Outer rings on fans are mostly used for structural reinforcement, but they sacrifice airflow in the outer edge which provides the most amount of airflow (which is why you don't see it on liquid crystal polymer fans like the A12x25, where the material is extremely rigid). It makes a lot of sense on the P12 which has quite flexible and long blades which make them prone to vibration (which is the cause of resonance at certain RPM ranges), so the resonance being absent on the P12 max is also not surprising. Good move from Arctic.

I run 9 Noctua fans in my system, and I've bought them piecemeal replacing the stock Lian-Li fans and adding new ones. I love them, but the price to performance of the P12 Max cannot be argued with. Well done Arctic!

Once again, you're showcasing awesome and affordable hardware. Thank you!

I grabbed myself a Silent Wings Pro 4 and couldn’t be happier. It’s so quiet!

SUPERB comparison and SAMPLES!

When noise testing, would you consider mounting the fans inside the case as intakes? Most (if not all) fans are fairly quiet, then mounted on heatsinks/radiators or as case exhaust, but they become really loud, when used as intake and each bad noise (growling, resonances, motor fluctuations, etc.) is enhanced. Prime example, growling. Now, i never owned this fan, but i owned Arctic P12 RGB, which has the same plastic ring and the same frame (it can be said they are the same, just RGB and different bearing) and while that version growled significantly less than standard P12, there were some points in their rpm, where the growling was hearable, when the fans were used as case intake. Side note: If you encounter growling part, it can be skipped entirely. Fan curve can be designed to skip certain rpm parts. For example, if i know, that standard Arctic P12 growls with PWM between 47% and 62%, the curve can be designed, that after reaching 47% PWM, the fan will jump directly up to 62% and continue there. While BIOS fan curve can be limited by the amount of controllable points, you can always use software for more thorough regulation, like Fan Control.

Thanks for the review, appreciate your comments. I'll pass the good words to the engineers

Arctic bringing insane value yet again!

Any thoughts on this weird noise some of the amazon reviews are saying these fans have on lower RPMs ~1000-1300? Wondering if the old P12 reviews got lumped into the ones for the maxes

Have you tried more than one unit? I just have some concerns with quality control and some rattling issues reported by others. Thanks for the review :)

So these are basically P12 ARGB with a different motor and no bling. I actually replaced my P12 intake fans with the ARGB version because of the similar performance without the resonance. Arctic should make these in slim and 30mm form maybe a PST daisy chain version with a 2000 rpm limit

Can't wait to watch it.

About to buy one, is there information if p14 max is planned? Need 2. :D

Just ordered 3 for my rad. Im excited.

Good to hear the mid range “howl” of the P12 is fixed. They were still a good deal, but that was a notable downside. And I’m glad the screws are black this time. The P12s had uncoated screws, but maybe that was just the 5 pack.

how do they compare to the argb fans? the design seems the same except the additional lighting. the normal p12, even tho they are fine for their price point, are humming quite noticeable if u ramp them up, i think they were quite silent below 50 percent fanspeed, but above they were quite load.

can't wait for the P14Max

I have been using the ARCTIC P12 PWM PST CO model as my goto fans in my builds. The "CO" variant is the "Continuous Operation" version which uses dual ball bearings rather than Fluid Dynamic Bearings of the regular ARCTIC P12 PWM PST. My reason for this choice is that the dual ball bearing fan is said to have better long term reliability.

Will we be getting the MAX lineup of arctic in following dimensions: 92mm, 80mm, 60mm, 40mm ?

Hi! Sorry i'm new to buying pc case fans.. but does it have the same PWM connectors such as those from arctic p12?

Not sure if I should pick the P12 or P12 Max for my 1080 rad ? Not planning to run the fans over 500rpm, price difference is double 10x P12 is 35€ and 9x P12 Max is 70€ Either option is an improvement since right now the rad doesnt have any fans, the P12 max doesnt come with the PST sharing so i can just daisy chain the 9 fans does it ?

I don't really mind spending the extra money for the A12x25s in my own builds so for me at least it's really the 140mm category that is interesting, where so far the P14 is the only real contender. Nice to see they fixed the motor noise on the P12 Max though, they'll definitely be my main recommendation without any caveat now.

We need these revisions on the slim P12.

I would love a P14 max

hello, can you send me a link to buy braided cables for the pcie of the cooler master sfx 850 power supply, I don't know which one to buy and this really bothers me a lot to install an asus strix 3070

Bought 3 of these, returned 2 of them due to bearing noise. EACH fan sounded and behaved a little differently too. Tried to fix the 3rd one by lubricating the bearings (DBB fans can be disassembled), it ended up in a landfill.

I wonder what the pricing for the P14 Max will be. I'd be interested in replacing my radiator fans (P14) with them, or even all the other case fans too

I tried them today... I work on a really quiet place... These fans move a lot of air and they are very quiet, but they make an annoying clicking and ticking sound... After a while, it really bothers me.... I also tried Noctua a12x25, Silent Wings Pro 4, Gentle Typhoon gt2150, and Thermalright tl-c12, tg-12 and e12; with all of them, between 300 and 900 rpm, all I can hear is the air moving, but with these p12 max, I can hear that ticking.... It desappears past 1600rpm, but I need them at lower rpm (the same happened to me with the p12slim).... These are great fans and perform great...! I will still use them... love them!!!

i can use with nzxt controller ?

Recently received my 4x Arctic P12 Max's, and I'm very dissapointed in both the product and the reviews surrounding it. These fans now have a terrible high-pitched "scratching" noise when running at all RPMs and I just can't stand it. At 8:51 and forward, on the transition to P12 Max you can kinda hear that noise, but it is nowhere near as annoying as all of my copies. None of the reviewers touch on that sound and only this review even has sound test

I love that fans get so much more attention from reviewers now. My system is full of Arctic fans, 3 P14 and 2 P12 RGB and 1 Bionix F120. Love them

the p12 max seems to have a quality control issue, ordered 5 fans, 4 of which came with loud grinding/bearing noise.

I have 5x arctic p14 (and 1x p12) running on my case right now for a years or so and thought about switching stock peerless assassin fans for either a12x25 or p12, but that was be4 i realized arctic released p12 max 8:12 i think you can hear engine sound only at 2800 and higher, below it - its sound of an airflow

Just bought 3 of these 120mm p12 maxes and all of them have terrible bearing whine. It's barely audible but in a quiet room you will be always able to hear this high pitched noise. Arctic says it's within the threshhold, but for me it's a deal breaker. I order 2x140mm silent wings instead.

Noob question, can i daisy chain 2 p12 max to be used as an air cooler fan? Will the PST still work then? Thanks.

they came out with it as i just bought 10 silent wings 4 pro for my latest build xD

Is this a good fan for GPU Cooling? planning to install it under the gpu

@Machines & More - Does Artic plan on a P14 MAX?

arctic makes some really solid fans for the price theres not really a lot of competition with how aggressive their prices are specially when you can find a sale

the design of this looks just like the p12 argb except it's non argb and has a higher RPM limit. It's quiet due to pushing less CFM at 3300rpm than the t30 is at 3000rpm.

I just picked up 8 of these fans at a Japanese computer shop, which were cheaper then on Amazon U.S which is highly unusual-lol. The price was $8.59 per fan with tax included.

Already ordered 7 of them

bought 10 artic P12 max for my case and these really are beasts... 7€/u is a steal !

hey the amazon link u have says they are $28.83. is that for a 3 pack or is that for 1 fan?

Waiting for the P14 max

The fan has a different FDB now and are more quiet! $9.99 on Amazon US. I have tested them against the best and I will go Arctic P12 Max for my rads any day. 8 for the price of 3 T30's! For Mora-3 360 it would be $90 compared to $255! Crazy!

Seem cool, but too damn loud. MAYBE if you have it as like a rear exhaust and it's further from your ears, under desk or whatever..? Also not sure how the fan curve is on its own, so I guess depending on pressure you're going for, just set it and forget it to what is manageable for your setup..? Personally, I recently went with the 5 pack of regular P12's and I've quite liked them so far. Would highly recommend! Actually, I had got a great deal on a pre-build and transferred it into my own case etc and fan headers are limited, so I got a couple extra splitters (were cheaper than the P12's w/ splitters) and things are cool and quiet.

Wish they dint put logo sticker (let us choose to put or not and use it to put somewhere) for blackout build

can't find any in stock since video launched. ebay had them at $16

I need 8 of them stat!

Some newer motherboards already support 2A per 1x PWM header.

I hope it comes in white also

In india often these fan kit remains out of stock in amazon. Sad 😢😢😢😢

9:35 anyone else hearing this at all levels (except max)? The hissing is really annoying, is this a common problem? Thinking of returning them Edit: I did return them

Just need a white version now

The Nactua and P12 MAX sounded very similar up to & including 2,000 RPM during your recording. That RPM should take care of most needs, but the MAX has tremendously more power. It could probably blow out a computer fire LOL.

The early reviews from people who have bought the max is that it makes a sound at all RPM ranges that annoys them. And because of that it's getting poor reviews just an annoying sound it emits. According to the Amazon reviews.

The P12 Max had too much bearing noise at low speed for my liking. I’d like to see a “P12 Pro” with a max RPM around 2000 and fluid bearings.

Artic,xpg,deep cool these 3 brand releases affordable plus expensive one also

NF-A12x25 has very annoying tone when they ramping to ~1200 and above. Seems like it isn't the case for P12 Max, although I can hear something else. So I checked the specs and yeah, it's dual ball bearing, which have very specific noise I can't stand

It is 8$ right now. Not a temporary launch discount.. Still great product.

so no humming anymore ? :)

Sadly the Amazon website price changed to $12.99; and the shipping is $5.92 for one fan at the time of my searching...which is unfortunate and unreasonable.

We need Liquid Freezer III with this fan and a redesigned aesthetic that's not fugly lol

Not 8.99/ it is 12.99 on Amazon. On launch day :(

The only seller in Amazon as of right now is $28 each.

Ironic how even if the noise in db is lower, the P12 Max has that piercing double ball bearing noise that stands out a lot more than other fans that only use a sleeve or hydraulic bearing despite them having a higher db floor

Sad that its not pwm pst. Ive come to most cases its the useful feature and why i buy p12s

Can these be daisy chained like the p12 pst model

Except you can’t find them at this price anywhere at the moment.

The big problem with these cheap / value fans is the poor quality of the motor. The regular P12 will spin at 1,850rpm in free air, but on a heatsink that will drop by about 200rpm, which is a significant loss of performance potential. I struggled to get the fan to stay at a consistent speed during testing, which is a shame because all in all it's a decent design and very quiet indeed.

Just installed the p12, then find out p12 max is out...

Pretty sure the Silent wing 4 pro can run up to 3000rpm on UHS mode, other than that - great review!

If you don't want to spend way more money for the absolute all-out-performance leader, the Phanteks T30, then there's literally no other option to purchase other than the Arctic P12 Max (unless you want lights). The Phanteks T30 and Arctic P12 Max have literally made all other 120 mm PC fans irrelevant (again, unless you want lights or are looking for specific colours).

I use only Arctic fans in every build I make. Nothing comes close to Arctic. True VFM fans!

You buy Noctua and pay a premium for longevity

i paid $9 for my fans. i bought 10 of them

I dunno, after dealing with Arctic's new 140 slim fans, and having only 1 out of five that doesn't wobble to the point where they get stuck on rads or hit their frames, I'm not very trusting of their fans anymore. Yeah, the Noctua's are more than twice the price, but they're worth it.

P14 max please

They should have been 30mm for me to swap my actual P12 set. rpm is just noise and mostly unusable in any home configuration.

your test results differ so much from every other reviewer that youve really gotta rethink your methodology. perhaps you have some fans on a fan curve instead of being fixed? something is wrong.

To anyone interested on these fans, DONT BUY THEM. I got 3 of them to replace NZXT stock fans and all of them have a weird scratching noise. I've spent hours in bios trying to make them work properly with no luck. I dont know if these reviewers got payed of they got cherry picked units from Arctic, but they suck.

I am the first,good

Where white

Ball bearing hiss is unbearable.

Noctua for life..... Yes in Brown whole pc. 3 intakes 2 12cm on RTX 4080 gpu and 1 out in a 5000D Yes expensive but dead silince and non of the case fans spins faster then 750rpm only gpu fans goes to 1100rpm perfect temps

This p12max sucks. Very noisy. Look around the reviews people talk about it