Noctua’s NF-A15 PWM and NF-A14 140mm Premium fans – Quiet and Cool!
Conclusion
When it comes to cooling your overclocked hot Core i7 or Core i5 efficiently and especially quietly, Noctua is the company to turn to. If you have a high performance PC, you can also use it for HTPC without compromising performance, or as in our case, keeping our high CPU overclock. We used an extreme series of tests to overclock our HTPC CPU to 4.5GHz using only 3 Noctua fans and it worked out amazingly well and in near silence.
There is really no comparison between Noctua fans and many other fans available, and the old adage, “you get what you pay for” also comes to mind. If you have a Core i7 or i5 that you really want to push to its maximum overclock, Noctua may be for you. And if you want a near-silent overclock, then you need look no further than Noctua fans as they move a lot of air for their speed and lack of noise. Noctua fans comes highly recommended by this reviewer!
Like the NF-P14 FLX fan that we liked when we reviewed it in 2009, Noctua’s new 140x150mm NF-A15 PWN fan is nearly unique in that it fits where only formerly 120mm fans could fit previously. For your money, you get a super fan that will fit into almost any home theater PC while delighting the audiophile and movie fans with its ability to use either of its adapters to slow the rpm into inaudibility while still maintaining good air flow.
Noctua 140mm NF-A14 FLX & ULN fan
Pros:
- Noctua 140mm NF-A14 FLX or ULN fan are great *quiet* cooling solutions for a replacement case or as an upgrade to a CPU cooling fan or radiator.
- A single quiet 140mm fan provide superb silent cooling with two additional adapters providing incremental step downs in speed, lowering noise (and cooling ability). The difference between the FLX and the ULN is that the ULN steps the rotational speed down even further into inaudibility.
- Everything is included for installation – perhaps have a Philips screwdriver handy.
- This 140mm fan works great as a case fan and the removable rubber pads make sure no vibration is transmitted.
- In every way, these fans are incrementally better than the ones that preceded them.
- 6 year warranty
Cons:
- Price. But then silence is golden; especially in HTPC.
Recommended especially for home theater PCs or where silence is appreciated.
Noctua 140mmx150mm NF-A15 PWM fan
Pros:
- Noctua 140mmx150mm NF-A15 PWM fan is a great *quiet* cooling solution for a CPU cooling fan or perhaps also as a case or radiator fan.
- A single quiet power-managed 140mm fan provide superb silent cooling with two additional adapters providing incremental step downs in speed, lowering noise (and cooling ability). PWM is a big plus.
- Everything is included for installation – just have a Philips screwdriver handy.
- This 140mm fan is designed to replace 120mm fans by its unique round design and supplied adapters and because of its 140mm height makes an especially great replacement for a CPU cooling fan where 150mm as a width is not an issue.
- 6 year warranty
Cons:
- Price; but then it is a premium fan in every way.
Noctua’s 140x150mm NF-A15 PWm fan is a nearly silent fan that fits where 120mm fans could fit before. It is an excellent PWM replacement for the non-power managed fan in our NH-DH14. It is recommended especially for home theater PCs.
All three of these fans are amazingly quiet and efficient and are improvements over the older Noctua fans, to say nothing of being great upgrades over the stock cooling in most cases and in most CPU coolers and radiators. Noctua continues to lead with superbly quiet HTPC solutions and they deserve our ABT Innovation Award!
We have a mystery card evaluation due shortly that you will like and we are going all the way back to 8800-GTX and 2900XT to see how much graphics cards have progressed. Stay tuned to ABT and make sure to join our forum discussions.
Happy Gaming!
Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
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