Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC 3000PWM Review

Introduction

Monsters. The best word we could find to describe Noctuas industrial line of Fans is Monster. Let's find out why their 3000RPM fast NF-F12 industrialPPC Fan should require a license.

What's in the Box?

Unlike Noctua's regular lineup of fans, their industrial line is completely utilitarian. Inside the Box, we will find nothing but the Fan and a 4-pack of screws.

Not even additional colorful anti-vibration pieces are included.

The Package itself does still come in the usual Noctua fashion using the usual Noctua design, including the spec sheet we summarized down below:

Installation

As 99.9% of fans out there, the Noctua NF-F12 industrial needs to be installed using the 4 included screws. Put it into position, screw it down, done.

Unlike most Noctua Fans, however, the PWM connection will not be provided using a 1cm extension on the Fan end and a 30cm extension.
On the NF-F12 industrial, there is a 40cm long PWM cable directly connected to the fan, a method that we surely prefer.

Appearance

Due to its complete utilitarian principle, there are no optical choices to be made when going for a Noctua NF-F12 industrial.

Out of the box, the Fan will always be all-black with dark-brown rubber pieces on each corner.

Although it is clearly not part of Noctua's Chromax.Black lineup, the NF-F12 industrial shares many similarities with its regular NF-F12 counterpart. Maybe even look identical considering that it's hard to distinguish between both fan's Fan designs.

The only optical difference between both fans would be the Chromax.Black Swap rubber pieces that are not present on the industrial line. *Just keep in mind that the colorful options still fit*

Benchmark

We tested the Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC 3000RPM on our usual testbench using a 3700x.

While letting the NF-F12 spin at its full 3000RPM, we had to pause our benchmark test and strap the bench table to the desk. On our second try paired with a lot of prayers, we actually managed to pull it through.

Spinning at full blast, the NF-F12 industrial managed to keep the 3700x at 35°C, 1°C in front of the previous -best- Fan, the Phanteks T30.

With this, Noctua managed to regain its title as the absolute best fan out there. Although this is an exceptional result, Noctua surely only managed to do that due to its brute force approach.

As seen on the Noise-to-Performance graph, it is indeed true that the NF-F12 industrial 3000RPM is the absolute best fan out there, but on the noise-to-performance front, they utterly lose against Phantek's, - relatively- silent approach.

Once the fan speed is lowered even more to a point where Noctua's own and highly optimized fan, the NF-A12x25, can deliver the same amount of cooling, the raw brute-force approach of the industrial line becomes obvious.

Although we have not yet seen a fan as powerful as the Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC 3000RPM, it is very obvious that this is a fan clearly meant for Server applications in which the omitted noise plays little role. "Normal" applications such as personal PCs, should definitely reconsider and go for something more -survivable- such as an NF-A12x25.

Conclusion

After having a closer look at Noctua's industrial line of fans, we can only repeat the initially won impression. Monsters. Noctua's NF-F12 industrialPPC 3000RPM are complete monsters.

As we found out during our benchmarks, Noctua's industrial is clearly utilitarian and was specifically built for the purpose of brute-forcing its way up the benchmark charts.

Even though we have never seen a fan as powerful as this one, we do want to point out that -PERFORMANCE- is not everything. As seen in our noise-to-performance graphs, as soon as an NF-A12x25 can catch up with the NF-F12 industrial's performance, the A12x25 will always stay ahead and deliver either more noise-to-performance or better acoustics, depending on what you want to focus on.

The NF-F12 industrial on the other hand is a perfect candidate for server applications in which noise can be ignored.

From a build quality or product quality standpoint, there is absolutely nothing negative to be said. Although utilitarian, Noctua's industrial line comes with the same level of care and quality as any other Noctua fan out there.

That being said, even while considering the NF-F12 industrial's raw performance, we cannot blindly recommend Noctua's industrial line. In most cases, an NF-A12x25 will be the best choice due to its better noise-to-performance ratio.

However, for everybody who is looking for the absolute best Noctua 120mm fan out there, we can absolutely recommend it, just keep in mind that lowering that PWM slider is not a recommendation, but a requirement.