Noctua NF-A12x25 and NF-P12 Redux Fan Review

Noctua has been building cooling solutions for quite some time and as with any good company they are always making improvements.  As these improved products go to market the older ones stop getting produced and will eventually are phased out completely.

The thing is Noctua is very specific with what they release and while it might not be the top of the line for that year that doesn’t make it bad and is where the Redux line comes in.  These are products that Noctua no longer makes but is bringing them back as a lower cost alternative. 

Of course to sell them at a lower cost there are some features that are removed and they get a new color scheme.

This fan was specially designed for use in situations where fan pressure was needed such as watercooling radiators and the wide tightly packed fan blades help to increase static pressure as the fan is spinning.

Noctua has sent over four variants of their NF-P12 Redux listed in descending order of awesomeness.

NF-P12 Redux-1700 PWM – This is the most powerful variation of the NF-P12 Redux with a maximum speed of 1700rpm @ 25dB(A) and a low speed of 450rpm and provisions to be controlled by PWM.

NF-P12 Redux-1300 PWM - This is a step down from the 1700 with a maximum speed of 1300rpm @ 19dB(A) and a low speed of 300rpm and provisions to be controlled by PWM.  The fan itself is the same just with a speed limited motor.

NF-P12 Redux-1300 – PWM is a great way to have your fans spin at a variable rate depending on the load you are attempting to address.  However the PWM chip does add some additional cost and if you are just running at a constant speed why not get a static style fan.  The Redux 1300 is identical to the PWM version with no minimum fan speed.  (Unless you use an LNA adaptor)

NF-P12 Redux-900 – The final fan variant spins at 900rpm with a 12dB(A) noise rating making it the quietest fan of this particular Redux line.