02-22-2019, 02:27 PM
The new 140mm fan arrived a few days ago, and I plugged in the connector to the extra output on my shroud and it responded nicely to the Noctua NA-fc1 speed controller while system voltage was 14.7v. Fully silent at slowest speed with noticeably more airflow than the 120mm fan at max speed.
While it claims 41.3db(A) of noise at full speed, versus the 43.5db(A) of the 120MM fan at 3K rpm, it seemed to be significantly quieter to my ears, the tone/pitch of the fan is much lower, less annoying of a whine.
My acrylic fan shroud body is hard to cut with a Jigsaw. It can get stuck on the blade start chattering and crack. I do not have My router with me Here In florida, so I will wait to actually modify the shroud for the 140MM fan once I return to California. I also do not have the correct tap with me to cut the threads into the smooth screw holes so that I do not need any backing nuts to adhere the fan to othe shroud. without a 140Mm fingerguard I also do not want it install it just yet either.
While the 140Mm fan obviously moves more air than the 3K rpm NF-f12, and does so for less noise at a less annoying pitch, I am not very impressed with some of the design. The struts which hold the hub in place seem quite fat, while the tips of the fan blades are at least 4MM away from the fan casing. In their latest fan model( A12x25) they proudly promote the 0.5mm distance between fan blade and inner surface of the fan casing as improving both static pressure rating as well as airflow, so this 4MM+ gap is an eyebrow raiser. Seems they could improve the performance even more with bigger blades sweeping closer to fan body. Perhaps that gap will close as the fan blades stretch due to time and centrifugal force.
I was once given a fan pulled from an old computer whose fan blades were touching the fan body, and I removed the impeller from the hub and shortened the blades only to find the ball bearings were toasted too, so the impeller can indeeed grow with time and use.
The 4 wires leading to the hub, do not reside within one of the 4 hub supporting struts, but run outside of one of them, directly in the fan's flow, and I can imagine the pulses of air from a passing fan blade could cause fatiguing of the wires and the solder joints, and the wires themselves add some extra resistance to the fan's flow.
But on paper, the specs of this fan also outperform pretty much every other 140Mm fan on the market, so perhaps optimizing every aspect of it, like they did in the more competetive 120mm market, is pointless.
I should be happy to quickly get another fan under warranty. The original guy in Austria whom I have been corresponding informed me he was soon leaving Noctua, and the newest Email from someone else informing me of the shipping of the 140mm warranty replacement, was in German. All hail google translator.
I've bought a new 25 foot x 24" wide roll of reflectix and made new tightly fitting custom window shades all around. Its almost pitch black inside with all of them in place midday. I've enough left over to double some of them up. This stuff is claiming an r8 insulation value, which I do not really believe. My old shades were doubled up, and all beat up with much of the reflective mylar/plastic flaked off, made from 99 cent store window shades, so just one layer of the new reflectix is passing less of the Florida heat to the interior than the old shades. Seems a shame to just throw the old ones out as they are still somewhat effectve. Might have to find a pre magnum dodge van in the area and gift them.
While it claims 41.3db(A) of noise at full speed, versus the 43.5db(A) of the 120MM fan at 3K rpm, it seemed to be significantly quieter to my ears, the tone/pitch of the fan is much lower, less annoying of a whine.
My acrylic fan shroud body is hard to cut with a Jigsaw. It can get stuck on the blade start chattering and crack. I do not have My router with me Here In florida, so I will wait to actually modify the shroud for the 140MM fan once I return to California. I also do not have the correct tap with me to cut the threads into the smooth screw holes so that I do not need any backing nuts to adhere the fan to othe shroud. without a 140Mm fingerguard I also do not want it install it just yet either.
While the 140Mm fan obviously moves more air than the 3K rpm NF-f12, and does so for less noise at a less annoying pitch, I am not very impressed with some of the design. The struts which hold the hub in place seem quite fat, while the tips of the fan blades are at least 4MM away from the fan casing. In their latest fan model( A12x25) they proudly promote the 0.5mm distance between fan blade and inner surface of the fan casing as improving both static pressure rating as well as airflow, so this 4MM+ gap is an eyebrow raiser. Seems they could improve the performance even more with bigger blades sweeping closer to fan body. Perhaps that gap will close as the fan blades stretch due to time and centrifugal force.
I was once given a fan pulled from an old computer whose fan blades were touching the fan body, and I removed the impeller from the hub and shortened the blades only to find the ball bearings were toasted too, so the impeller can indeeed grow with time and use.
The 4 wires leading to the hub, do not reside within one of the 4 hub supporting struts, but run outside of one of them, directly in the fan's flow, and I can imagine the pulses of air from a passing fan blade could cause fatiguing of the wires and the solder joints, and the wires themselves add some extra resistance to the fan's flow.
But on paper, the specs of this fan also outperform pretty much every other 140Mm fan on the market, so perhaps optimizing every aspect of it, like they did in the more competetive 120mm market, is pointless.
I should be happy to quickly get another fan under warranty. The original guy in Austria whom I have been corresponding informed me he was soon leaving Noctua, and the newest Email from someone else informing me of the shipping of the 140mm warranty replacement, was in German. All hail google translator.
I've bought a new 25 foot x 24" wide roll of reflectix and made new tightly fitting custom window shades all around. Its almost pitch black inside with all of them in place midday. I've enough left over to double some of them up. This stuff is claiming an r8 insulation value, which I do not really believe. My old shades were doubled up, and all beat up with much of the reflective mylar/plastic flaked off, made from 99 cent store window shades, so just one layer of the new reflectix is passing less of the Florida heat to the interior than the old shades. Seems a shame to just throw the old ones out as they are still somewhat effectve. Might have to find a pre magnum dodge van in the area and gift them.
![[-]](https://vandwellerforum.com/images/collapse.png)