Arctic Fan 12L, 120mm Quiet Rear Cooling Fan Discontinued
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Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12L, 120mm Quiet Rear Cooling Fan

The Arctic Cooling’s L Series fans are exceptionally quiet and cost effective. The reduced noise levels is thanks to the patented anti-vibration fan holder, making the fans even quiet at full speed. They are designed as exhaust fans only and therefore need to be installed towards the back of the chassis to exhaust the heat generated by internal components.

PLEASE NOTE - Arctic Cooling measure noise levels in Sone (loudness) instead of dB (sound intensity). The loudness depends upon your ears response curves and tells you how noticeable a certain noise is.

Features

Best Noise-Performance Ratio
Patented Case Design
Patented Vibration Absorption
Compatible with tool-less Mounting Mechanisms for Standard 25 mm deep fans
Six year warranty
Very quiet, only 20 dB(A)

Specifications	Arctic Fan 12L
Dimensions	120 x 120 x 38.5mm
Rated Fan Speed	1000 RPM
Air Flow	37.0 CFM
Noise Level	20.0 dB(A), 0.3 Sone
Power Consumption	12 V, 0.15 Amp
Weight	126 g
Bearing	Fluid Dynamic Bearing
Connector	3 Pin
Cable Length	400mm
Safety Approvals	CE
Warranty	72 months

Specifications	Arctic Fan 12L
Dimensions	120 x 120 x 38.5mm
Rated Fan Speed	1000 RPM
Air Flow	37.0 CFM
Noise Level	20.0 dB(A), 0.3 Sone
Power Consumption	12 V, 0.15 Amp
Weight	126 g
Bearing	Fluid Dynamic Bearing
Connector	3 Pin
Cable Length	400mm
Safety Approvals	CE
Warranty	72 months

Customer Reviews

Great Value for Money

Sulayman Ibrahim, 18th January 2010

This fan is not the quietest neither is it the loudest but i have chosen to disconnect it now because of a slight humming! On terms of noise it produces about 15% extra noise on top of my usual PC noise which is Reasonably Quiet.

I wasn’t too impressed with air displacement either. If i had the chance, i would have bought a bit more expensive one.

Probably something under 15dB!

Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12L, 120mm Quiet Rear Cooling Fan

Roger Prynne, 12th November 2009

I must say for a cheap fan this is a really good one, can hardly hear it and the air flow is plenty enough for my rig. The specs state that it runs at 1000 RPM but ‘speed fan’ reports it running at a little over 1100 RPM which is fine by me.

Product Resources

Arctic Cooling website

FAQ

How do I measure fan size?
The size of fan you need will generally be determined by the size of the fan fitting position in your PC case. The sizes of all the fans on our website are shown as measured along any one of the fan’s four sides, NOT the distance between the fan’s screw holes! Our most popular fan size is 120mm, followed by 80mm. This isn’t really dictated by customer preference, but more by recent designs of PC cases.

As for the thickness (depth) of the fan, generally 25mm (1 inch) is by far the most common depth, although smaller fans can have shallower depths such as 15mm or even 10mm. All our fans are 25mm thick unless otherwise stated. If you have any questions about which fan you should order, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

If you know the distance between the fan mounting screw holes but don’t know what fan size to order, please see the following table. Note that the mounting hole measurements shown below are taken horizontally or vertically between the holes and not diagonally.

Screw hole spacings and fan sizes

Space Between Screw Holes Fan Size

32mm 40mm

40mm 50mm

50mm 60mm

60mm 70mm

72mm 80mm

83mm 92mm

105mm 120mm
I received a small cable (resistor) with my fan; what is it for?
The resistor cable (also called Ultra Low Noise or ULN cable) is designed to allow the fan to run slightly slower for even quieter operation. The benefit in lower running noise is significant. Although the airflow will be reduced slightly, this usually has minimal effect on PC temperature. We would generally recommend using the ULN resistor cable for best results in almost all circumstances.
How can I tell which way the air blows through the fan?
Hold the fan so that the round fan sticker is facing you. You are looking at the rear of the fan. When you plug the fan in, the air will be blowing towards you. If you want a fan to act as an air intake, then the fan sticker will be facing the inside of the case. Some fans also have two small arrows moulded into their plastic housing - one arrow shows the direction of airflow, and the other (at 90°) shows the direction of blade rotation.
Is it possible to use a 4-pin PWM fan or CPU cooler with a motherboard which has only 3-pin fan headers on it?
Electrically, there is no problem doing this - the fourth pin on the fan cable is used purely for PWM control and is not needed in order for the fan to run. So you can plug the 4-pin fan connector onto the 3-pin motherboard fan header, leaving the fourth pin not connected to anything. The fan will potentially run at full speed, so if you would like to reduce the speed of the fan you will need to adjust the fan speed setting in your BIOS or use fan control software such as SpeedFan in Windows.

The only other problem to consider is that occasionally, components immediately adjacent to the motherboard fan header can get in the way of the larger 4-pin fan connector, physically preventing connection. This problem also occurs if you try to use an in-line fan speed controller such as the one made by Gelid.

Another avenue to explore is the possibility of using a bay-mounted fan controller. Several models are available now which provide 4-pin fan headers, so this is an easy way to use 4-pin PWM fans in a PC system which has only 3-pin fan headers on its motherboards. When using this method, you may find it necessary to disable any fan warning settings in your motherboard BIOS, since the motherboard may incorrectly believe that its CPU fan has failed when the fan is connected to a fan controller rather than directly to the motherboard itself.