News Noctua Sterox 120mm x 25mm fans available May 5th on Amazon

For those of you who have been following the development of this fan it looks amazing. Will be available on Amazon in a couple of days in three variants - PWM, ULN (Ultra Low Noise) and FLX (3 pin, 3 speed):

(PWM) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C5VG64V/?tag=theminutiae-20

(ULN) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C5Q2VW6/?tag=theminutiae-20

(FLX) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C5LRQD3/?tag=theminutiae-20

Here's the full release:

Vienna, May 2nd 2018 – Noctua today presented its much-anticipated next-generation 120x25mm A-series fan and the complementary NA-SFMA1 adaptors that allow it to be used on 140mm based watercoolers. The new NF-A12x25 is the first fan made of Noctua’s novel Sterrox® LCP material and integrates the company’s latest innovations in aerodynamic engineering in order to achieve an unprecedented level of quiet cooling performance. While the NF-A12x25 becomes the new flagship model in the 120mm range, the classic NF-P12 will be reissued in the streamlined, more affordable redux line.

“The NF-A12x25 is our most advanced fan today. We’ve spent more than 4.5 years developing it and it’s been easily the most thorny, intricate development project we’ve completed so far,” explains Lars Strömbäck (Noctua CTO): “In order to achieve our goal of surpassing our renowned NF-F12 and NF-S12A, we went for a completely different approach and had to use a tip clearance of only 0.5mm, which poses various new difficulties in manufacturing.”

Whereas the award-winning NF-F12 and NF-S12A are specialised solutions that are either optimised for maximum static pressure or maximum airflow, the new NF-A12x25 follows the approach of Noctua’s A-series in being a true all-rounder that yields superb results in all types of usage, regardless of whether it’s in low-impedance, airflow-oriented applications such as case cooling, or high-impedance, pressure-demanding scenarios such as on heatsinks and watercooling radiators. In practice, the NF-A12x25 not only outperforms the renowned NF-F12 on 120mm based watercooling radiators, but combined with the new, optional NA-SFMA1 adaptor frames, it also offers better efficiency than many 140mm fans on 140mm based systems.

One of the cornerstones of the NF-A12x25’s next-generation performance is its record tight tip clearance (distance between the blade tips and the inside of the frame) of only 0.5mm. This highly ambitious design helps the NF-A12x25 to work more efficiently against back pressure, such as on heatsinks or radiators, by reducing leak flows through the gap between impeller and frame. Manufacturing a fan with such a small tip clearance is extremely delicate and was only made possible by Noctua’s new Sterrox® liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) material, which features extreme tensile strength, an exceptionally low thermal expansion coefficient and excellent dimensional stability.

“We have never put so much research and effort into a single fan so far, both on the level of fine-tuning the aerodynamic construction and on the level of materials and manufacturing,” says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO): “Many challenges had to be overcome, but now we’re proud with the end result and confident that the NF-A12x25 will become a new benchmark for premium-quality quiet 120mm fans.”

The NF-A12x25 will be available in a 4-pin PWM version for automatic speed control, 3-pin FLX version with Low-Noise Adaptors for three different speed settings as well as a near-silent 3-pin ULN (Ultra-Low-Noise) version. As the NF-A12x25 becomes the new flagship model in Noctua’s 120mm range, the classic NF-P12 moves to the streamlined, more affordable redux line. It will henceforth be available in 1700 and 1300rpm 4-pin PWM versions as well as 1300 and 900rpm 3-pin versions.

NF-A12x25 further reading
Performance comparison to NF-F12 and NF-S12A: https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a
Technical backgrounds and manufacturing challenges: https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-technical-backgrounds
Interview with Lars Strömbäck (Noctua CTO): https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-interview-lars-stromback
Which 120mm fan is right for me?: https://noctua.at/en/which_fan_is_right_for_me?

Detailed specifications and photos
NF-A12x25 PWM: https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-pwm
NF-A12x25 FLX: https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-flx
NF-A12x25 ULN: https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-uln
NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM: https://noctua.at/en/nf-p12-redux-1700-pwm
NF-P12 redux-1300 PWM: https://noctua.at/en/nf-p12-redux-1300-pwm
NF-P12 redux-1300: https://noctua.at/en/nf-p12-redux-1300
NF-P12 redux-900: https://noctua.at/en/nf-p12-redux-900
NA-SFMA1: https://noctua.at/en/na-sfma1

Prices and availability
All new models can already be purchased on Amazon and will be available via other retailers shortly:
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25
Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25
Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25
Amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25
Amazon.es: https://www.amazon.es/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25
Amazon.fr: https://www.amazon.fr/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25
Amazon.it: https://www.amazon.it/s/?field-keywords=noctua+nf-a12x25

The suggested retail prices are as follows:
NF-A12x25 (all versions): EUR 29.90 / USD 29.90
NF-P12 redux (all versions): EUR 13.90 / USD 13.90
NA-SFMA1: EUR 11.90 / USD 11.90

Links and photos
Press-release: https://noctua.at/en/noctua-present...120mm-fan-140mm-adaptor-and-redux-line-nf-p12
High-res photos: https://noctua.at/en/press-images

About Noctua
Designed in Austria, Noctua’s premium cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality. Having received more than 6000 awards and recommendations from leading hardware websites and magazines, Noctua’s fans and heatsinks are serving hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers around the globe.
 
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Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
Original poster
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
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New material that means they can build the tolerances between the impeller and the housing to be much tighter. These tighter tolerances result in much better airflow and static pressure. Saw these in action last year when I was at Computex and they had one of these replacing two conventional Noctua fans on a 120mm tower cooler with similar performance.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
Original poster
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,936
Doesn't really matter as much. Basically fans need to be engineered for what is called impeller creep, that is the tendency for the plastic to stretch and expand over time. If fans are designed with tolerances that are too tight then eventually impeller creep will make the fan impeller rub against the housing. Because Sterox has much less propensity for impeller creep than other plastics, they can design the fan to be much tighter to the housing which significantly increases airflow and static pressure simultaneously.
 

Aichon

Average Stuffer
Oct 16, 2017
85
232
What about making the center hub smaller :-D
There's a point of diminishing returns. Decreasing the center housing would help (you'd be increasing the length of each fan blade without increasing the fan's dimensions), but it's questionable how much help it would be since you'd be increasing the least useful part of each blade. After all, the center of a rotating object will always travel a lesser distance than the outer edges of that object, which, in the case of a fan, means that the part of each blade closest to the center will (generally speaking) be pushing far less air than the parts farther from the center. Using Sterrox lets them extend the blades out just a hair further, but the effect of that minor change is magnified because they're doing it at the most useful part of the blade, and it also comes with pressure (less air escapes) and noise (less turbulence) benefits.

Setting that aside, I'm incredibly excited about this release and will love to hear some reviews from folks around here about how it's actually working out for them, particularly with regards to the noise : performance ratio.
 
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Mortis Angelus

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 22, 2017
283
277
Nice! Innovation in the fan-market is always nice. But I can't help thinking how nice it would be to A) have gotten these fans as part of the Chromax line up, and B) Get Noctua quality RGB fans.
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,663
2,771
Main question on these new Noctua fan is simply mortor noise @2000rpm.
If it's like NF F12 PPC, it's just killing my ears vs my gentle Typhoon 2150rpm.

Main advantage of this fan should be its polyvalence, pretty good in every scenario (aircooling, watercooling, case).

I'm eager to see how it sounds @2000rpm, before considering it..;)
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,663
2,771
the thing about the sterrox slides though: which NF-F12 are they comparing to? and at full tilt? o_o

That's the original NF-F12 (non PPC version) and this NF-F12 (even PPC 2000rpm) is really not really good, even for watercooling...especially as it was pretty loud for average performance...

http://thermalbench.com/2015/02/04/noctua-nf-f12-industrialppc-2000-pwm-120mm-fan/4/
 

Sean Crees

Airflow Optimizer
Jan 1, 2017
352
316
But are they better than a Gentle Typhoon?

Main question on these new Noctua fan is simply mortor noise @2000rpm.

Same question, but @800RPM. That's the max speed i ever run any fan in my computers that's not a built in temp controlled fan like on a GPU.
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,663
2,771
But are they better than a Gentle Typhoon?



Same question, but @800RPM. That's the max speed i ever run any fan in my computers that's not a built in temp controlled fan like on a GPU.
Simple answer : most probably they are not better than Gentle Typhoon for watercooling
At all speeds Gentle Typhoon (and Vardar) are king, for watercooling (best performance with best noise also) at least..:)
That's why dark side Gentle Typhoon 1850pwm version have been resupplied again in 2018..;)

Anyway, I want to ear those Noctua NF-A12 motor, especially as they claim the same "gentle" noise as Gentle Typhoon..;)
"
Excellent on-application acoustics
While many fans produce unpleasant, high-pitched noises when installed in typical applications such as on heatsinks or radiators, the NF-A12x25 has been carefully fine-tuned for optimal on-application acoustics. It produces a smooth, pleasant frequency profile and surprisingly low sound pressure levels (SPL) when working against back pressure.
"
 
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VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
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I'm really looking forward to Noctua's new fan materials to trickle down to the 92mm fans.
Make them 15mm thick as well. break the frame and you've got a shuriken (that's more shuriken than the Shuriken)

That's the original NF-F12 (non PPC version) and this NF-F12 (even PPC 2000rpm) is really not really good, even for watercooling...especially as it was pretty loud for average performance...

Yeah if it's the normal NF-F12, then is the performance increase of the Sterrox A12 because it's spinning faster (2000RPM vs 1500RPM)? o_o
 
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MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,663
2,771
Yeah if it's the normal NF-F12, then is the performance increase of the Sterrox A12 because it's spinning faster (2000RPM vs 1500RPM)? o_o
You are right, Noctua is stating that NF-A12 @2000rpm is delivering less pressure than NF-F12 @1500rpm

That smells "marketing" advantage.

Let's see if Noctua will provide some fans to "serious" fan tester..;)
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
oh wait i just read the line ,_, it's adjusted to normalise for noise. that's boasting actually o_o
if it's a higher RPM that's suggesting it's quieter
if it's a lower RPM that's suggesting it pushes air vastly more efficiently O_O
 

Sean Crees

Airflow Optimizer
Jan 1, 2017
352
316
Simple answer : most probably they are not better than Gentle Typhoon for watercooling
At all speeds Gentle Typhoon (and Vardar) are king, for watercooling (best performance with best noise also) at least..:)
That's why dark side Gentle Typhoon 1850pwm version have been resupplied again in 2018..;)

Anyway, I want to ear those Noctua NF-A12 motor, especially as they claim the same "gentle" noise as Gentle Typhoon..;)
"
Excellent on-application acoustics
While many fans produce unpleasant, high-pitched noises when installed in typical applications such as on heatsinks or radiators, the NF-A12x25 has been carefully fine-tuned for optimal on-application acoustics. It produces a smooth, pleasant frequency profile and surprisingly low sound pressure levels (SPL) when working against back pressure.
"

Vardar's are NOT quiet. You can slow them down to reduce the volume of noise, but the volume of noise is rarely the issue when it comes to fan noise. It's typically the quality of that noise. Is it high or low frequency, is there a clicking, is it smooth or rough etc etc. The only place I've found that actually does this level of fan noise review is silentpcreview.com. Everyone else will either just take the dB rating from the manufacturer (almost always wrong), or will test fan noise volume with their own equipment but not subjective noise quality. Also I've noticed a lot of places that do their own noise volume validation tests have a really high noise floor, like 30dB or higher which is REALLY loud IMO. You need a room with a noise floor of AT LEAST 20dB to do proper testing, preferably lower.

I've found GT's are the best, especially the 800rpm version. The biggest problem with GT fans though is the noise quality goes down the drain if you try to undervolt them. I've heard the PWM version is better in this aspect. I haven't ever found any other ball bearing fans that i would describe as "quiet". Next down the list if i can't get my hands on a GT is Nexus > Scythe > Noctua > Noiseblocker. Nexus and Scythe fans have been difficult to get a hold of in the USA recently, so i usually go with Noctua lately just because they are available at major e-tailors. I personally don't feel like any other fans other than from those 4 brands (5 if you count Darkside branded GT's as a separate brand) are quiet enough to use.