Noctua NF-A14 FLX worth for silent cooling?

[Ri5ing]

Hey guys,

I just registered on the forum and I'm happy to be here^^

I'm about to go for watercooling a build the first. Especially I'm getting an Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper 420mm Rad and any EK CPU waterblock.
My system is a few month old but I just want to get into watercooling.
My sys specs:
Asrock Z77 Extreme4
Core i5 3570k @4.2 GHZ 1.1 Volts under load
Noctua NH-D14
VTX3D HD 7950 Xtreme Edition
16 GB (4x4) 12800 GSkill RipjawsZ
OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD

Now my Question:
Are Noctua NF-A14 FLX worth the money for a silent watercolling build? I really love Noctua fans but I want to go for Push Pull on the radiator (for the looks) and I will end up running them at really low rpm. So tell me if I'm wrong but at low rpm many fans are silent and even at the cheapest price I found I pay 130€ for six of them and since I want to go for a 140mm rad I couldn't find any non cheesy looking alternative except for the NZXT FX-140LB.
So any suggestions? FX140LB? save on the Noctua? something completly different?

Ri5ing

 

[AndyM95]

Have a look at this page:
http://martinsliquidlab.org/2010/12/10/r7-140mm-fan-testing-on-a-hwlabs-sr1-radiator/
He's got some very nice tests on 140mm and 120mm fans on his site, seems like he puts a lot of effort in to making them as fair as possible.
If you want silence go with the Thermalright X-Silent 140mm fans.
They aren't tested on the site but I personally have some 140mm Akasa Apaches in my rig and they run really well.
None of the Noctua 140mm fans have particularly good radiator performance.

 

[Ri5ing]

None of the Noctua 140mm fans have particularly good radiator performance.

NF-A14 are radiator optimiced,quiet new. They are just called A14 because noctua already has a P14 but it's not quare.

The Thermalright TR-X-Silent-140 has less cfm, is louder, needs twice as much energy and I can't even find anything about their static pressure.

140mm Akasa Apaches really sound like a good alternative and they don't look as ugly as the Thermalright but I can only find a PWM Version and I have no clue how i should attach 6 PWM fans to my fancontroller since my mainboard probably won't be able to handle them all.

 

[AndyM95]

NF-A14 are radiator optimiced,quiet new. They are just called A14 because noctua already has a P14 but it's not quare.

The Thermalright TR-X-Silent-140 has less cfm, is louder, needs twice as much energy and I can't even find anything about their static pressure.

140mm Akasa Apaches really sound like a good alternative and they don't look as ugly as the Thermalright but I can only find a PWM Version and I have no clue how i should attach 6 PWM fans to my fancontroller since my mainboard probably won't be able to handle them all.

The Noctuas don't have the best static pressure stats in the world which is why I'm not so sure. The 1,51 mm H2O of the NF-A14 compared to the 2.76 mm H2O of the Akasa Apache seems a bit weak considering how much more they cost. Here's the stat pages for both so you can have a look
http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?...type=Fans&type_sub=PWM Control&model=AK-FN062
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=52&lng=en&set=1
You can connect 4-pin fans to a standard fan controller with 3-pin connectors so don't worry about that.
By the way the Thermalright X-Silent 140 is getting really good reviews everywhere I look, check here as well.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/140mm-fan-roundup_10.html#sect0

EDIT: Just spoken to a friend who's a serious water-cooling nut and he said you should get some Noiseblocker BlackSilentPro 140m PK2 or PK3 fans if you are willing to pay the premium and if you can find them in your area.
http://www.noiseblocker.de/en/BlackSilentPro140.php

 

[Ri5ing]

Thanks for your help

You can connect 4-pin fans to a standard fan controller with 3-pin connectors so don't worry about that.

I would have to connect extensions because my fan controller has only place for a 3pin. But will I be able to control speeds on pwm fans by voltage without the 4th pin?

For me it's not worth getting a 15€ fan over a 22€ because of the MTBF, the sound and the image. On the other Hand 6 Akasa Apaches would cost less than half and they even look pretty good.

 

[AndyM95]

Thanks for your help

I would have to connect extensions because my fan controller has only place for a 3pin. But will I be able to control speeds on pwm fans by voltage without the 4th pin?

If you connect a 4-pin fan to a 3-pin connector it functions the same as a normal 3-pin fan so it will work fine with your fan controller and extensions.

 

[Ri5ing]

Great. I think I will go for 3 Akasa Apaches and if it works out and they perform well and sound quiet I will get another set of 3.

maybe I'll put up a build log later since their are some other thing to discuss and show of then.

Ri5ing

 

[deadloss]

Thanks guys this has really helped me as well, had a similar questions.

Cheers,