- Review -

13.01.2013 eTeknix.com

As you can see the NF-A15 PWM fan definitely offered up an advantage over the 140mm fans at equivalent speeds. This advantage on our system is around 2 degrees. At 900 RPM the NF-A15 PWM fan gives about 1 degree better performance than the NF-A14 FLX. [...] The key things to draw from this graph are that the NF-A15 PWM fan does offer better performance than a 140mm at equivalent speeds. It is also quite clear that the Noctua fans excel in offering high airflow/performance at low RPMs, very useful for people who want quiet but cool systems. [...] Since we used a new acoustic testing methodology for these fans the results are not comparable with any other fan reviews we have done – sorry about that. But the results are interesting because they show that actually the Noctua fans are neck and neck with the provided Thermalright 140mm fan that comes with the CPU cooler we tested on. However, as we saw on the previous page, you get better cooling performance at the same level of acoustic output which can only be a good thing.

"The end result of all this is more cooling performance than a 120mm fan can offer simply because the bigger a fan is, the more air it can shift. That said, if anyone is looking for the ultimate push-pull CPU heatsink configuration then I cannot recommend these fans highly enough. I would like to award the NF-A15 PWM fan the eTeknix Extreme Performance Award because as far as fans go, it offers exactly that but still gives you silence, quality, reliability and style." (Ryan Martin, eTeknix.com)