Arctic Announces the Space-Saving P12 Slim PWM PST Fan: 120mm, 15mm-thick

[btarunr]

ARCTIC, a leading manufacturer of low-noise PC coolers and components, presents the P12 Slim PWM PST - a new fan for HTPC cases, SFF and mini PCs. With an installation depth of only 15 mm, this 120 mm fan is ideal for use in compact cases. Limited spacing can make fan installation difficult. That's why ARCTIC has expanded its fan range with the P12 Slim PWM PST. This fan is designed for high static pressure, which also makes it excellently suited for use on CPU coolers and radiators.

The rotation speed of the P12 Slim PWM PST is in the range of 300 to 2100 RPM and is controlled by PWM signal. Synchronous and noise-reduced control of multiple fans is easily possible using PWM Sharing Technology (PST). The newly developed ARCTIC motor with sinusoidal magnetization also contributes to the smooth running of the P12 Slim PWM PST, which keeps commutation oscillations to a minimum.



The installed neodymium-iron-boron magnetic ring of the latest generation lowers the coil temperature and has an energy-saving effect. This makes the fan particularly efficient. Its service life is also particularly long, thanks to a 10 °C lower motor temperature combined with a low-friction plain bearing. The P12 Slim PWM PST comes with a 10-year warranty.

MSRP: 9.99€ including VAT.

For more information, visit this page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Verpal]

Nice fan.

Kinda sad that I sort price low to high, and it is at least 200% more expensive than my current fan.

Ohh.... the fan knows I am talking about it, it start squeaking as I type

 

[wolf]

My NR200 is populated with 5xP12 PWM PST's and they're bloody excellent for the price which was about $10 AUD ($7.80 USD) each, I have high hopes for these slim ones, always good to see more choices too.

 

[Valantar]

Great to see more 15mm fan alternatives! And given how downright excellent the regular P12s are, these should be good too. Even if the recent aRGB fan was a bit odd (30mm thick and still a big performance loss over the regular P12), Arctic seems to be on a roll recently. This definitely makes outfitting my next SFF build easier.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

@btarunr Please tell me you didnt write this.

Maybe I'm just being gramer-censitive at..

 

[TheEmptyCrazyHead]

Copy-pasta from the link, might be important for somebody else as well.
Fan Speed: 300 - 2100 rpm
Airflow: 41.1 CFM/ 71.53 m³/h
Static Pressure: 1.45 (mm/H2O)
Noise Level: 0.3 Sone

 

[NutZInTheHead]

My NR200 is populated with 5xP12 PWM PST's and they're bloody excellent for the price which was about $10 AUD ($7.80 USD) each, I have high hopes for these slim ones, always good to see more choices too.

haha I have NR200 as well with 4 of them normal P12 PSTs installed. amazing fans for the price.

because I wanted to keep the bottom fans I had to go with an RTX 3080 that could fit there so my options were limited. So I went with EVGA 3080 XC3
If these slim ones were out at that time I would have perhaps went for ASUS TUF 3080 card instead.
Not saying the EVGA card is bad or anything, just that I had the ASUS card in mind first.

Anyway Arctic fans are awesome.

 

[SN2716057]

oh nice, those will do just fine for an upcoming build. And a lot cheaper than the Noctua versions.

 

[kapone32]

Where is the 140mm variant?

 

[SuMMoN]

What makes p12x25 great because so little distance between fan blade and frame, I doubt this slim fan with standard distance will be as "Pressure-optimised"

 

[Mistral]

Good. You have your slim one, now make an extra-thick variant.

 

[bonehead123]

Where is the 140mm variant?

^^THIS^^

 

[Valantar]

Where is the 140mm variant?

That would definitely be nice, there's even fewer slim 140mm variants than 120mm ones.

 

[thegnome]

Hopefully it performs nearly as good, the regular Arctic fans are really good.

 

[InVasMani]

Not a lot of slim fans so this is good to see. We need more innovation in these low profile fans. These fans could allow for tower coolers with more fin area if they use the saved space towards more fin coverage. Need to start seeing tower coolers with three of these and higher fin coverage area. They could dissipate more heat in the same size footprint if the fan tech is effective enough on the static pressure and airflow volume.

 

[bob3002]

Comparison of regular P12 vs slim P12, from the respective spec sheets:

Product	Arctic P12	Arctic P12 Slim (this product)
Dimensions (mm)	120x120x25	120x120x15 (-40%)
Airflow	56.3 CFM/95.65 m³/h	41.1 CFM/ 71.53 m³/h (-27%)
RPM range	200-1800	300-2100
Static pressure (mm/H2O) at max RPM	2.2	1.45 (-35%)
Noise level (sone) at max RPM	0.3	0.3

So naturally less good at moving air than its thicker brother product, but 40% slimmer. And the retail price should be similar.

 

[InVasMani]

Question is if the lower airflow/static pressure can be offset with more fin coverage or if a thicker fan with less fin coverage actually is better in practice. Beyond that a lot depends on how much they can improve the performance gaps between a thick fan and thin fan in regard to airflow and static pressure itself. If they can improve that there could be tangible gains realistically.

 

[Valantar]

Question is if the lower airflow/static pressure can be offset with more fin coverage or if a thicker fan with less fin coverage actually is better in practice. Beyond that a lot depends on how much they can improve the performance gaps between a thick fan and thin fan in regard to airflow and static pressure itself. If they can improve that there could be tangible gains realistically.

Physics says no, mostly. The increase in fin area from a 10mm thinner fan isn't all that much for a large heatsink, and it will always be possible to get more static pressure and airflow out of a thicker fan (up to a point, of course). It's far more difficult to design a blade geometry in 15mm that creates sufficient pressure, and there's less room for the motor to drive the blades, meaning you can't realistically make a very dense blade layout to compensate. That's why most slim fans are more open than their thicker counterparts and run at faster speeds - that's the best way of counteracting those weaknesses.

Increasing fin stack thickness also increases airflow impedance, which requires a fan with more static pressure to overcome, so a slim fan is less likely to be able to efficiently push air through a deep fin stack than a thicker fan.

 

[InVasMani]

I assumed as much was the situation and reason they are uncommon. I presume in the other direction beyond a certain point a more thick fan makes little or no practical difference. I wonder why no one puts axial blower in the center of a tower cooler fin stack with like a central core of it drilled out to fin the fan right down the middle. That seems like it could provide lots of airflow convection in all directions. A design like that with 8 evenly placed heat-pipes around it.

 

[SLObinger]

I am no expert in this area but what do folks think about using two of these 15MM fans in push pull on a radiator vs one in push (or pull) of the full size at 25MM? Im sure its not as simple as just doubling the specs of of a single 15MM fan.

Also does anybody else find that the P12 (25MM) is almost totally silent except when ramping up or down? Im not even sure what to call the noise other than squeaky.