Arctic P12 PWM PST Fan Review - The BEST budget (and not only) fan! 

Thank you very much!

feel free to send more samples for testing! People are asking me to review your products :)

You are ESPI! Thank you for the support!

DBB is for higher operating temps. In general it is considered more reliable than lower quality FDB, but this is not always the case. There are some FDB types with extremely high operating hours, but they are not as tolerant to high temps as DBB are.

thank you! We are still improving our methodology because the Longwin machine needs lots of experience to deliver highly accurate results.

τρελή τιμή για αυτά τα χαρακτηριστικά και από ότι είδα στον MAX δίνουν 10 χρόνια εγγύηση!! Αναρωτιέμαι πώς δεν έχει σκοτώσει τον ανταγωνισμό ακόμη η Arctic!

Hold on, who says 10dbA? The spec lists 0.3 Sone. That's 26 phon, that sounds in the ballpark of what it could actually be. Phon value is equivalent to dB at 1KHz but is frequency perceptually weighted, so by all reason the raw dB value should come out higher than 26 and lower than 33, leaning closer to the lower end of this range since the peak isn't too far off the 1KHz mark. This is well in line with your measurement of 28-29dB.

Small correction, since A-weighted dB are weighted according to the 40 Phon curve, the difference should be really small, that is, 0.3 Sone should come out very very close to 26dBA, i had a little brainfart, but it doesn't change the conclusion much, sub 3dB isn't all too much difference to write home about and can come about in any number of ways.

Will contact Arctic to send me their fans and check them all. Also add them to the Cybenetics database.

Please wait for the 140mm review :) The one with DBB this time

@@HardwareBusters Great, I'm looking forward to it!

Your question seems strange. Fans are generally bought based on what fits the mount, and it is practically always a bad idea to get a smaller fan than the max size that will fit that mount. As far as will it result in more airflow, all else equal, of course. However more is not necessarily that much better if you don't need more airflow, and if you don't, then there is no quieter operation to use a fan at the minimum PWM needed to keep it spinning, "necessarily". It is really easy to get obsessed about using too many fans. Set up the system and measure temperatures.

Will try to find all Arctic fans and test them. If you want faster results, check frequently the Cybenetics fan database, because it usually takes me 2-3 weeks to make the review and the video.

@@HardwareBusters Hi Aris, thanks for the info about the database. I'll check it regularly. I forgot to mention that other reviewers also determined that the P14 ARGB is slightly better than than regular P14 so that's something good to test aside from P12 max. As for the database, it looks like some of the data for fans with different speed modes are incorrectly listed. For example, Phanteks T30 & Superflow Megacool have different RPM used for noise normalized @ 25dBA for the exact same fan.

@@HardwareBusters Do you think you might want to add frequency spectrum plots at full tilt and at 25dBA to the Cybenetics PDF reports?

Hi, you can yes, using splitters. Not sure if your mainboard has so many fan headers.

@@HardwareBusters but i can connect all of this fans in one cable and then in motherboard???

If I find it, I will test it. So many fans out there, thankfully :)

Wait so the pwm pst-co is not fdb? Edit: disregard...

@@Erksah02 yes, CO and Max are dual ball bearing, others are rifle bearing.

@@testynetesty ty for clearing up. Knew what pst stood for but never knew what co is !

​@@testynetestyby the way is there significant difference in noise performance or not big enough?

@@Erksah02 it is, dbb always have some noise, depends on realisation, but arctic ones are pretty loud and have unpleasant pitch. According to my experience rifle bearing arctics can work around 5 years in pretty harsh conditions without much degradation, which is very good result for rifle bearing. In that regard i can't reccomend dbb ones to anyone who cares about noise even a little. If default arctics are cheap in your region they are good enough for daily usage, and then if you want more longetivity/static pressure/quality you can look up gentle typhoon themselves or their copies from other brands such as bequiet sw4 pro, noctua a12x25, xpg vento pro, lian li p28, phanteks t30, valkyrie x12, superflower megacool, cooler master mobius. Or sth in-between like teucer t30 or thermalright k12/b12.

Meh, no. I've bought both inexpensive industrial grade fans from electronics surplus suppliers, and cheap standard sleeve bearing fans, and the cheap sleeve bearing fans (still major "PC" branded) are not especially loud at all, are actually quieter than the industrial grade (with a larger, stronger/torque, dual ball bearings), but I still use the industrial grade because of their higher build quality and that even if they start to exhibit bearing whine, they tend to still run for another decade before failure. To be clear, these Arctic fans reviewed, are nowhere near the quality of those industrial fans, but they do usually cost about $25 and up if you don't find them as surplus and often need to rewire them to the motherboard or 4 pin PSU harness molex connector. That stated, I have never had a single one fail, reusing system after system rebuild (leaving them in the same ATX case when all interior components were replaced).

@@stinkycheese804 to put it shortly: audible is too loud for end user applications so you need server room for these fans but if you have server room you probably can afford fans that will endure 10x longer than cheap ones

I would go for the P12

Will think of that and will do it at some point, when fan and cooling reviews will be more. Currently our cooling reviews are not so many.