Noctua NF-A14 Review

Introduction

Noctua is known to be one of the best Fan manufacturers. Their NF-A12x25 is the best example. But what about 140mm fans? Let's have a closer at their top-tier NF-A14 and see if it is just as good as its smaller counterpart.

What's in the Box?

A Noctua NF-A14 fan comes in an incredibly thought-through package.

The openable front reveals a sneak-peek window and a short introduction to the fan's features while the back offers some more information and a spec sheet.

Ignoring the usual Noctua level of quality that the package itself comes in, inside, we will find a whole bunch of goodies.

• Noctua NF-A14 Fan
• 1-2 PWM Splitter
• 4x Fan Screws
• 4x Fan rubber mountings
• 30cm PWM extension
• PWM limiter extension

Although there are multiple NF-A14 versions available, including a Chromax.Black version, this review focuses solely on the regular colored A14 PWM version. However, keep in mind that for both the NF-A14 Chromax Black and regular A14 spinning at 1500RPM, their performance results will be identical.

Installation

In order to install an NF-A14 fan, we have 2 possibilities. We can use the included screws to screw the fan on or use the rubber mounting by showing them through the holes of the case followed by the fan screw holes.

From there, if the 20cm long PWM cable coming out of the fan is sufficient, we can directly connect it to the motherboard. If it is not, we can use the 30cm long extension to create a 50cm long cable.

Appearance

Considering that most fans out there are coming in an all-black design, Noctua's lineup definitely stands out. The light-brown mixed with dark-brown accents may be harder to mix into the average build, however, if the color scheme is something you enjoy, it will definitely be an eye-catcher.

But the color is not everything. Noctua is most known for maxing out its hardware. Therefore, everything on a Noctua NF- fan is optimized to the fullest extent possible.

Flow acceleration channels on the fan blades to help push the air a bit better at lower noise.

Advanced acoustic optimizations in form of anti-vibration pads on the edged and a stepped inlet design on the intake and exhaust sides.

Inner surface microstructures on the inside of the fan frame in order to eliminate unnecessary turbulences.

Every little piece is well thought through.

Although all of these little optimizations are hard to isolate and their impact measured, it does create a very high-end-looking fan, ready for the most powerful builds.

If however, the color scheme is something that is making you resist, keep in mind that everything stated above is also true for the Chromax.Black version. (Except for the cable length)

Benchmark

We benchmarked the NF-A14 using our usual test setup. Letting 3x of them spin at max speed, they managed to keep the CPU at 40.1°C. An excellent result making them the best-performing 140mm fans we have seen until now.

On the noise-to-performance side, they are looking just as good. While in the lower fan speeds, they fell shortly behind Arctic's P14 ARGB, the higher speeds allowed them to show off their full might beating almost everything we have benchmarked so far.

The only Fan they were not able to outperform, however, was Noctua's own A12x25. But still an excellent result.

Conclusion

Peak performance at peak quality. This describes best how we feel about the NF-A14s.

This being said, we do not recommend them.

They are excellent fans, and we are sure that you would be very happy with them. However, there are new A14s just around the corner, presumably released in 2023. Therefore, if you can wait a couple of months, we would strongly advise waiting until their new update is released before making a purchase.

If however, this is not possible, we can definitely recommend Noctua's NF-A14 due to their outstanding performance, quality, and noise-to-performance ratio.