The great air cooler fan test (120 mm)

Air coolers are the most common, simple and safe solutions to cool a processor. And here there can be many reasons to replace or add fans over time. Some fans are too loud, others don't perform as well as they should. Or you are simply unlucky and the factory fan gives up the ghost after the end of the warranty period. But that's no reason to change the entire cooler, because fans can be replaced. We take a look at a large number of fans and their performance in the large air cooler fan test for 120 mm tower coolers.

Inhaltsverzeichnis / Table of contents

It is possible that fans are added subsequently, which are not found directly in the overview or picked up in the texts.

In contrast to the case fan test and the radiator fan test, only one fan is ever used in this air cooler fan test. The test system is identical to the case fan test: an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X mid-range processor is thrown into the test with a DeepCool AK400 mid-range air cooler. The whole thing sits in a DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital and two extra quiet be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 140mm are used as case fans, set at a constant 600 RPM.

For the air cooler fan test, the processor is heated up by Cinebench R23 for 6 minutes each and then the temperature is measured over one minute.

The measurement results of the processor temperature are adjusted for the air temperature in order to not let fluctuations in the room temperature influence the measurement results. This means that the results are available as a delta in Kelvin and the current room temperature must be added. So, if the measurement result is 50 Kelvin and the room temperature is 22°C, then the processor temperature is correspondingly 72°C. This also means that the smaller the number, the better the result.

The air cooler fan test at uniform speed shows the efficiency of the fans. However, it also shows which fans may be louder than the competition. A volume rating of 30 dB(A) means the fan was too quiet to stand out from the ambient noise.

Performance-wise, there are a few unexpected outliers here. For example, the Noctua NF-S12A PWM did not do well on the radiator, but jumps all the way to the top in this test. This shows that the requirements for fans on the air cooler are quite different from water cooling radiators. Otherwise, the trend is comparable to other tests: The fans that tend to be louder perform slightly better than the quieter ones. Whereas most of the fans in the test were so quiet in this case that they were below the measurement range. Another outlier from this list is the Alseye X12, which unlike other ranges of use is not the weakest fan in the comparison. But it is still by far the loudest for an underwhelming performance.

Other fans that finish in the back of the pack here include the Corsair QL120, the be quiet! Light Wings 120mm PWM, the be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 120mm, the NZXT F120 RGB, and the Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB.

This section in the air cooler fan test shows performance at a very low volume bordering on audible. So the goal here is to achieve the best performance at the lowest possible volume level.

*remains below the 31 dB(A) even at maximum power.

This test should be the most interesting, as quieter fans can step on the gas here. In contrast, louder fans are slowed down. This now shows which fans perform best at the low volume.

Basically, the Noctua NF-A12x25 is now at the top, which was further down at uniform speeds. However, due to the low volume, it pulls ahead. The situation is similar for the Cooler Master Mobius 120 – both in the dark and the RGB version. Other very quiet fans also pull ahead, such as the be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 120mm and the MSI MEG Silent Gale P12. But there are also some RGB fans in the solid range, such as the ENDORFY Fluctus 120 PWM ARGB and the DeepCool FC120. The Noctua NF-S12A PWM still performs very solidly and is surrounded by other quiet fans, such as the Arctic P12 in the regular and Max versions, as well as the Lian Li Uni Fan AL120 V2. The latter may not fit on all air coolers due to its increased thickness of 28 mm.

The bottom of the list is taken by the Alseye X12, the Corsair QL120 and the NZXT F120 RGB. A bit sad considering NZXT mounts this one directly on top of a air cooler, for example. Also sitting far below is the be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 120mm PWM. But that's simply due to its silent design, as even at maximum power it's quieter than any other fan in this test run.

So the best fan in this test is the Noctua NF-A12x25. The best RGB fans are the Cooler Master Mobius 120P ARGB and ENDORFY Fluctus 120 PWM ARGB, which are tied in the measurement tolerance range. The Cooler Master Mobius 120 in the non-illuminated variant is significantly cheaper than the Noctua NF-A12x25 and still offers not much weaker performance. The strongest real budget fans, however, are the Arctic P12 in various designs.

If volume is irrelevant and you just want as much performance as possible, you should take a look at this section in the air cooler fan test.

Leaving the fans to their own devices, the extremely fast and very loud Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-3000 PWM comes out on top. Besides the Alphacool Aurora Rise, which performed much worse, it is the only one to crack the 50 dB(A) mark – and that by a significant margin.

As is to be expected, other high-speed fans are also in the top spots, such as the be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4, the Arctic P12 Max and the Cooler Master Mobius 120P ARGB. But other fans that spin noticeably slower can also be found at the top, such as the still quite speedy DeepCool FC120, the Noctua NF-A12x25 and the Corsair iCue AF120 RGB Elite, which puts itself well ahead of the non-RGB version due to its high speed.

However, the Alphacool Aurora Rise, which not only gets very loud with 2700 revolutions, but doesn't even reach the top 15, proves that a high number of revolutions isn't completely decisive. A similar thing can be observed with the NZXT F120 RGB, which sits far down the list despite around 2000 RPM, and at almost 45 dB(A) is completely in the field of fans that otherwise end up below 40 dB(A).

If you look across all the tests, you will always find the DeepCool FC120 very far ahead. This one is strong, quite quiet, and offers RGB lighting. At most, one downside to this daisy-chain capable fan is the fact that it comes in a 3-pack and doesn't have a standard connector, which ultimately makes it harder to recommend. Both quiet and powerful is the Noctua NF-A12x25, which scores very solidly. The be quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 is very universal, offering very good performance across the board and also high maximum power.

Not quite at the top of the test, but always neatly placed, I would also like to mention the Noctua NF-S12A PWM and the Cooler Master Mobius 120, which are noticeably priced below the overall winners. And beyond that, the Arctic P12 and P12 Max, which are available extremely cheaply and also do very well.

Last but not least, the two RGB fans ENDORFY Fluctus 120 PWM ARGB and Cooler Master Mobius 120P ARGB are very strong mid-range RGB fans that offer impressive performance and are thoroughly recommended.

The overall winner of the test in my opinion is the Noctua NF-A12x25, which performs the best in terms of low noise, but also delivers high maximum performance while being noticeably quieter than all the more powerful fans.

For practical reasons, the ENDORFY Fluctus 120 PWM ARGB and the Cooler Master Mobius 120P ARGB, which perform very similarly, move onto the winner's podium as the best RGB fans. The DeepCool FC120 also deserves a very positive mention.

The price-performance winners are the Arctic P12. These are not only extremely cheap in the simple version, so they cost less in a 5-pack than a single Noctua NF-A12x25. No, they are also very quiet and offer decent performance. Those looking for higher maximum performance will find the slightly more expensive Max model, which is still cheap but a bit harder to keep under control and is only recommended to users who can handle custom fan curves.

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