Thursday, March 2nd 2023
Arctic Rolls Out the P12 MAX Case Fan
ARCTIC, a leading manufacturer of low-noise PC coolers and components, extends the P-fan series with the P12 Max, a new high-performance fan. In contrast to the conventional P12 PWM, the P12 Max has a significantly increased speed with revolutions from 200 up to 3300 rpm. This makes it ARCTIC's most powerful 120 mm fan. Without load, it can even be throttled down to standstill if required.
With its high static pressure and high-quality dual ball bearing, the P12 Max is the optimal fan for enthusiasts and professionals who rely on maximum performance and especially long service life. The new fan is suitable for all scenarios and is optimised for use on radiators and mesh. The P12 Max achieves a significant increase in performance on existing air- and water-cooling solutions. The P12 Max features a closed fan wheel design to ensure lower vibration rotation. The rubber pads at the corners absorb possible vibrations.
Availability
The new P12 Max is available from today on Amazon.com, on eBay.com as well as in stores starting at a price of $8,99 (MSRP is $12,99).
For more information, visit the product page.
With its high static pressure and high-quality dual ball bearing, the P12 Max is the optimal fan for enthusiasts and professionals who rely on maximum performance and especially long service life. The new fan is suitable for all scenarios and is optimised for use on radiators and mesh. The P12 Max achieves a significant increase in performance on existing air- and water-cooling solutions. The P12 Max features a closed fan wheel design to ensure lower vibration rotation. The rubber pads at the corners absorb possible vibrations.
The new P12 Max is available from today on Amazon.com, on eBay.com as well as in stores starting at a price of $8,99 (MSRP is $12,99).
For more information, visit the product page.
48 Comments on Arctic Rolls Out the P12 MAX Case Fan
And no, the product page does NOT provide any useful explanations either, I already looked :(
Dual ball bearings & high static pressure aren't exactly a new features after all, so any mfgr making claims like this without providing the facts to back it up seems moar like pure marketying nonsense than anything else, which is about what we have come to accept from these so-called "PR's"
Arctic have also detailed the setup they used to do their comparative testing on their product page.
And them outlining their testbed set-up/method/conclusions on the product page means absolutely squat to me....
I will wait for actual independent/3rd party reviews/test results, then we'll see if their claims are valid or not :)
At least arctic pricing makes sense
Them outlining their test setup and method means that anyone can go out and replicate their test and see if and/or by how much they are lying. That said, given how simple said test is for anyone with the right parts to replicate, I am pretty sure they aren't lying or embellishing the results very much. Waiting for 3rd party is certainly the best way forward, but if you were already very satisfied with the older, slower P12s and just wanted a bit more performance (and noise), there's not that much need to wait for said reviews.You have to keep the forces on the impeller, bearing and motor balanced, so the absolute minimum practical is 2. For noise reasons, you also always want an odd number of blades which moves the usable minimum count to 3. Then given the relatively thin 25mm available to put the blades in, aerodynamic constraints put you up to at least 5 blades if you want decent perf/dB and perf/WNot *that* interesting - it's been done before with other fans, with varying degrees of success. Definitely cheaper than getting exotic LCPs though.
After watching that YouTube video I called Arctic to see where they'll be sold for the "special $9.00 introductory price" mentioned at the top of the comments. I was told Micro Center may have some soon. The link to Amazon has the full retail price plus there's also a scalper on the Amazon options list too. I'll buy a few to try out if I can get them for $9.00 each.
Are they the best fans ever? No.
Are they plenty good enough and 1/4 the price of comparable fans, Hell yes.
Realistically, if you need a better fan than a P12 PWM then you should probably be spending $25 per fan. Nothing else in the P12's price bracket comes close...
I can't really side with these complainers though.
Firstly, why are they controlling a PWM fan with voltage? Arctic do make P12 3-pin voltage-controlled variants (that are even cheaper, lol)
Secondly, harmonic resonance certainly isn't exclusive to Arctic fans - plenty of much pricier fans also have this minor issue.
Lastly, the resonance isn't particularly loud at the noise levels most people run a PC at. Sure, if you're going for an ultra-quiet build with a mix of fully-passive and extremely low-rpm cooling in a very quiet room, then yes - you'll definitely hear it, but maybe you need to get your head checked if you're spending several hundred bucks extra on premium passive/low-noise parts and then inexplicably buying some of the cheapest fans on the market. They don't even have soft-mounts, FFS!
As I do like Artic products, I will not buy this thing. So they slightly tweak this and that and then give the ability to go balls to the walls in rpm.
A slight increase in temperature performance is not worth my time in using tried and true fans and CPU Air Coolers.
A 3300rpm fan is not something I'd want to have screaming next to me but some people have their computers hidden in small cabinets or whatever, better have it and not need it than the opposite.
On the artic website they have this fan under both the case fans and server fans sections so home user is not the only market this thing is targetting
The rubber only serves any value whatsoever if the fan is used on a heatsink and supported solely by relatively loose and flexible wire clips.
^ Non-referral link to the exact product on US Amazon.