Noctua NF A15 PWM 140mm Heatsink Optimized Cooling Fan Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,285 words · ~6 min read
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Hey guys, welcome to an unboxing that is out of necessity going to be fairly
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quick. I'm trying to get this fan on a heat sink so that I can test the Thermal
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Rate Silver Arrow with an alternate fan configuration uh now before I take it
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off the CPU and swap it out for something else. So, I've already talked
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a fair bit about Noctua's NFA14, which
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is a square frame 140 mm fan, ideal for
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radiators and case fan and sort of all kinds of different applications. This
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guy's got 140 mm holes on a 140 mm
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frame. It's pressure optimized, so it's good for all those applications. This is
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the F12, which is very similar except, see that cool stuff going on there? It
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is a focused flow fan, so it's ideal for spot cooling. It's ideal for radiators,
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heat sinks, anything that requires a 120 mil fan with 120 mil mounting holes.
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This guy right here is a 140 mm frame
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with 150 mm width. However, it's still
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140 mm blades and 120 mm mounting holes,
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which makes it ideal for mounting on coolers like this where you could
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benefit. See, this is there's one already on here, which means you can
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benefit from the larger blades. See in there? You can see the blades are like
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all the way the entire width of the entire heat sink now, but mounts with
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120 mm holes. So, check this out, guys. Ideal for 140 mm CPU coolers. Tons of
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technology. their flow acceleration channels, AAO frame, stepped inlet
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design, inner surface microructures, integrated antiibration pads, custom
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design PWM IC with SEDD. Basically, these are the most overdesigned fans you
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can get. Yeah, pretty much. So, there's like flow
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acceleration channels which increase efficiency. Um, and the increase in
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speed achieved through the flow leads to significantly reduced flow separation
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which permits lower vortex noise and
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higher air flow efficiency. These guys are all about having quiet operating
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products. SSO2 bearing, extremely high quality bearing, completely sealed, so
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it's not going to get dust and junk in it over time. Also comes with a six-year
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warranty. And the stepped inlet design is actually on the edge of the fans
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here. I'll just show it to you on one of the other fans. You see the stepped inlets here. Has something to do with
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breaking up the flow that comes in, making it quieter and more efficient.
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There's golf ball like dimples in here that just generally make the fan more
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better. I've been a huge Noctua fan for
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a long time now. This guy right here spins at 12,200 RPM or 900 RPM with the
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included low-noise adapter. Uh it's going to be so quiet at 12,200 RPM. I
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don't see much point quieting it down, but I mean it still performs very well
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uh with the low-noise adapter. You can see there's a significant drop in static
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pressure. So if you are using it in a heatsink application, you may want to use it that way. It succeeds the
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award-winning NFP14, which is the NFP
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12140 mm version. So this is even better than that guy and incorporates a lot of
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the technology that we saw introduced with the NFF12 which was like a huge
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step forward in fan design even for Noctua round 14 flow acceleration
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channel AO frame aha advanced acoustic optimization frames feature integrated
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antiibration pads as well as Noctuas that's the stepped inlet so this is just
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branding for multiple things that we've already talked about before the inner
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surface microructures those little things I showed you before in there are
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to reduce the blade passing noise and improve air flowing pressure efficiency
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and the improved antiibration pads. I'll show you in a minute here.
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High-end PWM circuitry is circuitry is very important. It makes it more
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compatible with third party coolers. Also reduces the amount of just sort of
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random IC noise that it makes and uh
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yeah, it's just generally better. The fan itself comes with an extension
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cable, which you'll see you'll you may need in a moment cuz it comes with a
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very short cable. Comes with a Ysplitter. Okay. Well, that's handy. So,
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single four pin PWM to dual four pin PWM.
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Okay. Needy, neaty, neat, neat, neat,
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neato. Oh, yeah. Uh, low speed adapter, low-noise adapter, and low speed
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adapter. It does both things. Mounting screws. Although, you probably won't
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want to use those because it comes with rubber noise isolating vi antiibration
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mounts. So, check this out. This is a very unique looking fan. Sorry, I'm use
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the camera to get the fan out. So, check this out. Looks looks kind of bizarre,
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right? See, it's got those those uh these are the rubber antiibration mounts
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that are integrated. These are the 120 mm mounting holes on a 140 mm by 150 mm
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frame. Very, very strange looking design, but you can see why. This is why
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I wanted to have one of them mounted already before I even started doing the
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unboxing. Cuz you can see here that if we mounted it this way, see that these
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pieces wouldn't get to touch the heat sink. So, you wouldn't get to take advantage of any of the antiibration. If
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you use the fans that were included with this cooler, which you can see have a
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very similar design with the 120 mil holes and the 140 mm blades. You again
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don't get to leverage any antiibration, anything, because there's no room on a
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frame this size to build that in. So, that is why Noctua did this, so that
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they could put the fan in like this. See that? where you get rubber to metal so
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that you don't have any sort of well vibration. I know I've said that word a
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lot in the last little bit. No innuendo intended. Uh so you don't
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get any vibration being passed, but you get to take advantage of the 140 mm
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blades that can be mounted on 120 mm devices. Now, something like this
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useless for radiators. Don't do it because it'll leak around the edges.
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It's kind of like Corsair's new SP fans, which are they generate good static
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pressure and all that, and that's all good, but they leak around the edges of
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radiators. So, there are better solutions such as the NFF12s
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and uh yeah, P12s even. So, there's the
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acceleration notches, there's the stepped inlet, there's the golf ball
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dimples. Very high-tech stuff these guys put. They're they're like kind They're
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kind of obsessive. They're one of those companies that takes something that sort
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of no one else really cares that much about and just kind of obsess over it.
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Like uh who would who would I even compare them to? Like someone like um
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yeah, there's not really that many guys like this. They've really built their
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brand on building fans that are ugly, but they work. It's like that uh it's
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like that cough medicine. Tastes awful, but it works. So, there you go. Thank
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you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the NF A15 PWM fan from
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Noctua. It is ideal for heat sink applications. Don't forget to subscribe
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to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.