Noctua Fans - not that good?

[MrRockliffe]

I recently bought the Lancool 2 Mesh, and the included fans are poor. Buzzing/noisy, so I bought some Noctua NF A14 Chromax at £22 each, and I'm pretty disappointed.

In addition to the Noctuas for the front of the case, I bought a Shadow Wing 2 for the rear, and it's considerably quieter.

The Noctuas are quiet at low speed, but even with a low speed adaptor, so they run at similar speed to the SW2, they create a lot of turbulent noise at higher speeds, i.e. it's not the motor, but the sound of the air.


What is your experience with Noctua fans? Good or bad? Why?

 

[MrRockliffe]

Interesting points of view here. My girlfriend's PC uses pure wings 2, and they're excellent. No turbulence like I'm experiencing with the noctuas.

These are just case fans, so not for cooling specifically, just moving air into the case, and for that job, the Noctua are noisy.

I've bought some Shadow Wings 2, will report back on how noisy they are

 

[MrRockliffe]

Ignore the noise for a moment, and check your temps. If your temps are good, you can slow the fans down. If they can cool just as well at a slower speed, they'll probably be quieter.

I've tested them without the mesh panel on and even outside of the case and they exhibit the same noise. I'm very sensitive to noise so regardless, they're going back

 

[MrRockliffe]

Try the Arctic P14

Already have, replaced them with ML140 due to a humming sound on the rad.

 

[MrRockliffe]

I'd say the case front grill design is creating the noise more than the fan
my noctuas are whisper quiet 120mm and 140mm

If you like quiet never ever get a case with lots of open grills

I thought the same about the mesh but it’s the same if I just run the fans without them in the case at all.

Also with regards to your statement about mesh cases being louder I disagree. With good quality fans, they’ll be quieter and cooler. This has been my experience with my girlfriend’s P400 with the mesh upgrade (PC became quieter as coolers weren’t starved) and my brothers P400A.

 

[MrRockliffe]

if that is the case why are all silence in mind cases designed with closed off panels and as little openings as possible

Because:

It's cheaper to produce crap fans in a case that is covered by foam and steel to reduce noise
People aren't educated enough to know the difference, so on the surface it makes sense that a case with no openings would be quieter.


The issue is, with internal fans becoming chocked, they need to run at higher speeds to maintain the same cooling potential, since the internal ambient air is higher.


I'm not saying that silent cases with closed fronts like the Fractal Define series CAN'T be quieter, but rather for a given noise level, they won't as cool, so you can lower fan speeds on a mesh case to make it quieter and cooler/as cool.

I'd try mounting with rubber fan grommets instead of screws snip ends off so it can still fit in the front worth a try

I have tried this unfortunately with no success