Noctua NH-U14S, looking for fan

ChristTheGreat · Apr 10, 2020

Hey guys,

I might sell my NH-U12S to my bro so he can have a quiet cooler vs his stock intel. I don't like very big CPU cooler, so I stopped on the Noctua NH-U14S (or if anyone has something to share, but I do not want any AIO)

Stock fan is ugly (yep, I prefer black fans). I'm looking for a silent and good performer fan. I saw the Fractal HP-14 PWM, looks not bad at all.

To compare, my U12S has a Fractal Dynamic X2 GP-12 PWM.

Thanks for any advice

FreedomEclipse · Apr 10, 2020

Noctua Redux stuff is pretty good.

oxrufiioxo · Apr 10, 2020

I prefer the ML 120/140 pros. I have a couple Noctua NF-A14 chromax fans but I'm not overly impressed and plan on swapping them for MLs at some point.

I also like the silent wings 3 but they are not ideal In my experiences for pushing air through a fin stack.

You may just want to grab a chromax cooler instead and not have to deal with swapping the fan

Amazon.com: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black) : Electronics

Buy Noctua NH-U12S chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black): CPU Cooling Fans - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Performance difference is pretty negligible and it probably ends up cheaper since you don't have to swap the fan.

xkm1948 · Apr 10, 2020

EK-Vardar EVO 140ER Black BB

Vayra86 · Apr 10, 2020

The Fractal you saw is a very good one. Can also vouch for BeQuiet SilentWings.

ChristTheGreat · Apr 10, 2020

oxrufiioxo said:
I prefer the ML 120/140 pros. I have a couple Noctua NF-A14 chromax fans but I'm not overly impressed and plan on swapping them for MLs at some point.

I also like the silent wings 3 but they are not ideal In my experiences for pushing air through a fin stack.

You may just want to grab a chromax cooler instead and not have to deal with swapping the fan

Amazon.com: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black) : Electronics

Buy Noctua NH-U12S chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black): CPU Cooling Fans - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Performance difference is pretty negligible and it probably ends up cheaper since you don't have to swap the fan.

Right now, the chromax on newegg.ca Is like 109$ + 10$ shipping, not available on amazon.ca with prime or anything at a good price

The NH-U14S is like 98$, so buying another fan cost me the same thing, except I have a 140mm instead.

Those Corsair are quiet?

oxrufiioxo · Apr 10, 2020

ChristTheGreat said:
Right now, the chromax on newegg.ca Is like 109$ + 10$ shipping, not available on amazon.ca with prime or anything at a good price The NH-U14S is like 98$, so buying another fan cost me the same thing, except I have a 140mm instead.

Those Corsair are quiet?

They are up to about 1200 rpm and perform pretty well, at 1500 rpm you definitely hear the air movement from them, and at 2000 rpm they are usable with headphones lol.... I prefer them over the noctua chromax fans when it comes to noise profile.

They make less noise than my overclocked 2080 ti strix although the fan profile I have set up for it keep it under 69c... I cap my ML at 1500 rpm under heavy load but they sit at 600 rpm when my system is idle or I'm web browsing etc.

I use a corsair commander pro though so I have complete control over what my fans are doing at all times and don't have to rely on my bios doing its job.

If silence is you number one goal the silentwing 3 would be better but the MLs perform better in my experience as either case fans or pushing air through a radiator/fin stack

Ruru · Apr 11, 2020

Here in Finland Arctic P12's have became pretty popular as they are cheap AND good.

Flanker · Apr 11, 2020

I've had pleasant experiences with Arctic P series and Silverstone Air Penetrators

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) · Apr 11, 2020

Silent wings 3 are great, however you can find the same noctua fans in black color, just google noctua chromax fans.

The fan in in your noctua is an A15, but you can also order an A14

ChristTheGreat · Apr 11, 2020

Thanks for all the input. I have ordered hose artic P14, they looks.not bad, at a low price.

If not okay, silent wings will be tested or ml pro. If again not enought, I'll give another go at the fractal, since I can get it for 19$.

I think i will have to rma my u12s aswell, just saw a chip under the heatsink. It makes a spot on the cpu when I remove it (like if it was doing a bad contact)

ChristTheGreat · Apr 12, 2020

Received the noctua. It's quite huge vs the U12S, tight fit with GPU .

Silent vs a 120mm fan, worth it. 2-3C less at full load, with high vcore. That artic is not bad at all

ChristTheGreat · Apr 17, 2020

ended adding a second arctic, they are totally silent, and push a good amount of air, for the silence at full speed. Plus, the static pressure is very nice. The thickness is a little bit more than a fractal 140mm. But for the price, you can't go wrong.

WOW

dgianstefani · Apr 17, 2020

Noctua NF A12x25 is the best 120mm fan on the market. Outperforms some 140mm fans in both airflow and noise.

Regeneration · Apr 17, 2020

Buy a loud, hi-perf, hi-airflow fan and use the BIOS' smart fan feature to keep it quiet.

Should only be loud when stress testing.

Corsair AF, Scythe Ultra Kaze, Noctua NF, or anything else with PWM and 100 m3/h and above.

Noctua NH-U1x series aren't that awesome. NH-D series are a lot better.

dgianstefani · Apr 17, 2020

Regeneration said:
Noctua NH-U1x series aren't that awesome. NH-D series are a lot better.

The NH-U12A is within 5% of the performance of the NH-D15, while being smaller and quieter.

Regeneration · Apr 17, 2020

dgianstefani said:
The NH-U12A is within 5% of the performance of the NH-D15, while being smaller and quieter.

Not when used with hi-airflow fans, the difference between the two gets bigger. Stock Noctua 2500 RPM fans are bad.

dgianstefani · Apr 18, 2020

Why would you use high RPM fans on a cooler designed to be extremely quiet? My NH-U12A cools a 3900x at load whisper quiet and a 8700k OC'd to 5.3ghz. It comes preinstalled with the NH-A12x25 which, once again, is arguably by most metrics the best 120mm fan.

If you want your PC to sound like a vacuum cleaner so you can get the extra 15% cooling that twice the airflow gives you - go right ahead.

Regeneration · Apr 18, 2020

dgianstefani said:
Why would you use high RPM fans on a cooler designed to be extremely quiet? My NH-U12A cools a 3900x at load whisper quiet and a 8700k OC'd to 5.3ghz. It comes preinstalled with the NH-A12x25 which, once again, is arguably by most metrics the best 120mm fan.

If you want your PC to sound like a vacuum cleaner so you can get the extra 15% cooling that twice the airflow gives you - go right ahead.

Most modern motherboards do a good job controlling the fan speed via PWM according to the CPU Tjunction temperature.

If adjust properly, you won't hear it unless you run a stress test app or long period encoding. That's the best balance between performance and acoustics.

ChristTheGreat · Apr 18, 2020

Regeneration said:
Buy a loud, hi-perf, hi-airflow fan and use the BIOS' smart fan feature to keep it quiet.

Should only be loud when stress testing.

Corsair AF, Scythe Ultra Kaze, Noctua NF, or anything else with PWM and 100 m3/h and above.

Noctua NH-U1x series aren't that awesome. NH-D series are a lot better.

Since I use also the CPU at 100% for World Community Grid, I like when the computer is still quiet.

All my fans are PWM. I'm always searching for best Performance/noise ratio.

As for NH-D, yeah they are nice, but too big. I don't like them, I find them ugly. My U12S served me well, 2700k @ 4.6ghz, tested a 5.1ghz run, 4770k @ 4.5ghz, Ryzen 1700, 2600x and my 3600x. changed to U14S, because I give my 12S to my bro.

dgianstefani · Apr 18, 2020

Regeneration said:
Most modern motherboards do a good job controlling the fan speed via PWM according to the CPU Tjunction temperature.

If adjust properly, you won't hear it unless you run a stress test app or long period encoding. That's the best balance between performance and acoustics.

If you're buying high RPM fans then using the mobo to keep them at low RPM - it's an oxymoron - no point to buying high RPM fans.

Regeneration · Apr 18, 2020

dgianstefani said:
If you're buying high RPM fans then using the mobo to keep them at low RPM - it's an oxymoron - no point to buying high RPM fans.

That's the way to maintain high OC.

Most graphic cards have loud, high RPM fans that you'll only hear on a rare occasion.

There are just a few tasks that'll push a CPU to it's limits.

hdtvguy · Aug 29, 2020

So I just built 2 Ryzen 9 3900X systems and each got a new NH-U14S. I added a second NF15A and I run both fans at full speed. The second fan had a noticeable whine that appeared to be probably from the fan trying to pull air through the fins. I figured I would buy a Redux 120mm 1700rpm fan for the second fan and with that at full speed I really no longer hear a whine. It got me thinking. The Redux 120mm 1700rpm fan has only slightly better air movement than the stock NF15A, but the big difference is the Redux 120mm has a substantially higher static pressure which for me thinking it would move more air through the radiator fins than the stock fan. So I got more Redux fans and now run the Redux 120mm 1700rpm fans as primary and secondary on the NH-U14S and to my surprise the temps are down about 2C under max load and same at low idle load. That and swapping out the Noctua paste for Artic MX4 gained me about 3-4C overall improvements in load and idle temps. Before I would run all course at 4.1GHz and get temps around 75-76C for 20 minutes. Now same test tops out around 71-72C and ideas in the mid 35-39C or lower at times. Sure there is no overall difference in CPU performance and both before and after are 20C below thermal limits, but keeping CPU as cool as possible means less abuse to CPU and hopefully longer life.

kiriakost · Aug 29, 2020

dgianstefani said:
Why would you use high RPM fans on a cooler designed to be extremely quiet?

This is a very wise question, especially for 14 PWM fan the reasonable top rpm this should not be more than 1300.
Additionally some models of the GELID PWM fans they have also fixed low rpm speed (20% PWM) at about 700 rpm.
Therefore it makes sense obtaining such a fan which can do 700~1300 rpm.

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Noctua NH-U14S, looking for fan

ChristTheGreat

FreedomEclipse

~Technological Technocrat~

oxrufiioxo

Amazon.com: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black) : Electronics

xkm1948

Vayra86

ChristTheGreat

Amazon.com: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black) : Electronics

oxrufiioxo

Ruru

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Flanker

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ChristTheGreat

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dgianstefani

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Regeneration

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