Noctua NF-A20 PWM, Premium Quiet Fan, 4-Pin (200x30mm, Brown)

I had never heard of Noctua until recently and pretty much thought of computer fans as just generic fans. My ignorance was suddenly exposed to me and it seems that Noctua was founded on the principle of "we are going to be Rolls Royce of computer fans". I am looking to build a Corsi Rosenthal box for air filtration. I was going to get a box fan until I read all the reviews saying how loud they are. That quickly took me to the superiority (at the noise level at least) of using computer fans instead, and every review I saw on YouTube either used Noctua fans, or said that the box under review was really good and/or quiet but obviously wasn't as good or quiet as if they had used Noctua fans. With so many references to this company, I started reading up about the company and looking up their fan models.I eventually bought two of their NF-A20 fans. Everything about them is quality - from the packaging, documentation, performance, supplies that come in the box with the fans. Noctua don't stint in trying to provide the customer with the best experience and best fans possible. Are Noctua fans expensive - yes, but you certainly get the quality you pay for. The level of performance engineering in the fan design and attention to detail to prevent vibration and noise while maintaining quality performance is evident in every aspect of their product.I have no yet tested the air flow of the fans but I'll be highly surprised if they don't meet (if not exceed) the documented performance advertised. I don't have a sound meter but these fans are SUPER quiet! I cannot believe that anyone could accuse them of disturbing sleep for example. On the contrary, if you can't actually see the fans turning and aren't in the direct line of the airflow, you can easily wonder if they are even on and working as any ambient noise will totally hide the noise of the fans themselves.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This is a perfect drop in replacement for the stock 200 mm fan in the Thermaltake Core V1. No modifications to the case or fan were required.Performance and Quality. The fan is well built, attractive and performs excellently, as one would expect from Noctua. Even at full speed, the fan is barely audible - much quieter than my stock Intel CPU fan even at idle speeds. As a PWM fan, of course, it doesn't have to run at full speed. I'm normally running it at about 60% and I never even hear it. It effectively cools my system built on an Intel 65W Core i5 running at stock speeds, 16 GB RAM, Samsung 970 Plus M.2 SSD and 2 Samsung 860 SATA SSDs.Installation: Use the inner set of mounting holes on the Noctua NF-A-20. They align perfectly with the mounting holes used for the stock fan and make it possible to use the original mounting screws that came with the case. The Noctua fan is a hair thicker than the stock fan, potentially bumping it up against the front cover of the case. I removed the rubber vibration dampers from the Noctua fan just to be sure I had sufficient clearance. Absolutely no issues with vibration noise. I mounted the fan so that the wiring passed through front wall of the of the case by the small rectangular cutout at the bottom. It was close, but the wiring can enter this way with no pinching or rubbing of the wires. If you are happy with the wires entering through the top of the case, that path is wide open. Mounting the fan with the wiring on the side, though, may pinch the wires. Mounting the fan as I did, I needed the included 4 pin extension cable to reach the fan header on my motherboard.

Pros:-Silent due to pushing good air at low RPMs-comes with an extension and even a low noise adapter to force its max RPM to be lower if needed-Price isn't bad considering the qualityCons:-Very thick which can cause an issue in some casesAwesome quality fan that I have no issues recommending to people if that are in the market for a good quality low noise fan.Side note for fitting in the Cooler Master h500 case:It fits in the top if you remove the rubber bits on the corner (other wise they'll fold due to pushing), then line it up so when you shove it in then it'll basically be where the holes are lol Yes I said shove it in. You have to force it in, but no worries it won't break the case nor the fan. Secure it with screws in the fan box instead of the silicone options. The Case wasn't made to accommodate a 200mm of this thickness, but it will still work. Just make sure you have the fan oriented the right direction ahead of time so you can have enough room to plug it in, though it does come with a nice extension that I did use for tidy cabling purposes.I did not try the front fan section since there are no mounting standards for 200mm fans. Since the top was a very tight squeeze, there was obviously no planning around making Noctua's 200mm fans fit.