Noctua NF-A14 PWM, Premium Quiet Fan, 4-Pin (140mm, Brown)

Product Information

SecuFirm2™ mounting system –Noctua’s SecuFirm2™ mounting systems have become synonymous with quality, safety and ease of use. Supporting Intel LGA115x (LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156), LGA2011 (LGA2011-0 & LGA2011-3) and AMD (AM3(+), AM2(+), FM1, FM2(+)) Noctua is one of the most well-known manufacturers of silent cooling. Especially the CPU coolers of the Austrian manufacturer enjoy an excellent reputation. They combine excellent processing quality with high cooling performance and minimal noise. Noctua fans are also responsible for this, which are also available separately to serve as a housing or CPU fan. There is no one fan that is the champion of all the fans. There are only fans that have various properties, fans that fit your purposes and needs. PWM support and Low-Noise Adaptor –The NF-A14 premium fan supplied with the NH-C14S supports PWM for convenient automatic speed control through the motherboard. In addition, the maximum fan speed can be reduced from 1500 to 1200rpm using the supplied Low-Noise Adaptor for even quieter operation. This heatsink kept up with the big boys. If you want a blow-down heatsink to cool your CPU and your RAM, the NH-C14S does a remarkable job. Additionally, there is room for most RAM, even with the fan in a pull position.

Next, the direct output. Measurement of a fan’s output is a matter of some discussion. You can find some mighty fancy gear designed to measure a fan’s output, but little of that is devoted to measuring computer fans. So, I thought about it and I looked at the tool I had to measure airflow. It is an Extech AN100, which has a 72 mm measurement head which contains a small fan that is driven by the airflow you are measuring. It actually measures velocity, but multiplies that by the area of the duct you are measuring. While the anemometer was built to measure the wind in big ducts, it will measure airflow in small ones too. It then averages ten readings and outputs in CFM. In the chart below we have sorted each CPU cooler from highest to lowest by the maximum amount of airflow they move in CFM without using the L.N.A/U.L.N.A adapters. Each test run was 60 minutes in duration. The last 50 minutes of each run was measured, and the temperature logs were analyzed in Open Office spreadsheets. An Intel chip reports its temps in one degree increments, so for best accuracy these reports should be averaged in aggregate. Here the core temps were measured once a second, resulting in 3000-line spreadsheets. The digital thermometer measuring air temp reported its measurements in increments of 0.1 °C. The ambient temperature was measured every five seconds, resulting in 600-line spreadsheets. The mean ambient temp was subtracted from the mean core temps, resulting in a net temp for each run. The net temps were then averaged.Rosewill is the house brand for Newegg. Generally, they have been a pretty good house brand. I bought the two we will be testing for a heatsink, since these are PWM fans. We will be looking at them as case fans. Before the release of the industrialPPC fans, most people complained about the color scheme that Noctua used on their fans and now you don't have to any more. If I ever get a real 30FPI 140mm rad, you can bet I'll test those Noctuas. But pushing on a rad is much easier to test than pulling. You can permanently attach the rad to your mixing box and swap fans. This is easy. Pulling through a rad requires you to fasten the fan directly to the mixing box, then attach the rad to the fan -- think fan sandwich here. Doable, but a pain. And you probably end up with a destroyed box. These features are what makes the NF-A14 industrialPPC fans ideal for industrial environments such as automotive industries, aeronautics or home appliances where energy efficiency is a key factor. Test Setup & Methodology Test Setup The other accessory set that Noctua has introduced is the NA-SRC7 which consists of three fully sleeved NA-RC7 Low-Noise-Adaptors.

Arriving at the tail end of the alphabet, the last three fans were the most interesting. All three beat their CFM specs as well as being as quiet or quieter than advertised. Then there is the odd result – four Yate Loon fans averaged 57.9 CFM when pulling air through the dust filter. They averaged only 59.3 CFM when there were no obstructions. One of them measured 0.2 CFM more with the filter than unobstructed, which ratifies the result from the fractal design fans.The NF-A14 impeller features suction side Flow Acceleration Channels. By speeding up the airflow at the crucial outer blade regions, this measure reduces suction side flow separation and thus leads to better efficiency and lower vortex noise. AAO Frame This is a sleeve bearing fan with a fixed speed that Prolimatech made for their heatsinks. Yet 1000 RPM should make this is an ideal case fan, and we will be testing it that way. Prolimatech provided one of the two fans that will be tested. Noctua continues to release high quality products so with all that being said, we are proud to give both the NF-A14 iPPC-3000 and 2000RPM PWM fans our Gold Award. When setting the fans to 50% of their maximum capacity sound became much more pleasing to the ears while stay keeping things cool. The CPU reached a maximum of 66.4°C which is just 0.4°C higher then before! the minimum was 35.0°C and the average noted 51.5°C on the the CPU. Sound dropped significantly in front of the case with an average of 33.6dB in and a max of 37.4. This equals the sound of someone whispering. NF-A14 Chromax at 30dB

so the results may not be 100% precise but it should give you a clear indication of the noise levels for the cooler. Noctua's industrialPPC line is conceived for industrial heavy duty applications and the use of the three-phase motor design is able to provide superior airflow and pressure capacity while keeping noise levels and power consumption as low as possible. And that's where you are wrong because the color scheme isn't the only thing that's different in these fans so let's talk a little bit about the internal design that has gone into making the NF-A14 industrialPPC fans. The NF-A14 PWM is supplied with a Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.) that reduces the maximum fan speed from 1500 to 1200rpm. The L.N.A can be used either to run the fan at a fixed speed of 1200rpm or to cap the maximum speed when using automatic PWM control. Extensive cabling options The only other problem to consider is that occasionally, components immediately adjacent to the motherboard fan header can get in the way of the larger 4-pin fan connector, physically preventing connection. This problem also occurs if you try to use an in-line fan speed controller such as the one made by Gelid.At full speed the CPU reached a maximum of 66°C with a minimum of 34.4°C while running Cinebench R20. The average was 48.8°C. Sound measured in front of the case was 56,3 dB which according to the app I used for this equals a quiet office. I have definitely experienced far louder fans but I still would not recommend full speed for daily use. 50 percent What is surprising is how well that NH-C14S did. It kept up with the D15. Quite an accomplishment. And if you’re willing to give up maybe a couple of degrees, a pair of NF-A14’s on RC7 low noise adapters will give a very quiet cooler that performs very well.