Noctua’s NF-A15 PWM and NF-A14 140mm Premium fans – Quiet and Cool!

Noise & the Test

We replaced the Chaser MK-I Thermaltake case fans, which except for the PSU fan, became an all-Noctua cooled PC.  First, we replaced the 200mm front intake fan with two 120mm Noctua NF-P12 fans which now cool the HDD cage more efficiently and more quietly.  The large 240mm top exhaust fan was next replaced with two Noctua 140mm NF-A14s (1-FLX and 1-ULN fan used together and separately as top case fans) which now exhaust hot air more evenly which otherwise tends to pool at the top front of the case;  and we replaced the 140mm Thermaltake rear exhaust fan with a quieter Noctua 140mm NF-P14 fan.

We also used a Noctua 140mm NF-P14 fan as a side-panel case fan (not shown) and two fans in the Noctua NH-DH14 – NF-A15 PWM and NF-F12 PWM fans – for a total of 8 Noctua fans (plus the Cooler Master 1000W Silent Pro Platinum PSU fan which intakes air from below the Overseer MK-I and exhausts it out the back of the PSU independently of the case air flow).  We also tested just using 3 Noctua fans – one 140mm fan for the CPU cooler, the front 120mm intake fan, and the top 120mm ULN fan to see if we could aim for absolute maximum quietness while still maintaining a ridiculously high overclock on our CPU under full load.

First we attempted to compare the new Noctua fans to the older Noctua fans and also to the Thermaltake 120mm rear exhaust fan that we replaced.   We have no db meter that can measure 10 to 20 dbA. So, we must rely on our own fairly trained ears to detect audible differences. Since there is no way to differentiate these rather nearly silent fans from each other with a running video card even as quiet as a GeForce Titan along with the PSU fan and CPU fans, we took them individually out of the case and ran them from a silent 12V DC source.

The older Noctua NF-P14 140mm fan is quieter than the 120mm Thermaltake case fan at any equal rpm. Setting it along side any other Noctua fan was an exercise in frustration in trying to determine which fan was “louder”.  Using the ULN adapters, we could see the fans continue to move air but their noise completely receded into a very quiet background.  And from what we could tell, the Noctua fans moved at least as much air as the Thermaltake fan, only they did it more quietly.

We also ran all of 8 Noctua fans simultaneously on both the Chaser MK-I’s high and low case fan speeds while also overclocking our i7-3770K to 4.8GHz.   At its most extreme, we did notice the fans’ volume on the highest speed as being intrusive.  On the normal speed and with the case under the desk, the PC’s fan noised receded into a very quiet background and was never noticeable during daily tasks or while gaming.  But what about using even less fans and dropping the PC’s noise into complete inaudibility?  Can we still overclock our CPU safely to 4.5GHz while using only 3 fans – 1 CPU and 2 case fans?

Test Configuration

• Intel Core i7 3770K at stock and overclocked
• EVGA Z77 FTW Intel motherboard (latest beta BIOS, PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire or SLI 16x + 16x using Plex chip).
• 8 GB Kingston DDR3-PC1866 RAM (4×2 GB in dual-channel; supplied by Kingston)
• GeForce GTX Titan (6GB, reference clocks) by Nvidia
• 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drive
• Silent Pro Platimum 1000 Watt power supply (supplied by Cooler Master)
• Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler; supplied by Noctua – replacing the non-PWM stock fans with NF-A15 PWM and NF-F12 PWM fans
• Noctua 140mm NF-P14 fan used as a side-panel case fan (supplied by Noctua)
• 2 – Noctua 120mm NF-P12 fans used as front panel case fans (supplied by Noctua)
• Noctua 140mm NF-P14 fan used as a rear case fan (supplied by Noctua)
• 2 – Noctua 140mm NF-A14; 1-FLX and 1-ULN fan used together and separately as top case fans (supplied by Noctua)
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full-tower case (supplied by Thermaltake)

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA WHQL GeForce Driver 310.09; high quality filtering and optimizations off

• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX.
• All games and benchmarks are patched to their latest versions.
• OCCT 1.4.3
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 64, all DX11 titles were run under DX11 render paths
• EVGA Precision X – Titan at stock clocks with Power and Temperature sliders maxed to right.

First Test with OCCT – 4.5GHz, all 6 Noctua case fans on normal speed

We passed this first test with flying colors using OCCT to load our CPU’s 4 cores 100% and using the BIOS to power manage the Noctua NH-DH14’s fans.  88C was the highest peak temperatures we recorded on a single core and the 8 fans never became intrusive although we could hear them if we listened for them over a quiet background.

Second Test with OCCT – 4.8GHz, all 6 Noctua case fans on normal speed

First, we used OCCT to load our CPU cores to its maximum as we overclocked it to 4.8GHz.  The highest peak temperatures that we recorded with the case fans on low with the NH-DH14’s fans power managed by the BIOS on a single core was 100C and well in line with our previous attempts using stock case cooling.  Our PC had the highest practical overclock the NH-DH14 could give us, and it was still reasonably quiet even though the CPU fans were spinning up near their maximum all the while being monitored and managed by the BIOS.

Third Test with OCCT – 4.8GHz, all 6 Noctua case fans on high speed

We repeated the second test but this time we had our case fans at maximum rpm.  The peak temperature of the hottest single core reached the same 100C but the average temperature of the cores dropped by about 4C.   Unfortunately, this time we could hear our case and CPU fans and although it was quieter than the stock fans that they replaced, the eight Noctua fans now became noticeable above a quiet background although they were not irritating.  However, we much preferred to keep the case fans on low even at 4.8GHz as the audible noise increase with the highest case fan rpm is significant.

Fourth Test with OCCT – 4.5GHz, only 3 Noctua fans on normal speed.  No adapters

We knew it would not be reasonable to attempt 4.8GHz using only one CPU fan (the center NF-A15 PWM fan) and two case fans (one NF-P12 120mm fan as front intake fan and one 140mm NF-A14 ULN as top case fan) so we dropped our overclock back to 4.5GHz – which is probably still pretty unreasonable.

We are not using the step down adapters which would slow the fan into inaudibility but drop the cooling ability significantly.  We would use these adapters with our CPU at stock speeds or at a much less aggressive overclock.  However, this time even under maximum load at 4.5GHz, and with only three fans completely inaudible 3-4 feet away in the PC under a desk, we peaked at 99C.  If we were going to lower our fan rpm even further using the low noise adapters, we would certainly advise for using more than three fans for cooling.   And if we were going to use our PC as a HTPC, we would never use the steep 4.5GHz overclock that we used just to prove a point that Noctua’s fans can cool even a highly overclocked CPU efficiently and silently.

We actually have an overclocked i7-3770K at 4.5GHz and a GeForce Titan that is completely suitable for HTPC using as little as 3 Noctua fans total, to almost silently cool the entire PC!  Let’s head for our conclusion.