Noctua fans have a distinct reputation within the DIY community... and for good reason! 92mm fans are not always known as being the quietest, but this one is definitely an exception. I decided to replace the 14mm thin fan that comes with the Noctua L-Type Premium Quiet CPU Cooler_ Retail Cooling NH-L9x65 cooler to improve performance and airflow. This fan fits perfectly with that cooler, and in a normal ambient environment, you cannot hear it at all.
Having pulse width modulation (PWM) on this fan means that, for most computing tasks, I'm able to keep RPMs down to about 700-800, which leaves plenty of headroom if I ever need to modulate up to 1500+ RPM for heavier tasks. Coupled with the NH-L9x65 cooler on my mini-itx build, temperatures are usually well below 50C. It also comes with way too many accessories to list here, but that's definitely a nice touch given how affordable these are.
Noctua's fans are the real deal. Anyone looking to stay within that 92mm footprint (especially for your CPU cooler) just can't go wrong with the NF-A9. Now, if Noctua would just come out with some DECENT COLORS...
I recently placed 3 of these in my Dell XPS 8900. One in the rear as exhaust and two up front for intake. I run them full speed max rpm and still decently quiet and they blow super hard. I wanted to keep my upgraded XPS 8900 cool. I removed the hdd cage and moved the hard drive to hdd location 2 to allow direct airflow to all of my components from the front intake fans! I modified the modtek molex fan adapter to run multiple noctuas! I highly recommend these for all pc builds.
Only downside is the color but if you have a case that conceals them then there is not much to worry about. I believe noctuas has recently come out with black fans as well. I just wanted to stick with the original best performing fans!
This review is for both the 92mm and 80mm versions of this model, 4-wire units with speed controlled by the motherboard.
If you're like many consumers, you accept the cooling fans installed by the manufacturer, and look at fans like this and their cost, and say "meh".
Ironically, I'm am/was IT professional in the same situation...
However, when I finally got around to buying a new server [versus hand-me-down units] for use at home, the fan noise that I accept at work [in a separate IT room] became unacceptable in our home office.
Did some research and found this brand. Admittedly there are other makes/models out there and I'm approaching this as a fan newbie...
I can summarize our findings by saying that my keen-eared better half questioned whether the server was actually powered on... that much drop in noise levels.
Using the server's built-in hardware monitoring, fans are running at about 50% of top RPMs for the case fan [this 92mm] and at about 70% for the CPU fan [an 80mm] and temperature swings have abated along with the noise. These move the air a lot and with their blade design coupled with the cushioned mounts, do it very quietly.
The fans ship with a short power jumper that shifts the fan speeds to an even lower range with a drop in maximum speed, and this works quite well, dropping fan noise to totally inaudible. Due to the presence of four 3.5" spinning drives in the server case [and their heat], I erred on the side of caution and restored the fans to their native speed range, with only a slight difference in noise, and no change in temperature/cooling.
Based on experience so far, I can't praise this line highly enough...
I set out to make a "nearly" silent PC, in that I didn't want to go fanless, but I wanted it to have the fans running so slowly (or off) during normal operation that it was silent, and it was only during intensive activities that the fans would ramp up. Through that process I ended up using 5 different fan models from 3 different companies,including this NF-A9. Long story short, I prefer NF-Bx line from Noctua as my favorite and the best value. These NF-Ax series fans are slightly better, but not so much more so to justify the 50% (or so) increase in cost unless you need the vibration free mounting hardware it comes with. (The "B" series doesn't come with that nor with the extra extension and splitter cables the "A" series does.)
Some cost saving advice: don't buy a Noctua CPU cooler. Buy a Cooler Master CPU cooler (I went with the Hyper T2 as it is the biggest one that fits in a standard case) and take off the Cooler Master fan and buy one a Noctua fan. For ~$27 combined you get what Noctua wants to charge $60 for. The Cooler Master fan sucks and doesn't allow you to reduce the fan speed below ~30%, so it needs to be replaced if you want to go silent, but the Noctua NF-B9 is exactly the same size fan and it is easy to replace it once you realize you can pull off the rubber pads that obscure the fan screws.
Another learning, don't trust that the fan controller on your motherboard is doing everything as it should. First, I had to go into bios and change it to PWM mode as it assumed DC mode for the system fans even though it comes with 4-pin fan headers (DC mode doesn't allow it to spin at nearly as low of a speed). Next, it appeared when I was first testing the B series fan that the lowest it could go in PWM mode is 13% based on the RPM data the motherboard was providing. But then I noticed the fan was still spinning when I put the PWM at 10%, so I figured the fan wasn't providing good RPM data below 13%. (I later noticed that the A series would show RPMs down to 10%, further giving credence to that idea.) Next I noticed it would stop spinning below 10% (both A and B series), so I assumed that was the lowest the fan would go. Not so on either count! I later hooked up the NF-B9 fan to my GPU and it could both spin the fan and read its speed as low as 5% PWM (never tried with the A series fan, but I assume it could go slower too). So apparently my motherboard has it's limits that it won't go below. For all I know, the fan could go even lower than 5%, but that's the best the GPU fan controller will do. (Luckily, even 13% is slow enough to be silent in almost all scenarios.)
But the long and short of it, is that with 4 of the Noctua fans (A9 on the CPU, 2x B9 on GPU and 1 B9 on the rear of the case) and leaving the front of the case fan off unless the system gets hot (trying to save a few bucks and not replace the 12" fan unless I need to) as well as an EVGA gold power supply in "eco mode" I have a truly silent PC, where a pretty sensitive dB meter can not detect it being on. I have to do the test in the middle of the night, because even cars going by outside are detectable. But at 3 AM, it reads 21.1 dB with the PC off and 21.1 dB with it on. My stomach gurgles and the stupid thing goes up to 24 dB or I click the mouse and it goes up to over 30 dB so trust me when I say the dB meter is sensitive enough to detect pretty small readings.
To be fair and give a caveat, to keep it silent, the fans are running at 13% on the rear of the case, 10% on the CPU and 5% on the GPU. But that's just enough air flow with the good heatsinks that in normal operation the system temp stays around 40 and both the CPU temp and GPU temps stay in the mid 50's.
Build details:
Intel Core i3-8100 CPU
MSI Z370M Mortar motherboard
Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti "Windforce OC" GPU (Note: Gigabyte is the only vendor with a good fan controller on their 1050 GPU. The other companies have junk 2-pin fans.)
2 of 4 GB DDR4 2400 Kingston Fury DIMMs
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSD
EVGA 650 GQ PSU in eco mode
Very Good Quality Computer fan.
I buy a pair of this Noctua Fans following the reviews online about them and they overperform my expectations, this fans replace the failing ones of my Cooler Master Hyper D92 and over all are much better a little pricey but it wort it.
-Great air suction ratio
-Much better temperatures tan previous ones.
-Very low noise (my pc is on 24/7, this is very important for me)
If you know what you are doing the install is very easy (just check the connector type)
Feature Product
- Award-winning 92x25mm A-series fan with Flow Acceleration Channels and Advanced Acoustic Optimisation frame for superior quiet cooling performance
- Ideal for 9cm CPU coolers (e.g. Noctua NH-U9(S) & NH-D9L series), compact PC cases (HTPC, ITX, Small Form Factor), replacement fan for NAS and other devices, etc
- 4-pin PWM version for automatic speed control via 4-pin PWM fan headers, broad 400-2000rpm speed range (1550rpm max. with supplied Low-Noise Adaptor)
- Includes anti-vibration mounts, fan screws, Low-Noise Adaptor, extension cable and y-cable for running two PWM fans on the same header
- Trusted Noctua quality with premium-grade SSO2 bearing and more than 150.000 hours MTTF
Description
The NF-A9 is a highly optimized, premium quality quiet 92mm fan. Featuring Noctua's AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimization) frame as well as sophisticated aerodynamic design measures such as Flow Acceleration Channels, the NF-A9 further improves the renowned quiet cooling performance of the award-winning NF-B9. The PWM version sports Noctua's custom designed NE-FD1 IC for fully automatic speed control via 4-pin fan headers and comes with a Low-Noise-Adaptor to reduce the maximum speed during PWM control from 2000 to 1550rpm. Its superb running smoothness, reference-class SSO2 bearing and Noctua's trusted premium quality make it an elite choice for the highest demands
I have a small, 6-can thermoelectric (Peltier) cooler 'fridge' and the original fan was dying on it. I found this as a replacement. It has the same physical dimensions, a greater CFM flow rate, pulls less current and is quieter than the original fan was. A replacement fridge would have cost from ~$40 to $80 and replacing the fan cost $16.95 so, pretty good deal. It came with a 4-pin extension cable. It has rubber mounts at the corners which, I'm guessing, help with vibration (noise). Looks exactly like the picture and seems to be a quality piece of gear.
I cut the cable at the old fan and pulled it out. I used the extension cable (in case I want to use the fan for something else later), cut off the end and soldered the black (ground) and yellow (+12v) wires to the black and red wires in the fridge. Voila! Back in business. The speed control is done by using the PWM wire (blue) and if you don't hook it up, the fan runs at full speed. Actually, I'm getting a 2-for-1 bonus on this fridge: my basement office is cold and it generates a small amount of exhaust heat so, that helps too.
I assumed that fans could only be so good and the extra cost would only result in marginal performance, boy was I wrong!
My Shuttle PC is limited to a 92mm fan so cooling solutions are limited. The stock fan is very noisy under load trying to cool a i5-4670. Because of the small size water cooling isn't an easy option, so I decided to start with the most simple task of replacing the stock fan.
The results are amazing, Prime 95 now runs with the CPU at 76c and the fan only at 1200rpm (2000 is the maximum). At that speed it's essentially silent. Under more normal gaming loads there is no noise from the CPU fan at all.
I had originally bought 2 fans for a push/pull configuration but I don't thinlk it's required, instead I'll use the second fan on my other Shuttle PC, being used as a media and gaming machine attached to the TV.
"Top quality" is an overused phrase; the "best available at any price" is a better description for all Noctua fans. I replaced every one of my high-end gaming rig fans (six case fans, two GPU fans - for the GPU water cooler, and two CPU fans - for the equally-incredibly awesome Noctua CPU twin tower heatsink cooler).
The result? A quieter rig than when I was using the Corsair H100i v2 water cooler with temps maxing out at only 63 degrees Fahrenheit (59 with the Corsair H100i v2).
The results speak for themselves.
I used one of these in the back of my Sliger Cerberus SFF case to exhaust hot air in a small mounting space. Whisper quiet unless running at max RPM. The fan comes with rubber pegs that can be used for a vibration noise-free install, standard screws are also included. The standard Noctua color scheme is a love/ hate affair, more so if you have case windows for showcasing, but these are fantastic quality fans.
I have a number of desktop systems at my home, all of which I have built and assembled etc. I use Noctua fans exclusively. Why? Well the quality is unsurpassed, they move a good bit of air and they are quite and they work as designed and the design / quality is the best I've seen. I could care less about the color of the fans or if they have lights or other effects. I care about the function and quality of the item itself. Never any issues with these fans and their CPU coolers too.