I seem to have stumbled into this at an interesting time. A few days ago, I ordered a whole pile of these during my workstation update (new mobo and a GPU that was so big I had to cut a hole in my old case until I could refurb an even older full tower); in the old platform I had stuffed with 4 5300rpm 230cfm screamers, though in the old case, were bearable even at full tilt. Yeah, in the big tower, they were driving me mildly insane. While I'll probably miss some of the upper end grunt and the dual ball bearing, my sanity sitting next to the case is taking priority over raw cfm! In the long end of things, I have plenty of really old fdb bearing fans that still work, many of which have more than 10 years of use on them, so not too worried on longevity. 😉
I also love the Arctic precisely for the dual ball bearings (the choice of fans on these bearings is relatively small). Of course, some SSO2 is better, but if you take an adequate budget, then dual ball is the best thing that will work for years. about the fact that FDB lives for a long time - my experience does not confirm this (although yes, my computers have been turned on for a long time, but a working computer, i.e. 10-12 hours a day, the fan from thermalright died after 3 years) and in terms of noise.... up to 2000 rpm, I would say those fans that I have are quiet enough, that arctic, that cooler master. The only thing arctic made noise for me right away, but later it was developed, apparently (previously, p12max were absolutely silent, one by 20%, the other by 25%, now 30 and 35%) therefore, dual ball is one love
I have the 2x P14 as intakes in 4000D airflow case. I was looking to swap them with their smaller brothers since at around 1100 rpm they make a noise. After looking at your chart at 5:00 , it appears that TL-S12 are by far the best option for my case - distance to CPU cooler about 7 inches. Is there any better option for 2x120s intake in
I have a best of video on my channel th-cam.com/video/n2EBn9BAvHw/w-d-xo.html this is best of inexpensive so under $18. the S12 is great for what it is but is limited in max RPM. so if your case fans had to ramp up with the P14's the S12's will perform airflow wise slightly worse. comparatively. If that fans didnt need to ramp up the S12 will be fine.
@@computer-tech-more yeah I saw it few hours after this comment. Quick question : what is the dB value on your noise normalized results and at what distance?
@@AceL. so i normalize my room sound and subtract that. so the room sound is like 30dB (with some variation) my noise normalized value is 11dB. the microphone is about 9" from the fan. I based the noise level i wanted to NN to off what I had in a previous build with A12x25 running at a specific RPM I found to be near silent. The case helps dampen out sound as well.
@@computer-tech-more Thanks for the replies. If im not mistaken your NN value seems to be lower than the majority of the reviews. It would be nice if u can add like 7 secs or so of the recording of the NN sound from the fans during the reviews, u might have to boost it a little, so we have an approximation of how loud it is. Typically from ~80cm distance from he fan, they become audible at around 1150 rpm +-10%.
ya for the most part the ones labled New Data are consistent. Then after the TL-S12 are consistent. I had to calibrate the anemometer there and rerun a bunch of fans. It was only the cooler testing I found the errors. The A12x25 most recent values in the cooler 20-100% pwm and last noise normalized 0.5 0.9 1.1 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.35 1.625
Ignoring noise, which would you go with for 4x side fans on a Cooler Master HAF 932 for top-end, max RPM performance (or, let's say around 2500 to max RPM)? The P12 Max or the IceGale Xtra 120? I'm leaning towards the IceGales. Phanteks T30 (have them push/pull on a 360 rad), Silent Wings Pro 4, and Noctua iPPC (have 140 mm push/pull on a 140 rad) are out of the question because of price or else I would have probably just have gone with the T30s. I currently use 4 of the Cougar Vortex CF-V12HP / CF-V12HPB. They're fantastic fans. Apparently, they somehow do 70 cfm at only 1500 RPM while also being almost inaudible. They cool great too with the side fans bringing my GPU, M.2, VRM, and RAM temps down anywhere from 10-20 degrees C however, ever since upgrading to 6x Phanteks T30 (push/pull) and 2x Noctua iPPC 140 (push/pull), I think I may need more airflow in order to keep positive pressure (to avoid dust and potential case hot spots). I'm not even sure of this - temps are all still fantastic - but considering the price of the P12 Max and IceGale Xtra 120, I figured, "why not?".
had 5 original maxes, different batches. Bearings were terrible, not lubed correctly and the clearance of the bearing bed to the axle was bad. Sold all of them. Original p12 is still a great fan tho. The double BB design was terrible at low rpm with subtle rpm changes. They knocked so hard while changing rpm. Had a new one that clicked after running for a while.
Hello! I'm about to buy fans and I was thinking about buying the p12 max. Its 35 euro for 5 pack box. and white ones are 12 euro per fan. When I check the arctic's website it says the black ones has the FDB aswell. or its just a lie? even tho is it worth the give extra money for the white fdb ones?
@@computer-tech-more I ordered 5 Pack of p12 max Black from the arctic's website. They came with the fluid dynamic bearing. At least it is saying on the box.
fluid dynamic is basically the standard bearing for most good fans these days. Not very many fans use3 Magnetic Levitation bearings. I believe they cost more.
They call them Maglev fans in the PC fan space. Phanteks T30s are probably the best implementation of them so far. Seasonic's Magflow fans are maglev and also have pin to pad connectors for tidier cables, however they are limited to 1200rpm so they don't move much air and aren't much good on heatsinks or radiators, very quiet case fans though. Corsair ML series is another option but I think they stopped producing them. MagLev bearing certainly should provide a much longer lasting bearing but every Maglev bearing fan I have seen produces an awful loud pitch whining noise at lower RPMs. I'm sure there's a few others but in terms of noise FDB or Fluid Dynamic bearings seem to be king. Maglev can match them in Volume but FDBs are generally better due to noise frequency or pitch. The noise they make tends to be much more tolerable.
I seem to have stumbled into this at an interesting time. A few days ago, I ordered a whole pile of these during my workstation update (new mobo and a GPU that was so big I had to cut a hole in my old case until I could refurb an even older full tower); in the old platform I had stuffed with 4 5300rpm 230cfm screamers, though in the old case, were bearable even at full tilt. Yeah, in the big tower, they were driving me mildly insane. While I'll probably miss some of the upper end grunt and the dual ball bearing, my sanity sitting next to the case is taking priority over raw cfm! In the long end of things, I have plenty of really old fdb bearing fans that still work, many of which have more than 10 years of use on them, so not too worried on longevity. 😉
I have 6 fans that have dual bb and love them…no ball bearing issues whatsoever…very quiet
i think its a consistency thing for arctic. I may have just gotten a lemon.
I also love the Arctic precisely for the dual ball bearings (the choice of fans on these bearings is relatively small). Of course, some SSO2 is better, but if you take an adequate budget, then dual ball is the best thing that will work for years.
about the fact that FDB lives for a long time - my experience does not confirm this (although yes, my computers have been turned on for a long time, but a working computer, i.e. 10-12 hours a day, the fan from thermalright died after 3 years)
and in terms of noise.... up to 2000 rpm, I would say those fans that I have are quiet enough, that arctic, that cooler master. The only thing arctic made noise for me right away, but later it was developed, apparently (previously, p12max were absolutely silent, one by 20%, the other by 25%, now 30 and 35%)
therefore, dual ball is one love
I have the 2x P14 as intakes in 4000D airflow case. I was looking to swap them with their smaller brothers since at around 1100 rpm they make a noise.
After looking at your chart at 5:00 , it appears that TL-S12 are by far the best option for my case - distance to CPU cooler about 7 inches. Is there any better option for 2x120s intake in
I have a best of video on my channel th-cam.com/video/n2EBn9BAvHw/w-d-xo.html
this is best of inexpensive so under $18.
the S12 is great for what it is but is limited in max RPM. so if your case fans had to ramp up with the P14's the S12's will perform airflow wise slightly worse. comparatively.
If that fans didnt need to ramp up the S12 will be fine.
@@computer-tech-more yeah I saw it few hours after this comment. Quick question : what is the dB value on your noise normalized results and at what distance?
@@AceL. so i normalize my room sound and subtract that. so the room sound is like 30dB (with some variation) my noise normalized value is 11dB. the microphone is about 9" from the fan.
I based the noise level i wanted to NN to off what I had in a previous build with A12x25 running at a specific RPM I found to be near silent. The case helps dampen out sound as well.
@@computer-tech-more Thanks for the replies. If im not mistaken your NN value seems to be lower than the majority of the reviews. It would be nice if u can add like 7 secs or so of the recording of the NN sound from the fans during the reviews, u might have to boost it a little, so we have an approximation of how loud it is. Typically from ~80cm distance from he fan, they become audible at around 1150 rpm +-10%.
@@AceL. Ill try to add that into my newer reviews. I have some that are already in que but new new videos ill add it in
My vote is decibels as its easier for me to differentiate the fans with a lower slope.
Please include the TL-K12 in the cooler graphs!
Ill try to get my TL-K12 review out soon then.
Please vote if you havent on my pole. makes it easier for me to see what everyone prefers. :)
Do you have the data on the A12x25? It seems inconsistent across multiple videos using the New Testing Method.
ya for the most part the ones labled New Data are consistent. Then after the TL-S12 are consistent.
I had to calibrate the anemometer there and rerun a bunch of fans. It was only the cooler testing I found the errors.
The A12x25 most recent values in the cooler 20-100% pwm and last noise normalized
0.5
0.9
1.1
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.35
1.625
Ignoring noise, which would you go with for 4x side fans on a Cooler Master HAF 932 for top-end, max RPM performance (or, let's say around 2500 to max RPM)? The P12 Max or the IceGale Xtra 120? I'm leaning towards the IceGales. Phanteks T30 (have them push/pull on a 360 rad), Silent Wings Pro 4, and Noctua iPPC (have 140 mm push/pull on a 140 rad) are out of the question because of price or else I would have probably just have gone with the T30s.
I currently use 4 of the Cougar Vortex CF-V12HP / CF-V12HPB. They're fantastic fans. Apparently, they somehow do 70 cfm at only 1500 RPM while also being almost inaudible. They cool great too with the side fans bringing my GPU, M.2, VRM, and RAM temps down anywhere from 10-20 degrees C however, ever since upgrading to 6x Phanteks T30 (push/pull) and 2x Noctua iPPC 140 (push/pull), I think I may need more airflow in order to keep positive pressure (to avoid dust and potential case hot spots). I'm not even sure of this - temps are all still fantastic - but considering the price of the P12 Max and IceGale Xtra 120, I figured, "why not?".
i would do the P12Max FDB. Basically just trust it more.
edit: that is quiet the air exchanger pc you have. lots of fans.
had 5 original maxes, different batches. Bearings were terrible, not lubed correctly and the clearance of the bearing bed to the axle was bad. Sold all of them. Original p12 is still a great fan tho. The double BB design was terrible at low rpm with subtle rpm changes. They knocked so hard while changing rpm. Had a new one that clicked after running for a while.
Thank you for letting us know about your experience. Kind of lines up with my thoughts.
Same experience with them, but arctic replaced them for me for the fdb version. Best company ever.
Hello!
I'm about to buy fans and I was thinking about buying the p12 max. Its 35 euro for 5 pack box. and white ones are 12 euro per fan.
When I check the arctic's website it says the black ones has the FDB aswell. or its just a lie?
even tho is it worth the give extra money for the white fdb ones?
So you want to be careful there might still be some ball bearing versions around but it looks like they will all be FDB going forward.
@@computer-tech-more I ordered 5 Pack of p12 max Black from the arctic's website. They came with the fluid dynamic bearing. At least it is saying on the box.
@@veinsx1956 good. the should be quieter at low RPMs than the DBB version.
Здравствуйте. Скажите пожалуйста что будет лучше(сильнее воздушный поток) на 1200rpm. Обычный p12 pwm или p12max white?
at the same RPM their airflow is approximately the same. and strength of airflow
P12 ARGB vs P12 MAX should I upgrade? I have a 7800X3D and an Arctic Freezer 36
depends are you happy with the thermals and noise. If not get the P12Max FDB version. you will loose the RGB if you care.
@@computer-tech-more Actually I don't care about RGB. p12 max Will be noisier than the RGB one?
@@capipj at similar RPM's i found the Max with FDB quieter. but the Max will be louder at its maximum RPM.
@@computer-tech-more Thanks a lot! Youre awesome.
Do fans exist with magnetic repulsion in place of bearings?
you mean maglev bearings? If yes then T30 have this kind of bearing
thank you for helping @uncrunch398 out.
fluid dynamic is basically the standard bearing for most good fans these days. Not very many fans use3 Magnetic Levitation bearings. I believe they cost more.
They call them Maglev fans in the PC fan space. Phanteks T30s are probably the best implementation of them so far. Seasonic's Magflow fans are maglev and also have pin to pad connectors for tidier cables, however they are limited to 1200rpm so they don't move much air and aren't much good on heatsinks or radiators, very quiet case fans though. Corsair ML series is another option but I think they stopped producing them. MagLev bearing certainly should provide a much longer lasting bearing but every Maglev bearing fan I have seen produces an awful loud pitch whining noise at lower RPMs. I'm sure there's a few others but in terms of noise FDB or Fluid Dynamic bearings seem to be king. Maglev can match them in Volume but FDBs are generally better due to noise frequency or pitch. The noise they make tends to be much more tolerable.
Take a look at Corsair mag lev fans … loud but awesome
Sone is clearly superior with regards to differentiating the fans.
especially as things get noisier at the high end. The low end noises do look much closer together.