Noctua NF-A14 ULN, NF-A14 FLX and NF-A15 PWM Fan Reviews

Like I mentioned in the introduction I am trying something new with the fan testing process. To explain in more detail here is a detailed methodology.

Test System

• ASUS P8Z77-V
• Intel Core i5 3570K  at 4.5GHz (1.3v) with Gelid GC Extreme Thermal Paste (the best thermal paste we have ever tested)
• 16GB Kingston HyperX 1866MHz DDR3
• AMD Radeon HD 5870
• 128GB Kingston SSDnow V100 (Boot Drive) and Samsung F3 1TB (storage)
• Antec High Current Gamer 620W
• Cooler Master Test Bench v1.0

Testing Methodology

• All fans were individually tested on the Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) CPU cooler to determine cooling performance. We understand using a CPU heatsink performance can only ever be a proxy for performance/airflow, and that the performance figures will vary between different types of heatsinks, BUT this is the best method we are able to conduct.
• Temperatures were taken at a consistent room temperature of 22 degrees
• Delta temperatures have been used to account for small fluctuations in room temperature between 21.5-22.5
• Prime 95 was run for 15 minutes and the average maximum CPU temperature was recorded as noted by CPUID HW Monitor
• The acoustic measurements were taken 2 inches/ 5cm away from the tested fans with the power supply fan and GPU fan isolated/turned off
• The ambient noise level as recorded by our sound meter was 37 dBA and delta noise levels have been used in our graphs
• There is approximately a 1 degree celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software
• There is approximately a 1dBA margin of error with our decibel meter

Software Used

• CPUID HWMonitor
• Prime 95