The Noctua NF-A12x25 of today’s review spins around 500 RPM faster than the plain model, and this is why I named it “Special High-Speed Edition”. It is used in Seasonic’s Prime Noctua Edition TX-1600 PSU.
Noctua is well known for its cooling solutions, including fans. In its recent cooperation with Seasonic, in the form of the Prime Noctua Edition TX-1600 PSU, Noctua used a special version of its NF-A12x25 fan, which can spin around 500 RPM faster, so I thought it would be interesting to evaluate this fan fully. The fan’s performance won’t change much in the normalized noise tests, where the maximum fan speed doesn’t play a role. Still, higher performance might be needed in a PSU since where the fan’s speed is automatically adjusted according to the thermal load. Highly efficient PSUs like the TX-1600 don’t require super-strong fans because of low thermal loads. The PSU platform design also plays a significant role. For instance, large, in dimensions, PSUs have equally large PCBs, which allow for enough space between parts for optimal airflow. In contrast, high power-density PSUs have restricted internal airflow; hence, their cooling fans have to spin fast to push enough air to remove the heat from the PSU’s internals.
Specifications
- Model Number: NF-A12x25 PWM (Special High-Speed Edition)
- Cybenetics Phi Fan Performance Standard – Airflow Rating: Gold
- Cybenetics Phi Fan Performance Standard – Static Pressure Rating: Gold
- Fan Speed Max: 2500 RPM
- Fan Airflow Max: 64.64 CFM
- Static Pressure: 2.91 mm-H2O
- Fan Noise Level: 31.2 dBA
- Fan Bearing Type: SSO2
- Bearing durability: > 150.000h MTTF
- Operating Ambient Temperature: no info
- Fan Rated Voltage: 12 VDC
- Fan Max Input Current: 0.18 A
- Fan Max Wattage: 2.16W
- Daisy-Chain Capable: No
- Cable Length: 145mm
- Fan Connector: 4-pin (PWM)
- Fan Weight: 203 gr
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 120 x 120 x 25mm
- Price (excluding VAT): –
- Warranty: 12 years (The warranty of the PSU that uses this fan)
even the LS variant spins nearly 2x too fast for most uses if you care about noise so existence of this variant is bizarre to say the least
and if you want performance at all costs T30 or some monster from Delta will be your friend
The T30 is a monster, for 30mm thickness.
it’s a weird one, extra thickness and top speed make it less fit for the consumer grade, but it isn’t going as far as industrial/server fans relying on the brute force and thickness alone as it uses better materials and tight tip clearance like Noctua does
probably makes most sense when you don’t want to build a rack but have a technical room to put the machine in and just run these at full speed to not worry about anything
at low speeds it’s fine for regular use if your PWM controller doesn’t make it stop despite using it in performance or advanced mode (hybrid stopping at 50% makes no sense imo as that 50% is still loud) but requires some extra space and you won’t be using that extra speed at all