Which of these would be more suitable for an air cooled 3950x in a Fractal Meshify C case?
- Noctua NF-A14 PWM Industrial
- Noctua NF-A14 PWM
I've read that the Industrial fan is not suitable for normal users as it is louder. However, can it be slowed down enough so that it is silent?
Are there any articles showing whether or not the Industrial fan would lead to better cooling or not? I have done a Google but can't find any.
I've been there mate. Don't do it.
I ran with the IPPCs for around a year... it's pointless. Sure, I set fan curves, running them just like they were the regular Noctua fans, only running them at max speed during stress tests, for obvious reasons.
If one never, or seldom, runs them at max, then what's the point? None really. That extra horsepower is wasted, as well as your money.
I was curious, so I don't regret that part.
How'd it turn it out, you may wonder? Well, it was laughable. I did get lower thermals, at the cost of a crap-ton of more noise.
1)The gains in gpu thermals were noteworthy, with an obvious caveat: Before I installed the Kraken G12 + Celsius S36 on it, I was already achieving thermals below 65C year-round, but I ran the gpu's fans at 100% when playing games or benchmarks, etc.
When I ran those IPPC 3000s at 100% as well, I could get thermals into 50C, but then I was sitting next to a bloody jet. It was already running at a very cool 60-ishC, so what's 10C(give or take a few C) when I can't even hear the game?
2)The gains in cpu thermals were horrible. I had mounted a couple of NF-A14 IPPC 3000s onto my NH-D15S heatsink.
I think I had gotten a 2 - maybe 3C gain, MAX, with those things running at 100%, and I came to understand why:
The heatsink/radiators are already designed with a particular fan in mind, and thus run best with the fan they came with - in most cases. The size of the gaps between the fins affect the airflow and how much pressure is needed.
Take Thermalright's
Le Grand Macho RT and their
Silverarrow IB-E Extreme Rev. B as an example of 2 extremes. Note the size of the gaps in the finstack and the kind of fans they run with - both are rated for 320TDP too.
Now, say you were to take their fans and swap them. Both will actually perform worse as a result.
The gaps in the LGMRT already allow plenty of air through, so the Silverarrow's high rpm fans do very little in this case, except for adding more noise.
The LGMRT's fan lacks 'umph' to push air easily though the Silverarrow's narrower finstack, so it performs worse thermally - it did become a little quieter though!
NH-D15/S: Optimized for silence and performance at moderate fan speeds. The IPPCs at max speed created a backflow of air of sorts to occur, reducing the effectiveness of the faster fans.
Also, the sides of the D15/S heatsink are sealed, not open, optimizing them for better front to back airflow - not to say that top exhaust fans don't help(they do), but they're less effective than with open heatsinks.
That's my experience and testing with the IPPC 3000s - both 120 and 140mm models, in 3 different chassis.
They are for EXACTLY what Noctua said they are for: Industrial applications. I would not recommend them for anything else.
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