These fans took a long time to get right. Noctua should be praised for holding them back until they were this good. These are strongly built fans. Just holding them is a pleasure. In the photographs you can see the struts, but in person the broad blades seem to take up the whole disk. The fans come with a lot of accessories, including enough that you can choose how to fasten your fan. And the many screw-holes will let this fan to go into a large number of settings. You won’t be able to tell that Noctua used a new material for its impeller: it behaves like a 120 mm or a 140 mm fan. It has none of the pliability you have come to expect in a fan this large. It’s solid and Noctua is keeping the price down to match their other fans. That last is pretty amazing. At bottom a fan is a fan. It is a rotating device which pushes air. But this moves a lot of air and it does so very quietly and uses less than a watt doing so.

Noctua ha lanzado una nueva colección de productos de gama alta para el apartado de refrigeración que, como siempre, dejan a la marca en excelente lugar. Por un lado, tenemos los ventiladores Noctua NF-A12x15, una excelente alternativa para disipadores slim o chasis compactos donde no tengan cabida los tradicionales de 25 mm de grosor. Los NF-A20 son una opción para chasis que permitan los modelos de 200 mm, aunque no ofrecen una gran mejora frente a modelos de 120 mm. Mientras, los NF-A4x20 son un sustituto ideal para dispositivos ultracompactos, ya sea por reparación o para mejorar su sonoridad. Por si fuera poco, todos ellos ofrecen nada menos que 6 años de garantía, por lo que tenemos ventiladores para rato. Además, Noctua siempre busca suplir todas las necesidades de sus clientes y para ello lanza algunos accesorios como los que hemos visto, los se unen a un inmenso portafolio que podemos consultar aquí.

We have no doubt about the top quality of Noctua products. Each one of them is well designed. Even the package is exceptional. Most manufacturers are missing these little things that count while Noctua provides package with everything you may need for installation. Long years of designing and engeneering gave great results. Where you could think there can’t be done much more, Noctua proved that even the best products can be improved. New A series fans are the best in their class and it’s hard to find anything similar on the market. Even though new fans are considered as “slim”, they provide top air pressure while keeping low level of generated noise. Perfect balance for all who expect the best from their fans.

Ventilátor (NF-A20) je naozaj "obrovský" a neskutočne kvalitne spracovaný. Keď ho chytíte do ruky, okamžite mu prepáčite jeho cenu 29.99 eur. Konštrukcia, príslušenstvo - všetko kričí na Vás top kvalitou. Na ventilátor som pozeral zopár minút než som sa vôbec dostal k testu.

Veliki NF-A20 i u PWM i U FLX verziji košta oko 33 € što je korektna cijena za veličinu ventilatora, svu opremu koju donosi i na kraju krajeva vrlo dobre performanse uz ne previsoku buku. Kvaliteta izrade je visoka, materijali odlični a tehnologije jamče dugovječnost – kao i šest godišnje jamstvo uostalom. NF-A12x15 su po cijeni od 24 € pogodni za ugradnju u skučenija HTPC kućišta i na manje hladnjake, a obavezno ih se treba malo usporiti jer su na visokim okretajima čujniji. “Propuh” koji stvaraju je vrlo dobar i na nižim okretajima. A4x20 je u svim verzijama oko 20 €. Visoka je to cijena za 40-milimetarske ventilatore, no zbog kvalitete izrade, jamstva i ponajprije velike kompatibilnosti i mogućnosti prilagodbe isplati se platiti i tako visoki iznos. Ventilatori jesu bučniji pri visokim okretajima, no za kakav komad mrežne opreme koji je u ormaru to i nije bitno, a koncentrirana je zračna struja visoka i moćna. NA-SAV3 i SAV4 su po 11.50 € za što kupac dobiva kvalitetu, kompatibilnost s velikim brojem ventilatora i 16 komada nosača za po četiri ventilatora. NA-FC1 je svestran i kvalitetan kontroler za do tri ventilatora koji je moguće napajati direktno iz SATA Power konektora, pa može kontrolirati i jače ventilatore, no nije jeftin – 15 €. I za kraj, NA-SAC5 adapter koji može biti iznimno koristan za jače ventilatore koji se direktno napajaju iz SATA Power konektora i tako ne opterećuju ploču. Negativna je jedino cijena od oko 8 €.

La finition est toujours du niveau Noctua, donc excellente. On parle bien de finition et non de couleur qui est un argument totalement subjectif… On retrouve tous les atouts qui font du ventilateur de la série NF-A un excellent ventilateur. Une construction faite pour durer tout en maîtrisant le niveau sonore et les performances (la garantie est portée à 6 ans). Certes la pression statique n’est pas des plus élevée, mais ce n’est pas ce que l’on demande à un ventilateur de 200 mm vu qu’il ne sera pas associé à un radiateur Aircooling ou Watercooling. Nous allons plutôt le juger sur son débit d’air qu’il est capable d’engendrer : 146.9 m3/h ! Seules les versions IndustrialPPC font mieux mais engendrent une forte augmentation du niveau sonore.

Tenemos ante nosotros dos ventiladores Noctua NF-A20, de gran formato, uno basado en la tecnología FLEX, que ofrece flexibilidad de funcionamiento según las necesidades, de manera automática y el modelo PWM, que permite variar la velocidad de trabajo según la temperatura del procesador, aumentando el caudal. Son ventiladores polivalentes, de muy buena calidad, pero claramente estos ventiladores están pensados para un número reducido de chasis, ya que son de 200mm de diámetro, un tamaño poco estándar y poco utilizado, pero sin duda, para aquellos que tengan un gran chasis, son ideales. La sonoridad de estos ventiladores está dentro de unos parámetros más que normales, debido a que estos ventiladores trabajan a velocidades relativamente bajas, gracias a sus dimensiones. Sencillamente son ventiladores, similares a los de 120/140mm, pero en este caso operando a una velocidad de trabajo inferior, debido a que cuanto mayor es el ventilador, menos velocidad de trabajo se necesita para operar. Aquellos que tengan chasis compatibles con estos ventiladores, instalando uno de estos inyectando aire y la temperatura bajaran varios grados, debido al gran caudal que es capaz de absorber.

Jumping right into things and as you would expect from Noctua, the performance of these products is second to none. Given their respective sizes, all of these fans create a decent amount of airflow when tested in an open world environment, i.e. not in a case but just on a table. As mentioned I have actually used the NF-A4x20’s on a 3D printer in the past and was a great upgrade from the cheap fans that it had originally come with. While some may criticize the colour scheme, I don’t recall hearing very many people talk ill of the performance of any Noctua product. These fans all offer a great amount of airflow, again, for their respective sizes and remain as quiet as possible when doing so. The massive NF-A20’s are for those who need the most airflow possible but do make sure your case or where ever you are using them can cater to their 20cm sizes. The A4x20’s and A12x15’s are for when space is crucial and you need the most from your fans. The small 20mm and their unique size can come in handy for a number of scenarios. The added airflow to say the intake vents on a lot of the newer PC gaming cases is sure to help keep your components as cool as can be. The A12x15 are slimline and will surely come in handy for those looking to go with a push/pull configuration on any radiators for CPU and GPU cooling. Too many times have I seen a case where you can’t install a push/pull configuration due to space restrictions, well no more! Noctua’s A12x15 are sure to help you overcome this issue with ease. All of these fans in their own rights are equally useful and offer the same great performance we have come to know and love from Noctua. As far as the accessories go, they all perform as good as one could hope for. My Favourite was probably the fan controller as it allowed me to control my 2 front intake fans and 1 exhaust fan with ease. During the day I like them silent, but when the headphones come out and the game comes on, it’s time to turn the fans up a bit and this was done easily and quickly. The Anti-vibration mounts are nice as well. Not only do they reduce noise from vibrations, they allow you to install and remove your fans with ease which is always a plus when it comes time to clean them. Lastly, the 4-pin PWM to SATA power cable is a great addition to any build as it will allow you to connect a fan to any extra SATA power cables you have coming from your power supply. Those with motherboards that don’t have a lot of fan headers and are not keen on using a controller will find these very useful.

Another issue that I ran into is the fact that these fans are so incredibly quiet that I was not able to pick them up with my dB meter. The ambient noise in my condo is above that of the fans, and the only one I can audibly hear over anything else any more than a foot away is the 120 mm fan. At 70% speed (thanks again for the awesome tool, Noctua!), I was only able to hear it at the same distance as the other fans. It becomes audible above 70%, but not intrusively. I have an absolutely maddening obsession when it comes to rig silence, so for me to say this, it tells you something. Even the 40 mm fans did me very proud indeed. I was able to hear them a very small amount, but given that they are spinning at 5000 RPM (I may or may not have tried to stick my finger in to slow it down…), it blew me away with its noise level. Simply phenomenal acoustic levels.

Pour essayer de mettre en perspective l’intérêt d’un tel monstre, nous l’avons benché dans un PC assemblé dans le boîtier Prodigy avec une configuration de joueur, à savoir un i5-4670K et une GeForce GTX 780 Ti. Nous avons comparé ce Noctua A20 avec un ventilateur BitFenix Spectre Pro 200 mm ainsi qu’avec le 120 mm d’origine du boîtier et en limitant la rotation du 120 mm à 1000 tours pour rester silencieux (les 200 mm étant à fond, respectivement à 800 et 900 tpm). En mettant le PC en charge ludique (la démo du dernier 3Dmark en boucle), la température du CPU refroidi par un NH-U12S passe de 59° avec le 120 mm à 56° avec le 200 mm BitFenix et 55° avec le 200 mm Noctua et c’est surtout le GPU qui en profite réduisant de 85° à 76° et 72°. Sachant que le Noctua est en plus le plus inaudible des trois, on comprend que la qualité du célèbre fabricant autrichien est au rendez-vous.