Thermalright TL-B12 unboxing

Melcar · Dec 19, 2021

Got a pair of TL-B12s (non-Extreme 2150rpm) today. Yay for Sunday deliveries. This will just be an unboxing and impressions on the fan performance once I put them of my Morpheus II (currently it has a pair of PH-F120MPs).

I got them for around $13 a piece last week on Amazon. Currently Amazon does not even list them anymore (except for the white version) so I guess people simply emptied Thermalright's stock. Packaging is similar to that of Thermalright's less premium fans, but with a better bundle inside. If you look closely at the hub, you can see that weird small brown blob thing that someone mentioned before that is supposed to be some sort of counter balance weight. Even shows up in the box picture.

The fan comes with the regular self tapping screws, four long machine screws (M3 x 35mm looks to me), four small nuts (to secure the fan to a case panel if using the machine screws), four small rubber grommets for use in conjunction with the machine screws and and a simple PWM splitter cable. Both the main fan cable and splitter are braided in black.

The fan itself has the usual four rubber corners supposedly for sound dampening. The frame feels and looks sturdy. It has a "ring" going around the frame and the mounting holes are both joined straight. I actually prefer fans like this since it makes mounting them with machine screws and nuts much easier. I will not bother testing if the plastic around the mounting holes is as brittle as with the TL-C14 (no point in using self tapping screws with this fan anyway).

Won't be able to test them until next weekend. Hopefully my TL-C14Xs arrive by then too.

speed_demon · Dec 19, 2021

Wow these come better equipped than my not available in the US 2500rpm 140mm thermalright screamers.

doyll · Dec 20, 2021

Nice! We can compare results as I am trying out same TL-B12 and TL-C14X fans.

Edit:
I've added dimensional drawing and specifications.

Think it's worth mentioning that impeller opening through housing is a cylindrical hole, not the usual venturi cone in and a much shorter venturi cone on exhaust side. Front / intake face has 128mm cylindrical venturi tube with small radius round edges about the same as on corner pads. This cylindrical venture tube is about 20.2mm deep to about 4.8mm from back / exhaust surface where it transitions into a flat cone shape from 128mm venturi tube out to 130mm near corner pads with sides ending at 2.5mm thick sides of fan housing.

Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B ack View

Hope that all makes sense. If not let me know and I'll draw up a cut-away view of it.

Melcar · Dec 24, 2021

Well I'm impressed.

They are replacing a pair of PH-F120MPs (original version) for my Morppheus II. The fans are heavy, so the GPU sags a bit even with the brace. No re-pasting, just fan swap. Did a few runs of Valley benchmark and ran loops of Shadow of The Tomb Raider and Deus EX MD benchmarks.
The MP fans were on a rather aggressive fan curve and at 80% PWM (about 1400 rpm) they kept the card at 70C with a case temp. of 38C. You can hear the fans at that speed, but the MPs have a very smooth sound profile and they are not loud even at full speed. The TL-B12 I set on a more relaxed curve initially since I was thinking they would get louder. Well no. They go from 550 rpm to 2040ish rpm and at full speed they are a tad louder than the MPs at 80% PWM with a silky smooth sound profile all the way. Running the same benchmarks, the B12s were able to keep my GPU at 65-67C (39C case temp) at 45% PWM and I can barely hear them.
Incredibly good fans, and for $13 on Amazon you should not be considering anything else. Currently Amazon is out of stock and does not even list them. Their regular price is about $23, but Thermalright seems to do hefty discounts on their fans every now and them.

Thermalright TL-B12 unboxing

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