Arctic Bionix F120 Review

Introduction

With the Bionix Series, Arctic tries to bring color to your PC System. But instead of the usual RGB way, Arctic went with the purest form of RGB, actual color.

In this review we will focus on the Arctic BioniX F120, an Airflow-focused BioniX Fan featuring 9 slightly bend fans and an insane rotation speed.

What's in the Box?

Arctic's Bionix F120 Fans come in the usual Arctic Style.

Inside the Black carton box featuring highlights in the Fan color you've chosen we will find the following items:

• 1x Arctic Bionix F120 Fan
• 4x Fan Screws
• Manual QR Code
• Thank you note

Overall the fan is delivered in a minimalistic and efficient way.

On the back of the box, we will find a number of key features, an Arctic in-house made temperature comparison and a spec sheet which we summarized down below:

Installation

Installing a bunch of Arctic BioniX F120 is nothing out of the ordinary. By using the 4x included Fan screws, we can position the fan where we want it to be and screw it down.

When it comes to power, the Fan can be connected to your motherboard using the standard PWM connection. But to make lives easier, Arctic adds a "PST" or daisy-chain connection to the fan. This added header allows you to install one BioniX F120 fan to another Fan and therefore connect multiple Fans to a single header on the motherboard. 

Appearance

One of the most unique aspects of Arctic's BioniX line is its "gaming" look.

Instead of going for the usual and now standard RGB in some form, Arctic went with actual color.

Around the Fan wings, there is a thin layer of rubber in the color of your choosing. Additionally, the same color is used for the rubber around the Fan Screw holes.

In total, Arctic offers 6 different colors: Grey-white, Grey, Yellow, Green, White, Red.

And although you might assume that the usage of a colored rubber might appear outdated or even cheap, we found ourselves slightly shocked that the finished product looks well produced and "new".

Benchmark

By using our usual Benchmark setup, we tested the BioniX F120s.

Letting them spin at 100% Fan speed, they were able to keep our 3700x at 52°C, placing them just a single degree behind the Arctic P12.

This is in no way an unexpected result. Comparing the BioniX F120 and P12 beforehand, we were prepared for the fans to perform near identical as the specs provided by Arctic were very similar.

Although this result is not the best in class, it is still very respectable considering every fan we've tested so far.

Once we Noise-Normalized our results, this, unfortunately, changed quite a bit.

Starting off as the loudest fan on our List, the BioniX F120's may be able to keep the 3700x at a temperature similar to a P12, but they were not nearly silent enough.

Although the BioniX F120 is starting to get lost in the group of other fans while spinning at slower fan speeds, they are still way behind the P12s.

Conclusion

Unfortunately for Arctic, the BioniX F120 seems to end up with the same conclusion as the F12. Although the Fan doesn't perform "bad" compared to a lot of other contestants we have seen over the years, it just doesn't seem to have an actual place.

With Arctic's P12 fans being cheaper, and better performing, we just do not see a valid performance argument as to why BioniX F120 or F12's exist.

Not to say they perform badly, they just don't outperform the "standard fan".

On the design side, however, this changes quite drastically. 

By abstaining from any usage of RGB and relying solely on colored rubber, these Arctic BioniX fans feature a highly unique look. Combined with similarly colored cable extensions and maybe some other parts can create a very good overall look which will stay nice looking even if the PC is shut down.

Overall we cannot recommend the BioniX F120 from a performance standpoint. That being said, the Fan does not perform "bad". Arctic still managed to vastly outperform their original Airflow-focused F12 fan.
Therefore, if anybody wants to go with a set of BioniX F120 Fans due to their nicely implemented color schemes, we are can reassure you that you will not be disappointed.