- Review -

30.06.2013 PCGamers.net.au

The noise from the FLX at 12v is audible but it seems to be the sound of the air hitting the struts holding the motor rather than any whine or motor noise. When you fit the 1050rpm NA-RC10 adapter it drops to barely audible; when you use the NA-RC11 noise adapter it gets pretty quiet indeed. We struggled to hear it at all in an enclosed chassis – there was perhaps the slightest sound of moving air in an otherwise noiseless room. The ULN model is, for all intents and purposes, silent. There is a fan moving at 800 - 650rpm so it's not 100% silent if you have your ear right near it but in an enclosed case, we couldn't hear it from a metre away with the NH-RC11 noise adapter fitted. Note that for a minute or so, we stopped all of the other fans in the test rig to try to hear it in isolation. We also plugged both fans into a molex connector and sat them on our desk so we could really listen close to them. We used the noise adapters to see the difference and were looking out for any ticking, buzzing, whining or whistling. In the end, we came to the conclusion that the fan mechanism is as smooth as you could ask for. There is wind noise as the airflow hits the 4 mounting struts that radiate from the centre of the fan but this noise is constant and not dominant. Once the blades are slowed down to about 800rpm, it was almost impossible for us to hear the unit. [...] For silence freaks like myself who are happy to trade a few degrees for a quiet gaming platform, the NF-A14 series are great and I highly recommend them if they meet your airflow requirements. If you are building a HTPC or DIY Steam Box and want consistent airflow from a 140mm case fan that you won't hear over movies then grab the A14 ULN - hands down. In our eyes, the NF-A15 has taken the NH-D14 (that we would argue was already very good), to a new performance/noise ratio. If you have a 140mm CPU cooler and it's fan is either is not PWM or is louder than you are comfortable with, then the A15 would be well worth your money - just check the specs and make sure it will fit first.

"It seems like all the engineering effort from the design team has paid off. When you see the lengths that Noctua taken to inform the consumer, you expect the product to be quiet - and it is." (Phil Carroll, PCGamers.net.au)