Noctua’s NF-A15 PWM and NF-A14 140mm Premium fans – Quiet and Cool!
Fans are never interesting. Or are they? This evaluation of three Noctua premium fans became an ABT project to turn a moderately noisy high-performance PC into a super-quiet rig without sacrificing any of its performance. Is it even possible to have a highly overclocked Ivy Bridge CPU and a $1000 overclocked GeForce Titan video card in a truly quiet PC with 9 cooling fans? What are the minimum number of fans necessary to cool a highly overlocked CPU together with a high-performance video card? We went looking for answers.
We received three newly redesigned fans from Noctua late last year and we have been putting them through their paces for you. Over the past few years, we have been privileged to evaluate Noctua fans, and we have always found them to be efficient at cooling and very quiet compared to their competition. This time, we changed out the stock cooling fans of our Thermaltake Chaser MK-I to “all Noctua” including installing an optional 150mm side case fan for a total of 9 fans – 8 Noctua premium fans and 1 Cooler Master PSU fan.
As part of a three-fan package from Noctua, ABT received the NF-A15 PWM and two NF-A14 140mm fans – one is named FLX for “flex” and the other is “ULN” for “ultra low noise”. These fans are also premium-priced because of their high quality and 6-year warranty. Retailing for twenty-five dollars, the NF-A14 ULN is $19.99 at Amazon.com whereas the PWM version is twenty cents less. Amazon carries a twin pack of NF-A15 PWM fans for $52 but you can get a single pack at Newegg.com for $29.49 shipped.
The new NF-A15 PWM (power managed) 150mm fan (below, left) has 120mm mounts so it is usable on most 120mm CPU coolers including Noctua’s flagship cooler – the NH-DH14. It is a very unique fan featuring a round frame with a 150mm width and 140mm height. While its 150mm width matches those of most high-end heatsinks, its 140mm height doesn’t make it extend on top, and like the NF-P14 which was introduced in 2009, standard 120mm mounting holes (with 105mm spacing) also make it an ideal performance upgrade for many 120mm case or CPU fans.
We easily replaced the NH-DH14’s stock 140mm NF-P14 (above, right) non-PWM fan with the power-managed NF-A15. We also replaced the NH-DH14’s 12omm NF-P12 non-PWM fan with a 120mm NF-F12 PWM fan, so that the NH-DH14 CPU cooler is now fully power managed by the BIOS as pictured in the very first picture of this evaluation.
The NF-A14 FLX and ULN 140mm fans could also be tested on 140mm water cooling radiators, however, the issue is often one of pump noises as a watercooling radiator will often give good cooling for relatively low fan speed but becomes loud as cooling demands increase with a near maximum overclock.
We tested these two NF-A14 140mm Noctua fans as case fans and we compared their ability to move air efficiently to the original noisier stock case fans that we replaced. We also tested using as few fans as possible – just 3 including the CPU cooling fan – to see if it is possible to use our high performance overclocked i7-3770K Intel-based PC for a home theater setup and at what clocks we can safely run without overheating.
What’s new?
Noctua introduced their three new fans last year with this announcement:
Noctua today introduced its new NF-A14 FLX, NF-A14 ULN and NF-A15 PWM 140mm fans that complement the recently announced A-series of premium quality quiet fans. Like the previously presented NF-A4x10, NF-A6x25 and NF-A9x14, the new 140mm models feature Noctua’s novel AAO frames as well as the series’ signature Flow Acceleration Channels for reduced boundary layer separation and improved aerodynamic efficiency. Reference class SSO2 bearing and 6 years manufacturer’s warranty make the NF-A15 and NF-A14 a stand-out choice for all noise-sensitive 140mm applications.
These news fans are the next generation of Noctua’s case and CPU cooling fans which are refinements of their current designs. Like Noctua’s new A-series fans, the NF-A15 and NF-A14 use Flow Acceleration Channels that improve the airflow to noise performance of their evolving blade shapes. Flow Acceleration Channels have better efficiency and lower vortex noise.
Along with these channels, Noctua has further refined their fan bearings as well as their Advanced Acoustic Optimisation (AAO) frames which feature integrated anti-vibration pads as well as Noctua’s proprietary Stepped Inlet Design and Inner Surface Microstructures, both of which further improve their fan’s performance/noise efficiency.
The Stepped Intet Design induces turbulence to not only reduce the noise by spreading it over a broader accoustic band, but it causes more suction at the frame which causes the impeller to move more air. The Inner Surface Microstructures allow for lower noise emission and better performance simultaneously.
Let’s unbox our 3 new fans and take a look at some of the specific improvements and refinements since we first tested Noctua’s NF-P14 and found it to be a winner back in December, 2009.
