Wednesday, May 17th 2017
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Noctua Introduces New A-series Fans and Accessories
Noctua today expanded its award-winning A-series of premium-quality quiet cooling fans with new 200mm, 120mm and 40mm models. Thanks to the series' signature features such as Flow Acceleration Channels and AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimisation) frames, the new NF-A20, NF-A12x15 and NF-A4x20 provide outstanding performance and superb quietness of operation. All models come with Noctua's trusted SSO2 bearings and a full 6-year manufacturer's warranty. In addition to the new fans, Noctua introduced the new NA-FC1 fan controller, NA-SAV3 and NA-SAV4 anti-vibration mounts and NA-SAC5 S-ATA power adaptor cable.
"Customers have been asking us for 20cm and slim 12cm fans for years, but meeting the quality standard users have come to expect from Noctua fans in these form factors has proven very challenging, so it took us quite some time to make sure that these fans live up to our name", explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "The NF-A4x20 has been conceived following requests by our industrial clients who are looking for a 40mm fan that provides superior performance in pressure-demanding applications as compared to the existing NF-A4x10."With the 20cm NF-A20, Noctua's biggest fan yet, the key challenge was that the mass of the impeller is about four times greater than that of 12 or 14cm fans and thus creates a significantly higher load on the bearing. In the end, the difficulties were overcome by increasing the diameter of the axis and the bearing from 3mm to 4mm in order to distribute the load over a larger bearing surface, as well as by using a new fibreglass reinforced polypropylene (PP) material, which reduces the mass of the impeller by 26% as compared to Noctua's standard fibreglass reinforced PBT material.
For the 12cm NF-A12x15, a steel-reinforced motor hub and brass axle mount are being used in order to assure the required stability despite the fan's 15mm thin profile. Both the NF-A20 and the NF-A12x15 will come in 4-pin PWM versions for automatic speed control and 3-pin FLX versions that include Low-Noise and Ultra-Low-Noise adaptors, which give full flexibility in configuring the fan for maximum cooling capacity or near-silent acoustics.
The NF-A4x20 complements Noctua's popular NF-A4x10 models: With 20 rather than 10mm thickness, the NF-A4x20 is better suited for applications that require higher pressure performance such as in servers or tightly packed enclosures. The NF-A4x20 will come in 12V 4-pin PWM and 12V 3-pin FLX versions for PC use and other 12V applications as well as in dedicated 5V and 5V PWM versions, which are ideal replacement fans for 5V-based switches, routers, DVRs or other devices.
All of the new fans share the A-series' renowned quiet cooling performance as well as signature features such as Flow Acceleration Channels, Advanced Acoustic Optimisation (AAO) frames or SSO2 bearings. Like all A-series fans, the new NF-A20, NF-A12x15 and NF-A4x20 have an MTTF rating of more than 150,000 hours and come with a full 6-year manufacturer's warranty.
In addition to the new quiet cooling fans, Noctua expanded its range of fan accessories: The new NA-FC1 is a compact, highly flexible controller for 4-pin PWM fans that can both work on its own for manual speed reduction and also work in tandem with the automatic motherboard fan control. By adjusting the NA-FC1's speed control dial, users can either manually set a PWM duty cycle from 0 to 100% or reduce the PWM duty cycle supplied by PC motherboards in order to have the fans running slower than the automatic motherboard fan control would allow. Thanks to the supplied 3-way split cable and power supply adaptor, up to 3 fans can be controlled simultaneously.
The new NA-SAV3 and NA-SAV4 silicone anti-vibration mounts have five defined, numbered pawls that allow them to work perfectly with both standard open corner fans and 10, 14, 15, 20 or 25mm thick fans with closed corners. This makes the new mounts ideal for slim fans such as the new NF-A12x15 where other anti-vibration mounts may not fit properly. While the NA-SAV feature a double-side design that makes them much easier to work with in space-restricted environments or placements where the fan's mounting holes are difficult to reach, the NA-AV4 have a flat case-side end that is flush with the case panel and thus provides for a clean exterior look.
The new NA-SAC5 is a fully sleeved S-ATA to 4-pin power adaptor cable. It is compatible with both 3-pin and 4-pin fans and allows them to be powered directly from the power supply's S-ATA connectors. Combined with the existing NA-SYC1 y-cables, the NA-SAC5 is ideal for powering multiple high-wattage fans without risking damage to the motherboard fan header.
Prices and availability
All of the new products are currently shipping and will be available shortly. The suggested retail prices are as follows:
"Customers have been asking us for 20cm and slim 12cm fans for years, but meeting the quality standard users have come to expect from Noctua fans in these form factors has proven very challenging, so it took us quite some time to make sure that these fans live up to our name", explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "The NF-A4x20 has been conceived following requests by our industrial clients who are looking for a 40mm fan that provides superior performance in pressure-demanding applications as compared to the existing NF-A4x10."With the 20cm NF-A20, Noctua's biggest fan yet, the key challenge was that the mass of the impeller is about four times greater than that of 12 or 14cm fans and thus creates a significantly higher load on the bearing. In the end, the difficulties were overcome by increasing the diameter of the axis and the bearing from 3mm to 4mm in order to distribute the load over a larger bearing surface, as well as by using a new fibreglass reinforced polypropylene (PP) material, which reduces the mass of the impeller by 26% as compared to Noctua's standard fibreglass reinforced PBT material.
For the 12cm NF-A12x15, a steel-reinforced motor hub and brass axle mount are being used in order to assure the required stability despite the fan's 15mm thin profile. Both the NF-A20 and the NF-A12x15 will come in 4-pin PWM versions for automatic speed control and 3-pin FLX versions that include Low-Noise and Ultra-Low-Noise adaptors, which give full flexibility in configuring the fan for maximum cooling capacity or near-silent acoustics.
The NF-A4x20 complements Noctua's popular NF-A4x10 models: With 20 rather than 10mm thickness, the NF-A4x20 is better suited for applications that require higher pressure performance such as in servers or tightly packed enclosures. The NF-A4x20 will come in 12V 4-pin PWM and 12V 3-pin FLX versions for PC use and other 12V applications as well as in dedicated 5V and 5V PWM versions, which are ideal replacement fans for 5V-based switches, routers, DVRs or other devices.
All of the new fans share the A-series' renowned quiet cooling performance as well as signature features such as Flow Acceleration Channels, Advanced Acoustic Optimisation (AAO) frames or SSO2 bearings. Like all A-series fans, the new NF-A20, NF-A12x15 and NF-A4x20 have an MTTF rating of more than 150,000 hours and come with a full 6-year manufacturer's warranty.
In addition to the new quiet cooling fans, Noctua expanded its range of fan accessories: The new NA-FC1 is a compact, highly flexible controller for 4-pin PWM fans that can both work on its own for manual speed reduction and also work in tandem with the automatic motherboard fan control. By adjusting the NA-FC1's speed control dial, users can either manually set a PWM duty cycle from 0 to 100% or reduce the PWM duty cycle supplied by PC motherboards in order to have the fans running slower than the automatic motherboard fan control would allow. Thanks to the supplied 3-way split cable and power supply adaptor, up to 3 fans can be controlled simultaneously.
The new NA-SAV3 and NA-SAV4 silicone anti-vibration mounts have five defined, numbered pawls that allow them to work perfectly with both standard open corner fans and 10, 14, 15, 20 or 25mm thick fans with closed corners. This makes the new mounts ideal for slim fans such as the new NF-A12x15 where other anti-vibration mounts may not fit properly. While the NA-SAV feature a double-side design that makes them much easier to work with in space-restricted environments or placements where the fan's mounting holes are difficult to reach, the NA-AV4 have a flat case-side end that is flush with the case panel and thus provides for a clean exterior look.
The new NA-SAC5 is a fully sleeved S-ATA to 4-pin power adaptor cable. It is compatible with both 3-pin and 4-pin fans and allows them to be powered directly from the power supply's S-ATA connectors. Combined with the existing NA-SYC1 y-cables, the NA-SAC5 is ideal for powering multiple high-wattage fans without risking damage to the motherboard fan header.
Prices and availability
All of the new products are currently shipping and will be available shortly. The suggested retail prices are as follows:
- NF-A20 PWM: EUR 29.90 / USD 29.90
- NF-A20 FLX: EUR 29.90 / USD 29.90
- NF-A12x15 PWM: EUR 19.90 / USD 19.90
- NF-A12x15 FLX: EUR 19.90 / USD 19.90
- NF-A4x20 PWM: EUR 14.90 / USD 14.90
- NF-A4x20 FLX: EUR 14.90 / USD 14.90
- NF-A4x20 5V PWM: EUR 14.90 / USD 14.90
- NF-A4x20 5V: EUR 14.90 / USD 14.90
- NA-FC1: EUR 19.90 / USD 19.90
- NA-SAV3: EUR 7.90 / USD 7.90
- NA-SAV4: EUR 7.90 / USD 7.90
- NA-SAC5: EUR 7.90 / USD 7.90
32 Comments on Noctua Introduces New A-series Fans and Accessories
Here's why:
Firstly, it didn't even fit into the fan slot because it has weird dimensions. Holes spacing is 40x40, but the actual fan frame is larger on corners, so I had to shave them off a bit using sandpaper/file to even fit into the socket.
The mounting holes are too deep, so when you try to screw it in, the screw doesn't press it in there before it hits the thread limiter. So I had to place tiny springs on the screws to keep it pressed down.
Secondly, of all the fancy names they use for various tech on teh fan, from special shaped fan blades, specially shaped intake, special bearings, special motor, it was whistling, buzzing noisy mess. Ugh. Totally not what I was expecting from highly praised fan maker like Noctua.
Thirdly, in my particular case, the position of Sabertooth X99 VRM cooling fan was partially blocked by an exhaust fan on the case which in addition to already noisy fan made it whine at some really annoying frequency.
I've also made a review some time ago, you can read it here:
rejzor.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/noctua-nf-a4x10-flx-40mm-and-noiseblocker-xm-2-fan-review/
As you can see from review, I've used my older Noiseblocker fan. Pushes a bit less air, but it's absolutely silent at full speed. Or just try some other maker. There aren't many options, I could find one 40x40 from Gelid that uses FDB bearings at that tiny size, but I haven't actually bought it so I don't know how it behaves. Would buy a new 40x40 Noiseblocker one for sure. Just be aware that Noiseblocker has 2 models, one which I was using at 10mm thickness and another one that pushes more air and has double the thickness at 20mm. I couldn't buy the thicker one because of the before mentioned exhaust fan covering it and it just wouldn't fit. If you have enough space there, take the thicker Noiseblocker. I guarantee you it'll be better than Noctua.
10mm Noiseblocker
www.blacknoise.com/site/en/products/noiseblocker-it-fans/nb-blacksilentfan-series/40x40x10mm.php
20mm Noiseblocker
www.blacknoise.com/site/en/products/noiseblocker-it-fans/nb-blacksilent-pro-series/40x40x20mm.php
10mm Gelid
gelidsolutions.com/thermal-solutions/case-fan-silent-4/
I was disappointed twice so far and I don't think I'll be touching Noctua ever again. And it wasn't even their horrid color scheme. As you can read above for the 40x40, it was a really bad experience. And few years ago, I built a system for a friend, he bought a Noctua tower cooler which had the big 120mm fan. And when it was running, regardless of speed, it made this clicking noise which just ran at faster pace when using higher RPM. And I also remember motor made a lot of buzzing noise.
I really don't know what people see in Noctua. Because I certainly don't have good experience with them. Or I was just so god damn unlucky, but I highly doubt it.
Would buy Noiseblocker or Corsair fans anytime again. They look great and perform great. I've had many Noiseblocker fans over the years and just recently, I've re-employed my old 2x60mm fans to cool my VRM heatsink on my MSI X99A Gaming 7 by tying them together and placing them over VRM heatsink. All I had to do was to relube bearing of one which took me like 5 minutes and it'll be good for few years. Absolutely quiet and nice looking fans.
It now kinda looks like a psycho monkey with a gas mask XD That fan on the left is 120mm Noiseblocker SilentPro PWM. Been in service for years. Still as quiet as the day I bought it. Excellent fans.
Thinking of going nuts and grabbing heir latest Bionic ones. Just for the sake of fiddling with new stuff again :D
At least say you are going to offer better colors for this atrocity, Noctua. Yes, you're not the only silent fan business in the game anymore, which let you get away with this before.
I have had 2 fans that were faulty (grinding noise in the first 10 secs of running) which have been replaced by Noctua swiftly after contacting support.
So I will be staying with Noctua fans as they are of quality and more importantly the customer service is top notch...
PS. I dont care about the looks - dont have a window in my case and don't plan on getting one.
I don't even know about the 40mm fans these days, the optional fans from my ex-rig's Z87 Sabertooth were noisy as hell, and with G3258 @ 4.7GHz it really didn't even need those. And yeah, those were some non-standard 35mm ones, so I didn't even bother to replace them with better ones.
Great performance, unmatched CFM/dB, great cable options and noise dampening rubber comes standard.
Always worth the few extra dollars if you appreciate quality products.
I normally use Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe (12cm), Thermalright (14cm for 12cm holes) and BeQuiet! (14cm) fans for my builds. They are good looking and sound much better, with a more neutral (lower frequency) tonality.
My next fans will either be Noiseblocker again or BeQuiet. Corsair screwed up the lineup a bit killing a lot of LED-less SP and AF models with lower RPM.
That said that new Fan Controller is very interesting, might be a nice solution for a case without any Drive Bays.
Id like to see Noctua dive into GPU Cooling as well, take on the Arctic Accelero Line (which i happily use for over 12 years now)
Glad the 15mm fans are finally here, been waiting about 4 years since they first announced it!
Also that fan controller, people still use them? I just stick everything to motherboard, tweak the fan curves and leave it fully automated. When under load, fans ramp up, when it's idle on desktop it goes absolutely silent. I did buy a case with 3 step switch for fans, but I found out it's just not useful. Switching it yourself is annoying...