ARCTIC P14 SLIM PST PWM Fans Review

Table of Contents

Introduction

ARCTIC has released a new series of P14 PWM PST fans called P14 SLIM PWM PST. The main feature of these fans is their 16mm thickness hence the term; SLIM. The standard thickness of the fans is 25mm or 27mm unless stated otherwise. The 16mm thick fans make them better suited for SFF builds. These fans are available in a single fan pack only. These fans can be used for case ventilation as well as on radiators. ARCTIC has provided custom-length long screws to install these fans on the radiators.

Item: ARCTIC P14 SLIM PWM PST

Pricing: MSRP $13.99 at the time of the Review

Specifications

Dimension

Closer Look

It is time to take a look at the fans.

The fan is shipped inside a paperboard packing box with an ARCTIC-colored theme all around. Since this is a P-series fan, hence it is static pressure optimized one. ARCTIC is offering a 6-year warranty on these fans.

The salient specifications of the fan include 52 CFM at 1.55mmH₂O pressure at 12VDC. the noise level is 0.3 Sone.

The layout of the blades is similar to what we have seen on the P14 PWM fans. However, these fans have 7 blades. The fans are rated for up to 1800 RPM speed. These fans feature 0dB mode meaning these would come to a halt under certain loads and conditions for which the UEFI/BIOS must have a Fan stop function/feature. These fans feature a wide range of RPM 150~1800 and using the PST (PWM Sharing Technology) one can achieve the same speed across all the fans. There is an ARCTIC branded sticker on the center. These are non-RGB fans. There is no anti-vibration pad on any mounting corner of the frame and there is a reason for that which we will cover later. These fans have a dimension of 140x140x16mm. This is 9mm less thickness than the standard fans 25mm fans or 11mm less when compared to the standard P14 PWM fans. The difference between any two mounting holes is a standard 105mm.

We have a standard black color frame for the fan. The frame is quite sturdy despite having a 16mm thickness.

Looking closely at the inside of the corner, we can spot the arrows. These arrows show the direction in which the blades would spin and the direction of airflow.

There is a 4-arms assembly on the backside holding the fan motor and blades to the frame. There is no sticker on the center. Instead, the power rating of the fan and other data are carved on the frame.

These fans are using Fluid Dynamic Bearings. According to ARCTIC, a combination of alloy/lubricant which is developed in Germany is used to reduce the friction within the bearing. This in turn would generate less heat and improves efficiency. This will increase the service life of the fans.

ARCTIC has also mentioned that their newly developed fan motor has a low noise output even at full speed. It is also stated that the new motor produces no startup jerk less commutation vibration. This is the reason we don’t see any anti-vibration pads on the mounting corners.

Each fan has a flat cable with two connectors. One is the 4-pin PWM connector and the other is a 3-pin socket. This allows the users to daisy-chain these fans and connects to a single source of power for the same speed during the operation.

The salient specifications are:

Speed	150~1800 RPM
Air Flow	52 CFM
Static Pressure	1.55 mmH₂O
Noise Level	0.3 Sone
Operating Voltage	12VDC
Starting Voltage	5VDC
Current	0.19A

ARCTIC has provided long and short screws which would help the user in convenient installation in the case or on the radiator as the case may be.

The above picture shows the thickness of these fans and the standard fans for comparison.

Testing

The following test bench is used for thermal performance testing: –

MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK
Intel i7 10700k [4.8GHz, 1.256V]
Liquid Freezer – II 420
T-Force NightHawk RGB 16GB @ 3200MHz
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 VISION OC Rev 2
addlink S70 256GB NVMe SSD [For OS]
bequiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout

We have used AIDA64 Extreme 6.35 to stress the CPU for 30 minutes using FPU. The system is left idle for 5 minutes to record the idle temperature. The average of all the cores’ maximum temperatures is taken and reported in the graph. For comparison, we have the ARCTIC P14 PWM from Liquid Freezer – II 420 fans. Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste is used.

Please note that not every run of the stress test may yield the same result. This could well be due to many factors like mounting pressure, thermal paste application and varying ambient temperature. Not to mention the silicon differences even among the same category of chips. Hence, it is pertinent to mention the testing methodology along with the specifics.

	P14 PWM	P14 SLIM PST PWM
Speed (RPM)	200~1700	150~1800
Air Flow (CFM)	72.8	52
Air Pressure (mmH₂O)	2.4	1.55
Noise Level (Sone)	0.3	0.3
Bearing	Fluid Dynamic	Fluid Dynamic

Let’s take a look at the results.

There is roughly a difference of 1.7°C between the ARCTIC P14 SLIM PWM PST fans and the reference ARCTIC P14 PWM fans. I must say, these new slim fans pack quite a punch to deliver good performance at the same noise level.

Here is a table showing the RPM range and corresponding airflow and speed measurements of the ARCTIC P14 SLIM PWM PST fan:

PWM Duty Cycle (%age)	Speed (RPM)	Airflow (CFM)
20	441	4
30	692	15
40	908	21
50	1096	26
60	1268	31
70	1416	35
80	1570	41
90	1823	47
100

We are raking the airflow reading by placing the instrument closer to the fan. The values would vary depending upon the distance between the anemometer and the fan.

We are not recording the noise output due to certain uncontrollable environment noise. Based on our actual hearing which is subjective, these fans run silently.

Conclusion

The ARCTIC P14 SLIM PWM PST fans are a new addition to the P14 series line-up from the ARCTIC. These are designed for particular use in the SFF or space constraint builds. Coming from the P-series, we expect them to favor good air pressure handling to deliver the air volume. These fans have a dimension of 140x140x16mm where 16mm is the thickness of the fans which is normally 25mm standard unless stated otherwise. The gap between any two mounting holes is 105mm.

Each fan has 7 blades in a similar layout as we have seen on the P14 series fans. The complete assembly is in black color. The frame is sturdy. There are two arrow indicators that would be helpful for novice users. These fans are rated for up to 1800 RPM starting from 150 RPM. In case you are wondering why 150 RPM, that is due to the fact that these fans would stop spinning below the 5% RPM range but for that, the motherboard’s UEFI/BIOS must support the Fan Auto Stop feature.

The starting voltage is 4VDC. This fan draws 2.28W using 0.19A at 12VDC. The airflow rating is 52 CFM with a static pressure rating of 1.55mmH₂O at 12VDC. These are mediocre ratings which would suffice for this size fan. These fans feature Dynamic Fluid Bearings and their newly designed fan motor which is mentioned to be producing less computational vibration. This is why there is no anti-vibration pad on any mounting corner as the motor does not produce any jerk as well. It is also mentioned that the motor produces less heat which enhances the life of the fan.

ARCTIC has provided custom-length long screws which allow the fans to be installed on the radiator. This is due to the fact that the standard length screws are designed around 25mm thickness of the fans. Each fan has a 4-pin PWM connector and a 4-pin socket. This allows the daisy-chain connection of these fans so that they can be controlled from a single header or power source.

The ARCTIC P14 SLIM PWM PST single fan pack has an MSRP of $13.99. There is no value pack of 3 fans yet from the ARCTIC. These fans offer a silent operation without actually comprising much of the thermal performance as we have seen in our testing. These fans were behind the more powerful P14 PWM fans by roughly 1.7°C at the same noise output level. With this good performance and a 6-year warranty, these fans are expected to perform well in the SFF build.

Thanks to ARCTIC for the test units.