There are many well established players in the computer cooling game, but one of the newer names has made a good impression at Bigbruin.com with their processor and chipset coolers. Noctua has made us big fans of their coolers, but what will we think of their fans? This review will help us answer that question as we check out their NF-S12-800, NF-S12-1200, and NF-R8 cooling fans.

The NF-S12 series fans are 120mm units that come in two speeds indicated by the model number suffixes, 800 RPM and 1200 RPM. The NF-R8 fan is a 80mm unit that provides a top speed of 1800 RPM. Despite varying specifications, one thing that all of these fans have in common is a rather unique color scheme. The brownish red blades and tan frame shown on a NF-S12 fan below may be the first thing to catch your attention about these fans, but hopefully the performance is as interesting.


Before taking a look at the Noctua fans provided for review, let's take a look at some summary information taken from their website...

Features and Specifications:


The screen shot above captures the basics on each fan, and visiting the Noctua website will provide more detail if you should desire it.

The Basics:

In general we start our reviews by looking at the product's retail packaging, but the package I received had me thinking wholesale instead of retail. Noctua sent over a total of thirteen fans; six NF-S12-800, six NF-S12-1200, and one NF-R8. Definitely enough to review with plenty left to give away to the Bigbruin.com forum members to try out.