Noctua has fast become one of our recommended brands, not through bribery or friendship, but with sheer performance advancing products such as the NF-P12 fans

Today we are taking a look at the NF-S12B FLX fan, which in Noctua’s own words is not a direct competitor to the NF-P12’s We would like to take this time to thank Noctua for providing the review samples. So without any further ado let us bring you the low-down of this product.

 
Introduction

Two tier approach

This diagram shows how the NF-P12 is geared towards higher impedance applications, such as a radiator with tight fin spacings whereas the NF-S12B attacks the silence and airflow quadrants, Noctua seem to place a lot of bearing on the quietness of the NF-S12B.

You may remember from the P12 review that we said it was the quietest 120mm fan that we had come across, well, the S12B has changed that, we didn’t see it coming and didn’t think it was possible, but the S12B is  quieter than the P12. Obviously Noctua must have achieved this through use of magic and have managed to fit lots of pixies inside the fan, there is no other way of describing how they have managed it. We described the P12 as a silent fan, so with this in mind, the S12B must be sub-silent as it manages to be quieter. However do not our word for it, here are some audio snippets of the fans:

 

P12 snippet

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S12B FLX snippet

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Generic snippet

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