NoctuaNF-A14 FLX, Premium Quiet Fan, 3-Pin (140mm, Brown)

I am a fan of computers, but also a fan of HiFi. I use an old refurbished and upgrade NAD amplifier, and these chuncky beasts generate quite a lot of heat. Their nice warm detailed sound is produced with amplifiers that have low efficiency, so a lot of the consumed power is converted into heat instead of "sound".I wanted to hide my components in a nice cabinet under the TV, but heat is a problem. So I used a Dremel to open a hole on the back of the cabinet and used this fan to cool it. I have a smart plug that gets switched on together with the other components through a Logitech Harmony remote.This fan is perfect as I can use a 12Vdc power supply directly, and either lower the voltage to 9V to slow it down and reduce noise, or use the provided adaptors of the fan.The fan at maximum speed is audible in the cabinet if the room is silent. At medium speed it is still slightly audible, but I am happy with that setting. I want to keep the air circulating as much as I can.I will try different settings, but I can tell the fan is quiet overall. Also, the noise it makes is a sort of low frequency one, more or less like a comfort cooling fan type, not a high pitch noise like some fans do. So it doesn't disturb really. Our ears are more sensitive to frequencies around the human voice (around 500Hz to 2.5kHz), I believe this fan noise is a bit on the low end which makes it less "annoying" if you pass me the term.It moves a substantial amount of air and after trying yesterday to play music for about 1h with it, the amplifier was at normal operating temperatures and the cabinet inside didn't feel warm, which is what I wanted.Why 1 star less then? Simple: though people love packaging, I find it being a waste of material that goes in landfills. This fan has a HUGE amount of packaging. PLastic protection (ok... you need that, could do with carton holders but ok), but then it has a huge sleve with even a flap to open for more (marketing) informations... Guys, keep the packaging down... I love the fan and I am happy with the brand, get people to be sensitive about not wasting resources.

Exceptional build quality & level of accessories provided with the fan, very quiet, but no free lunch! After replacing my Arctic F12 fans (cheap, but in retrospect very good), with these EXPENSIVE fans that cost over 5 times the price the end result is that my PC has not lowered it's temperatures. At idle it's quieter than the F12 fans, but the peak level of cooling is actually lower in my PC case. After comparing temperatures I can see that these Noctua fans need to operate at 100% speed in order to offer the same cooling that the Arctic F12 fans could offer at 80% speed - now even at this comparable level of performance the Noctuas are slightly quieter, so I have decided to keep the fans, but their peak cooling performance is not impressive & they are very expensive. I would say the wisest choice is to buy a case that has exceptional reviews in terms of cooling performance, rather than trying to retrofit supposedly better fans to existing cases to improve performance - I spent about £60 on a number of these fans - a bit silly really as it's almost the cost of a new case! I have a Phantek P400 case so by no means is it a rubbish case, but I could have gotton a better one - especially if I had added the extra £60 I spent on these fans to my initial purchase of a case! Haha.On the plus side, I have a feeling these fans will remain quiet & function flawlessly for many years, so I may well use these fans from this case in my next PC build, but just make sure you buy the best PC case that you can when you start out I reckon! There ain't no free lunch!

I have owned two of these fans for nearly 3 years now. I initially bought them after putting together my PC that I built in 2013 which features the Corsair 300R case, which only came with two mediocre 120mm fans. I bought these to help push more air without adding additional noise, as everyone knows how quiet Noctua fans are.When I received the package, the packaging for the fans are pure luxury. They come in a lovely thick cardboard with a flap that can be retracted to reveal a window that displays the fan and the cables in all their glory. I have never seen such high quality packaging for just a computer fan. When you take the fan out of the packaging, you will instantly be able to appreciate the quality and feel of the fan. It just feels glorious to hold (yes, I'm a nerd). All the cables are braided and feel very nice too.Anyway, as for the product itself, you can use three different speed (RPM) settings thanks to the selection of cables. You can have 1200, 1050 or 900 rpm, with 900 rpm pushing the least amount of air but being the quietest. I personally use the 1050 rpm setting using the Low Noise Adapter (L.N.A) which is in-audible to my ear when inside the case, especially if you're using the rubber screws that prevent any sort of vibration transferring to the case. This is an issue I've personally suffered from with cheap fans in a cheap case using metal screws. The case itself vibrated and emitted more noise as a result.The fan also comes with a generous 6 year warranty, but you probably won't need to use it because the parts are built with such attention to quality.In conclusion, you won't be disappointed by this fan and you probably won't need to replace it. You can keep re-using it over many generations of PC builds which is what I'll be doing. Excellent quality and you get what you pay for here.