Noctua Spins-Up Its New A-Series Fans And Accessories

[Guest]

In addition to the new fans, the company also introduced a new fan controller, anti-vibration mounts, and S-ATA power adaptor cable.

Noctua Spins-Up Its New A-Series Fans And Accessories : Read more

 

[dstarr3]

200mm Noctua fan, awww yes.

 

[tntom]

So glad to hear of new products that are not just adding RGB LEDs to a fan. I splurged and purchased 3 Noctua fans for my build and they have been rock solid and extremely quiet. glad to hear they put the extra engineering into the 200mm fans.

 

[bit_user]

Noctua is more expensive, but definitely better than everything else I've tried. Now, I wouldn't use anything else.

 

[alextheblue]

200mm Noctua fan, awww yes.

Yeah after reading this article now I'm thinking hmm... now I have the option of buying a case that takes a 200mm fan. New possibilities!

 

[Th3pwn3r]

If only they could drop that horrible color scheme or add a basic black so I would use them in my BeQuiet! Dark Pro 900 case. Their Redux series are complete garbage, I have purchased two of them and they have 100% failure rate within the first couple of DAYS.

 

[bit_user]

If only they could drop that horrible color scheme or add a basic black so I would use them in my BeQuiet! Dark Pro 900 case. Their Redux series are complete garbage, I have purchased two of them and they have 100% failure rate within the first couple of DAYS.

I was just about to mention their Redux Series. I was also attracted by their colors, but stopped as soon as I noticed the differences in the specs.

Sorry to hear about your experience, but thanks for sharing. It's a shame they couldn't extend their quality standards to that price point.

 

[falchard]

Thank goodness they increased the length of the anti-vibration mounts. On my last Noctua fan, I had trouble pulling 1 through due to it's position in the case and length.

 

[Memhorder]

mmmm that lovely brown on brown that doesn't blend in with anything

 

[warmon6]

Man it's about time they brought out the 120mm size 15mm thick fans!

Been hearing about they were designing some in 2014 and I been wanting to put some in my ITX system that i built in 2015.

 

[Guest]

Noctua fans are ugly, and ugly. That said, I wouldn't use anything else. Function over flash, every time. RGB can go to hell.

 

[Olle P]

Water cooling aficionados... will definitely appreciate the new NF-A12x15 fan.

I don't think so. Radiators restrict air flow quite a bit, so fans that can build pressure are better than those that rely on flow.
In general terms the thicker the fan the higher it's pressure ability, which is why the new 40mm fan is thicker than the previous one.

If I ever build a rig with active watercooling it will have a large radiator for passive cooling outside the case.

 

[John_561]

imho there are no better fans for any application in a PC build...And I base that only on the silence of the fans. Add to that all their other qualities and they really stand above all of the competition. Noctua for all my builds from the first, till the last. ty N. <3

 

[Kewlx25]

Noctua is more expensive, but definitely better than everything else I've tried. Now, I wouldn't use anything else.

How do they compare with Cougar?

 

[JonDol]

I would add that I was always been interested in slim profile fans of all sizes not only the newly added 20 cm ones. I'm still waiting for slim 14 cm ones for my 280 mm water cooling radiator...

 

[The Paladin]

always think they make great fans, just look so gaudy... what's wrong with black, or clear ... bleh.

 

[JamesSneed]

Noctua fans are ugly, and ugly. That said, I wouldn't use anything else. Function over flash, every time. RGB can go to hell.

Phanteks fans are right in there with quality, air flow and silence. Some of there fans are slightly better some slightly worse than Noctua. I guess what I'm saying is if you don't like this brown there are options that are just as good.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Noctua is more expensive, but definitely better than everything else I've tried. Now, I wouldn't use anything else.

Noctua led the way for many many years, but they lost the title some years ago.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenteks_f140/3.htm

If you take a Noctua cooler and replace the fans with Phanteks models, at the same rpm, the result is a 6C cooler CPU. If you let the Nocs, spin up p 1500 rpm (leaving the Phanteks at 1200), the Phanteks are still 3C cooler.

Phanteks PH-140SP (1200 rpm) = 50 C
Noctua AF-15 (1200 rpm) = 56.3 C
Noctua AF-15 (1500 rpm) = 52.9 C

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1345-page7.html

 

[Dooger]

I just can't push myself into buying Noctua cause of the looks. Can't they change the color a bit, they look ugly in a case with a side window.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I love Noctua. I've had horrible experiences with every type of fan, they were all terrible, noisy, grindy. Got Noctuas and have never looked back and will never buy a fan from a different brand.

 

[bit_user]

Noctua is more expensive, but definitely better than everything else I've tried. Now, I wouldn't use anything else.

How do they compare with Cougar?

Funny you should ask! I actually bought Cougar first, then replaced them with Noctua. That was about 5 years ago, so Cougar's current offerings might be better. The Cougar's were definitely quieter than the average case fan (I had both 90 mm & 120 mm), but they were imbalanced. You could feel them shaking, if you held them in your hand. Perhaps because of that, or maybe for another reason, they also emitted a quiet ticking sound. Still a decent value, if they'd lasted, but I opted to see how much quieter I could go and bought my first Noctua fans.

 

[Red_Viper_Martell]

I've used CoolerMaster's MegaFlow 200mm fans for years, but these Noctua fans seem to blow them out of the water. Based on the spec, the NF-A20 fans produce 80% more pressure and move an extra 1.3L/h while using 30% as much power and producing 0.9dba less noise. Plug in the included low noise adapter and the fans more or less match CoolerMaster's performance with 9dba less noise. Now if only I didn't need to buy 7...

 

[falchard]

Delta Electronics fans are the best. They produce lift.

 

[alextheblue]

Noctua led the way for many many years, but they lost the title some years ago.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenteks_f140/3.htm

If you take a Noctua cooler and replace the fans with Phanteks models, at the same rpm, the result is a 6C cooler CPU. If you let the Nocs, spin up p 1500 rpm (leaving the Phanteks at 1200), the Phanteks are still 3C cooler.

Phanteks do seem good for the money. I would note that raw dBA doesn't tell the whole story, whether talking about the tone of a full RPM run or PWM issues exhibited by a lot of fans at various RPMs. If you listen to a PWM fan throughout it's entire RPM range, a lot of them have strange behavior/noise at various RPMs. Also, I'd seriously question the validity of that review, since the NF-A15 runs at ~1200 RPM and ~900 with the LNA. Does not jive with his err, results.

The Phanteks PH-140SP *is* designed to favor airflow more so than the Noctua (which has less max airflow and a higher static pressure). So the Phanteks should still win in this scenario. In other scenarios, the Noctua should do well with it's higher static pressure - mainly watercooling, or possibly a dual fan config. But obviously Noctua isn't going to use an outside fan on their heatsink, so it gets an NF-A15 regardless.

Funny you should ask! I actually bought Cougar first, then replaced them with Noctua. That was about 5 years ago, so Cougar's current offerings might be better. The Cougar's were definitely quieter than the average case fan (I had both 90 mm & 120 mm), but they were imbalanced. You could feel them shaking, if you held them in your hand. Perhaps because of that, or maybe for another reason, they also emitted a quiet ticking sound. Still a decent value, if they'd lasted, but I opted to see how much quieter I could go and bought my first Noctua fans.

From what you're saying I suspect they were PWM fans. What you thought was imbalance was probably caused by the "normal" low-RPM operation of a cheap PWM fan. Ditto for the ticking noise. Impulse torque, transistor noise, etc. Cheap PWM fans make funny noises. Some controllers may be better/worse than others for certain fans, though. Either way at moderate-to-high RPMs the problems may diminish or even appear to "vanish".

 

[bit_user]

From what you're saying I suspect they were PWM fans. What you thought was imbalance was probably caused by the "normal" low-RPM operation of a cheap PWM fan. Ditto for the ticking noise. Impulse torque, transistor noise, etc.

No, I doubt they were PWM. In fact, the models were: CF-V12HB and CF-V14HB. Not PWM, as far as I can tell. They did feature hydro-dynamic bearings, and claimed MTBF of 300k hours. I bought them about 4 years + 11 months ago. The same models are still available.

Regardless, the time I held them & felt the vibration was when they were powered directly from a DC power source - not connected to a motherboard.

Note: these were 120 mm and 140 mm - not the 90 & 120 mm that I stated above.