specification was taken from, so take that 21 DBA with a grain of salt. Each fan runs on a 3-pin connector so they will work with almost every motherboard in existence.

Unfortunately pricing and availability are unknown at this time, and of course this would add the to cost of budget and mid-range boards. Still, $20 for higher performance and better cooling (if it's that cheap) might be a good idea.

Highly regarded CPU coolers and fans maker Noctua has updated its roadmap, including delays to highly anticipated products. The company has pushed back its white Chromax fans and a next-gen NH-D15 CPU cooler until the first quarter of 2023. Noctua first teased an update to the 2014 vintage NH-D15 at Computex 2019, so it has been a long time coming.

We reported on the last update to the Noctua roadmap in January, and fans of the brand were quite excited about the white fans and the NH-D15 upgrade, so I imagine there will be a number of disappointed PC builders.

Noctua hasn't commented on the specific changes in the new roadmap. In some small print above the new roadmap it indicates that it is just a reflection of current plans and that these goals, and specifically the timing of product releases, might change as the months march on.

Reasons for the delays include "further research and development, fine-tuning, manufacturing capacities or coordination with other projects." Noctua adds, with some pride, that its products are so well refined they "often require extra time to perfect."

Above you can see the roadmap as it was in January, with the April 2022 update underneath. You'll see that Q2 2022, the current quarter, is missing the 24V to 12V converter and 8-way fan hub that were expected. Instead we are going to get a previously unannounced release of Noctua-branded fan grills.

Noctua's next-gen 140mm fans and 24V 40 mm fans have been bumped by a quarter and the current best estimate for them to be released is Q4 2022. The next-gen Xeon CPU coolers still appear to be on track for Q3 2022 though. A new entry appears in Q4 2022 and that is for slim 60 mm fans.

Last but probably most significantly for our readers the whole of the previously Q4 2022 product launch lineup has been shifted to Q1 2023. This includes the highly anticipated white fans, Noctua's next generation NH-D15 cooler, and what is expected to be a fun desktop fan for erm… fans of Noctua.

One thing we can be sure of, when the next NH-D15 does arrive, it will support both Intel 12th Gen Core processors in LGA1700 sockets and AMD AM5 processors in LGA 1718 sockets.

Silverstone has launched a new range of high-performance cooling fans, claiming the new Shark Force addressable RGB fan series offers extreme cooling and spectacular lighting. Interestingly, these fans feature a new blade design, using a texture that mimics the surface of shark skin.

Silverstone claims that its inspired-by-nature fan surface texture design pushes air with enviable hydrodynamic properties because they provide "a drag-reducing mechanism to improve their aerodynamic property."

Breaking down the sharkiness in PC cooling fan terms, Silverstone says that Shark Force series fans passively alter the airflow to improve pressure, resulting in improved overall airflow and reduced noise. These are much sought-after characteristics in all PC systems and component cooling fans.

There are just two Silverstone Shark Force fans available at launch — a 120mm fan and a 160mm fan.

The 120mm design features fans speeds from 0 – 2,500 RPM for static pressure of up to 4.66mm H2O and airflow of 100 CFM, while the 160mm design runs from 0 – 1,600 RPM for static pressure of up to 2.21mm H2O and airflow of 160 CFM. If you wonder why Silverstone has launched a 160mm fan instead of a 140mm to sell alongside the smaller unit, this 160mm fan is designed with 140mm mounts. However, please check this will play nicely in your intended application by checking the full product specs, with particular attention to measurements and clearance.

Both fans use a Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) and a three-phase, six-pole motor design for long product life and smooth and low-noise operation. The fan speeds are controlled by PWM and can go down to zero RPM, as long as your system supports it.

These fans are also aRGB LED equipped. They use standard aRGB 4-1 pin cables for compatibility. You will need an aRGB controller or suitable motherboard to get the most from the color combinations and effects these fans can be part of. Silverstone's sharkskin fan blades are translucent, which makes a nice diffuse effect with the LEDs.

The Shark Force series fans have modular cable connectivity. Of course, you'll need a power cable, but you may wish to disable lighting for some reason. The modular cabling should also be handy for replacements and cable management work. Moreover, Silverstone provides four types of cable in the box to suit various common cabling requirements and daisy chaining.

Both the Silverstone Shark Force SF120-ARGB and SF160-ARGB are available now from the usual distributors, worldwide. MSRPs are $27.99 and $34.99, respectively.

Austria-based cooling specialist Noctua has updated its public product roadmap for 2022. There are three mentions on the new roadmap that have caught our eye; White Fans and a next-gen NH-D15 cooler arriving in Q4, and it appears that we will soon see Noctua launch an as-yet unnamed "120mm dual tower cooler."

Moving through the trio of tantalizing highlights chronologically, the current quarter will see Noctua intro a dual tower CPU cooler which uses 120mm fan(s). That means a new cooler will join the premium-grade NH-D9L and elite-class NH-D15 in Noctua's dual tower stables. With the existing NH-D9L and NH-D15 sporting 92mm and 140mm fans, respectively, a new 120mm model will fit in nicely. The new model should also provide a bit more thermal headroom than the single-tower 120mm fan equipped NH-U12S series.

The next highlight on the Noctua roadmap might be the "Next generation NH-D15." Noctua originally introduced its NH-D15 cooler way back in April 2014, based on the 2009 vintage NH-D14. In October 2019 it added a chromax.black model to the range. Noctua first teased this improved NH-D15 as long ago as Computex 2019, and it was originally planned for Q1 2020, so it is hard to understand the significant slippage. Admittedly, the NH-D15 is one of the cornerstones of Noctua's CPU cooler series, so an upgrade needs to be worthy to avoid reviewer scorn. The Coronavirus pandemic and shipments situation may have had an impact on the timing of the next-gen NH-D15 but there seems to be more to it, with such a lengthy launch extension.

White fans from Noctua will certainly appeal to a segment of the PC DIY and enthusiast market. Coincidentally, these were also pictured at Computex 2019 and there was talk of them arriving in Q2 2020. White is the natural next shade for the chromax series to expand to extensively, and we have seen a few chromax.white minor accessories already such as the NA-HC4 chromax.white edition heatsink covers for the NH-D15.

Some of the other coolers, fans and accessories in the new roadmaps might interest you, so please check over the roadmap image if you are thinking about upgrading a fan hub, will be looking for a next-gen Xeon cooler this year, or even fancy a Noctua branded desk fan for your computer room.

When you think of Asus, generally, you only think of its as a motherboard, graphics card, and laptop manufacturer. But the company has expanded its influence over the past few years to include PC peripherals, PC cases, and AIO liquid coolers. So it should come as no surprise that Asus is entering the case fan market with its own ROG Strix XF120 120mm chassis fan. 

The XF120 features high-end specs. Similar to the ML120s from Corsair, the XF120 comes with a MagLev bearing, reinforced fiberglass material, grooved fan blades with rounded edges, and anti-vibration pads.

The operating range for the XF 120 is quite good, with its minimum RPM targeted at just 250RPM and a maximum RPM of 1800RPM. This is perfect for a case fan, as generally, case fans don't need to run at the same RPM levels as CPU cooler fans.

XF120 Specs:

Acoustics:
22.5dba

Cooling Stats:
62.5CFM/3.7mmH20

Longevity:
400,000 hours

For Asus' first chassis fan, the specs for the XF120 are quite good; compared to big case fan brands like the Silent Wings 3 from Be Quiet! or the Fractal Design Venturi, the XF120 brings similar performance with better acoustics.

But compared to Asus' biggest competitor, the Corsair ML120, that fan has better cooling performance specs-wise. But that fan also has a much higher RPM range and is optimized towards airflow and static pressure, whereas Asus' XF120 is optimized purely for airflow, not static pressure.

The Asus XF120 looks promising, but we still don't know what it will cost – all we know is a release target for April. Hopefully, we can get a few of these XF120s in our lab to test in the future.

If you're a fan (*cough*) of cool hardware, the Apexgaming AC-120Ti should be right up your alley. The AC-120Ti isn't your ordinary case fan as it actually features what the brand calls a "nano photocatalyst air purification" system that purifies the air that goes into your computer case.

Apexgaming's description of the AC-120Ti is a bit overwhelming for those of us that didn't pay more attention in our chemistry classes. The AC120Ti comes with a front filter, which basically acts as a dust filter, to help block large dust and other external materials from entering the fan. According to Apexgaming, the filter mesh comes with a coat of titanium dioxide (TiO2), whose purpose is to serve as a photo-oxidation catalyst. The filter can be easily cleaned by just washing it with water.

But the purification doesn't stop there. The fan includes an ultraviolet lamp that's the key component in the entire purification process. It essentially shoots ultraviolet rays at the catalyst to form hydroxyl radicals that absorb stuff like bacteria, odorous cells, and pollutants to decompose them into carbon dioxide and water molecules. The final product, at least according to the company, is air that's free of unpleasant smells, formaldehyde, germs, viruses, and allergens.

Apexgaming has all the certifications that prove that its UV LED is safe for human eyes and skin. The company is also touting an impressive baterial elimination rate up to 95.56%. For optimal operation, Apexgaming recommends installing the AC-120Ti in the front of your case as an intake fan.

The fan checks in with dimensions of 120x120x25mm and draws power from a standard 4-pin connector. Its sleeve bearing can spin at up to 1,000 RPM.  The fan boasts an airflow and air pressure up to 34 CFM and 0.9 mmH2O, respectively. The maximum noise level is around 16 dBA. Apexgaming rates the AC-120Ti with a lifespan of 40,000 hours at 25 degress Celsius.

Apexgaming sells the AC-120Ti for $29.99 via the company's online store. We doubt the AC120Ti is going to help you get more FPS out of your games, but if you want to turn your PC into an air purifier, the AC120Ti is the fan for the job. At the very least, it might keep your PC from catching a virus.

But please: No one get any ideas about building an SFF with one of these fans and strapping it to your face. If you want to mix your love of gaming with the ability to feel a bit safer around others, maybe hold out to see if Razer ever brings a version of Project Hazel mask to market. 

Adata's XPG division has announced plans to start selling its own fans, which is a natural way for the company's components business to expand. One of the first fans from Adata — the XPG Vento Pro 120 PWM — will use a Nidec's design and will be available starting mid-January, 2021. 

Over the past few years Adata's XPG business has expanded from memory modules and solid-state drives to a much broader operation that now includes PCs, peripherals, accessories, and other computer components. After cases, cooling systems, and PSUs, it is natural for Adata to begin selling its own fans, which is what the company plans to do starting from January 14. One of the first fans from Adata — the XPG Vento Pro 120 PWM — is based on Nidec's legendary Servo Gentle Typhoon AP-15 design that has been used by various suppliers for about a decade now. 

Adata says that its XPG Vento Pro 120 PWM fan is not a rebadged Nidec's AP-15, but is actually a revamped version that continues to offer a high static pressure and high airflow, but has certain enhancements, such as four anti vibration rubber pads, that make the fan quieter than Nidec's original. 

The Adata XPG Vento Pro 120 PWM is a 120-mm double-ball bearing 4-pin PWM-controlled fan that spins at a speed between 900 and 2150 RPM. The fan produces an airflow of up to 75 CFM as well as a static pressure of 3.15 mm H₂O at noise levels between 10 dBA and 28 dBA. The fan consumes up to 1.56 Watts of power. 

Adata rates the fan for 250,000 hours at 25 Celsius as well as 60,000 hours at 60 Celsius, which is in line with the original Nidec design. Also, each fan comes with a five-year warranty. 

Adata yet has to announce pricing of its XPG Vento Pro 120 PWM fan, but expect their MSRP to be comparable to that of other Nidec Servo Gentle Typhoon AP-15-based fans.

If there's one issue that RGB made, it's the sheer number of cables that it adds to your system. Next to all the power and data cables you already have, each individual RGB device needs cables too, and when you pack a system full of six RGB fans that can add up painfully. Lian Li now has a solution for that: interlocking fans, so that each group only needs one RGB lead.

The fans are called Uni Fan SL120, and for now they only come in the 120mm size either in black or white. These are high-static pressure fans capable of spinning at speeds between 800 and 1,900 RPM, producing between 17 and 31 dBA of noise.

The sides and tops of the fan are made of sandblasted aluminum, and the lighting consists of 32 LEDs in each fan. The end result is quite a neat looking fan.

To connect the fans, you simply slide them into each other, interlocking them to create one long fan array, which you then secure into place in your case or on your radiator. Add a controller, hook that up, and you're all set.

To control the addressable RGB fans, Lian Li made its own L-Connect software.

Pricing for a set of three is set at $80, which includes the required controller. Each additional fan will run you another $25. The kits are available on Newegg, shipping out on September 15.

EKWB is introducing a fan like no other. The EK-Furious Meltemi is a 120mm fan that comes in an extra thick 38mm format capable of spinning at speeds up to 3,500 RPM, so it'll push more air than many alternatives.At that speed it'll also make more noise -- and could break your fingers if you weren't careful.

"The fan is equipped with a red sleeved cable just to warn off those curious little fingers from getting hurt. Seriously, 3,500 RPM is no joke, and you should be extra careful around these fans if they are in operation." EKWB said in its announcement Thursday. The fan comes with a red-sleeved cable attached to warn users.

• Best CPU coolers of 2020

When running at full blast, the seven-bladed fan will push about 121 CFM of air and generate an impressive 7.13mm of static pressure. EKWB said that the fan will work best in a pull-configuration with a radiator.

The press release (conveniently) didn't mention a noise level, but digging further yielded the following figure: 60.9dBA. As far as computer fans go, that's quite loud.

With its power rating under 10W, it can run off a motherboard header, though you might prefer to use a dedicated fan controller just in case your motherboard isn't happy to handle the load. Fortunately, EKWB also makes the Loop Connect controller.

Pricing sits at $29.99, and the unit is available immediately directly from EKWB.

EKWB is known for its water cooling products, and part of that gear is the fans needed to dissipate the heat generated in the radiators. Today it introduced the EK-Vardar X3M units, which are built for high static pressure. 

They come in four variants, including black and white damper options, as well as D-RGB or RGB-free versions. Beyond that, all models are identical and are (for now, at least) only coming out as an X3M 120ER model with a 120mm size.

They spin at speeds between 500 and 2,200 RPM, meaning they can run quietly during lighter workloads or speed up significantly for when your system needs a lot of cooling power. You might never need them to run at 2,200 RPM, but that just means you have headroom in your cooling system, and that's never a bad thing. Noise levels are quoted to be up to 34.2dBA, with static pressure at 2.75mm of water and a maximum airflow of 114 cubic meters per hour or 67 CFM.

The RGB-enabled models have nine RGB LEDs in the motor hub that are individually addressable through an A-RGB header on your motherboard. The fans are compatible with the RGB ecosystems of all major motherboard manufacturers. 

If you're not into the standard included dampers at the corners, you can swap them out with different colored ones available from EKWB.

The RGB enabled EK-Vardar X3M 120ER fans with white blades cost $27.99, and the black-blade, non-RGB versions cost $23.99. They are available immediately from EKWB.

It appears that RGB has been in the market for so long that companies are starting to feel the need to up the ante, which is exactly what Corsair is doing with its new iCUE QL RGB PWM fans announced today. For the time being, the company is only announcing them in 120 and 140mm variants.

What’s special about these RGB-enabled fans is that they have not one, two or even three lighting zones. No, they have four lighting zones spanning over a grand total of 34 individually addressable RGB LEDs per fan. I don’t think my entire PC even has that many RGB LEDs in the entire build!

The lighting zones are located at the outer and inner rings of the fans on the front and exhaust sides. Corsair's goal here was to make accompanying systems "look great from all angles," its announcement said. The inner ring of the intake side of the fan also passes some light into the lightly translucent fan blades for added effect.

Thankfully, all this RGB craze seemingly hasn’t gone at the total expense of the PWM fans' performance. Corsair is still trying to ensure these units aren’t all too loud with built-in vibration dampers, PWM control and silent fan hubs. The 120mm units will run at up to 1,500 RPM while pushing up to 41.8 CFM of air, and the 140mm units are said to push up to 50.2CFM at 1,250 RPM. Corsair rates both at 18-26dBA through their RPM range, and although they aren't expected to perform at industry-leading silence levels, these are fairly respectable numbers (assuming Corsair's testing conditions were fair). They’ll go down to 525 and 550 RPM for the QL120 and QL140, respectively, so based on this information I wouldn’t concern yourself with excessive noise levels.

Corsair will sell the units in single-packs and in three-packs (120mm) or two-packs (140mm) with an included Corsair iCue Node CORE hub that allows you to connect up to six fans. They come with a two-year warranty, and the fans are rated to operate with a mean time between failure of 40,000 hours.

Corsair's color-crazy fans are currently available at Amazon starting at $44.99 for 120mm or $49.99 for 140mm. The 120mm three-pack is $139.99, and the 140mm two-pack is $119.99, but "temporarily out of stock."  

Just a couple weeks ago Noctua finally presented its chromax.black line of CPU coolers, which included the NH-D15, NH-U12S, and the NH-L9i. Today, the company is adding five new fans to its chromax.black.swap series fans to complement its 120 and 140 mm models that have already been out for a while longer.

For this batch, Noctua is revealing the NF-A20 PWM, NF-A12x15 PWM, NF-A9 PWM, NF-A9x14 HS-PWM and NF-A8 PWM in chromax.black.swap variants, which come in black with swappable colors for the anti-vibration pads. These include white, red, green, blue, and black pads for the purists. The two slim models of the fans (NF-A12x15 and NF-A9x14) come with eight colored self-adhesive pads instead of the regular anti-vibration pads.

All of the fans will come with Noctua's 6 year warranty, which it backs because they've managed to achieve an MTBF of 150,000 operational hours thanks to the very-silent SSO2 bearings.

The units should all be hitting shelves soon with the prices listed in the table above.

Lamptron, recognized for its powerful and stylish fan controllers, as well as other accessories, has announced the SM436 Sync RGB and Fan controller. Outside of controlling the fans and RGB lighting, the SM436 Sync has a unique feature in that its display mounts INSIDE your PC case so it can be seen through the tempered glass that most PC cases feature. 

The device is able to control up to eight RGB strips through four 3-pin RGB (5VDG, up to 60 LEDs per channel) and four 4-pin RGB strips (12VGRB, up to 60 LEDs per channel), which would be one heck of a light show around your PC if fully populated.

Fan control is handled through four 4-pin headers and supports both PWM fans and DC fans. Each header can handle up to a whopping 36W, so hooking up powerful high-speed fans or daisy-chaining a few on the same channel is certainly possible. The SM436 Sync is also able to read temperatures by connecting the four included temperature sensors to the controller. 

All of these devices are connected to a controller board with a cover made of acrylic glass. On three of the four edges are all of the same connections mentioned earlier. The controller board is powered through a SATA connection for the RGBs and a Molex for the fans. The board measures 4.7 x 0.8 x 2.85 inches or just a bit larger than a 2.5-inch SSD. 

The colorful LCD measures 5.5 x 0.84 x 2.3 inches (W x H x D) and takes up three expansion slots. It shows fan RPM and the voltage it's running, along with temperatures from the sensors. The display comes in black and silver and should fit in well with most PC build themes. 

Control over both the fans and RGBs is handled by the included IR remote control -- no buttons or dials here. You can set fans to quiet mode (40%) or maximum mode or the fan controller can do it automatically. Light modes are also controllable via the remote control; although, there were few details shared on what those are. 

The Lamptron SM436 Sync Edition PCI RGB Fan and LED controller is available now for $59.99. 

Do you want to add some bling to your PC or get it ready for the holidays? The Corsair LL120 RGB three-fan pack with Lighting Node Pro normally sells for $129.99. However, it can be yours today for just $75, saving you up to $54.99 off its original launch price. 

• Get the Corsair LL120 RGB three-fan pack with Lighting Node Pro for $75.

Corsair's LL120 RGB fans measure 120 x 25mm and feature an unique design comprised of 16 addressable, independent RGB LEDs that are distributed across two individual light loops. The fans employ a hydraulic bearing and spin between 600 and 1,500 RPM (revolutions per minute). They are rated with a maximum noise level of 24.8dBA.

For those interested in the specifications, the LL120 RGB fans have an airflow of 43.25 CFM (cubic feet per minute) and a static pressure around 1.61 mmH2O. The fan itself is equipped with a 4-pin PWM cable that connects to your motherboard's fan header and a separate cable that goes into the Lighting Node Pro.

The Lighting Node Pro is basically a RGB hub synchronize the three LL120 RGB fans and existing RGB LED strips that you have already have in your system. You can then control and customize their lighting and effects to your liking through the Corsair's proprietary iCUE software.

be quiet! has brought light to the darkness adding new white options to its Shadow Wings 2 fan line. First released in 2019, the Shadow Wings 2 series is designed for silence peaking at a mere 15.9 dB(A) at its maximum speeds. The Shadow Wings 2 White series comes in 120mm and 140mm sizes and is controlled through a 3-pin DC connector or 4-pin PWM. The new white fans will be available in North America at the beginning of October and at the beginning of September in other regions. 

The new white fans carry over all the features of the original black fans, including the airflow optimized fan blades that are supposed to yield whisper-quiet operations yet solid cooling. Helping to keep the fan quiet is the removable anti-vibration mountings on all four corners, said to reduce vibrations transmitted to the PC case.

The frame is also rubberized further supporting the anti-vibration concept. Both the 120mm and 140mm models are mounted with push-pins for simple installation without using screws. In addition, the fan uses rifle bearing technology with a lifespan listed at up to 80,000 hours or over nine years of continuous operation. 

The 120mm models have a maximum speed of 1,100 RPM with a peak noise level of 15.9 db(A). The larger 140mm models have a maximum speed of 900 RPM and noise level of 14.9 db(A), making these some really quiet fans if be quiet!'s measurements are accurate.

Airflow is said to be 38.5 CFM on the 120mm and 49.8 on the 140mm models. Static pressure isn't a strong suit, rated at 0.82 and 0.58 mm/H20 respectively, but these are case fans and not intended to be used on a radiator or heatsink. 

Pricing for the 120mm DC/3-Pin controlled fans will be $16.90 / €15.90 / £13.99, with PWM priced a bit higher in Europe at €16.90 / £14.99. The 140mm DC fan is $18.90 / €17.90 / £15.99 and the PWM controlled version is $16.90 / €18.90 / £16.99.

Image Credits: be quiet!

Sitting humbly alongside a new series of case fans, Cooler Master’s SF lineup, comes a rather impressive looking design, the SF240P ARGB. Announced during CES in Las Vegas today, what makes this special is that it's two 120mm static pressure optimized fans housed within a single unit or aperture frame.

It features 56 addressable RGB LEDs, milky-white transluscent fan blades to better diffuse the light, a white RGB LED surround, one cable for PWM control and one for RGB, cutting that cumbersome number of light depending cables down in half. 

If you like the frame so much, but aren’t sold on running twin fans in a single enclosure (or just need an additional one for the rear of the case), Cooler Master will also be releasing a single SF120P variant as well albeit with less LEDs, 24 to be precise.

Spec-wise, we’re looking at a static pressure rating of 2.32 mmH2O and 43 CFM. Fan noise sits reasonably comfortably at 8-30 dBA, and overall RPM operating range is 650-2400, all with a two-year warranty.

That said, there’s currently no word on pricing or availability at all, which is a shame because although a simple solution to a common problem, the design does look impressive, and with those specs, we’d be surprised if more companies didn’t offer something similar soon.

Wraith Ripper Goes Mainstream

Following hot on the heels of the company’s launch of its Wraith Ripper cooler with second generation Threadripper, Cooler Master has also just announced a very similar design in the form of the MasterAir MA610M. Compatible with every mainstream processor from the last 10 years, outside of the TR4 socket, the dual-tower, single-fan design features six copper heatpipes and is finished in an anodized gunmetal black with a sandblasted aluminum finish on the CPU heat block. Of course, it comes with its own addressable RGB LEDs.

Standing 6.5 inches (]165mm) tall, it is a fairly modest tower design. And with a single enclosed SF120R fan, we are concerned it may struggle cooling the likes of some of the more high-end LGA2066 chips, particularly in the hotter months. But we'll have to hold off on passing judgement until we put this through the ringers in our lab. 

The MasterAir MA610M will be launching in May of this year in North America, with a retail price of $90, although no word on EMEA prices or a global launch just yet.

PWM stands for pulse width modulation. PWM fans and/or pumps are found in some CPU coolers and GPU (aka graphics card) coolers. They use an integrated circuit to control the speed of a fan or pump and, therefore, how much cooling it’s providing to the CPU or GPU. PWM fans and pumps can alter their speed and airflow based on the component's temperature.

To use this feature, you’ll need a motherboard with a PWM header and the appropriate software (for help shopping, see our motherboard buying guide). Most mainstream motherboards have at least one 4-pin PWM header, and the best motherboards usually have to four to six. Note, older fans may use 3-pin connectors.

PWM works like a switch, turning on and off while controlling the level of power delivered to the fan or pump. PWM fans works in correlation with the motor, receiving full power or zero power.

PWM is also used in servo motors, voltage regulation, telecommunications and audio equipment.

This article is part of the Tom's Hardware Glossary.

Further reading:

• Best CPU Coolers: Air and Liquid
• Cooling: Reviews

EK Water Blocks is a shameless fan of RGB lighting, and the company has actively moved to add multi-colored lighting to almost everything it sells. Today EK introduced an RGB version of its Vardar series of high-static pressure fans.

EK offers a handful of Vardar fan options, including 3,000rpm, 2,200rpm, and 1,150rpm options, but none of them include lighting or color accents. The new EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB fans offer both configurable lighting and variable fan speed operation. The new fans support PWM fan speed control and have an operating range from 500-2,200rpm. The new fans also feature start-stop technology, which shuts the fan motor and electronics down when the PWM signal falls to the minimum duty cycle.

The EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB fans feature a dual-ball bearing axial for long-term durability. The dual-ball bearing configuration allows for mounting the fan at any orientation without wearing out the components. Dual-ball bearing setups can tolerate higher temperatures than Hydro-Dynamic bearing fans. The motor windings in the fan are also actively cooled to prevent wear and tear from heat.

Like all Vardar fans, the EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB fans features a seven-blade design. For the RBG version of the fans, EK used a milky-white translucent material that diffuses light evenly across the blades. Nine RGB LEDs line the central hub to provide bight illumination, even in well-lit rooms. The fans include standard 4-pin 12v RGB connectors compatible with all major motherboard brands and their software controls.

The EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB fans are available now from the EK Webshop and the company’s worldwide distributor network. The company doesn’t (yet) offer a 140mm version of the RBG fans, but the 120mm model is available for $25.

It’s the little things, sometimes literally, that make system builders happy, so plenty of folks will be pleased to see that Lian Li outed a new RGB-lit case fan called the Bora Lite 120. But the new fan, which is essentially just a design tweak from the original Bora RGB, boasts a key feature that makes it far more compelling than Just Another Case Fan: It’s compatible with the proprietary RGB lighting software from motherboard makers.

The PC landscape is almost at maximum RGB saturation. You can get a version of virtually every component with RGB lighting, and all the major motherboard brands have their own software. Asus has Aura Sync, Asrock has PolyChrome Sync, Gigabyte has RGB Fusion, and MSI has Mystic Light Sync. Other component makers have their own lighting software, too. The problem is that almost all of them are proprietary and don’t work with one another.

That creates obvious problems when you’re trying to piece together a system build. With the Bora Lite 120, then, Lian Li is obviating the lighting sync problem by ensuring that the fan works with all of the aforementioned motherboard makers’ lighting software. We’re not sure what additional product development costs an OEM must incur to get even a simple fan certified to function with multiple proprietary softwares, but it’s not nuthin’, as they say.

The 120mm fan itself got a slight design upgrade from its immediate predecessor in the form of, as Lian Li stated it in a press release, “a stand-out aluminum frame to give it a more reflective property for improved visual appeal.” It has 12 RGB LEDs, and Lian Li gave it two connectors--one is a dedicated PWM connector, and one connects to the RGB controller. Lian Li also boasted that the Bora Lite 120 has hydraulic bearings and anti-vibration pads to keep things as silent as possible.

Forty bucks gets you a set of three Bora Lite 120 fans, in either black or silver. They’re available now.

Noctua released a new 120mm fan called the NF-A12x25. It was designed from the ground up to deliver the best performance Noctua can offer for both high-pressure and high-flow applications. As a true all-rounder, the NF-A12x25 definitively takes the flagship spot in Noctua’s fan lineup.

Nothing says you value performance above all else like having a case filled with hearing aid-colored Noctua fans. That signature beige and tan color palette has been around long enough to gain notoriety. Last year, the company finally showed some willingness to change with the release of the black Chromax-edition fans, but Noctua is back to form with the NF-A12x25. The new flagship fan is a no-compromise all-rounder that’s all brown. It must be a point of pride for Noctua that its customers are willing to suffer the sight of its fans for the performance they provide.

Joking aside, the new NF-A12 is a product of over four years of development. It surpasses Noctua’s previous purpose-dedicated fans, the NF-F12 and NF-S12, in both static pressure and flow rate. As shown in Noctua’s testing, the NF-A12 maintains higher pressure while delivering more airflow at all but the extreme ends of the RPM range.

To achieve this high performance while maintaining comparable noise levels, Noctua had to use new materials and construction methods that allowed it to reduce the blade-to-frame gap on the NF-A12 to only 0.5mm. Noctua claims that the NF-A12 is so effective that it will even outperform most 140mm fans. The company has created a special 120mm-to-140mm adapter, the NA-SFMA1, so that the NF-A12 can be used on 140mm radiators.

The NF-A12x25 is available in three versions. The NF-A12x25 PWM is driven from a 4-pin PWM header and has an RPM range of 450 to 2,000. The NF-A12x25 FLX is driven by a 3-pin header and has adapters to run it at 1,350 RPM, 1,700 RPM, and 2,000 RPM. The NF-A12x25 ULN is also driven by a 3-pin header and has adapters to run it at 900 RPM and 1,200 RPM.

The NF-A12x25 is available now at Amazon. All versions have an MSRP of $30. The NA-SFMA1 adapter is also available immediately for $12.

Thermaltake launched a new RGB fan to add to its recently upgraded RGB Plus lighting ecosystem. The Pure Plus 12 is a 120mm fan that uses a nine-blade fan rotor and a hydraulic bearing. Thermaltake calls the Pure Plus a radiator fan, but the maximum static pressure of 1.59mm-H20 isn’t particularly high. As a PWM fan, the Pure Plus has an RPM range from 500 to 1,500.

Beyond its performance, which doesn’t seem to have any particularly standout aspects, the Pure Plus lighting control is based on the aforementioned RGB Plus system. This is Thermaltake’s proprietary digital RGB lighting system. If you want a brief explanation of this newer form of RGB lighting, check out this article. Basically, it allows each LED in the Pure Plus to be programmed individually through Thermaltakes software. All Thermaltake RGB Plus-enabled devices connect to an RGB Plus controller, which is supplied, via USB. The controllers, in turn, connect to your motherboard via USB.

The Thermaltake Pure Plus 12 comes in packs of three. Pricing and availability of the fans wasn’t announced.

Corsair has updated its H60 all-in-one (AIO) liquid CPU cooler, debuting new mounting brackets, an upgraded fan, and a redesigned pump cap and radiator.

The new Corsair H60 liquid CPU cooler isn’t a far cry from its predecessor, with a 120mm radiator and copper-plated block beneath the pump. However, the company redesigned the pump cap, which now has white LED backlighting and an octagonal shape (the previous H60 was square). The new pump design matches the company’s recently released H150i and H150i Pro coolers.

The radiator shed its curved reservoirs in place of blockish ones, and it should fit in most 120mm fan mounts. However, Corsair guarantees compatibility with any company branded case. The fan itself has been upgraded to an SP series 120mm PWM fan (which spins between 600 and 1,700RPM), and the mounting brackets have also been updated, with the H60 sporting compatibility for AM4, LGA 1151, and LGA 2066 motherboards out of the box.

The new Corsair H60 is warrantied for five years, and it’s available now from the company’s website and online retailers including Amazon and Newegg for $70.

Deepcool announced a new set of RGB fans that feature a frameless design and WiFi capabilities.

The new Deepcool MF120 fan set features three 120mm PWM fans with an all-aluminum skeleton frame that is designed to allow the double-layer blades to generate positive air pressure without obstruction from the fan structure. The fans also sport vibration-dampening technology, and they can spin anywhere from 500RPM to 2,200RPM with their fluid dynamic bearings.

The new fan kit’s RGB lighting (light bars that run along the inner sides of the aluminum frame) can be controlled by your smartphone – the included controller hub can be connected to a WiFi network and made accessible to your Apple or Android devices with a companion app. The software will allow you to change the colors (all 1.67 million of them) and customize the five built-in lighting effects (dynamic, static, breathing, comet, and fashion collision) for a total of 36 interchangeable lighting modes.

The controller itself appears to be compatible with a 2.5” drive bay mount, making it easy to mount to a variety of cases. The company didn’t specify whether or not the fans could be controlled via traditional PC software (and the screencaps of the software provided by the company are certainly from a smartphone), but the inclusion of a 4-pin “IN” port on the controller makes us hopeful that the Smart Fan approach is optional, not mandatory.

The new Deepcool MF120 frameless RGB smart fan kit will be available this April with an MSRP of $110.

Raijintek released a new 120mm PWM fan, the Macula 12 Rainbow RGB, that features two light rings in its frame.

When it comes adding RGB lighting to fans, there are two common approaches. One places the lighting elements in the fan hub and the other in the frame. Raijintek’s Macula 12 is an example of the latter. Its lighting comes from two LED rings that are situated on the front and back side of its frame and surround its fan rotor. Two more of the fan’s notable aesthetic aspects are the spoke-like design of its hub mount, which is constructed from clear plastic, and the rubber-padded corners of the frame.

The Macula 12 has an interesting, if somewhat inconvenient, method of control. The light rings are connected to a six-pin header that doesn’t seem to be readily compatible with lighting ecosystems from major motherboard OEMs, such as Asus Aura. Instead, the fan is meant to be driven by an included six-port hub with 300 pre-programmed lighting modes that are selected by remote control. The Macula 12’s rotor is PWM-controlled from a standard four-pin fan connector and has a RPM range of 800 to 1,800. It’s not clear, however, whether the fan hub is also capable of providing fan rotor control, or only lighting control. An included cable with a molex and four-pin fan connector suggests that the hub can act as a PWM fan hub as well.

As for its performance, the Macula 12 has a rated airflow of 56 CFM, noise level of 25 dB, and static pressure of 1.89 mmH2O at maximum speed. Manufacturer supplied fan measurements are typically optimistic, so all we can say is that the lower figure for static pressure makes the Macula 12 a suboptimal choice for radiators and heatsinks. The fan uses a sleeve bearing with a rated MTBF of 40,000 hours.

The Macula 12 Rainbow RGB is available in packs of two or three, both of which include the six-port hub and remote control. Pricing and availability are currently unknown.

There’s no shortage of RGB fans these days. Alternatives to the Macula 12 that also feature light rings include those from Enermax, Corsair, and Thermaltake, just to name a few.

How do you improve on case fans with built-in RGB lighting? According to Enermax, adding multiple rings of RGB lighting to its fans was the solution, which is why it's announced a new line of T.B. fans with 4-ring RGB visual effects.

These new fans feature patented Twister Bearing technology that helps keeps bearing noise to a minimum. These fans boast an impressive MTBF rating of 160,000 hours. The addition of shockproof rubber pads reduces vibration during operation, and the detachable fan blades are supposed make cleaning a breeze. (Get it?)

The RGB lighting can be controlled in two ways. First, these fans are compatible with MSI’s Mystic Light Sync, Asus Aura Sync, ASRock RGB, and Gigabyte RGB Fusion. Secondly, if your motherboard does not support RGB functionality, the included RGB control box is capable of controlling lighting effects for up to eight RGB fans and two RGB LED devices on its own. The uniquely designed halo arc-shaped fan frame allows maximum visibility of the four rings of RGB lighting.

These fans will be available in 3 packs and 6 packs with a MSRP of $60 and $90 respectively. Availability is listed as “soon.”

BitFenix announced a new version of its Spectre Pro-series fans, adding RGB lighting to the quiet-operation cooling devices.

The BitFenix Spectre Pro RGB is a direct successor to the Spectre Pro lineup, which consists of 120mm, 140mm, 200mm, and 230mm fans with fluid dynamic bearings and reinforced blades for durability and longevity. The new versions feature a centered RGB LED light in the blades that illuminate the fan with the company’s TriBright LED technology, which BitFenix said offers longer product life, higher color saturation, and increased brightness.

The Spectre Pro RGB fans come in a variety of different SKUs, but it breaks down rather easily. Each of the four fan sizes come in stand-alone packages or with an optional fan controller, for a total of eight SKUs. The new Spectre Pro RGB fans are also compatible with other BitFenix products, including the Aurora and Shogun cases, and Asus Aura Sync, which allows users to control the RGB lighting by connecting the fans directly to an Asus-branded motherboard sporting the feature.

Pricing and availability of the new BitFenix Spectre Pro RGB fans are currently unknown.

Following the release of its non-RGB ML fans in 2016, Corsair has now announced the new ML Pro RGB fans that bring RGB LED lighting to the series. The new fans finally marry RGB lighting with Corsair’s magnetic-levitation bearing technology.

The defining aspect of Corsair’s ML series of fans is its use of a magnetic bearing. We spoke with Corsair about this technology at Computex 2016. In short, the magnetic bearing levitates the fan stem in the fan hub so that there is no surface-to-surface contact. The resulting reduction in friction gives the fan an exceptionally long life and wide RPM range.

The new ML Pro RGB fans add RGB lighting to the mix. They have four lighting zones that emanate from the fan hub and diffuse across their frosted fan blades. Like all of Corsair’s RGB products, the ML Pro RGB fans tie into Corsair’s lighting ecosystem, which is extensive and fairly confusing.

Corsair’s RGB fans have separate connections for LED and motor control. The latter, which works like it does for any regular computer fan, is attached to a motherboard or fan hub. On the other hand, the LED control uses a proprietary connector that goes to a Corsair RGB LED Hub which in turn goes to one of Corsair’s many different RGB lighting control modules. Among the basic ones available are the HD Lighting Controller, which has physical switches to cycle among pre-programmed patterns, and the Lighting Node Pro, which has a USB connection for control from Corsair’s Link driver software. There are also more advanced options such as the Commander Pro that ties everything into one unit, vastly reducing cable clutter.

Back to the ML Pro RGB fans themselves, they are largely the same as their non-RGB counterparts. They're available in 120mm and 140mm versions, and their “Pro” designation means that they have interchangeable rubber corners. There is one very important difference, however: lower maximum RPM on the RGB fans. The 120mm and 140mm RGB fans go to 1600 RPM and 1200 RPM respectively, as opposed to 2400 RPM and 2000 RPM for the non-RGB ones. 

Corsair is not the only company that uses magnetic bearings, nor is it the only company making advanced RGB LED fans, but there aren’t many competitors tying the two together. Further, the ML Pro RGB fans are not Corsair’s most advanced in terms of LED lighting. Its LL series of fans feature a lit fan hub and a lit band that's embedded in the fan frame. However, that has a more conventional hydraulic bearing with a lower life span. It has only a two-year warranty, compared to the ML series’ five-year warranty.  

The 120mm and 140mm ML Pro RGB fans are available individually now on Corsair’s site at $35 and $40, respectively. Multi-packs (these include an RGB Lighting Hub and Lighting Node Pro) of three 120mm fans and two 140mm fans are also available for $120 and $100, respectively.

No matter your opinion of the RGB lighting trend, one thing’s for sure: component makers love it. In the last few years, addressable RGB lighting has permeated the entire PC industry. Peripherals of all kinds, including mice, keyboards, and headsets, are available with RGB lights. Every major motherboard manufacturer, including Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and even Biostar, offers RGB lighting on their motherboards and the same can be said for most graphics card makers, too. If you really want to go all out, you can find power supplies, water cooling equipment, cases, and memory modules with RGB lights. There is also an abundance of RGB fans the choose from, and Corsair just added another option to the mix.

Corsair’s new LL Series RGB fans stand out from the rest because they offer two independent lighting zones. Corsair offers other RGB fans, which have LEDs in the hub and another line with LEDs in the outer ring. The LL series has LEDs in both in the hub and outer ring, and you can set different colors in each zone to create a unique look.

The LL Series RGB feature fins made of a diffuse translucent material that spreads the light evenly. The inner hub and the inner edge of the outside ring are also made of the same diffuse material, which helps create a vibrant glow. Each LL Series fan includes 16 RGB LEDs; four in the hub, and 12 in the outer ring.

Corsair’s LL Series RGB Fans are compatible with Corsair Link software, and they support PWM control, which enables you to control the fan speeds. And if you plug the fans into a Corsair Lighting Node Pro, the Corsair Link software can control and synchronizes the LEDs in each fan. The software will also let you synchronize the fans with other Corsair Link compatible RGB components.

Corsair offers the LL Series RGB fans in 120mm and 140mm variants. The 120mm fans are available in packages of three for $120 or individually for $35. The larger fans come in packs of two for $100 and individually for $40. The multipacks also include Corsair’s Lighting Node Pro controller, which is a $60 value.

Remember those cool (pun intended) Polaris fans In-Win had on display at Computex 2017? Well, it would seem they're finally ready for retail.

This new line of Polaris fans is available in three models; LED, RGB and RGB aluminum. Aside from RGB functionality and materials used in the construction these fans, specifications are the same across the board.

Measuring 120 x 120 x 25mm, these fans are capable of moving up to 43.3CFM at 1,280RPM, all the while remaining whisper-quiet at 20.2dB(A). At an ambient temperature of 25℃, these fans have a life expectancy of 35,000 hours and come with a two-year warranty.

The fans feature an 8-pin modular connector design that allows each fan to link to another to create a daisy chain effect. The downside is that a single Polaris RGB fan will not operate on its own: You must purchase the Polaris RGB Twin Pack first and daisy-chain the fans together. 

Common features include a shockproof rubber stand, low-noise PWM fan, six center-mounted LEDs and, with the exception of the RGB aluminum model, a transparent fan frame.

The RGB-enabled models are compatible with Asus Aura Sync, MSI’s Mystic Light Sync, and Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion lighting effects.

In-Win said these fans will be available next week with an MSRP of $39 for a twin pack and $20 for additional single-pack fans.

Phanteks’ new Halos and Halos Lux RGB fan frames are designed to be a simple way to add full RGB functionality to any standard non-RGB fan. Instead of replacing every fan in your system, these fan frames can be added to your existing case fans. Instant RGB.

The Halos series of fan frames come in 120mm and 140mm sizes and are made of plastic. They have high-density LEDs embedded into the lining of the frame surrounding the fan opening. The LEDs shine directly onto the fan blades, giving off a bright ambient glow.

The Halos Lux series of fan frames also come in 120mm and 140mm sizes but, unlike its plastic counterpart, these frames are precision milled from a single block of aluminum and come with an anodized black or polished aluminum finish.   

The Halos and Halos Lux RGB fan frames are compatible with MSI's Mystic Light Sync, Asus Aura Sync, and Gigabyte's RGB Fusion lighting using Phanteks' optional RGB LED adapter.

The obvious benefit of standalone RGB fan frames such as these are the ability to add RGB lighting to your favorite high performance fans and cases that were not originally equipped with RGB functionality. The not so obvious features include the option of adding one or more RGB fan frames to your CPU cooler, radiators, all-in-one coolers, and the like. System builders will also appreciate the option of adding RGB lighting to the exhaust side of a fan. You can even combine or stack the fan frames for truly custom lighting effects.

Phanteks’ new Halos and Halos Lux RGB fan frames could possibly even save you money on a new system build. Savvy enthusiasts could opt for a less expensive non-RGB version of their favorite chassis or all-in-one cooler, add a couple Halos fan frames, and end up with a budget-friendly, RGB-enabled system.

The 120mm and 140mm Halos fan frames are available now for $10, and the Halos Lux RGB 120mm and 140mm frames retail for $18 and $20, respectively.   

Update June 3, 2017, 10:07 am PT. This article has been updated to add a video demonstration (embedded further below) of the A-Series fan in action, going up against two NF-F12 fans during Computex.

After five long years in development, Noctua announced its next-generation 120mm A-series fan at Computex 2017.

These new fans feature impellers made from a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) commonly used in high-end medical and military applications such as combat helmets, bulletproof vests, and other types of body armor. According to the company, LCPs make up a family of thermoplastics with a unique set of properties that, unlike ABS or nylon, perform very well in harsh environments due to its high tensile strength, stiffness, and rigidity.

This is important because the Noctua 120mm A-series fan has an extremely tight 0.5mm tip clearance that calls for stricter tolerances, minimal fan vibration, and little to no fan creep due to centrifugal forces.

Noctua has a live demo at Computex where it claims two NF-F12 fans on a NH-U12S cooler are actually outperformed by a single new A-series fan.

Although the new A-series fan is being announced at Computex, availability is currently set for September 2017, with an estimated street price of $30.