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Overview
Not long ago, it was considered to be “advanced technology” for a CPU to have two cores at 3.0Ghz. Oh, how times have changed. Now, it’s typical for consumer-grade CPUs to have upwards of 16 cores at nearly 5.0Ghz.
For enthusiast PC builders, custom water cooling loops are now more accessible, and require (at times) multiple radiators to cool high-end CPUs and GPUs. Water has a specific heat capacity at over 4000 J/kg°C, and fans are key in allowing radiators to exchange heat with the atmosphere. We studied and tested over a dozen fans that leading manufacturers advertised as the “best pc radiator fans” and determined that the NZXT AER P is the best overall fan for either your AIO or Custom Loop Radiator. This fan is a great value with its long service life and best-in-class static pressure, which makes an ideal radiator fan for your next PC build.
We love the NZXT AER P for it's excellent static pressure, low noise, and good value.
When it comes to fan performance, PC users typically believe that airflow is the most important metric. However, airflow needs to overcome the resistance created by obstacles in front of it. When trying to push air through a radiator, the radiator’s metal fins provide significant resistance to airflow. The higher static pressure a fan has, the easier time it has overcoming this resistance.
Choosing the right fan is critical to ensuring your temperatures stay low if you have an AIO, a custom water cooled loop, or even a CPU air cooler. It’s important to remember that static pressure makes a difference for high fin density heatsink fans as well. And here at TechSauce, we’re all about ensuring low temperatures, high frame rates, and a long life for PC components.
Why You Should Trust Us
The staff here at TechSauce are Aerospace Engineers who love to nerd out. We love to build and work with PCs, electronics, media equipment, high-end cooling components, and other technology. We surround ourselves with this technology on a daily basis. And, we take it apart, analyze, optimize and rebuild most things we get our hands on. That’s just the type of engineers we are.
We’ve built dozens of custom water-cooled PCs to maximize performance and minimize noise. We’ve also built dozens of AIO or Air Cooled computers to maximize value. We’ve used hundreds of different fans over these builds, and want to share some of our experience with you.
For this review, we did extensive research and tested several best-selling radiator fans against each other. We compared it to some of the most popular technical analysis organizations in the PC space. This includes Gamers Nexus, Linus Tech Tips, PCGamer, and Anandtech. We believe that our data-driven approach is effective to determining the best radiator fans available for your PC.
How We Picked
We found multiple fans that manufacturers advertise as “radiator fans” available on the market. Here is the criteria we know to be the most important when it comes to finding the best radiator fans:
- Static Pressure: This is by far, THE most important criterion when it comes to performance for a radiator fan. Static pressure is a fan’s capacity to get air through an obstacle placed in front of it. When it comes to radiator fans, static pressure is extremely critical in order for heat exchange to occur.
- Longevity: If a case fan fails, your computer will likely still be able to operate for some time. However, if a radiator fan fails, component temperature will rise quickly. The build quality, bearing type, and overall manufacturing specifications of a radiator fan are quite important.
- Noise: High fan speeds to produce maximum airflow often comes with a consequence: noise. Your PC shouldn’t sound like a wind tunnel. Good fan design, bearing types, and build quality contribute to the amount of noise produced. We made sure to consider these factors and the relationship between airflow and pressure when providing a recommendation.
- Value: Typical AIOs and Custom Water Cooled PC radiators have multiple fans. Selecting a well-rounded fan is just as important as one that won’t break the bank. We certainly don’t want you to downgrade other components as a compromise for high end radiator fans!
The Champ: NZXT Aer P
Based on our extensive testing and research, we’ve determined the Best PC Radiator Fan is the NZXT Aer P 120mm radiator fan. NZXT specifically designed this fan to be a high performing radiator fan. With ~3mm/H2O static pressure, 73 Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM) and only 36 dBA, this fan is ideal for radiators and heatsinks alike. It has fluid dynamic bearings, and is Pulse-Width-Modulated (PWM). This allows it to be controlled by software or a separate fan controller with ease. The NZXT Aer P is rated for over 60,000 hours of continuous use (nearly 7 years). This should easily last until your next PC upgrade.
We love the NZXT AER P for it's excellent static pressure, low noise, and good value.
Regarding aesthetics, the Aer P comes in a number of colors. As of this writing: white, blue, and red are available colors for the NZXT Aer P. You can set these fans as either exhaust or intake fans. The Aer P generates enough airflow while still being fairly quiet with the included vibration dampers. This is due to their unique winglet design on the fan blades. We found that this fan was a superb value as well, costing much less than RGB fans in its class. It lacks lighting, however, we found that the associated colors match most themed PC builds. Its performance easily outweighs the lack of pretty lights.
The Grand Champion: Noctua NF-F12 iPPC
We love the incredible performance of the Noctua NF-F12 iPPC fans. Noctua fans are incredibly well made and will last a long time.
If high performance is all that matters and you’re willing to spend more on radiator fans, look no further than the Noctua NF-F12 iPPC heavy duty cooling fans. While we still think that the NZXT Aer P is the Best PC Radiator Fan to date, these industrial-grade 3000 RPM monsters push a whopping 110 CFM of airflow (while generating 43.5 dBA), and have 7.63mm/H2O of static pressure. This fan can push air through even the thickest radiator.
But, we do caution you that if you choose the Noctua NF-F12 iPPC fan…you may want to pick up some quality closed-back headphones while you’re at it! This fan only comes in a two-tone color design (as of this review); a black fan with brown silicone anti-vibration pads on the corners. With only one color option, we’re confident in saying that if you choose this fan, your focus will be on maximum performance rather than aesthetics.
The Runner-Up: Arctic Cooling P12
We love the Arctic Cooling P12 for its solid value, and good performance. These fans are a solid value choice for your radiator.
Arctic Cooling has been in the PC space for over 20 years with the goal of creating high performance, value-driven fans that are within reach of the average consumer. While we firmly believe performance is king, these fans are certainly not hard to look at. Coming in either black or white, we found that most PC themes would be compatible with the color variants Arctic has to offer, alleviating the concern that a lack of RGB would be a major problem for PC builders.
The Arctic P12 fan series generate 56.3 CFM of airflow and have a static pressure of 2.20 mm/H2O while only generating approximately 36 dBA of noise. These fans additionally feature Japanese dual ball bearings. According to our research, bearings like these can last for many years at continuous 24/7 operation without failing. While we still believe the NZXT Aer P is the best PC radiator fan for your next build, the Arctic Cooling P12 is a great option as well.
The Contenders
While we firmly believe the NZXT Aer P is the best-in-class radiator fan, we found some additional alternatives that are suitable for radiators and heatsinks, and wanted to make sure you had some additional options to choose from for your next build.
The Noctua NF-P12 redux fan is a high performance fan, while only hitting 25 dBA at a maximum of 1700 RPM. At 2.8 mm/H2O static pressure, the Noctua NF-P12 will not struggle to push air through thick radiators. It is rated for 150,000 hours (17+ years)…so we consider this fan to last you through many PC upgrades.
The Thermaltake Riing 12 Series High Static Pressure Fan can get as low as 18.7 dBA while under software control, making it ideal for quiet PCs. At 2mm/H2O static pressure, this fan should do well with most PC radiators and heatsinks on the market as well. And it comes in many LED-lit colors to match any PC theme.
We also liked the Phanteks PH-F120MP fan, as it pushes 53 CFM, while only generating 25 dBA of noise. At 1.72mm/H2O static pressure, this fan is able to overcome most average-sized radiators (and most heatsinks) depending on fin density. Its PWM connector allows for software control for user-defined fan speeds.
Summary
Radiator fans are becoming a staple in the PC community, with All-In-One and Custom Water Cooling Loops becoming more and more popular. Manufacturers include fans in their AIO kits that aren’t always the best. The good news is that those included fans are not mandatory to be used with the associated pump and radiator. With a number of radiator fans on the market, static pressure, noise, airflow and value are all important factors. We hope that our thorough research, effort, time and analysis helped you to find the best PC radiator fan for your next build. TechSauce is all about finding the best fans for your next build, and as always…we wish you high frames and low temperatures!
