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closeup of what killed my webserver several weeks ago. Look carefully at the corner and you can see that the plastic pegs that held the cpu cooler mount to the motherboard snapped, allowing the cooler to snap away from the cpu, which caused it to roast to death.
SoulRider.222 © 2025
Thermalright Heatsink Specifications：
Dimension：L125 mm x W110 mm x H162 mm (Without Fans)
Heat pipes：6mm heatpipe x 6 units
Copper Base：C1100 Pure copper nickel plated
I removed the LCD panel and Thermalright fans. I replaced the fans with a pair of original 120mm Noctua NF-A12x25 units. They are extremely well built and they are worth the added cost for the features you get. Who buys an expensive computer chip and slaps a cheap little fan on it? If you drove a McLaren, would you think to fuel up with regular 87 octane or 92 octane Premium? That little extra goes a long way in performance terms, just like Noctua fans.
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The NF-A12x25 is a highly optimised next-generation 120mm fan that integrates Noctua’s latest innovations in aerodynamic engineering in order to achieve an unprecedented level of quiet cooling performance. It takes state-of-the-art technologies such as the AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimisation) frame or Flow Acceleration Channels and combines them with a record tight tip clearance of only 0.5mm, which is made possible by using the novel Sterrox® liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) compound as well as a metal-reinforced motor hub and axis for ultimate precision. Following the approach of Noctua’s A-series, the NF-A12x25 is a true all-rounder that yields superb results in all types of usage, regardless of whether it’s in low-impedance, airflow-oriented applications such as case cooling, or high-impedance, pressure-demanding scenarios such as on heatsinks and watercooling radiators. The 4-pin PWM version supports fully automatic speed control via PWM fan headers and comes with a Low-Noise Adaptor to reduce the maximum speed from 2000 to 1700rpm. Topped off with exceptional running smoothness, Noctua’s reference-class SSO2 bearing, a rich bundle of accessories and 6-year manufacturer’s warranty, the NF-A12x25 is a premium-quality product through and through. Its superior efficiency, cutting-edge construction and pioneering materials make it an elite choice for the most discerning demands.
NF-A12x25: Technical backgrounds and manufacturing challenges
With a total development time of more than 4.5 years, more than 200 CNC milled prototypes built and an overall project volume that exceeds those of the previous NF-F12 and NF-S12A fans combined, the NF-A12x25 has been Noctua’s most intricate fan development project so far. One of the crucial design measures that allows the NF-A12x25 to further improve its renowned predecessors’ performance is its record tight tip clearance (distance between the blade tips and the inside of the frame): whereas most 120mm fans have a clearance of at least 1.5 to 3mm, the NF-A12x25’s ultra-small gap of only 0.5mm sets a new benchmark. This highly ambitious design enables the fan to work more efficiently against back pressure, such as on heatsinks or radiators, because it reduces leak flows through the gap between impeller and frame. However, it also poses novel challenges in manufacturing.
Producing a fan with a tip clearance of only 0.5mm not only requires much higher precision and stricter tolerances in general, but also makes it necessary to tackle creep phenomena that are irrelevant for fans with a bigger tip clearance. Over extended periods of use and thermal cycling, axial fan impellers undergo minute creep deformations due to the centrifugal forces pulling the mass outwards, which result in minute increases of the fan’s diameter.
For example, the impeller of a typical 120mm fan made from standard PBT can become larger by as much as 0.2mm over several years of usage. With fans that have a larger tip clearance, e.g. 2mm, this is not a problem, but with a tip clearance as small as 0.5mm, impeller creep becomes a major issue and even a 0.2mm creep will result in a high risk of the blades making contact with the frame if there is any minute vibration or imbalance.
In order for these challenges to be met, Noctua has taken several different measures that, from a manufacturing point of view, make the NF-A12x25 the most advanced and most elaborate Noctua fan to date. Firstly, the centrepiece of the NF-A12x25’s motor hub is made entirely from steel in order to reinforce the outer plastic structure. At the same time, the axle mount has been reinforced with an additional brass piece in order to stiffen the joint between axis and impeller. In combination, both measures assure reduced tolerances and increased stability in the critical hub area.
The key to overcoming the impeller creep issues, however, was the development of Sterrox®, a novel liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) type material that has much better dimensional stability and less creep as compared to conventional engineering thermoplastics such as ABS, PA, PBT or PC. The name Sterrox® is derived from the Greek word στερρός, which means stiff, firm, solid, hard or rugged.
Noctua fan specs:
Size (Form factor): 120 x 120 x 25 mm (square)
Speed range: 0 – 2000 rpm
Airflow (max.): 102.1 m³/h (60.09 CFM)
Acoustical noise (max.): 22.6 dB(A)
Acoustical noise with LNA (max.): 18.8 dB(A)
Static pressure (max.): 2.34 mm H₂O
Rated voltage: 12 V
Starting voltage: 7 V
Max. operating voltage: 13.2 V
Input power (typical): 1.2 W
Connector type: A2543-4PIN
Motor type: Single phase
Poles: 4
Slots: 4
Driver IC: NE-FD1
Warranty: 6 years
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Frame material: PBT ABS GF30
Noctua’s AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimisation) frames feature integrated anti-vibration pads as well as Noctua’s proprietary Stepped Inlet Design and Inner Surface Microstructures, both of which further refine the fan’s performance/noise efficiency.
Noctua’s Stepped Inlet Design is an advanced aerodynamic design measure first introduced with the NF-F12 fan. By adding turbulence to the fan’s influx, the Stepped Inlet Design facilitates the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. This measure has an effect similar to the dimple structure of a golf ball in so far as it leads to better flow attachment to the frame, which allows the impeller to suck in more air and hence improves overall airflow efficiency.
In addition to these aerodynamic benefits, the Stepped Inlet Design also reduces tonal intake noises caused by laminar inflow due to it being transformed to turbulent flow, which produces a more broadband noise profile. This way, the Stepped Inlet Design helps to refine the fan’s acoustic qualities by letting it blend into the background noise more easily and making it more agreeable to the human ear.
Inner Surface Microstructures are an advanced aerodynamic design measure first introduced with Noctua’s NF-F12 fan. Miniature dents at the inside of the fan frame create a turbulent boundary layer when the fan blades pass by. With the tips of the fan blades ploughing through this boundary layer, flow separation from the suction side of the blades is significantly reduced.
As suction side flow separation is a major source of axial fan blade passing noise and leads to considerable losses in airflow and pressure efficiency, the use of Inner Surface Microstructures allows for lower noise emission and better performance at the same time. Reducing undesired turbulences caused by suction side flow separation, Inner Surface Microstructures help Noctua’s latest fans to keep pushing the boundaries in performance to noise efficiency.
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Impeller material: LCP GF30
The NF-A12x25’s impeller is made from Noctua’s Sterrox® liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) compound that features extreme tensile strength, an exceptionally low thermal expansion coefficient and damping characteristics that are ideal for reducing resonance and vibration phenomena in advanced fan-blade designs.
Sterrox® is a novel liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) type material that has much better dimensional stability and less creep as compared to conventional engineering thermoplastics such as ABS, PA, PBT or PC. The name Sterrox® is derived from the Greek word στερρός, which means stiff, firm, solid, hard or rugged.
Liquid crystal polymers possess remarkable chemical and mechanical properties, such as high tensile strength and environmental inertia, that make them ideal for high-end medical and military applications with demanding requirements and budgets that can support the high material cost (roughly four times as high as PBT). The most well-known LCP is Kevlar, which is being used in products such as bulletproof vests, combat helmets and other body armour due to its excellent strength-to-weight ratio.
The remarkable mechanical rigidity of LCP materials is due to their unique molecular structure: unlike conventional polymers, which have a chaotic molecular chain orientation both in solid form and in the melt phase, thermotrophic LCPs such as Sterrox® show an ordered, rod-like molecular alignment even in the melt phase and solidify into a highly oriented, extremely rigid chain structure, which gives them much more advanced mechanical properties.
Sterrox® is Noctua’s own customised type of fibre-glass reinforced LCP that has been specifically fine-tuned for use in next-generation fan designs such as the NF-A12x25. Its extreme tensile strength, exceptionally low thermal expansion coefficient, high environmental inertia and excellent dimensional stability have made it possible to reduce impeller creep phenomena to levels that were previously unthinkable with PBT- or PA-based impellers.
In addition to permitting fan designs with much lower tip clearances, Sterrox® provides a second key advantage in having an elasticity modulus and damping properties that are ideal for reducing resonance and vibration phenomena in advanced fan blade designs such as the NF-A12x25. In particular, the use of Sterrox® allows the suppression of a phenomenon called blade surface mode vibration: a fan impeller has a natural frequency and multiple resonant modes. When the fan is running, the turbulent air around the fan blades will transfer vibration energy into the blades and cause resonant vibrations.
These surface vibrations are so minute that they are not critical from a mechanical point of view (unlike e.g. vibrations due to imbalance), but they can cause serious acoustic problems. The reason for this is that when the fan is running, there is a pressure difference between the intake and the outlet side of the fan (lower pressure on the upside of the blades, higher pressure on the downside of the blades). From an aero-acoustic point of view, this situation is similar to a stereo speaker where there is higher pressure inside the chassis and lower pressure outside the chassis. In both cases, the pressure difference leads to an efficient acoustic coupling, so the surface vibration of either the blades of the fan or the membrane of the speaker is transferred to the air. While this acoustic effect is desirable in the case of the speaker, avoiding it is crucial for fine-tuning the sound signature of advanced fan blade designs and this is where the increased stiffness and improved dampening properties of the Sterrox® LCP material come in: when comparing the same fan blade design made from PBT and Sterrox® and measuring their surface vibrations with a contactless Doppler laser vibrometer, the Sterrox® impeller dampens the same vibration excitement much quicker.
In real-world usage, this means that less vibration from air turbulence is transferred to the fan blades and, consequently, fewer surface mode vibrations are transferred back to the air as noise, which significantly contributes to the NF-A12x25’s smooth acoustic profile.
Boundary layer separation from the suction side of the fan blades leads to increased vortex noise and lower airflow efficiency. In order to suppress this phenomenon, the Noctua’s A-Series impellers feature suction side Flow Acceleration Channels. These channels alter the flow distribution on the suction side of the blades and speed up the airflow at the crucial outer blade regions. As flow separation is more likely to occur when the speed of the fluid relative to the fan blade is low, the increase in speed achieved through the Flow Acceleration Channels leads to significantly reduced flow separation, which permits lower vortex noise and higher airflow efficiency.
The NF-A12x25 also has a record tight tip clearance (distance between the blade tips and the inside of the frame) of only 0.5mm. This highly ambitious design sets a new benchmark for 120mm fans and helps the NF-A12x25 to work more efficiently against back pressure, such as on heatsinks or radiators, by reducing leak flows through the gap between impeller and frame.
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Bearing: SS02
The centerpiece of the NF-A12x25’s motor hub is made entirely from steel and the axle mount is reinforced with an additional brass structure. In combination, both measures ensure ultimate precision and increased stability in the critical hub area.
The self-stabilising oil-pressure bearing (SSO-Bearing) system has always been at the heart of Noctua’s award-winning premium fans. Silent enthusiasts and industry clients alike swear by its proven, time-tested quality. SSO combines the proven concept of oil-based hydrodynamic bearings with an additional magnet that supports the self-stabilisation of the rotor axis. Due to the axis being stabilised by the magnetic field, Noctua’s SSO Bearing achieves higher precision and better longevity than conventional ball-, sleeve- or hydrodynamic bearings.
SSO2 is the further optimised second generation of SSO. Made possible by the use of metal bearing shells and new injection moulding techniques, the magnet is now placed closer to the rotor axis and thus exerts higher magnetic force to it. This results in even better stabilisation, precision and durability.
Using long exposure times (a few seconds and more) while taking photos with digital cameras produce unwanted hot pixels. They are also being called stuck pixels or long exposure noise and appear as bright colored dots in your photo. Some cameras have a setting to reduce the long exposure noise. I took a photo the noise reduction turned on.
The noise is totally gone in this image and the quality wasn't affected. Check your camera's manual if it has the same function.
The photo were taken with the Olympus E-300 digital SLR and the 18-180 mm f3.6 objective. I used a self timer for not to shake the camera because the exposure time was 15 seconds. The photos show the insides of my computer and the large round metal chunck is my processor cooler. The other one is a cooler for the graphics card.