Arctic P12 MAX Review - The Best Budget Fan got BETTER 

Hi, I have problem with my 3 out of 5 fans. They produce annoying bearing noise but only when they start spinning or when about to stop, otherwise they ok...

Bought one - Along side a few P14 PWM PST - got it today, It has the crackling sound. Also it seems to me, that even with PWM curves starting at 0% from 40°C and 20% at 60°C, for temps at about 45°C, the RPM rises up to 800-1200 RPM all while sounding like miniature drill. Now i usually don't want my exhaust fan to be completly off, but i did it for the sake of testing it a bit. I already filled out a return, but now i'm wondering if i should just try to get another P12 MAX and hope for the best or choose another option.

The ball bearings in all of them suck a little when spinning up from a stop or at super low RPMs. Up around 600 they're absolutely fine for me.

I've bought 4 of them and all 4 have high-pitched "scratching" noise that can definetely be heard on one of the reviews, but on much lower scale than on my copies. Switching back to stock NR200P fans for now, not gonna touch another Arctic product for a while

I purchased five of these fans a few days ago. Unfortunately, they keep ramping up and down uncontrollably in PWM mode. The RPMs randomly jump from 600-800 to 1200-1400, accompanied by a grinding noise. Initially, I thought it might be a BIOS or software issue. However, after trying every possible fan curve and settings combination in both the BIOS and fan control software, I concluded that the fans are defective. To confirm this, I reinstalled my old Cryorig PWM fan, and it worked perfectly without any issues. I also experimented with running the new fans in DC mode with a constant speed, and there were no problems. However, the lowest speed they can run in DC mode is around 1200 RPM, which is a bit too high for my setup. I must mention that even at 1200 RPM, they sound very quiet, almost inaudible. It's unfortunate that these fans, despite their amazing potential and fantastic value, are plagued by quality control problems. Latest update: After contacting Arctic about the issue, they sent me three more fans, these fans had supposedly been checked by their QC team. They turned out to be even worse than the ones I had previously, with more clicking and hissing noises. I asked them for a refund but never received it. I tried contacting them three times and still didn't have my refund. I advise staying clear of these fans and possibly avoiding the company altogether.

Big fan of Arctic, amazing products and an even better customer support

I know I'm going to sound like one of those picky customers, but will this be released in all white?

Where are they available to buy? The P12 Max page on your website redirects to the normal P12.

I love Arctic, the Fans and Liquid Freezer particularly ! Any chance we see a P14 Max variant ?

me too, the only fans that are not from arctic in my pc are one from my case on passive rear top exhaust and one of two on scythe fuma 2 (big one, moved to the front, replaced middle with gray f120, got a couple degrees and better looks)

You won $1 zillion

Arctic came across my radar in the late 00's when they started making universal coolers for gpus. Been a FAN of them ever since.

i used to buy enermax, but arctic now prob the cheapest pwm amongst others

think the most silent still held by bequiet, or coolermaster

im sure thats coming soon. I use all Arctic p14's 140mm case fans which have an identical fan design and come with ARGB connectors. I'm wondering what they changed to get more static pressure out of these p12's since this blade type already provides a ton of airflow at lower rpm's. definitely recommend these!

@@musek5048 Both my PCs have only Arctic's fans in them 👍

I just bought the older Arctic P12 PWM and I'm not used to this level of quietness 😁 But they still suck a bit on the airflow, all my old ones were noisy but were all around 100 cfm while the arctic is close to half. I really miss is my old Aerocool Shark Fan from 2011 in transparent black and red, they were the coolest I ever had and are close to 100cfm, perfect for my very wide open airy case which don't need pressure but rather airflow at least for a rear fan, the top ones the arctic probably do a much better job since it has small anti-dust mesh... Anyway it was like 1/3rd of the price of the Shark Fan but I also have a nice cooler master which was around the same price as the arctic P12, one of the good old sickle fans in transparent black which are much better than their newer stuff and it also had a damn nice big airflow though are jumbo jet loud at max rpm 😁 (still have all of them working and 1 in use for all this time, I oiled the bearings only though the blue leds burned many years ago which is even better LOL).

I had P14 and upgraded to P14 RGB like a year ago. Seems to have the same design and have a lot higher RPM

Still no P14 max tho which is sad!

Thanks!

What makes you so sure that a 7 blade theoretically perfect design would necessarily outperform a 5 blade theoretical best?

@@AndyU96 Simply put, if all things are the same (blade design, hub size, chord length), an increase in the number of blades should increase the static pressure of a fan (within a diminishing limit). Look up 'solidity ratio' if you want to know more. The not-so-simple answer is solidity ratio involves other physical design aspects of the fan so it's no magic bullet. Blade shape can be optimised to achieve pressure gains, but increasing the solidity ratio through increasing the number of blades is likely the easier win.

Thanks! Much appreciated!

The 5 pack is the goat

I'm guessing the reason that such an option does not exist is the power draw. The original P12 and the PST variants draw 0.1 amps at full load, which is why you could comfortably stick five or more of them on one header. The P12 Max, according to Arctic's site, draws about 0.3 at full load, which means you can only put 3 or so on a header before you exceed what a typical board header is rated for. You can absolutely still use hubs that take external power, though. And a 3- or 5-pack would still be very welcome.

true, though it does push the range of ITX potential depending on if you only have access to 1 header and how many amps 4-pin fan header adapter does on an itx board...and how many fans it can feed. 5pack for life used the extras to fill up my friends build bc everyone could use a few extra fans/exhaust fans.

@Donuts the Uni fans have one of the most tasteful looking RGB and one of the best daisy chain method out there tho

P14 Max is in the pipe... ;)

@@VincentAndre_HK But when...?

Exactly, where is it, don't take a year to finally release the 180mm version btw Arctic

Your wish has finally been granted.

Agreed. I have added a number of P12 PWM PST fans to my rig and they've made a huge difference over the old Chinese fans that came with my AIO. That said, even though I still have three of the P12 PWM PST fans I'm not using I would be tempted to replace the fans I have with these new P12 Max fans. That stats are just that much better and at a great price. (Especially if we can get them at that $9 introductory price.)

i used the same pack for my moms vr rig and realied she had better cooling than my expensive ek fans(at the time)

I bought three of them, and also had one of them develop a rattle after about a year. Other than that defective one, I've been happy with the performance and noise profile

Just because he was loud, you discarded him. :(

@@kiavaxxaskew Well not thrown away, just replaced with an unused one. ;)

​@@Hotrob_Jsee, the reason why you buy more expensive fans is because higher quality fans will never have that problem.

Cool! Gentle Typhoon still beats this in some scenarios though and the Nidec Servo motor is one of the best ever produced

@Hardware Canucks Did some testing of my own this past week on air-cooled systems built in the P400A, O11 Dynamic, Meshify C, RL06 and the Air 540. Fans were EK Vardar, Nidec Gentle Typhoon and Arctic P12 Max. Air cooler was a Thermalright Peerless Assassin. All fans were 120mm. CPUs were an i5-6600K at 5 GHz, a 3600X stock and a 5600X at 4.6. Temps were very similar no matter the case used. All CPUs idled in the low 30s, gamed in the low to mid 40s and stressed in the high 60s to mid 70s. Temps differed only 1-3 C on average depending on the fans used, but - and it was repeatable - any combination of the Nidecs and Arctics outperformed any combination of the Vardars. I've settled on the Arctics as case fans with the Nidecs on the cooler for the "best" temps on my current system. Testing was both fun and a pita at the same time lol. In future I will leave the testing to you and just trust your word!

It depends on your budget. Personally i hate these cheap ball bearing Arctic fans. I cant stand the fan motor’s sound. The sound of the Silent Wings 4s is much better added to the small cooling benefit. For a guy on a budget while also not caring about sound or endurance or looks it is indeed the best fan, it will do the job just fine.

@@kerotomas1 from my experience, I can never hear the motor.

@@kerotomas1 considering i have 10 of their 120mm fans in my computer less than 3' from me. I cant hear them at all... probably just got a bad batch or something...

You are so right, there isnt any other company willing to sell top quality products at such a low price. The fact that these stand toe to toe with Noctua and Be quiet, while being 3/4 times cheaper is crazy to me.

Six year warranty is a huge comittment for a company.

Their CO fans come with 10 year warranty for 24/7 operation, which is pretty sick.

Hey, did they arrive already? Wanted to ask what your thoughts are about them, are you having issues with weird "scratching" noises or something like that for example?

Should be the - DA BEST - value award instead of - DAM GOOD - then...

Look forward to them being OOS in a jiffy !! arctic really outdid themselves here with the vfm

Big fan of Arctic, great products at a great price!

I followed the link - $35.67 CDN plus $4.99 shipping... :(

@@NickGreenDC Try looking for stores in your country, that link redirects me to UK Amazon and it's almost 17 GBP while I can get it for around 10 euro here in Norway.

It's there. Link in our description

For me, it's at 40-43% of the RPM. 39 is fine and so is 44, but 1, 2, 3 resonates. Badly. So make sure they never hit those RPMs.

I'd say they'll be pretty amazing. Probably the best price / performance you can get. Though their strengths really lie in situations where higher static pressure is needed.

Just posted it. :)